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SEGA Console Designer and Engineer Hideki Sato Has Died Aged 75

Sunday, February 15th, 2026

SEGA console designer, engineer and former company president Hideki Sato has sadly passed away at the age of 75.

Sato was a SEGA veteran, joining the company in 1971 and working on the development of early SEGA arcade titles Monaco GP, Star Jacker and Turbo. He is most famous for being the designer and engineer on most of SEGA’s consoles, including the SG-1000, SEGA Mark III, Mega Drive, Saturn and Dreamcast. Sato would also become SEGA company president in 2001 following Isao Okawa’s death. He would step down as president in 2003 and leave SEGA altogether in 2008.

SEGADriven would like to extend our condolences to Hideki Sato’s friends, family and colleagues.

[Source: PC Gamer and SEGA Retro]

sonicyoda

Webmaster and lead writer at SEGADriven. Likes old games, heavy music and too much pizza. Follow on Twitter @kronkblats

www.segadriven.com

Tags: arcade, dreamcast, hideki sato, mega drive, obituary, sega, sega japan, sega mark iii, sega saturn, sg-1000
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SEGA Co-Founder David Rosen Passes Away Aged 95

Wednesday, January 7th, 2026

SEGA co-founder David Rosen has passed away at the age of 95 on December 25th 2025.

Rosen founded Rosen Enterprises, Ltd. in 1954, originally as a business to sell art created in Japan to the American market. In 1957 the company focus shifted to importing coin-operated amusement machines from Japan to America. In 1965 the company would merge with Nihon Goraku Bussan, Ltd. to create SEGA and Rosen would remain with the company until 1996.

Rosen is a hugely influential figure in the history of video games and without his contributions at SEGA so many legendary arcade machines and gaming platforms would not exist. SEGADriven extend our condolences to Rosen’s friends, family and colleagues. SEGADriven would also personally like to thank Rosen for being indirectly responsible for the existence of this website. We owe the man so much.

sonicyoda

Webmaster and lead writer at SEGADriven. Likes old games, heavy music and too much pizza. Follow on Twitter @kronkblats

www.segadriven.com

Tags: arcade, david rosen, nihon goraku bussan, obituary, rosen enterprises, sega
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Former SEGA Managing Director Akira Nagai Passes Away Aged 79

Wednesday, November 16th, 2022

Former Sonic Team lead programmer Yuji Naka has revealed that former SEGA managing director Akira Nagai has passed away. He died on November 15th 2022 aged 79.

Nagai started his career at Nihon Goraku Bussan in 1963 where he worked in sales and distribution, directly selling to SEGA when they were producing electro-mechanical arcade games. Nihon Goraku Bussan was absolved into SEGA in the CSK buyout of Gulf+Western in 1984 and Nagai stayed with the company until 2004 when he retired after SEGA’s merger with Sammy.

Nagai is digitally immortalised in Shenmue as a yakuza boss. SEGADriven would like to send our deepest condolences to Akira Nagai’s friends, families and colleagues.

sonicyoda

Webmaster and lead writer at SEGADriven. Likes old games, heavy music and too much pizza. Follow on Twitter @kronkblats

www.segadriven.com

Tags: akira nagai, obituary, sega japan, shenmue
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