 Logo used as Hitmaker Co., Ltd. | |
| Formerly |
|
|---|---|
| Company type | Division |
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 1993 |
| Defunct | 2009 |
| Fate | Merged with Sega Rosso |
| Headquarters | Japan |
Key people |
|
| Owner | Sega |
Sega AM Research & Development No. 3[a], known as Hitmaker Co., Ltd.[b] from 2000 to 2004, is a defunct division of Sega, a Japanese video game company. Established by 1993, AM3 was managed by Hisao Oguchi and developed a number of arcade games for Sega. Series introduced by AM3 include Virtual On, Sega Rally, Crazy Taxi, and Virtua Tennis. AM3's main focus was on arcade games until the release of the Dreamcast. Additionally, developers Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Kenji Sasaki developed Sega Rally Championship with AM3 before departing to form AM Annex, which later split into Sega AM9 and Sega AM5.
In 2000, Sega reorganized its studios into semi-autonomous companies, and AM3 became Hitmaker. The company expanded its development into Dreamcast games and ports, but saw a reduced amount of success in compared to previous years. However Derby Owners Club, World Club Champion Football and The Key of Avalon, proved to be highly successful in the Japanese arcade scene. All of which were made by Hitmaker and used magnetic cards.
Hitmaker was one of the few profitable studios for Sega, which gave Oguchi the opportunity to expand beyond videogames and invest into the darts business. Owing to his work on medal and card related arcade games, Oguchi was promoted within Sega.
Oguchi departed Hitmaker in 2003 to become president of Sega. As part of Oguchi's studio consolidation plan with Sega, Sasaki's Sega Rosso studio was merged into Hitmaker. The next year, Hitmaker was integrated back into Sega. The AM3 designation would continue until 2009 until it was merged into other departments.
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