Overview
Sega-AM2, short for Sega Amusement Machine R&D (Research & Devepment) Department 2, is best known for developing many of Sega's arcade games, many of which have become highly successful. Previously led by game designer Yu Suzuki, it produced Sega's biggest arcade hits from the mid-80's to the early 2000's.
Sega AM2 revolutionized the video game industry in various ways. They played a major role in the transition from 2D to 3D, first with the hit "Super Scaler" franchises of pseudo-3D sprite-scaling games in the mid-to-late-80's (handling sprites in a similar manner to later texture-mapped 3D polygon games), followed by the hit Virtua and Daytona franchises of polygonal 3D games in the early-to-mid-90's. Other contributions to the video game industry include the motion controls of Hang-On, the analog flight-stick controls of Space Harrier, the kart racing of Power Drift, and the QTE's and free-roaming open-world gameplay of Shenmue.
During Sega's reshuffling in the early 2000's, it was one of the few internal studios that remained mostly unchanged, keeping their name to this day. Their latest games include 2010's After Burner Climax, a downloadable port of one of their best-known games, Daytona USA, and Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown.
Franchises
Notable franchises created by Sega AM2 include:
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