Hideki Sato, Visionary Who Shaped Sega's Consoles, Has Died

Former Sega president and console designer Hideki Sato has died. Information of his passing was reported over the weekend by Japanese outlet Beep21, and Sega later posted a press release on-line honoring Sato for his contributions to the corporate.

“We’re deeply saddened to study of the passing of Hideki Sato, who served as President of Sega from 2001 to 2003,” Sega wrote in a social media post. “Sega want to provide its condolences to his household and mates. His management helped lay the inspiration of Sega, and his contributions had a major and lasting influence on all the gaming business. We’ll all the time keep in mind his contributions to our firm, and all of us at Sega prolong our deepest condolences as we honor his reminiscence.”

Sato joined Sega in 1971, and alongside the Sega R&D staff, he was instrumental within the design of a number of of the corporate’s iconic arcade machines and its residence consoles, such because the SG-1000, SC-3000, Genesis, Saturn, and Dreamcast. Later in his profession, he turned Sega’s president between 2001 and 2003, and he would ultimately retire from the corporate in 2008.

Whereas Sega would bow out of the console race after the debut of the Dreamcast, the ultimate console that Sato labored on continues to be fondly remembered. Again in 2014, former EA chief working officer Peter Moore–who served as president of Sega of America on the time of the Dreamcast’s launch–spoke about the way it helped to usher in a brand new period of on-line gaming.

This concept was born from Sato’s want to foster “play and communication” between gamers (through Sega History and VGC), resulting in the inclusion of a modem and the Visible Reminiscence Unit inside the console.