David Rosen, a Co-Founder of SEGA, and a founding father of the Japanese arcade scene, has passed away at the age of 95. His spokesperson said he passed away surrounded by his family members on Christmas Day.
Rosen, a former U.S. airman, started his career after his service ended in 1952 with the establishment of Rosen Enterprises Inc’, which sold Japanese art in the U.S. market. The company also had a sucessful photo booth business called Photorama. In 1957, Rosen Enterprises Inc. changed its focus to importing coin-operated amusement machines to Japan.
“Right off the bat, the machines were tremendously successful,” Rosen told Next Generation Magazine in 1996. “At this point, I was opening up arcades with these shooting and hunting games throughout Japan, and we were fortunate… I don’t know [how many we had], but by the time I left, there wasn’t a city in Japan that didn’t have one of our arcades.”
A few years later, in 1965, Rosen Enterprises Inc. merged with Nihon Goraku Bussan and created SEGA.
“We decided to merge, and in trying to establish the name of the company, we decided Sega was the best known name, and we took Enterprises from Rosen Enterprises,” recalled Rosen. “So our new company became known as Sega Enterprises Ltd, and I became CEO/President after the merger.”
After a year, Periscope, SEGA’s first game, was created under Rosen’s direction. Rosen became the face of the company through the 6os and 70s as it grew to become one of Japan’s biggest manufacturers and exporters in the arcade market. In 1967, Rosen co-founded the Japan Amusement Association and was elected as chairman.
Rosen eventually came over to the U.S. and helped establish SEGA of America in Los Angeles. He remained Co-President until July 1996, overseeing the launches of all of its major games consoles until the SEGA Saturn.
“Sega was involved in videogames very shortly after they were invented,” said Rosen in 1996. “Certainly, we were importing games like Pong from day one. We started producing our own videogames shortly thereafter.”