Hideki Sato, designer of all Sega's consoles, has died
The architect behind Sega's entire console legacy has passed away...
Deep Dive
Hideki Sato, the lead designer behind every major Sega console, has died at age 77. As the head of R&D, Sato was responsible for the hardware of the Master System, Genesis/Mega Drive, Saturn, and the final Dreamcast. He joined Sega in 1971 and served as company president from 2001-2003. In interviews, he revealed marketing tactics like the Dreamcast's '128-bit' claim, despite its 64-bit CPU, during the console 'bit wars'.
Why It Matters
His work defined a generation of gaming competition and shaped the hardware that battled Nintendo for market dominance.