It’s a sad day for the gaming industry no matter how you look at it, but if you’re old enough (and Sega enough) to have grown up with any of the company’s consoles, it’s an even sadder one. Hideki Sato has passed away at age 77.
For those who aren’t familiar with him, Sato is commonly called “the father of Sega hardware.” More on that in a sec, seeing as I pilfered the line directly from the tweet that’s been spreading the news of the legendary creator’s passing. From most of Sega’s earliest days as a console manufacturer, all the way up through its last hurrah with the Dreamcast, Sato was the leading figure in the design approach to each and every one of them.
We’ll Miss You
As GSK notes above—as the account re-tweets Japanese gaming magazine Beep21’s announcement—Hideki Sato also led Sega as its president from 2001 through 2003. It was a rough-tides time for Sega, which had made the difficult decision to exit the console market altogether, but Sato played a vital role in providing the leadership glue that held things together.
Today, Sega is viewed as one of the foremost software-side gaming giants in the world, but decades ago, it was, of course, cranking things out nonstop on the hardware side. I grew up with a hand-me-down Sega Genesis, and I’ve always been a tad envious of kids who had a Sega Saturn, as well. I went into the Saturn scene as a young adult, and damn, what a wonderful machine it was.
All of this is to say, Hideko Sato’s contributions to my life are keenly felt. And I bet there are millions out there who feel them all the more closely. Take a moment to read Beep21’s article if you can (I recommend DeepL over Google Translate if you aren’t a Japanese speaker). Let’s all celebrate the great things that Sato helped to bring to the gaming industry. Forever indebted, Sato-san.
