SEGA stands for Service Games.
Sega Corporation (株式会社セガ Kabushiki gaisha Sega), usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan (best known for Sonic the Hedgehog, Virtua Fighter and Yakuza). Sega previously developed and manufactured its own brand of home video game consoles from 1983 to 2001, but a restructure was announced on January 31, 2001 that ceased continued production of its existing home console, effectively exiting the company from the home console business. While arcade development would continue unchanged, the restructure shifted the focus of the company's home video game software development to consoles developed by various third-party manufacturers.
Sega's head offices, as well as the main office of its domestic division, Sega Corporation (Japan), are located in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan. Sega's European division, Sega Europe Ltd., is headquartered in the Brentford area of London in the United Kingdom. Sega's North American division, Sega of America Inc., is headquartered in San Francisco, California; having moved there from Redwood City, California in 1999. Sega Australia is headquartered in Sydney, New South Wales, and Sega Publishing Korea is headquartered in Jongno, Seoul, Korea. The company also has smaller offices in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Italy.
Sega as an entity is the entertainment and contents business of Sega Sammy Holdings. Sega Sammy Holdings is the result of Sammy absorbing Sega back in 2004, and is the parent and holding company of Sega. Notable companies that are owned under Sega is TMS Entertainment (who are responsible for the Akira movie, Sonic X, Lupin the 3rd, Bakugan and Detective Conan etc.), and Atlus (the developer responsible for Shin Megami Tensei, Persona and Etriyan Oddessy etc.). In September 2016, at the Tokyo Game Show, Sega announced that they owned all the intellectual property rights of Tecno Soft. To commemorate this, Sega re-released Thunder Force III in 3D as part of Sega 3D Fukkoku Archives 3: Final Stage (Sega 3D Classics Collection 3) for the Nintendo 3DS.
SEGA and Thunder Force[]
Before Sega's acquisition of Technosoft's intellectual properties occurred, Sega's association with the Thunder Force series can be traced back to 1989, when Technosoft released Thunder Force II for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. The Thunder Force franchise was treated as a second party franchise of Sega. This notable association may be the reason as to why Thunder Force AC was renamed as Thunder Spirits for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. And the latest PlayStation 2 game Thunder Force VI developed with license of Twenty-one Technosoft Division.
Alongside this, Technosoft has released 10 games on the Sega Saturn, such as Blast Wind and Hyper Duel.