David Rosen was one of the most influential figures of the arcade scene and partially responsible for the creation of Sega as we know it.
Over the weekend, it was reported that David Rosen, one of the co-founders of Sega, had died on Christmas Day.
This is according to his spokesman Brad Callaway (via Replay Magazine), who said that Rosen passed away peacefully at the age of 95 surrounded by family members. His funeral took place on January 2.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Rosen was originally an airman in the United States Air Force before setting up his own company, Rosen Enterprises, in Japan.
The company started out by selling Japanese art to the American market and providing photography for Japanese IDs. However, it would shift its focus to importing arcade games from the US to Japan.
This led to Rosen being credited as a founding father of the country’s arcade scene and an important figure in the wider arcade industry.
In 2023, he earned a place in the Amusement Industry Hall of Fame, which was established to ‘recognise and honour those who have made outstanding contributions to the coin-op and location-based entertainment industry.’
In an archived interview with Next Generation, Rosen said there wasn’t a single Japanese city that didn’t have one of his arcade machines. He even said he held a virtual monopoly for two years until competition arrived in the form of companies like Taito, which eventually released one of the most famous video games of all time: Space Invaders.
Come the 1960s, Rosen’s success saw him be approached by another arcade company, Nihon Goraku Bussan, which was based in Hawaii and sought to merge with Rosen’s company.
Since Nihon Goraku Bussan had previously acquired the assets of its predecessor, Service Games, and was larger than Rosen’s company, it was decided to use Service Games as the new brand name, with it shortened to Sega.
Rosen was made CEO and president of Sega and, in 1966, the company released its first arcade game Periscope. Originally, it was only available in Japan, but it was brought to the US in 1968 and proved incredibly popular.
This success, of course, soon led to Sega entering the video game console market, eventually finding huge success in the West with the Sega Mega Drive. Rosen oversaw Sega’s console efforts throughout the 80s and 90s until after the launch of the Sega Saturn in 1995.
By that time, Rosen and his family had moved to Los Angeles, where he set up Sega of America before eventually retiring from the company entirely in 1996.
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People on social media have offered their condolences to his passing. Games researcher Ethan Johnson, who wrote a detailed history of Rosen’s career for his The History of How We Play blog, has described Rosen as ‘an absolute titan in video game history.’
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