Sega AM3

Sega AM Research & developing No. 3, required as Hitmaker Co., Ltd. from 2000 to 2004, is the defunct division of Sega, a Japanese video game company. establishment by 1993, AM3 was managed by Hisao Oguchi as well as developed a number of arcade games for Sega. Series presents by AM3 add Virtual On, Sega Rally, Crazy Taxi, and Virtua Tennis. AM3's main focus was on arcade games until the release of the Dreamcast. Additionally, developers Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Kenji Sasaki developed Sega Rally Championship with AM3 previously departing to produce AM Annex, which later split into Sega AM9 and Sega AM5.

In 2000, Sega reorganized its studios into semi-autonomous companies, and AM3 became Hitmaker. The agency expanded its developing into Dreamcast games and ports, but saw a reduced amount of success in compared to preceding years. However Derby Owners Club, World Club Champion Football and The Key of Avalon, proved to be highly successful in the Japanese arcade scene. all of which were offered by Hitmaker and used magnetic cards.

Hitmaker was one of the few profitable studios for Sega, which gave Oguchi the opportunity to expand beyond videogames and invest into the darts business. Owing to his produce on medal and card related arcade games, Oguchi was promoted within Sega.

Oguchi departed Hitmaker in 2003 to become president of Sega. As element of Oguchi's studio consolidation schedule with Sega, Sasaki's Sega Rosso studio was merged into Hitmaker. The next year, Hitmaker was integrated back into Sega. The AM3 designation would come on until 2009 until it was merged into other departments.

Sega Rosso

Sega Rosso, previously Sega AM5, was a video game development studio headed by Kenji Sasaki, who had served as a designer on Sega Rally Championship. In 1996, producer Tetsuya Mizuguchi met with Hisashi Suzuki, the manager of the R&D division. He and Mizuguchi agreed to create a new department separate from AM3 that would be called AM Annex. Mizuguchi selected the initial team himself, a team of six or seven people that would later grow in number. The number one game AM Annex began to build was Model 2 arcade board. AM Annex later received the AM8 tag and developed Sega Rally 2 and Star Wars Trilogy Arcade on Sega's framework 3 board.

According to Hisao Oguchi, Mizuguchi and Sasaki had departed AM3 with the team of Sega Rally Championship. AM Annex was rebranded as AM12 by September 1998, and AM5 in 1999. The AM5 designation was previously used for a team that intentional large attractions for Sega's arcades and indoor amusement parks. Mizuguchi later chose to leave Sasaki after being granted his own department as CS4, later AM9, and even later and released it by July 2000.

When the studios were separated from Sega, Sasaki chose the name "Sega Rosso" to have a "hotter" impression than the "cool" blue color of Sega, and he liked the combination of Sega with the Italian word for red. Sega Rosso's next three games were NASCAR Arcade and Cosmic Smash. Sasaki expressed a desire to work on both arcade and Dreamcast games, as the arcade industry was struggling. Sega Rosso would also work on the Initial D Arcade Stage series before being merged with Hitmaker in 2003.