The roots of Sega stretch back all the way to 1940 and a company based in Honolulu called Standard Games.  It was formed by Martin Bromely, Irving Bromberg, and James Humpert.  The company moved to Japan and was registered under the name Service Games of Japan (also known as Sega) in 1952. 

In the late 1980s, Sega Enterprises introduced a line of extremely successful video game systems and software titles that propelled the company into international prominence, making it the world’s second largest vendor of consumer video game products. In 1990, Sega Enterprises Ltd.’s stock was listed on the first tier of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. In 1993, the stock was listed on the pink sheets of NASDAQ and was available in ADR in the U.S.