They were the first to introduce an always on online gaming service in the form of Sega Net (the clear inspiration for Xbox Live, as Peter Moore jumped ship to Microsoft once Sega started to sink). They were even going as far as to put live TV on it, along with email and web browsing. Only thing stopping them was the slow dial up that the rest of the world except for Japan felt the pain of at the time.

And the games. The god damn games. If communities still get excited at the mention of their names, then you know you had good games. Exploding with a sense of creativity you would be hard pushed to find anywhere else, Sega’s internal development teams pumped out some of their best work including Chu-Chu Rocket, Jet Set Radio, an honest-to-god MMO in Phantasy Star Online and the one and only Shenmue. Games so good that you could breeze over Sonic Adventure and not care.

As for the rest of the incredible library, things went from addictive arcade conversions in Soul Calibur and Crazy Taxi, to the stranger side of things in Typing of the Dead and Seaman.