Hideki Sato, the 'Father of Sega Hardware,' has died

Hideki Sato, a key engineer behind Sega’s consoles from the SG-1000 to the Dreamcast, died Friday, February 13, 2026, at age 77. In an oral history with Famitsu he said, “We knew how to make arcade games, we didn’t really know anything about console development.” “They sold so well, we started to get stars in our eyes.” Sato joined Sega in 1971 and witnessed the company’s shift from a U.S.-based electronics business into a Japanese gaming powerhouse, moving from arcade dominance to fierce home-console competition.

His responsibilities grew over the years; in 1989 he was promoted to director of Sega’s Research and Development department and charged with the difficult task of taking on Nintendo after the NES had eclipsed the Master System. He pushed for a home console that looked as refined as high-end audio equipment—sleek, rounded and black with contrasting gold lettering.

“That gold printing, by the way, was very expensive,” Sato told Famitsu.

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