Sega Sports R&D
Sega Sports Research and Development (セガスポーツの研究開発, Segasupōtsu no kenkyū kaihatsu) or Sega Sports R&D was a development division of the Japanese video game company Sega. It was previously known as Smilebit, one of nine semi-autonomous studios which Sega established in 2000. Smilebit was previously known as R&D6 or AM6 which itself was mainly based on Sega PC. Smilebit was known for its sports simulation titles, as well as Jet Set Radio. When Sega started releasing games for other platforms, Smilebit began developing games for the Xbox, with Jet Set Radio Future, Panzer Dragoon Orta and GunValkyrie. Smilebit was led by Shun Arai as president and Takayuki Kawagoe as director. Kawagoe became president of Smilebit in 2003.
Native name | セガスポーツ研究開発 |
|---|---|
Romanized name | Segasupōtsu kenkyū kaihatsu |
| Company type | Division |
| Industry | Video games |
| Founder | Shun Arai |
| Fate | Merged with Sega Research and Development |
| Headquarters | |
Key people | Shun Arai Takayuki Kawagoe |
| Parent | Sega |
During a re-organization, Sega's nine studios were consolidated into "four of five core operations", and the non-sports staff of Smilebit was merged into Amusement Vision. Smilebit became exclusively dedicated to sports titles, with the Virtua Striker series from Amusement Vision becoming attributed to Smilebit. When Sega and Sammy were merged into Sega Sammy Holdings, all of the studios merged back into Sega. Smilebit became Sega Sports R&D and developed more sport simulation games, as well as the first entry of the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series. Later, these games were later given to CS1 and CS2 designations, and Sega Sports R&D ceased to exist.