SEGA was started by one man:
David Rosen. That's right, an
American. He was there selling photo ID's to the
Japanese for half of what the
government would do it for. After his company merged with a small
jukebox manufacturing company in
1965, he formed SErvice GAmes, which has nothing to do with jacking off.
Early attempts at a game system came as the Sega Master System, to compete with the NES. However, the system failed to find a decent market and eventually went under.
The next system Sega produced has been arguably called the best game system of all times: the Sega Genesis, or Megadrive. This won over die hard gamers and new fans alike, those tired of dealing with Nintendo and those looking for more mature games. In 1991, Sega was unanimously awarded system of the year. 1991 was also the year that Sega debuted Sonic the Hedgehog, one of the most famous console system mascots ever
Sega, however, is most notorious for its failures: Sega CD, 32X, the Saturn.
The current system under Sega's command is the Dreamcast, the first console system to sell with a modem. Though the hardware has been discontinued, Sega will still continue to support games well into 2001.
Update: Sega has finally released its plans to develop games for every system, not just the Dreamcast. This is very good news to all gamers, for games are Sega's strong point. From the looks of the plan Microsoft will be getting the Sega Sports franchise as well as games like Jet Grind Radio, Sony will get the arcade conversions and regular console games, while Nintendo will get the Sonic series (gasp) and the more creative Sega games.
Source: Extended Play, on TechTV