Hideki Sato has passed away age 75. Sato was the hardware designer behind SEGA’s most popular consoles, having designed the SG-1000, Master System, Mega Drive / Genesis, Saturn and Dreamcast.
Sato first joined SEGA in 1971 and worked within the company’s arcade division at first. Sato’s greatest accomplishment would be the Mega Drive / Genesis, which sold over 30 million units and made the company a major force in gaming, after being promoted to director of Sega’s Research and Development department in 1989. Sato would eventually rise to the role of Sega president in 2001, a position he held until 2003. In 2008, he would go onto establish Advance Create, Inc.