David Rosen, the cofounder of Sega, died aged 95.
Born in New York City, Rosen started a photobooth company while serving with the US Air Force in Japan in 1954; it merged with a slot-machine company shortly after.
Rosen recognized videogames’ potential early, starting in the 1960s with arcades and then home consoles. He wrote in 1982 that games were among “the early manifestations of an electronic revolution” that would “touch… all of our lives.”
Sega created icons such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Mortal Kombat, although it lost out in the 1990s to giant rivals Sony and Microsoft. “It is difficult to think of a more influential figure” in the world’s largest entertainment industry, The Guardian said.