Sega of America, based in San Francisco, was established in 1986 as the wholly-owned subsidiary of Sega Corporation of Japan. The company is a designer and developer of video game consoles and games. Sega s roots stretch back to 1940 and a Honolulu-based company called Standard Games. However, the company gained worldwide recognition with the release of the 16-bit Sega Genesis console in 1990. In December 1994, Sega of America, in a joint venture with Time Warner and TCI, launched the Sega Channel, a nationwide subscription-based cable network that provided video games to Sega Genesis owners via their cable box. The company later released the Sega Saturn, followed by the 128-bit Sega Dreamcast. Sega also designs and develops games for consoles, such as the Sony Playstation 2, Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo GameCube and several mobile devices.