頭文字D ARCADE STAGE
In 2003, Oguchi was promoted to president of Sega when Hideki Sato stepped down. At the time, Sega had recently announced its first profit in five years. "Virtua Tennis" producer Mie Kumagai replaced Oguchi as president of Hitmaker, becoming Sega's first female studio head. Oguchi announced his intention to consolidate Sega's studios into "four or five core operations". As part of the consolidation, Hitmaker absorbed Sega Rosso, which worked on the "Sega Rally" and "Initial D Arcade Stage" series. Then, in 2004, Sega reintegrated all of its studios into the company, with Hitmaker shutting down its website on July 1. The AM3 designation continued within Sega until April 2009, when the studio was integrated into other departments. According to "IGN"'s Travis Fahs, AM3 was one of Sega's top arcade studios but received little recognition in comparison to AM2. Rob Fahey of "Gamesindustry.biz" stated that Hitmaker had a strong reputation with consumers and within the industry.