page_title: Sega AM2
section_title: Games
hierarchical_section_title: Sega AM2 / Games
caption_attribution_description: English: Virtua Cop 日本語: バーチャコップ筐体
context_page_description: Sega AM Research & Development No. 2, previously known as SEGA-AM2 Co., Ltd, is a video game development team within the Japanese multinational video game developer Sega. Yu Suzuki, who had previously developed arcade games for Sega including Hang-On and Out Run, was the first manager of the department.
  AM2's first game produced was 1992's Virtua Racing, followed by the highly popular Virtua Fighter and Daytona USA. Through the remainder of the 1990s, they developed more arcade titles and focused on fighting and racing games. AM2 was placed under the management of CSK Research Institute in 2000, and a year later became SEGA-AM2 Co., Ltd. Their development of Shenmue was over budget and cost millions of dollars, and despite positive reviews and good sales was unable to become profitable.
  Suzuki was promoted and left AM2 in 2003; Hiroshi Kataoka became the head of AM2. A year later Sega was acquired by Sammy Corporation and AM2 was merged back into Sega. Since, the team has continued work on arcade games such as Border Break and the Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA series, as well as smartphone games in Japan.
context_section_description: AM2 has several arcade and video game series they develop, including Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter, OutRun, Virtua Cop, Virtua Striker, Fighting Vipers, and Shenmue. Other titles developed by the studio include Scud Race, Sonic the Fighters, 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker, F355 Challenge, Outtrigger, and Soul Reverse.  AM2 has also developed smartphone games in Japan.  Of AM2's games, the Virtua Fighter series is "the highest grossing game in Japan arcades."  The Hatsune Miku: Project Diva series has sold over 6 million units as of 2018. As of March 2012, the game Border Break has grossed JP¥8.1 billion from arcade machine sales, equivalent to more than US$100 million.
  Journalists have praised AM2 as having a "legendary" status in game development, in particular under Yu Suzuki.  According to Aaron Souppouris of Engadget, AM2 in the past developed games that defined their genres, and called the department Sega's "most-storied division".  While lamenting the changes in development focus in recent years, Souppouris called the Hatsune Miku series "admittedly excellent".  In 1995, Edge called Suzuki "the legendary head of AM2, Sega's core coin-op operation".  Also in 1995, Next Generation stated that AM2's unusual repeated success came from its ability to release high-quality games on a regular basis. IGN's Travis Fahs stated that "[f]or as long as SEGA has had internal studios, AM2 has been the favorite son of the arcade division... Without AM2, SEGA would not have been able to dominate the arcades the way that they did." Video game journalist Ken Horowitz has stated that AM2 became the most well-known of Sega's in-house development teams and that the studio produced "ground-breaking classics".
caption: A Virtua Cop arcade cabinet
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