We’ve learned some tragic news – Hideki Sato, often called the father of nearly all of Sega’s home console hardware, has died at 75.

Sato’s passing was confirmed initially by Japanese blog Beep21, who conducted extensive interviews with the legendary hardware designer.

Born in Hokkaido back in 1950 and later joining Sega in 1971, Sato was one of only three staff that ran Sega’s initial console hardware division. Their first home console was the SG-1000 and the SC-3000 in 1983, both of which had PC functionality.

Sato went on to lead Sega’s home console hardware division and designed virtually all their consoles from the Genesis / Mega Drive to the Sega Saturn, and the beloved Sega Dreamcast.

He became president and CEO of Sega Corporation in 2001 and eventually was their representative director and president from 2001 to 2003, a tumultuous time when Sega withdrew from the hardware business.