Sega leaves the arcade business in Japan after more than 50 years

The end of an era has come. sega retires from the arcade business in his native Japan after 62 years. Sega Sammy, the parent company, will sell the remaining 14.9% of the shares of Sega Entertainment, the division dedicated to the arcades in the Land of the Rising Sun within the company, and these will be acquired by Genda Inc.

The news was confirmed by Nao Kataoka, CEO of Genda Inc., through his official Twitter account. Twitter. The executive indicated that his company, which had already acquired 85.1% of the Sega Entertainment division in 2020 when concern was expressed about the future of Arcades on Japanese land, will finish buying the rest of the shares to have the total control.

The statement stated that the Sega logo on all of its former arcade locations will change to GiGO (Get into the Gaming Oasis) and that Sega Entertainment will change its name to Genda GiGO Entertainment. The most iconic arcade halls of the firm such as those found in Ikebukuro, Akihabara and Shinjuku will go through this modification and future references made in video games such as the Yakuza saga will also present this change.

Sega began its journey through the arcade business in Japan at the end of the 1960s. Its time in this world was so prosperous and significant that it is estimated that, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the company had more than 1,000 arcade locations across the country. However, the popularity of home consoles capable of playing 3D titles gradually diminished the relevance of these places, being somewhat stable only in Japanese territory.

The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic ended up sinking the Arcades business in this nation since, due to the restrictions to avoid further contagion, the influx of players decreased to a minimum. In September 2020, Sega was forced to close its iconic Akihabara location and later the same thing happened with Ikebukuro and others.

It should be noted that, despite the fact that this news ends Sega’s history in the business of arcades with arcade machines, this does not mean that the company will stop manufacturing and selling Arcades to customers who want them for their respective premises. However, the removal of a firm as large as Sega from this sector would end up having other effects on the statistics on this business.

For reference, during the golden age of Arcades in Japan, the country had 26,573 arcades in 1986, although not all of them belonged to Sega. However, by 2019, there were only about 4,022 of these places left on Japanese land.