Support NeoGAF

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

This news makes me really sad TBH. Arcades were among some of my first gaming experiences as a little kid (alongside my Genesis...this was like in 1995). I still remember seeing SF EX+ Alpha, DOA (that was something), House of the Dead, Tekken 2 etc. Sucking at almost all of those games, but man the experience was something else. And that was just at a large military pizzeria, I can only imagine what it'd of been like at a Club Sega or equivalent as a kid (like Joyopolis, etc.).

NGL, I think the industry's worst off with arcades closing out like this; there's a sense of genuine person-to-person interaction online gaming can never replicate IMHO, plus arcades helped people get out of their comfort zones. It was nice to talk and hang out with people face-to-face without a smartphone robbing the experience. Kids today will never have that type of fun in their lives and that sucks.

I still think arcades could come back, but not without the right initiative to back it. exa-Arcadia is kind of a step in the right direction, but it needs more, and with a bigger company backing it. But none of the Big 3 have any interest in that side of the gaming market, maybe a 4th player could come in and make it happen. There's just a lot of potential sitting there wasting away that could be beneficial not just for arcades but consoles, too, I just think at this point you'd need to be an outsider coming in to have the vision and skillset to pull it off.

 

[SantaC]

I remember Sega World at the Trocadero in London. It was magical to me when I was younger.

I was there in 1998. Played VR and other stuff.

 

[Kuranghi]

Oh man, I have some fond memories of that place.... Went to London with school in 1999. The evenings we're a free for all to go out and enjoy London.

Went to Picadilly with a few classmates, ate at Pizza Hut and went over to Sega World. It was an experience!! The big escalator in the middle, the giftshops at the entrance, everything.
Played a lot of Daytona and F355 Challenge there along with some sort of Create-your-own-ride simulator.

Good times...

Tell me about it man, I never lived near London so only got to go when I visited five (5) or so times but I loved it so much.

I went down to London for business this week and was so sad I couldn't go to the Trocadero/Sega World as an adult and relive those days

 

[Kuranghi]

If I make it rich I will open an arcade and invite you all. I don't care if it made no money, would be worth it.

 

[stranno]

It's hard to justify an arcade cabinet nowadays (read nowadays as 2005+), unless it is a very exclusive experience, like hydraulics and that kind of stuff that you don't see anymore.

 

[YukiOnna]

There are still 3 Sega arcades in Akihabara - the one that closed (#2) was because the lease ran out and the new rent they wanted was so high that it made no sense to continue operating - especially when they had 3 other locations so close.

Oh nice. That's good to know, thanks.

 

[Hypereides]

Sad day in gaming history. I guess it'll only be probable to revisit or experience these Sega arcade interiors in some fashion through the older Yakuza games now.

 

[SNG32]

This is sad news to hear. But it’s crazy how gaming has been reduced to a small form factor in Japan. The gaming industry is always best when both the west and Japan are firing at all cylinders in gaming. I would hate to have an all western dominated gaming industry. Which is why I think gaming is going to shit these days.

 

[TGO]

I was lucky enough to have Sega World just 4 miles from me when I was younger.
Use to ride up there on my bike with my friends
That place is a shit hole now filled with meth heads and....(to put it nicely) not who was living there before..

 

[SenjutsuSage]

Microsoft coming in to move out all the game studios and IP to Redmond.

 

[MonkeyClaw36]

Tell me about it man, I never lived near London so only got to go when I visited five (5) or so times but I loved it so much.

I went down to London for business this week and was so sad I couldn't go to the Trocadero/Sega World as an adult and relive those days

Growing up is shit.... Can we agree on that?

 

[Excess]

Thanks, China.

 

[AJUMP23]

This is sad news. The most sad.

 

[CuteFaceJay]

Sad but understandable. I was taken to an Arcade over the weekend and my god is it expensive. for a few rounds on some games you might as well just by a Nintendo Switch and some arcade games + Mario kart and just ask people over for pizza and games.

 

[Mufausa The 3rd]

Might depend on the region, at least in the US arcades have had a bit of boost (compared to 10 years or so ago where they were borderline extinct) thanks to Round One. Was lucky enough to get one in my town, it’s a blast to go to and even now they’re usually fairly busy.

Private owners are saving arcades rn in the West.

I wished that we had some of the love and support in Canada. But I hope that the community that I am working with can change that in the future.

 

[Cockles & Whelks]

Oh man, I have some fond memories of that place.... Went to London with school in 1999. The evenings we're a free for all to go out and enjoy London.

Went to Picadilly with a few classmates, ate at Pizza Hut and went over to Sega World. It was an experience!! The big escalator in the middle, the giftshops at the entrance, everything.
Played a lot of Daytona and F355 Challenge there along with some sort of Create-your-own-ride simulator.

Good times...

I remember getting a knife pulled on me in Trocodero because I bumped some guy off the track in Final Lap 3 - 8 player in the mid 90s.

Fair play to the guy, it was a deliberate assassination.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

GiGO is a weird name to call an arcade.

Especially because of its association with the old computer term, "Garbage In, Garbage Out." Ouch.

I see somebody also mentioned the idea of Microsoft buying out Sega. Once again, I will state that the time for that to happen was 1997-98. Now it's far too late and the "Sega" that exists today is but a shell of its former self. It's like those legendary rock bands from decades ago that now appear at the county fair, and they're on their third drummer and fourth singer and the bass player's lawyer weaseled the name away from its rightful owners. For some unrelated reason, the name "Mike Love" comes to mind. I have no idea why (whistles)...

 

[cireza]

Now it's far too late and the "Sega" that exists today is but a shell of its former self

Current day SEGA is perfectly fine and releases a ton of fantastic games. Publisher has been top 3 Metacritic at least 5 times. The company has a great Western presence and also Atlus. Their recent releases have all been top quality.

SEGA had to change to survive, like all other their parties. 98 is the moment where they were making the most unreasonable decisions. No company could have survived making such ridiculous investments.

 

[Celine]

That's a shame.
Sega of old is often talked in console-centric forum for their stint in the console business (mainly the Mega Drive) but IMO the videogame sector in which Sega was truly the king (or among the strongest ones) was the arcades.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

This reminds me of an arcade I discovered yesterday in Paris:

La Tête dans les Nuages - Centre de Loisirs Familial

Leader en France des centres de loisirs familiaux, La Tête dans les Nuages vous accueille tous les jours de l'année à Paris, Lyon et Nice. Plus d'informations sur notre site.

latetedanslesnuages.com

 

[lyan]

That's a shame.
Sega of old is often talked in console-centric forum for their stint in the console business (mainly the Mega Drive) but IMO the videogame sector in which Sega was truly the king (or among the strongest ones) was the arcades.

Well they still do arcade, just not also be the one that rent and operate the physical location.

 

[MetalSlug]

Back in Janurary 2020 I went to the Irn-Bru carnival in Glasgow for the first time since 2002. I was expecting to see all the old arcade systems that I remembered playing ages ago, but sadly they had all disappeared and were replaced with mostly slot machines

Same thing happened last year when I went to M&D's theme park for the first time since 2005. The arcade section had turned into a cheap gambling type of area just like the Irn-Bru Carnival.

I was looking forward to trying out House of the Dead and many other great games again

 

[BLAUcopter]

End of an era

 

[Fuz]

 

[Elios83]

Are they gonna rename the aracades to GIGO in the Yakuza game as well?

 

[Fat Frog]

Current day SEGA is perfectly fine and releases a ton of fantastic games. Publisher has been top 3 Metacritic at least 5 times. The company has a great Western presence and also Atlus. Their recent releases have all been top quality.

Exactly, they even have been twice metacritic best publisher (Capcom and Nintendo only once)

Some people are stuck in 2005...


As for the main topic, it seems Sega was producing arcade games for their own game centers. Now i guess it will be more risky to fund arcade games... which means AM1/AM2 will develop more console games. (it is probably the reason why they have been integrated in the the new Sega games divisions with Valkyria team, RGG Studio et cetera)

 

[SUPARSTARX]

At least they're still there. I went to Warehouse Kawasaki about weeks before they were demolished. The place was amazing. And what did they do with the property? I think it's a parking lot now...

 

[MrMephistoX]

I went once, all cabinets on freeplay and I OD'd on Sega goodness.

I went on a trip once and I’ll never forget it: the highlight was this crazy ass dog walking simulator (Namco or Sega) complete with a leash and treadmill extending to your virtual on screen dog. From what I recall it was kind of like paperboy from a 3rd person 3D perspective. Oh and the coolest claw machines known to man along with getting my ass stomped on a sit down VF 2.

 

[yurinka]

They aren't closing them, they will only rebrand them because there will be a new company managing them. The Akihabara ones since the 90s got rebranded different times between Sega or GiGO or Sega GiGO. They'll keep GiGO. It will continue featuring basically the stuff they had.

Until now, as happens with the other companies like Capcom, Namco or Konami from time to time they did shut down a few centers, moved or opened other ones, moved some machines from a center to another one, etc.

And yes, they will continue making arcade games. In fact they even continue making games for the western market: https://segaarcade.com/

They closed one of the locations in Akihabara (Sega building #2) - it hasn't been replaced, but there are still two other Sega arcades on the same road, the closest one being about 200 yards away. I was told the lease was coming up for renewal and given the poor market conditions they decided to close the place rather than renew.

Yes it was an old building and the owner had to make mandatory reforms and checks for a while for the whole building so they couldn't renew there.

 

[Kiddo Cabbusses]

It's a bit sad, but to me an arcade is an arcade. Hopefully it's in good hands under Gigo.