Sega leaves the arcade business.

[Unofficial Who]

https://www.polygon.com/22906391/sega-japan-arcades-sold-history?

 

Quote

Sega is leaving Japanese arcades behind. The company announced it is selling its remaining arcades to a company called Genda, Inc. (also known as GiGO), and leaving the coin-op business, where it first made a name for itself, for good.

Sega’s first arcade game was Periscope, which launched in the late 1960s, and the company has been a major player in the arcade industry ever since. Even though arcades all over the world have been in a steady decline over the past 20 years, owing to the ubiquity of console and PC gaming, they’ve kept a fairly major place in Japan’s gaming culture.

However, in 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic, even Japan’s arcades started to falter. In late 2020 Sega sold 85% of its shares in the company’s arcades, which are run by the Sega Entertainment division, to Genda. Now, as new variants of COVID-19 crop up and the arcade business continues to struggle, Sega has sold the remaining shares to Genda as well, according to Eurogamer and Tojodojo.

 

End of an era.

[mexos]

I got sad watching a documentary a while back about the last days of one of the Tokyo Sega arcades that was closing. Really is an end of an era.

2018 I was there and they were awesome and pretty busy I have to say. Not packed but far from ghost towns. Something amazing about the seeing the huge Sega signs when you approach them. Surely a few of them will survive but unfortunately without the name above the door.

[SuperCapes]

Ah this is sad :(. Had some great memories as a kid playing Ocean Hunter and many others. Was never able to truly experience the golden years of arcades but tried my damndest in the early 2000s! 

[Unofficial Who]

I think the writing was on the wall once the PSOne came out. Was Ridge Racer and Tekken arcade perfect? No but they were close enough for the home experience. A far cry from 8 bit arcade conversions.

[Phantoon]

This is terribly sad. I remember happy hours spent in the Trocodero, and the death of arcades is quite upsetting, if completely understandable.

[Harsin]

What's Kiryu going to do in his spare time now?

[Down by Law]

Gutted I never got to experience the arcade themed around the Kowloon Walled City but thought I'd always make it to Japan to visit a huge Sega arcade.

 

Bloody covid

[Valver]

So no more arcades, no consoles - what are they selling to try and make money?? Seems like a brand name with no product (almost).  Have they done an Atari?

[Harsin]

Erm, games.

[SaintM]

8 hours ago, Unofficial Who said:

I think the writing was on the wall once the PSOne came out. Was Ridge Racer and Tekken arcade perfect? No but they were close enough for the home experience. A far cry from 8 bit arcade conversions.

That writing was on the wall for 22 years! It's not exactly too short to adapt to the changing world   (add another 6 years for PS1)

 

[Rex Grossman]

28 minutes ago, Valver said:

So no more arcades, no consoles - what are they selling to try and make money?? Seems like a brand name with no product (almost).  Have they done an Atari?

Hopefully they’ll have lots of exciting NFT projects.

[RubberJohnny]

For the last decade and a half it was basically kept alive by bemani anyway, you visit an arcade and it was one floor with stuff from three decades crammed together and one floor for music games.

[Darwock]

51 minutes ago, Valver said:

So no more arcades, no consoles - what are they selling to try and make money?? Seems like a brand name with no product (almost).  Have they done an Atari?

A lot of the UFO catcher prizes, convenience store blind box toys, and gachapon capsules in Japan are made by ‘SEGA toys’. They make lunch sets and stuff like that for kids with character branding and stuff too. Basically they make tat for kids.

 

When I first moved to Japan there was a big game centre across the river near my house with a massive SEGA sign and a picture of Sonic. Made me feel like I was living in VF4 Evo every time I saw it. That place was awesome, had a diner in it and loads of pool tables, dart boards, table tennis etc. It was a great date spot actually. It got turned into a generic pachinko parlour over a decade ago.

[dumpster]

I went to Akiharbara as part of a Japan trip purely because of all those years of buying Super Play magazine.  I loved seeing young couples on dates, the boy mastering some elaborate cabinet machine and the girl being an expert on some dancing game or other.  Both impressing the other and showing their affections by celebrating being good at a game. Imagine that in the UK.  The arcade in 2015 was exactly what I pictured when I was a teen reading the magazines and I'm glad I got to go there. Reading those articles it seems the decline has been for some time, it feels a shame to me as arcades were such a big part of my child/adulthood and it seemed Japan was the only place still doing it well .

[Fry Crayola]

1 hour ago, dumpster said:

Imagine that in the UK

 

It's the same, but the kids are covered in curry sauce.

[mikeyl]

Don’t think Arcade is that Dead in Japan, arcades seemed buzzing enough when I was around in 2019? Pandemic restrictions must have been a nightmare but the Tokyo City Street Kids and bored businessmen must need something to do to avoid their tiny apartments. And Sega was selling off their buildings to another arcade operator (https://soranews24.com/2022/01/28/sega-name-to-be-removed-from-all-of-its-arcade-branches-in-japan-as-part-of-rebranding/amp/)  so maybe years of inaccessible twin stick Gundam fighters to come yet .

 

 

[ontwofronts]

Nothing will ever beat the experience of days at the seaside and playing the full deluxe cabinets of outrun, hang on and afterburner 

[Mr. Gerbik]

4 hours ago, Valver said:

So no more arcades, no consoles - what are they selling to try and make money?? Seems like a brand name with no product (almost).  Have they done an Atari?

Have you tried Yakuza Like A Dragon or Zero, two of the best games ever made?

 

[Wiper]

4 hours ago, Valver said:

So no more arcades, no consoles - what are they selling to try and make money?? Seems like a brand name with no product (almost).  Have they done an Atari?

 

Beginning to understand how Sega ended up snubbed in our awards this year. More, better output than the other big publishers in 2021, and still getting treated as though they don't put anything out!

[Down by Law]

30 minutes ago, Wiper said:

 

Beginning to understand how Sega ended up snubbed in our awards this year. More, better output than the other big publishers in 2021, and still getting treated as though they don't put anything out!

 

#1 publisher of 2020 as well

 

#1: Sega

Previous year's rank: 18
Average Metascore for 2020 releases: 81.6
38 scored products (28 distinct titles): 95% good, 0% bad
"Great" games: Persona 5 Royal (PS4), Yakuza 0 (XB1)
Total points: 327.2

Now in its seventh decade, the Japanese gaming company had quite a good 2020, shooting up 17 places in our annual rankings to take the crown as our #1 publisher of the year. Sega's average Metascore (including games published under the label of its Atlus subsidiary) was actually a fraction of a point below that of our #2 publisher, Annapurna, but Sega was boosted into the top slot by virtue of having two stellar 2020 games—though both (including Metacritic's 2020 Game of the Year, Persona 5 Royal) were ports of previously existing titles to new platforms.

In fact, Persona and Yakuza ports accounted for Sega's five highest-scoring products in 2020—while numerous console ports of Two Point Hospital and Bayonetta also helped bolster Sega's average score. The publisher's best completely new game last year was the strategy-adventure mashup 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. (Some of these games were released prior to 2020 in Japan, but we use North American release dates for our calculations.)

[Mr. Gerbik]

Sega isn't just putting out high-quality critically acclaimed releases, they're also commercially successful releases. It's absurd they aren't more highly regarded on the kind of forum we are. 

 

[Valver]

1 hour ago, Mr. Gerbik said:

Have you tried Yakuza Like A Dragon or Zero, two of the best games ever made?

 

I have not... 

 

it's weird because to me Sega = Sonic.  And the other stuff they clearly *are* creating has just passed me by totally. I couldn't list anything.    I dont think Ive noticed I've played a Sega game in Ages.  (see what I did there)

[TehStu]

1 hour ago, ontwofronts said:

Nothing will ever beat the experience of days at the seaside and playing the full deluxe cabinets of outrun, hang on and afterburner 

Absolutely this. Once my DOS games were doing proper 3D the magic wore off, but there was a time in the 80s when the gulf between home and arcade was extraordinary, in a way people now couldn't understand. Add in things like the full bike you sat on for Super Hang-on, or the whole cab moving when you gave it the beans in Afterburner and there's no comparison.

 

Maybe high end PC VR? I haven't got the equipment to do it.

[Oz]

Don’t know why they couldn’t just sell it to Microsoft. Idiots. 

[Mr. Gerbik]

2 minutes ago, Oz said:

Don’t know why they couldn’t just sell it to Microsoft. Idiots. 

All arcade cabinets are free to play for game pass ultimate subscribers!

[Mr. Gerbik]

50 minutes ago, Valver said:

I have not... 

 

it's weird because to me Sega = Sonic.  And the other stuff they clearly *are* creating has just passed me by totally. I couldn't list anything.    I dont think Ive noticed I've played a Sega game in Ages.  (see what I did there)

There's a very active Yakuza thread in here if you're curious. I totally understand that if Sega starts and stops with Sonic for you, that it must look like the worst company in the world. While in reality they're pretty close behind From and current Capcom in terms of putting out quality releases.

[TehStu]

1 hour ago, Mr. Gerbik said:

All arcade cabinets are free to play for game pass ultimate subscribers!

/giphy Andy oh

[Phantoon]

2 hours ago, Valver said:

I have not... 

 

it's weird because to me Sega = Sonic.  And the other stuff they clearly *are* creating has just passed me by totally. I couldn't list anything.    I dont think Ive noticed I've played a Sega game in Ages.  (see what I did there)

Sega are way more than that bloody hedgehog. I wish they'd revisit more of their catalogue; Streets of Rage 4 was a huge success and I'd love a Shining Force 4

[footle]

3 hours ago, Valver said:

I have not... 

 

it's weird because to me Sega = Sonic.  And the other stuff they clearly *are* creating has just passed me by totally. I couldn't list anything.    I dont think Ive noticed I've played a Sega game in Ages.  (see what I did there)

there’s also all the creative assembly and sports interactive stuff.

 

basically sega games publishing is now yakuza and hardcore Pc gaming.

[Gabe]

37 minutes ago, Phantoon said:

Sega are way more than that bloody hedgehog. I wish they'd revisit more of their catalogue; Streets of Rage 4 was a huge success and I'd love a Shining Force 4

I too would be very excited for a Shining Force 4 (or translating and releasing all of SF3.) Other than that, I can't say Sega does anything for me - I don't like Yakuza, l like the idea of Football Manager but don't actually like playing it and I'm not in to RTS, racing or platformers.

 

I will always treasure the early 90s when I had my mega drive but that's about it.