UPDATE: I’m seeing a lot of bad reporting out there so I am updating this post to present the facts to those who don’t mind taking an extra moment to research.
The Sega name is not completely disappearing from arcades, as many outlets are either reporting or implying.
Before November 2020, there were two major divisions within Sega Japan who were responsible for handling arcades:
- Their game development and manufacturing departments. Think of groups like AM1 or AM2 in the past.
- Their arcade operations department. It was these locations that carried the SEGA name on the buildings that people could visit
It is slightly more complicated than that, but that should suffice for what we’re talking about now. Post-pandemic, Sega sold #2 off to a company called GENDA in November 2020. At the time, GENDA purchased 85% of the shares and took over site operations. They were the company who closed down some high profile sites, while opening some new locations. #1 was also affected but more through internal downsizing. You also had the Western side of Sega Amusements moving forward with what was called a “Management Buy Out;” That part of the company is selling new Sega-branded arcade games right now, and others are in development – recall that Mission: Impossible Arcade DX just started shipping a few weeks ago, and they have others like VRAgent shipping by March.
Today, it was revealed that Genda completed their purchase of the Operations division, purchasing the remaining 15% of shares. As a part of that, they changed the name of their company to GENDA GiGO Entertainment and will remove the SEGA name from those buildings in Japan (with one exception I’ll mention below). GiGO stands for “Get into the Gaming Oasis.” I recall hearing that name associated with Sega in the past, such as with the Sega Gigo Ikebukuro location. Here’s a translation of the announcement that was posted on Twitter:
Unfortunately, a lot of mainstream sites are reporting it as “SEGA LEAVING THE ARCADE BUSINESS! DOOOOM!” That’s just not accurate. Sega still maintains a small development division in Japan, supporting their releases like InitialD, Chunithm, and All.Net Pras Multi, better known as APM3. Also as mentioned above, you still have Sega Amusements who will continue to put out new arcade games with the iconic Sega name.
Note that this will also not affect Sega Joypolis theme parks, as GENDA did not purchase those in the deal. Those are considered to be theme parks; I think that might also be why Joypolis just put this promo video out:
I know this will hurt Sega fans, but unfortunately this is how it goes as the business landscape changes. I also assumed that this would happen eventually. Granted, usually some remnant of the name remains when you have buyouts or mergers, such as when it became Sammy Sega, or over at Namco becoming Bandai Namco. But that isn’t always the case historically either – as an Atari fan, it always pained me to see games from that brief time where they removed the Atari logo and name completely and called it “Midway Games West.” But, when the people in charge are all different and they want to move forward establishing their new corporate identity, it’s understandable.
Since there weren’t any Sega owned arcades in North America, this is something that only affects Japan, but we should keep in mind that GENDA does own a few locations here in the US. Whether or not those will begin to carry the GiGO name remains to be seen.
What do you think about this announcement and change?
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