There will soon be no more SEGA arcades in Japan

This is the kind of information that must be very hard on the hearts of all gamers who roamed the arcades in the 80s and 90s. The first shock was already hard to take: in November 2020, we learned that SEGA was abandoning the management of arcades to the Japanese startup GENDA. Unique (and weak) consolation, the name SEGA should not (yet) disappear from the pediment of arcades.

But that was before, because GENDA SEGA Entertainment has just changed its name: here is the advent of GENDA GiGO Entertainment is the new name of the company in charge of the old SEGA rooms, and the famous blue logo is already starting to disappear some once legendary rooms, like the SEGA room in Ikebukuro. From March this year, the SEGA logo will begin to be replaced by that of GiGO (it can’t be seen, but there I am crying in my head). GENDA is also settling its accounts with the video game publisher by buying the remaining 14.9% stake in SEGA (it held 85.1%).

Just to twist the knife in the wound, we will recall here that GENDO has the annoying tendency to replace the arcade machines in its rooms with distributors of surprises or stuffed animals. A little pick-me-up for the end: SEGA nevertheless specifies that it will continue to develop arcade terminals.