Remember, it was a year and a half ago, in November 2020, we learned that SEGA was forced to sell all of its arcades following the crisis experienced following COVID. SEGA Entertainment had indeed sold 85.1% of its shares to the company Genda Inc, a competitor specializing in arcades and which had promised to maintain the emblematic name of SEGA on the front of the large red complexes. The truce was ultimately short-lived, since Genda has just bought the 14.9% of shares they lacked to become full owner of the SEGA Entertainment branch. The impact is therefore immediate and all arcade centers bearing the SEGA name will be renamed GiGO de Genda. The sign changes will start in March 2022 and will extend throughout the year and it is the arcades in the Ikebukuro, Shinjuku and Akihabara districts which will be the first to see their storefronts change. A historic page for the arcade in Japan is turning, but Genda is nevertheless aware of the legacy carried by SEGA over the past 56 years. This is going to give a big blow to the video game culture of Japan, already at half mast for a few years. It’s going to be funny when we go back there…
