Sega Sammy announced Friday that it would sell the remaining 14,9% of its Sega Entertainment division, that manages the game rooms across Japan, to rental company Genda Inc.
Genda purchased for the first time the'85,1, 2020% of Sega Entertainment's shares in XNUMX. At the time, Sega Sammy had cited uncertainty about the pandemic as the reason why he had decided to sell. The impact of the pandemic also led to the closure of Sega's famous Akihabara arcade in September 2020.
After the sale, Sega Entertainment will be completely renamed Genda GiGO Entertainment, as confirmed recently, and all Sega arcades nationwide will have their Sega brand changed to GiGO.
Sega has opened the first Japanese arcade in the late 60s, in addition to the Joypolis amusement parks. It is estimated that the company had just under 1.000 arcade sites in Japan during its heyday in the late 90s.
Commenting on the news, Genda GiGO president Hisashi Kataoka said the following:
Sega stores across the country will change their name to GiGO, to express our gratitude for Sega's 56-year history and our desire to be an oasis that quenches people's thirst for entertainment. We will start with Ikebukuro, Akihabara and Shinjuku. Then we will move on to the rest of the country.
It is worth noting that although Sega Entertainment's business operated its arcade locations, that the company manufactured and sold arcade machines separately and it will probably continue to do so.
Sega is known for some of the most iconic arcade games in video game history, including Out Run, Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA and many more. Arcades in Japan reportedly had a downward trend even before the pandemic. Already in 2019 they were alone 4.022 arcades across Japan, compared to 26.573 of 1986.
