Before they took the console market by storm in the 1980s, Nintendo and Sega both produced popular arcade games. The arcade is where Nintendo first developed the technology for Duck Hunt. And Sega’s Periscope debuted in Arcades in 1966.
The arcade games were wildly successful. Thanks to a boom in interest, Sega’s arcade revenues rose to $100 million by 1979. Those profits were then spun into gaming systems where Sega once again went head to head with Nintendo.
The days of Sega games in Japanese arcades are over, though. This week the company announced that they would be pulling their titles completely.
Genda chairman Takashi Kataoka tweeted:
“We will switch the store names of SEGA stores nationwide to GiGO. We thank SEGA for its 56-year history and hope that it will be an oasis that will satisfy people’s thirst with realistic entertainment. Jump into the oasis of the game! GiGO is an acronym for Get into the Gaming Oasis. First from Ikebukuro, Akihabara and Shinjuku. And to the whole country.”
This move has actually been in the works for a couple of years. Sega first made the decision public in 2020 when it moved 85% of its shares to Genda. Now all the shares of the arcade business have been offloaded.
Sega will now focus more on creating PC games through a new partnership with Microsoft. A recent press statement revealed that the companies will work together to, “build further technological evolutions, with areas such as the network infrastructure and communication tools required for global online services being a key priority.”
I may not have experienced many of their games but their Star Wars: Trilogy arcade cabinet was the source of many fond memories.