Akihabara Sega Arcades Rebranded To GiGO

thegamer.com:

The last Sega arcade in Akihabara was just rebranded to GiGO. While they were officially closed for business earlier this year, the rebranding puts a definitive end to these iconic venues. There were once five Sega arcades in Akihabara, helping to turn this district of Tokyo, Japan into the greatest center of gaming culture in the world. Sega had been operating its arcades in the district for nearly 50 years.

RELATED: Now More Than Ever, Shenmue Deserves Our Respect

Sega revealed that it would be selling the remaining 14.9 percent of the shares in its arcade business to Genda back in January. Sega had previously sold 85.1 percent of these to Genda in 2020 over concerns that customers would be avoiding its venues on account of the global pandemic. Genda has been planning to rebrand all of its newly acquired arcades to GiGO since the sale. The process began with its locations in Tokyo.

The most famous of all the Sega arcades would have to be the one in Akihabara. This was rebranded late at night on March 18 as fans looked on with cameras, documenting the entire affair for the sake of posterity. Chairman of the Board of Directors at Genda Hisashi Kataoka was apparently present at the scene. While the arcades themselves will remain largely the same, the rebranding has come as a shock to fans, causing many to reflect on their experiences.

While the company was founded much earlier, Sega really got going in 1965 with the publication of a submarine simulator known as Periscope. Sega started opening venues featuring Periscope and other games around this time, focusing on Tokyo and various other cities in Japan. These went on to become the beloved Sega arcades. According to some estimates, the company was operating nearly 1,000