[HN Gopher] Sega quits arcade business after 50 years
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Sega quits arcade business after 50 years
Author : atombender
Score : 171 points
Date : 2022-01-28 23:48 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.eurogamer.net)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.eurogamer.net)
| speedcoder wrote:
| Held my kid's birthday party at a used-arcade-machine dealer:
| https://tntamusements.com . It was a blast.
| tpmx wrote:
| How are the other businesses in Akihabara doing?
|
| E.g. important institutions like the world's best physical
| electronic component store Akizuki Denshi?
| hnthrowaway0315 wrote:
| Just a couple of dozen lines of texts with such rich
| advertisement contents. I'm impressed.
| NetOpWibby wrote:
| One of my best friends LOVES Sega and in 2017 we got the
| opportunity to not only visit Japan but the Sega arcade as well.
| Such great memories, it will be missed.
|
| https://twitter.com/NetOpWibby/status/1487180498891788293
| hnthrowaway0315 wrote:
| Although there are tons of ways to build an arcade machine by
| oneself (usually by emulation on a Pi), I wonder if there is
| enough customer base for Sega to sell them to individual
| customers.
| wallacoloo wrote:
| oh there's a pretty sophisticated network for buying arcade
| cabinets in the US, Sega cabs included. Wired did a writeup on
| this a couple weeks ago [1]. they really aren't cheap though.
| there are a few reasons for the big players to not want these
| sold on the open market though, like licensing/copyright
| headaches, which will probably be amplified as people reverse-
| engineer the game and mod/add their own content.
|
| [1] https://www.wired.com/story/gritty-underground-network-
| bring...
| jsiaajdsdaa wrote:
| End of an era.
| Cpoll wrote:
| I had this explained to me as Sega selling their remaining shares
| in Genda Inc/their joint venture. Genda was already the majority
| owner/maintainer of the arcades.
|
| Now no longer having an affiliation with Sega, Genda's rebranding
| under the GiGo brand, but there's no real administrative change.
| ksec wrote:
| I wonder if they could sell it to consumers instead of focusing
| on malls and places. There are certain type of Arcade that offer
| better experience beyond console and computer gaming.
|
| But I guess that is too courages move for a Japanese company.
| city41 wrote:
| Arcade1up is slowly filling this gap. They've already done an
| Outrun cabinet for example. It seems Arcade1up's quality
| gradually increases with each release so there is hope they
| might do some Sega games justice in the future.
|
| https://arcade1up.com/products/outrun-stand-up-arcade-machin...
| toast0 wrote:
| Wow, they've released a lot more titles lately. The one issue
| is size, these fit in the home a lot easier, because they're
| much smaller. The bottleneck seems to be LCDs; commercially
| reasonable 4:3 LCDs top out at 17", which is on the small
| end. Arcade machines commonly had (CRT) screens from 19-25".
|
| Of course, older games often look better on CRT than LCD, but
| CRTs obviously aren't going to happen, unfortunately.
| city41 wrote:
| The new Killer Instinct Pro that is coming out is full
| scale instead of 3/4, and has a 19" monitor.
|
| https://arcade1up.com/products/ki-pro
|
| Yeah CRTs aren't realistic these days but I do think it's
| possible to emulate the look pretty decently with shaders
| at least.
| TulliusCicero wrote:
| I like how they even the model they got in the picture has
| 'arcade-style' (read: late 80's/early 90's) hair and outfit.
| vondur wrote:
| At least in Japan, the arcades are being transferred to another
| company and will remain open.
| raitom wrote:
| Not officially but you can buy an arcade machine! I own a
| vewlix blue diamond that I bought last year for $2300 (tax +
| shipping included).
|
| If you are interested, here is a link to the guy I bought my
| machine from: https://www.arcade-projects.com/threads/k-c-game-
| sale.10993/...
| sersi wrote:
| I have a lot of found memories of Sega World in Picadilly Circus.
| Later as I lived in Japan, I really loved the Sega arcades. Truly
| the end of an Era.
|
| Sega is a company that I always liked and always feel regret for,
| I loved my dreamcast and wished they had remained in the console
| business, I loved their arcades and wish they would still be
| there. It's one of the companies that most marked my childhood
| and early twenties.
| daniel-cussen wrote:
| Game consoles are a tough racket. Tough business to be in.
| ArtWomb wrote:
| End of an Era, indeed. The "arcade gallery" of retro 1980s hits:
| out run, after burner, space harrier, hang on. Immensely playable
| forever ;)
|
| https://archive.org/details/arcade_gaxeduel
| unfocussed_mike wrote:
| Space Harrier was a good game. Afterburner at least _looked_
| good.
|
| In retrospect, Out Run is a much weaker game, sillier than I
| remembered -- especially when you consider Konami's outstanding
| (if madly difficult) WEC Le Mans came out the same year. Good
| soundtrack though.
| devmunchies wrote:
| How does Sega make money these days?
| seanmcdirmid wrote:
| GameWorks, the American-based joint venture started by Sega and
| Dreamworks, closed all of its remaining locations last month. RIP
| the downtown Seattle arcade.
| Klonoar wrote:
| What's crazy is that the closure came as a surprise to many - I
| and most of my friends didn't see any notice of it at all. I
| would've gone to the Seattle location one last time to get in
| some Third Strike.
| TulliusCicero wrote:
| On the upside, Round 1 is steadily expanding throughout the US.
|
| For those who don't know, Round 1 is a Japanese arcade company
| that also has US locations, and they import many only-intended-
| for-Japan arcade cabinets to said locations, including some
| that are only in Japanese. Their rhythm game sections in
| particular are basically unsurpassed by American standards,
| it's like stepping into a slice of Tokyo.
| mortenjorck wrote:
| Wow, I was about to ask if anyone knew what this meant for
| GameWorks.
|
| Even if I was too young for the golden age of American arcades,
| I'm glad I got to experience their twilight. The vertically-
| integrated, destination-class concept was clearly the end-state
| for the industry, but it was still a blast to go.
|
| We still have barcades, which are fun, though they tend to be
| exclusively retro-gaming, appealing first and foremost to Gen X
| nostalgia. Looks like I'll need to go to Tokyo to get behind
| the wheel of an Initial D arcade machine again.
| sigmaprimus wrote:
| Arcades hold a large portion of my childhood memories. It was the
| place where I made friends from outside my social circle of
| school and neighborhood. I suppose in some ways it was an
| afternoon night club for kids.
|
| I have no idea where if anywhere kids today can find the same
| connections outside of parent subsidized sports and art programs.
| (Which really do not have the autonomy and real world social
| interactions arcades provided me.)
|
| I could hardly wait for my paper route money to come in so that I
| could meet up with my friends spend it at the arcade!
|
| Possible shopping centers have provide a similar experience but I
| feel the writing is on the wall and it does not bode well for
| these either.
|
| I worry that pseudo friendships such as those found online or
| soon in the Metaverse being the only option for our youth, will
| have long lasting negative consequences on our society which
| appears to be in decline already.
| Andrew_nenakhov wrote:
| Can anyone explain the appeal of arcades to me? It is expensive
| and games do not look really interesting.
| dasKrokodil wrote:
| While it hasn't been the case recently, way back in the day
| arcade machines had much better graphics than anything you
| could play on home consoles or computers.
| dghughes wrote:
| As others have alluded to it's not just to play a game it's
| also a social thing.
|
| I can't think of any other social activity I was involved in
| outside my home as a teenager. I was shy, quiet, no friends
| etc. but at an arcade there was a common interest. Watching
| someone else play or 2 player game with someone you didn't
| know.
|
| The smell too arcades had a certain smell the plywood cabinets,
| sweet smells of food, and for a certain period in time
| cigarettes.
| 0xcde4c3db wrote:
| I think it's like why people go to the gym to exercise even
| though most of them would theoretically be better off buying a
| set of resistance bands and making a YouTube playlist to follow
| at home. There seems to be something inherently compelling
| about a physical space that society has designated as being
| dedicated to a specific activity.
| TulliusCicero wrote:
| Have you been to a Round 1? As far arcades go they're very
| impressive imo, especially the rhythm game sections.
|
| I love me some Groove Coaster and Drummania!
| stemlord wrote:
| It's the original pay to play/win gaming model, back when
| arcades actually had people in them. Anyway arcade is a unique
| genre of games often characterized by more fast paced chaotic
| gameplay, "infinite" levels, extra focus on leaderboards, more
| eye-candy style of visual design akin to casinos, etc. It can
| be a pretty fun space
| syntheweave wrote:
| The video game arcade grew out of earlier electromechanical
| amusements, primarily pinball(which has had a small renaissance
| in the US). The joy of pinball is a combination of "bright
| lights and chimes" - attractive theming giving it a monumental
| feel, the physics of the game being complex and chaotic, and a
| "beat the operator" element of skill where good players can
| play for longer and are even rewarded with more credits. Every
| time you come in to play a pinball, it's slightly different
| because the parts were readjusted or the ball had grown worn.
|
| When video arcades started to grow popular at the end of the
| 1970's, they retained most of these elements: An arcade game
| was a "destination" for game enthusiasts and had the best
| technology available at the time. They didn't have real physics
| like pinball, but they were very reliable, giving the skill
| element a new wrinkle - the operator mostly wasn't a factor, so
| you played against the game design as the developer intended.
| While free credits for high scores were eliminated, time
| extension was still a common part of the gameplay. Playing for
| high scores or going longer on one credit are the underlying
| factor to being "into" arcade games - they are fundamentally
| short "instant fun" experiences and you have to fight them to
| get more out of your credit.
|
| There's a strong element of "performing" an arcade game - not
| just consuming it but making the most of every nuance. Not all
| arcades are designed fairly, but the best ones allow you to
| clear the game on one credit if you are very good. It can be
| very satisfying to spend time practicing an arcade and then be
| able to perform it again on demand.
|
| While consoles got better and closed the gap on technology, the
| arcade got a second wind in the 90's as fighting games and
| larger format games like Daytona USA became central, preserving
| the monumentality of it and opening up more multiplayer
| experiences, which helped the arcade retain a social feeling.
|
| Since video games are so prevalent now, and allow for cheaper,
| longer-format and less intense experiences, arcades have become
| a niche, but their style of gameplay remains popular.
| philistine wrote:
| Yeah, you should be able to see the appeal of bespoke machines
| inappropriate for the home easily. Not everyone has a golf
| simulator in their home to hone their swing, yet people go to a
| place where they have one.
|
| Same thing with arcades; not everyone has a DDR machine at
| home, yet people love them and want to play them.
| jbay808 wrote:
| Just like the difference between movie theatres vs home
| theatres, arcades can be a very different and more (or less)
| social experience than playing games at home, but the appeal
| might depend more on what your home is like than what the
| arcade is like.
|
| You might live in a small space where you can't keep a
| functioning Dance Dance Revolution setup without noise
| complaints from downstairs, but you can dance at the arcade,
| maybe with an awestruck audience if you're really good at it.
|
| You can take your SO to the arcade on a date and giggle as you
| race down a mountain together with a steering wheel and pedal
| setup, even if he/she isn't into that kind of thing most of the
| time and wouldn't have fun playing Gran Turismo with you at
| home.
|
| You can hang out with your friends each week and play with them
| even if your home environment is too strict, chaotic, or
| unpredictable for that.
|
| But if you have everything you need at home and can couch-co-op
| Halo with your buddies on a big screen TV, you might not see
| any appeal in the arcade.
| dan_quixote wrote:
| Nostalgia I guess. If you're old enough to remember the world
| before ubiquitous internet, you likely have some fond memories
| of arcades. We didn't always have everything available at arms
| length instantly. Many of us saved up money for the one-per-
| week (or month) trip to the arcade. The delayed gratification
| and shared experience made it a phenomenon that has few
| parallels any more.
| mch82 wrote:
| In general, arcades are just fun. They're a place to go outside
| the house. But, arcades also get to experiment with unique
| hardware & interfaces that a home console or PC can't match.
|
| Sega Joyopolis in Tokyo was a next level experience. It had
| arcade cabinets that spin 360 degrees on X & Y axes, which
| makes flying games fantastic. It had racing cabinets with full
| sized Mazda Miatas & similar cars on full motion platforms.
| There was a snowboarding half pipe, where the rider is strapped
| into a full sized snowboard on a pendulum arm with a VR
| headset. Another ride was an enclosed pod with VR displays that
| ran along a rollercoaster track. And, the most unusual thing I
| remember, there was a holographic virtual pop star performance.
| Datagenerator wrote:
| Is there a archive.org for arcades? MAME of any kind?
| raitom wrote:
| Not sure if it's allowed here but yes, people have been dumping
| even the most recent arcade games:
| http://www.emuline.org/forum/28-arcade-pc-dump-loader/
| mrighele wrote:
| Yes, archive.org :-D. You can find plenty of arcade games, all
| running in a browser version of MAME. You can also find games
| for other platforms, such as home computers or pc, them too
| running on a browser version of some kind of emulator (MESS,
| Vice etc.)
|
| Since we are talking about Sega, have some Sonic the Hedgehog.
|
| https://archive.org/details/sg_Sonic_the_Hedgehog_Rev_1_1991...
| kbrosnan wrote:
| Sega is selling the consumer arcade stores. Yes, there are
| communities that work to preserve arcade machine ROMs and other
| media.
| Asmod4n wrote:
| Sadly in Germany arcades are illegal, never seen one for myself
| and am close to 40 years old.
|
| What is allowed are gambling game casinos. Wish it would be the
| other way around.
| cardiffspaceman wrote:
| I worked at a small arcade machine maker in the late 80's. We
| had an option in our arcade machines to adjust the violence
| slightly for the German market.
| 6581 wrote:
| > Sadly in Germany arcades are illegal, never seen one for
| myself and am close to 40 years old.
|
| They're not illegal, they just never became popular. There are
| a few around.
| Asmod4n wrote:
| You only find some 20+ year old aracade machines in cinemas
| and in adult enternainment venues and the like.
|
| Due to youth protection laws there is no difference between
| gambling machines and arcade machines, which turn those
| places into 18+ entertainment stuff.
| chrischen wrote:
| Actually in Japan I believe the arcades also have curfews
| for kids under 18.
| tannhaeuser wrote:
| > _Sadly in Germany arcades are illegal_
|
| Huh?
| TulliusCicero wrote:
| https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/s7z10o/why_are_the.
| ..
| toyg wrote:
| Victim of COVID for sure, but I wonder if they were also a victim
| of the indoor smoking ban enacted in 2020. Japanese arcades were
| full of smokers when I was there. The smoking ban might well end
| up being the most significant legacy of the cursed Olympics.
| indrora wrote:
| There's a lot of compounding factors.
|
| The fact that there's no (legal) way to get some of those games
| out of Japan and into the hands of people who want to play them
| is a good indicator of a lack of wanting to do the work on the
| seller side. There's an article from Wired [1] a bit ago about
| the harrowing efforts of getting dancing game cabinets and the
| like out, and the DRM that goes into keeping them region-locked
| such that it's hard for gamers in the US to get to them.
|
| I went to GameWorks in Seattle at one point for a party and
| roughly 1/3 of the cabinets were cobranded with companies like
| King or PopCap, played like slot machines, and were more at
| home in a Vegas casino than a kids arcade. The others were a
| mixture of Japan imports from Sega and such that had been semi-
| localized (or, for a few, not even localized at all, just laid
| there for the Ultra Weeb gaijin and homesick Japanese exchange
| students) and "classics" like super hang-on and mortal kombat.
|
| Fact of the matter is that most modern arcade cabinets are just
| glorified consoles running a single game with a shitload of DRM
| on them, or windows/sometimes-linux machines running a single
| executable, stripped down to the bare minimum, then let sit in
| an arcade. If Konami can put the work into selling a game on a
| console, unless there's a really compelling reason to make the
| gameplay loop fit an arcade feel and not sell it as an "Arcade
| Console" game, they're not gonna put in the overhead of putting
| it into an arcade cabinet. Unless you've got some serious
| gimmick like a funny ridable controller [2] or a DJ style
| button set [3] then you're basically just selling a console
| game.
|
| [1] https://www.wired.com/story/gritty-underground-network-
| bring...
|
| [2]
| https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0c/c0/91/0cc0912f1b8248be89fc...
|
| [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjvyHzzLZXs
| chrischen wrote:
| The complete foreigner ban also probably didn't help. The
| arcades were pretty popular with tourists.
| aliswe wrote:
| To me the news is that they did it up until this date?
| toyg wrote:
| There are still quite a few arcades in Japan, some independent
| and some owned by chains of manufacturers like Sega.
| lefstathiou wrote:
| :'(
|
| Spent three weeks in Tokyo for my honeymoon a few years ago. I
| know of no experience that for me can rival the type of joy of
| spending late nights in an arcade (not saying it's the pinnacle,
| just a unique experience). Even my wife who is a non-gamer found
| it a thrill. Perhaps with the shut downs it will consolidate to a
| few profitable centers that can remain. Individuals can't afford
| Dancerush Stardum or those gundam games.
| Nbox9 wrote:
| I don't know if consolidation is going to be a good thing. Game
| developers need a player base to be profitable, and that
| usually means games available to the public.
| DerekL wrote:
| Note Sega is divesting from arcades (the places of business), but
| they still make machines that go into arcades.
| SllX wrote:
| Glad this is the first comment I saw before clicking through to
| the article.
| ksec wrote:
| So they are not operating Sega World or Arcade Centre, but
| still making arcade the machine?
|
| If that is the case I am fine. I was rather worry about the end
| of Arcade. Especially with Racing Games.
| philistine wrote:
| You should be exceedingly worried. If Sega has no ownership
| of arcade locations, they lose a very big reason to make
| machines for the arcade.
|
| For Sega, the money was in owning the complete operation.
| nsxwolf wrote:
| Does Sega own any arcades in the US? I've always seen a lot
| of new Sega machines - is that not an important business
| for them?
| amelius wrote:
| Why? Microsoft (Xbox) doesn't own arcade locations.
| als0 wrote:
| Arcades in America and Europe have essentially been dead
| for a long time, which has to be a reason why Microsoft
| doesn't own any. But in Japan arcades were still thriving
| until recently. Unfortunately, times are tough.
| shkkmo wrote:
| I've been to arcades all over the the USA in the last
| decade. The new breed of arcades serve a role more like
| "video game bar" than the their more kid/family
| friendlier predecessors.
| mlindner wrote:
| I've been to US arcades and there's basically no relation
| to a real Japanese arcade.
| ddingus wrote:
| Bummer!
|
| As many will say, end of an era.
|
| SEGA!
| beebeepka wrote:
| I grew up, and spent most of money, at the arcades. Luckily, a
| friend introduced me to MAME 22 years ago. I still play Golden
| Axe, Alien Storm, Altered Beast almost every day after work.
|
| I actually prefer MAME to the real thing. Wireless controllers,
| pause, auto fire settings and whatnot.
|
| I wish Gens was as alive as MAME.
| LightG wrote:
| And, whoosh, you just took me back 30 years I'll check out
| MAME, had no idea. Thanks
| peapicker wrote:
| I remember the fun of going to a couple Sega arcades in Tokyo in
| '98 when there on business. At one of them they had people out
| front handing out mini packs of Sega branded tissues! They gave
| me several, it was a cool souvenir I shared with a few friends.
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