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GENDA Acquires Remaining Shares of Sega's Arcade Business
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Global Entertainment Network for Dreams and Aspirations (GENDA) announced on Friday that it has acquired the other 14.9% of shares of arcade and amusement center company GENDA Sega Entertainment, and is renaming the company GENDA GiGO Entertainment. GENDA will soon rename all 196 Sega arcade centers across Japan as GiGO (which stands for "Get into the Gaming Oasis"), starting with arcades in Ikebukuro, Akihabara, and Shinjuku.
GENDA had purchased 85.1% of the shares of Sega Entertainment in December 2020, and renamed the company GENDA Sega Entertainment. Sega Entertainment's percentage of voting rights became 14.9% following the share transfer.
Sega Sammy then withdrew from the domestic arcade management business by the end 2020 as a result of GENDA's acquisition. However, existing Sega arcades still retained the Sega name.
The occupancy rate of many arcades had been declining due to closures from the effect of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The Sega Akihabara Building 2 arcade in Tokyo closed in August 2020. Sega then permanently closed its Sega Ikebukuro GiGO arcade in Tokyo on September 20 after 28 years. The large-scale arcade center opened in July 1993 under the name Ikebukuro GiGO, and was renamed Sega Ikebukuro GiGO in July 2013.
Sega then opened a new arcade center across the street on October 22 named Sega Ikebukuro. GENDA GiGO Entertainment president Nao Kataoka stated in October that the opening was "volume 1" of an "Ikebukuro Project." The new arcade will be renamed to GiGO Ikebukuro.
Sources: GENDA (link 2), Nao Kataoka's Twitter account via Siliconera
