Arcade closes on August 31 whereas GiGO Akihabara #2, #3, #5 will maintain open
©GENDA GiGO Entertainment
GENDA GiGO Entertainment announced on Tuesday that the GiGO Akihabara #1 game arcade will close on August 31, as the skill’s lease contract is expiring. The firm also acknowledged that GiGO Akihabara #2, #3, and #5 arcades will continue to operate. After GiGO Akihabara #1’s closure, Matahari Entertainment plans to open an amusement facility in the building.
GiGO Akihabara #1 originally opened in October 1992 beneath the title Excessive Tech Land Sega Shintoku. Later, its title modified to Membership Sega Akihabara, Sega Akihabara #1, after which to GiGO Akihabara #1, but it retained its iconic crimson walls.
The occupancy rate of many arcades in Japan had been declining due to closures from the effects of COVID-19. The Sega Akihabara #2 arcade in Tokyo closed in August 2020. GENDA (World Entertainment Network for Needs and Aspirations) purchased 85.1% of the shares of Sega Entertainment in December 2020, and renamed the firm GENDA Sega Entertainment. Sega Entertainment’s percentage of voting rights grew to turn into 14.9% following the part switch. Sega Sammy withdrew from the domestic arcade administration business by the finish 2020 as a results of GENDA’s acquisition. Nonetheless, existing Sega arcades tranquil retained the Sega title at the time.
Sega then completely closed its Sega Ikebukuro GiGO arcade in Tokyo in September 2021 after 28 years. (The big-scale arcade middle had opened in July 1993 beneath the title Ikebukuro GiGO, and turned into renamed Sega Ikebukuro GiGO in July 2013. GENDA retroactively stated later that “GiGO” stands for “Get into the Gaming Oasis.”)
Sega then opened a unusual arcade middle during the boulevard in October 2021 named Sega Ikebukuro. GENDA GiGO Entertainment president Nao Kataoka acknowledged then that the opening turned into “volume 1” of an “Ikebukuro Project.” The unusual arcade turned into in the ruin renamed to GiGO Ikebukuro.
In January 2022, GENDA got the remaining 14.9% of shares of arcade and amusement middle firm GENDA Sega Entertainment, and renamed the firm GENDA GiGO Entertainment. GENDA has renamed all 196 Sega arcade centers during Japan as GiGO, starting with arcades in Ikebukuro, Akihabara, and Shinjuku.
The GiGO (formerly Sega) Akihabara #4 closed in September 2022, and has since been replaced with Bandai Namco Amusement‘s Namco Akihabara arcade in March 2023. Nonetheless, Genda GiGO Entertainment opened the venerable Sega Akihabara #2 arcade beneath the unusual title GiGO Akihabara #2 in April 2023.
Supply: GiGO by plan of Hachima Kikō
