”We came home.” Sega makes arcade comeback with new game center in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district

https://ift.tt/3n4RH6D Casey Baseel

Dry your tears, Sega fans. They’ve missed us too.

September 20 was a sad day for gamers as Sega’s Ikebukuro GiGO arcade permanently closed its doors. Having been in business for 28 years in one of Tokyo’s biggest otaku neighborhoods, GiGO’s closure brought out huge crowds to say a wistful goodbye to a place where so many happy memories had been made over the course of nearly three decades.

However, during the farewell festivities Sega dropped a couple hints that it was looking to make a comeback, and it turns out that’s happening sooner than any fan expected.

IKEBUKURO PROJECT VOL.1
＼ 2021.10.22. START ／#セガ池袋 pic.twitter.com/e2LOSWAyyQ

— セガ池袋 (@SEGA_ikebukuro) October 16, 2021

As part of its Ikebukuro Project, Sega is coming back to the Ikebukuro neighborhood this very week with the opening of a new arcade. It won’t be hard for former GiGO customers to find, either, as it’s right across the street from where the now-closed arcade was located.

▼ The now-closed Sega Ikebukuro GiGO, on the right, and the building for Sega’s new arcade, prior to its renovation, on the opposite side of Ikebukuro’s Sunshine-dori street.

This is actually a sort of double video game homecoming, as the building that Sega is moving into used to be the home of Project Adores, a crane game-centric arcade with a focus on anime-themed prizes, which closed down in the summer of 2020.

▼ Project Adores, prior to its closure

The new Sega arcade will be a five-floor facility, with video games on the basement level, crane games on floors 1 through 3, and an Ichiban Kuji cafe on the fourth floor, which will rotate themes in keeping with the popular Ichiban Kuji anime merchandise lottery series.

▼ Since the outer facade still hasn’t been removed from the old arcade, Nao Kataoka, president of Genda, the company that manages the Sega arcade chain, proudly tweeted that right now Sega is represented on both sides of the street.

これ、迫力ありますよね！
今この瞬間にしか見ることができない池袋サンシャイン60通りです。 pic.twitter.com/qHyJCYRCDL

— 片岡 尚 / GENDA会長 (@GENDA_Kataoka) October 16, 2021

“We came home” and “I ♡ Ikebukuro” read the messages on the windows of the new arcade, and online reactions show the love is more than ready to welcome Sega back, with comments such as:

“Awesome news!”
“Absolutely the best present arcade fans in the community could have hoped for!”
“I was wondering what was going to happen to the vacant [Adore’s] building.”
“It’s smaller than the old place, but I’m glad to have a Sega arcade nearby.”
“I’m already excited to go!”

October 22 will be the new arcade’s grand opening, just a little over one month since the closure of GiGO. As pointed out, the new facility isn’t as big as the old one, but in another happy announcement, the new arcade is just the first of three steps in Sega’s Ikebukuro Project.

Source: PR Times, Twitter/@GENDA_Kataoka via Anime News Network/Crystalyn Hodgkins, Twitter/@amnet_official
Top image: PR Times
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