Sega of Japan to close arcades, cancel games, lay off hundreds

[YankeeH8er]

Quote:
Sega to Close Arcades, Cancel Games, Lay Off Hundreds
By Chris Kohler
February 10, 2009 | 3:11:00 PM

The house that Sonic built is getting significantly smaller.

Sega's Japanese main branch said Tuesday that it will close 110 arcades, cancel some games in development and seek to lay off 18 percent of its staff. In a series of press releases (http://www.segasammy.co.jp/english/index.jsp), the game publisher said that these cost-cutting moves come in anticipation of its recording an annual loss of 25 billion yen (about $238 million) during the fiscal year that will end March 31.



Full article: http://blog.wired.com/games/2009/02/sega-layoffs.html (http://blog.wired.com/games/2009/02/sega-layoffs.html)

[KANG the Crybaby]

Well, glad I got to see the Club Segas in Shinjuku, Shibuya and Akihabara, cause I have a feeling some of those may be closing before I get back to Japan next year.

[Specineff]

The beginning of the end, gentlemen. Good night. Good bye.

[YankeeH8er]

I am really looking forward to seeing some of their arcades when Katie and I visit Japan. I hope they are still open then.

[Katie]

It's already hard enough researching where to go for arcades in Japan when we visit. Now it's going to be even harder. I bet we'll try to go to some that no longer exist. :(

I hope they don't close Sega Joyopolis, or whatever that place is called. It looks kinda neat.

[Bruhaha69]

Well, that's depressing. I'd imagine all the big arcades we hear about will remain.

Makes me wonder what they're canceling since it seems like they hardly have ANY output these days.

[The Bastard]

I'm surprised it took Sega this long. Where the hell did they get $238 million dollars? We can only hope they are only canceling bad Sonic games.

[KANG the Crybaby]

It's already hard enough researching where to go for arcades in Japan when we visit. Now it's going to be even harder. I bet we'll try to go to some that no longer exist. :(

I hope they don't close Sega Joyopolis, or whatever that place is called. It looks kinda neat.

Finding arcades in japan is dirt easy. Walk around Akihabara and Shinjuku and you'll be tripping over them. In Kabukicho (Shinjuku) I found like 12 arcades after walking around for an hour or two, some are hole in the wall arcades, some are bigger. Even if some club segas close, there are still the Taito World arcades which are basically the same thing (they all have the same games).

[superyen]

times change.

sega isn't the same company they used to be.

getting depressed about this makes me realize i am holding on to an ideal.

honestly it's not even as sad as dc dying or sega going third party.

[Frogacuda]

Sega is still the same company, but they're being governed by a bunch of idiots that won't let them be great.

[DarthArcturus]

maybe this is for the better....or not :(

[koda]

It's already hard enough researching where to go for arcades in Japan when we visit. Now it's going to be even harder. I bet we'll try to go to some that no longer exist. :(

I hope they don't close Sega Joyopolis, or whatever that place is called. It looks kinda neat.
Joyopolis is awesome! Definitely go there.