SEGA has made a heavy decision regarding its arcade terminals, the first video game platform of a whole generation.
We were already talking about it with the 50th anniversary of Atari this year, video games are a wonderful story that has lasted for more than half a century. The first players remember it, before few people could afford a console, it was in the arcades that everything was played. One of the pioneers in this market is SEGA, otherwise known for its favorite character, sonic the hedgehog.
Unfortunately for all the nostalgic, it seems that this period is well and truly over, as SEGA announces that it is withdrawing from the arcade machine market in its country of origin, Japan. A radical decision, which marks the end of an era, after 50 years of existence. From today, all terminals currently in service, and in working order, of SEGA will be sold to the company Genda Inc.
Although they are therefore redeemed, this does not mean that they will continue to be used. Indeed, Genda Inc often changes many machines, which are then replaced by more modern equipment such as claw machines or even slot machines.
Arcade terminals caught up in new technologies
Contrary to what one might think, it was not the desire for innovation at all costs that drove SEGA to make this decision, but the growing disinterest of players, as well as the economic crisis linked to the pandemic, which sped up the process. Indeed, in 2020 already, SEGA was facing a critical situation in this area, while repeated confinements jeopardized the already fragile sustainability of arcades.
The company then decided to sell approximately 85% of its machines to the Genda company. Today, she simply collects the rest of them. Moreover, before the pandemic, the arcade market was already in a situation of decline, when new technologies and much more efficient devices were more interesting than the pleasure of good old machines.
A monument of the early years of video games
Works of pop culture have however tried to revive this form of art, well unknown to young players – we quote in particular Stranger Things which plunges us right into the 1980s. It is therefore truly a page that turns for many fans in Japan, and surely soon in the rest of the world. Nevertheless, we hope that, thanks to the fashion effect, these will return to the front of the stage sooner or later.
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