SEGA Arcades in trouble

 And like that; he's gone.

Arcade machines are some of most beloved parts of gaming history that folk just refuse to leave behind. Even in the modern age of phones with the capabilities to outstrip previous gen game consoles and smart fridges running DOOM, there will always be that dedicated audience for the old fashioned fun of hobbling down to the arcade in order to play games blockier than Minecraft on a machine that's bigger than your toaster. (In fact, the real dedicated players even lug these machines home so that the inconvenience can be closer than ever!) A lot of gaming's most heartfealt and longstanding traditions date back to these days, including a lot of early monetisation-hungry tips and tricks that we have since been completely eclipsed thanks to the tireless avaricious efforts of modern day developers. (Bless you, EA/Activision, you're keeping the classics alive.) But what if I was to tell you how that piece of living gaming history was in danger of being lost to the annals of the long-lost past? Would you be surprised? Because I was surprised that there's still arcade shops at all...

Yeah, as you can likely deduce, arcade machines were never really my idea of 'iconic representatives of gaming'. I've played a couple in my day but there were so many other places to play these sorts of games and the hands-on experience soon was outdone by the Nintendo Wii anyway so one might wonder; what's the point? Well I'd imagine there's something unattainable about the sort of nostalgia that those old machines provide for those who were active for their heyday, personally I lack that connection, so it should hardly surprise anyone to hear that I'm immune to those charms. But for those who drift asleep dreaming of the old Arcade cabinets there will always be the familiar hum of those antiquated machines to serenade your dreams. (I assume they hum, I haven't played an arcade machine for literally over a decade.)

However, it is undeniable that niche industries such as Arcade machines are some of the one's that operate on a dime's edge, to the point where they have to rely off of repeat business and familiarity to make their day-to-day profit. That's just the way these sorts of business' operate. It is a dangerous world where all it takes is one major disruption in order to throw your entire way of doing things into significant doubt, thus you're likely already picking up where I'm going with this before I even say that the Covid pandemic has ravaged Arcade machine businesses. It makes sense, doesn't it? Having people meet in a crowed environment in order to touch the same surfaces as other people doesn't really sound like the sort of thing that'd fly in the modern age. But that makes it no less sad to witness the unfortunate effect on this lesser-touted end of the games industry.

As such, Sega Sammy has taken a huge brunt in this past year and plans to sell themselves out of the business after almost 16 years in operation. (What a shame.) Sega Sammy is, to my knowledge, the name given to the merger of Sega and Sammy entertainment which combined both company's supremacy for the 'amusement industry'; which basically covers arcades and Pachinko machines. So perhaps in some way I'm not overly distraught at this news, (Me and Pachinko machines have a very fraught past in that they went for the only thing in this world that I love and I'll never forgive them for it) but I do mourn what seems to have been a popular industry in Japan. Whereas in the rest of the world we have barely any Arcades aside from curio shops, over there remained something of a haven for Arcade culture and it's sad to see that die.

Or rather, wither, because whilst those industries have been fraught with massive closures and loses, no one's pulling the plug quiet yet. SEGA Sammy is selling their stake in the operations to Sega entertainment (Marking around 20 billion Yen in losses) so whilst there will undeniably be a cutback in the number of machines around the place perhaps there's a little hope in future once all this is behind us. (That's certainly the sort of hope that movie theatre chains are holding out for.) But it's foolish to pretend to know what SEGA are thinking about doing with a industry that's literally haemorrhaging money for them right now, we can but imagine that the outlook isn't so bright. (No one quite knows right now.)

It should probably be noted that although SEGA is an undeniably huge name in the industry, theirs isn't the only arcade machine business on the block. It may be a tad presumptuous to tell people to start lighting up a candle in honour of their local Club SEGA just yet, as Taito appear to be holding onto their business so there must be some vague form of hope. Personally, as a gamer with no interest in the arcade scene, I will say I'd be glad if something could be done to preserve this industry, because software preservation has proven to be surprisingly tough for gaming. The last thing we need to lose one of strongest venues of such on the back of this pandemic. It would be a very unfortunate cap off to this whole trainwreck of a year.

I've been wondering about preservation quite a lot recently, and the way in which the inherent growth of technology often stops us from playing the games of the past. Sure we have emulators and remasters to keep the back catalogue alive, but things are never so easy as just throwing on an old Video and watching a movie. Games have to be specifically worked into collections or fitted to work in an emulator and even then you have to teach folk how to work that emulator to begin with, not making it the most accessible software in the world. (On top of that is the legal grey-area which emulators sit within, but let's not get into that can of worms.) Arcade machines seemed like the single most pure way to preserve these games of yesteryear, and now it seems they might be slowly disappearing.

Ultimately I suppose that's just the general trend of industry, some markets will get left behind if they can't adapt and others will replace it. If nothing else this all lends credence to the assumption that console-free systems like Stadia will never fully dominate the gaming landscape, because there's just so many more games out there than those companies are capable of supporting. Maybe given the sombre occasion one might go so far as to seek out ROMs of some of these old games to partake in their memory. (Although, from some perspectives that could be seen as literally dancing on their graves) Oh well, that's what I'm gonna do anyway.