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Sega opens flagship arcade in Akihabara

HeavyElectricity 5

Club Sega, Akihabara

Ah, Akihabara. How I have longed to visit this mythical location, in order to peer into the heart of Japanese arcade gaming (well, also to stage an homage to Densha Otoko, but that’s another story entirely). Every time I think it can’t be any more attractive to me, we get a bit of news like this – today, a new six-storey Club Sega location has opened. The arcade boasts a cool 373 machines, with the best video games out now joined by the usual set of UFO Catchers and other popular games. In fact, changing rooms are even provided next to the purikura machines (photo-sticker thingies, to you and me) for those wishing to cosplay (fancy dress!). I’d say you’d never catch me in one of those, but there’s a friend of mine who will almost certainly drag me into one at one point…

If you’re lucky enough to be able to check this wonderland out, please give us a shout and let us know what we’re all missing! If like me you’re not, then rejoice at the news that we’re seeing a new location open, and check out the link below to see some lovely pictures from inside the new arcade.

<Shaggy>: Here’s a little addition from my post which is now deleted, another link about this news: iNSIDE. Also here’s a past link discussing when many media outlets were jumping all over the news of arcades closing in Japan, where I doubt that now they will give this much attention but we can always hope.

[Via Dengeki Online] [Discuss on the forums]

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HeavyElectricity

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I've been a huge fan of video games since I was introduced to the Atari 2600 at the age of 3. Since joining the Arcade Heroes team in 2008, I've mostly been spotted out on location covering trade shows and product launches in the UK.

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5 comments
arcads4ever

thats funny, I thought all arcades in japan were closing down or cutting back. funny how they never mention of new arcades opening up or arcades making a little recovery in japan at the very least. why game media likes to slag arcades off is beyond me :S

Reply
    Ultron

    Re- arcads4ever

    It’s a conspiracy by console makers to stop people from going to arcades.

    I would normally post about this on a fighting games UK forum, but I saw someone’s topic about a new arcade opening in Paris, far easier to get to from the UK than Japan is; a moderator or admin replied to it saying something like;

    “What are we going to have a new topic every time a new arcade opens?”;

    and locked the topic so no-one could reply to it (except perhaps the moderators and admins of that forum, depending on the forum software and settings).

    Recently, people have posted in a thread on that forum about one arcade in London, that it will be closing down soon to be replaced by what I refer to as a “coffin hotel”. That thread itself was only allowed to exist on that forum cause people kept complaining that there should be a topic about that arcade on the forum.

    It has recently been highlighted to me that anywhere that locks topics is ceasing comminucation on the internet, is censorship, supression of information and defeats the point of having a forum or system to post comments with.

    Hopefully this comment section will remain open, rather than succumb to this disease of censorship that has scourged the internet.

    Reply
      Ultron

      Sorry for the double post, but since I can’t edit my message above to add this, and knowing how readily people dismiss “conspiracy theories”, I think I’d better add this link which explains how videogame news sites are in the pocket of videogames companies:
      http://insomnia.ac/commentary/the_videogame_news_racket/

      Reply
      arcads4ever

      which arcade is it thats closing? as for your comment I would say that its mostly the game media trying to promote home console game more so they may get a big slice of the pie. The trueth I think its always been like this ever since the playstation came out, they would make stuff up like because the playstation was more powerful than the arcade counterpart (a load of bull shit as it was no where near sega model 2 power that runs game like THOTD, daytona, max tt superbike etc..) arcade companies had to come up with qirky controller ideas which is not true at all. companies have always released those sorts of games and they’re still fun. even with the wii out there are still alot of ideas that haven’t been thought of for the arcade market and arcades will always have a home in bowling alleys cinemas and airports etc..

      Reply
scott

There has always been a Club SEGA in Akihabara, they always had beta and location tests for new fighting games. it was just really really cramped and stuffy. Each story would only hold around 20-30 arcade machines but would be packed with competition.

This is more like a relocation to a more spacious location; a re-opening of Club SEGA. Whether they keep the old Club SEGA is beyond me, its one block away from another arcade, Tokyo Leisureland.

Reply