Arcade operation acquisitions have become a bit more frequent in recent times, with one of the most talked about being GENDA’s acquisition of Sega Japan’s operations last year. There was also a bit of discussion online when it was announced earlier this year that the arcade operations wing of Namco, known as Namco USA, had been sold off to three separate buyers. At the time, the identities of the buyers were kept secret, with NEN being revealed as one of those buyers a little later.
Today, we found out who took over Pac-Man Entertainment(link is in Japanese), and it should be a familiar name given the aforementioned Sega acquisition – GENDA.
It’s slightly more complex than that behind-the-scenes though. Back in 2019, GENDA made their first move into the US (that I am aware of) in working with Round 1 to establish an FEC in Texas called Kiddleton. Since that company already exists in the US (and I’m sure there would be a number of legal issues to wade through if GENDA bought PME directly), they are the ones that have taken over the existing PME operations.
Namco USA had intended on turning Pac-Man Entertainment into a chain of branded FECs, but such things take more time than a year to do, so the full expansion never came to fruition. That said, the famous Level 257 in Schaumburg, IL was rebranded into PME and it appears that was the only location to receive such treatment. As it is, GENDA is renaming the location to ENTERRIUM, which will open later this month. They have a website setup and are looking to hire, where it appears that they will maintain the same idea of mixing old & new games together with food and other attractions:
On the press release it states “we will aim to open multiple stores nationwide in the future” although they don’t mention whether or not that will be under the Kiddleton or ENTERRIUM names (or something else).
While it’s sad that we won’t see any big chains with Pac-Man branding out there now, it is good news that many locations have been preserved, and that also means more jobs (although with them hiring, it sounds like they need to rebuild in that regard). What are your thoughts on this?
