Welcome to the latest edition of Location Watch, a regular series here on Arcade Heroes that covers the news of brand new arcade locations which have opened from all over the planet. That has the caveat of only being locations that we hear about, but thanks to various readers, and other arcade news sites like RePlay Magazine and InterGame Online, we do our best at keeping this comprehensive.
Things have been a little bit quiet in this regard for Q3 2025, which is a reason for the delay since last time. If you missed the news on our previous Location Watch posts from this year:
- Location Watch Japan Special
- Location Watch February
- Location Watch March
- Location Watch May
- Location Watch July
- Location Watch August
Also, check out the first phase of our new Arcade Hall of Fame if you missed the post about it earlier.
North America
Push Start Play (Lewisville, TX)
Claiming to be the new largest arcade in the entire state of Texas, Push Start Play is certainly the most impressive location in this post, and deserves to go up top here just because of that. Boasting access to 450 retro titles, present day games, pinball and more for a $12 flat entry fee (with over 300 of those being on freeplay, and a pre-loaded game card being included in the admission), highlights of their roster include the uber-rare Beavis & Butthead prototype arcade game, Atari Games’ Freeze prototype, and a Asteroids Recharged Arcade (which can be seen below). Find a huge album of photos from the place here, as well as their website and local news coverage at the highlighted links.
Timeline Arcade #3 (Red Lion, PA)
A place that has been mentioned in the closing ‘Coming Soon’ links of these posts since July is this one, marking Timeline Arcade’s third location. Where previous examples of theirs have gone all out in replicating an old Time Out Tunnel, being a part of an existing restaurant (Franklin Street Social) this one is a lot smaller – it’s self-described by them as a “little hideaway”. Still, they have managed to find room for several games, as can be seen below. Find them on Facebook here and their website here.
Super Rad Retro Lounge (Raleigh, NC)
Not to be confused with the Super Rad Arcade Bar in Lynchburg, Virginia which we covered a while back, this new location for Raleigh in North Carolina brings mostly retro arcade gaming to the area, with a row of Nintendo, a row of Midway, and a row of pins filling out their space. Find them on Facebook here. and additional coverage here.
Nightwave Arcade (Calgary, AB)
Sometimes, you have to pivot to keep business going, and that is the case with this arcade in Alberta which used to be called VR Core. While they still have VR in place, they’ve now added video arcade and pinball machines to their mix to expand interest. I think more VR arcade locations would have been able to keep their doors open had they done this, as VR stations have a similar problem to PC gaming LANs – unless you have a lot of machines, you stay limited as to what earnings can be generated. Check out their website here.
Neon Moon Pinball Lounge (Johnson City, TN)
If you’re down in Tennessee and have a hankering for pinball, then you are in luck, as this pinball parlor is now open for business with plenty to play. They only just opened yesterday at the time of publishing this post, bringing a variety of Stern, Jersey Jack, and more to the area. Check out some local reportage here.
Arcade 51 (Daytona Beach, FL)
This new bar arcade in Daytona Beach had their soft opening a couple weeks back, and are now fully ready to go with the drinks flowing and cabinets running. As well as the game that immortalizes their famous speedway in the form of its 1998 sequel, from the looks of the photos available there are also some rare Sega oddities like Star Wars Racer Arcade and Sega Strike Fighter among the more common 90s retro fare. Find them on Facebook here.
Akiba House (Manhattan, NYC)
Finally, reader S1ckH4nds has this great tour of Akiba House, which is a bit of a paradise for anime fans. As explained though, this is more than just an anime culture store, as this flagship also has a small Japanese arcade section to enjoy. A bit of that starts off with cranes (all the rage right now), then it immediately jumps to the other end of the arcade spectrum with a pair of WACCAs and Chunithm, and more. Not a lot, but still it’s a start:
FEC Openings & Updates
Dave & Buster’s New CEO Is Upfront About What’s Gone Wrong – Rare to get much honesty with these things, but they are in trouble, as also laid out in this deep dive from White-Hutchison Group (recommend reading this if you want to understand the situation)
Greensboro, North Carolina Gets A New Main Event Venue – At the same time, Main Event seems to be ticking over fine though, which shows how the situation is dependent on the business model
Betson Promotes Arcade Time’s New 300+ Game Facility In Orlando – I’ll have to find an hour to go and stop by while at IAAPA
Betson Also Furnishes Montana’s Big Horn Resort’s Game Room
AVS Installs New Arcade At Smash Park, Westville OH
F1 Arcade Adds A Location In Las Vegas, NV
Cypress, Houston TX Gets A New Cranecade
Even Hawaii Has A New Cranecade Location
Pinstripes Goes Bankrupt, Closes 10 Locations
Europe
Sega Prize Zone (Basingstoke, England)
Sega Amusements and Superbowl UK are continuing to make gains in their portfolio of locations, with another bowling alley and Sega Prize Zone opening up in the UK, this time in Basingstoke, Kent. This one has plenty of redemption of course, but also the likes of House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn and Storm Rider G for the video games, as well as some interactive darts stations.
King Size Game Center (Gerardmer, France)
This place that opened just recently in France added a Sacoca card system just after launch, which got them some extra press attention following their news blip for it. As for the games themselves, they have a rather China-heavy lineup as this photo indicates; out of shot are also some suspicious-looking motion cabinets running a certain Ferrari racing game with blue skies, though it’s not all bootlegs:
FEC Openings & Updates
Hollywood Bowl Norwich Gets £400k Upgrade, Expanded Arcade
Meanwhile Hollywood Bowl Bracknell Closes After 35 Years
Gutterball Opens New Location In Ealing Broadway, London
Blackpool’s North Pier Goes Up For Sale, To Much Interest
Gamestate’s Weltmeijer Group Acquires The Game Box
Bandai Namco Expands LEVELS’ Fifth Floor In Prague
French FEC Chain 1055 Opens Its Seventh Location
Asia/Middle East/Oceania
Tsuchiura Video Game E201 (Ibaraki, Japan)
This one is a special example, as it is both a reopening and relocation by the management of a storied Japanese game center. Nakano TRF closed earlier this year to much sadness from fighting game players, which it focused on to the very end. However, its owners were quick to say they did not intend to sell off any of their cabinets, and the purpose of that has now came clear with their new place, Tsuchiura Video Game E201. They now can be found in front of the Tsuchiura train station in a mall, marked out by a nice signature wall mural of Chun-Li, with business as usual on the games they had before (and a few new ones to boot, including some unusually-for-Japan pinballs and a few other oddities). This video has an overview; be sure to visit them and support them if you’re ever in Japan!
Timezone (Borivali, India + Bacolod, Phillipines)
It never ceases to amaze how many new openings Timezone are continually undertaking, with their latest two locations in India and Philippines being further proof of that. The former in Borivali’s recently-opened Sky City Mall features the likes of Apex Rebels, Alpha Ops VR Strike, Asphalt Moto Blitz and 9 Legends Arcade, whilst the latter has the Asia-exclusive motion models of Cruis’n Blast and NFS Heat Takedown. In other Timezone news, they have also recently started rolling out the big new King of Fighters cabinets seen at recent Chinese trade shows for their Singaporean locations (which is interesting, as the original word was that they were only licensed for China. Guess not).
FEC Openings & Updates
Adores’ Ikebukuro Sunshine Street Location Closes After 40 Years – A long-running location for sure, but didn’t have much besides cranes/medal games/photo booths these days
GiGO Opens In Vita Mall Seiseki, Japan With A Variety Of Games
Another GiGO For SELVA Mall, Izumichuo, Sendai City
First Philippines Location For Dave & Busters Opens Up
Timezone Also Revamps Their Vista Mall, Philippines Location
Genda Opens Region-Specific Chinese Subsidiaries
Are any of these new arcades near you? Then be sure to go out and visit them! Doors can’t stay open on the basis of likes and hashtags.
Coming Soon
Massive FEC ‘Score Entertainment’ Headed To Texas In Summer 2026
Texas Also Getting ‘Launch Entertainment’ Sometime In 2026
Rocko’s Modern Taproom Family Bar Arcade For San Diego Next Year
Urban Fun To Launch Second Location In Kingston-Upon-Thames
Boneyard Arcade To Soon Reopen In New Location For Exeter
Silk Hat Teases Their Reopening Of GiGO Building 1 Akihabara
