Sega Owned Arcade Chain in Trouble?
The arcade in of itself was already a dying breed, with home entertainment continuing to be the gamers’ choice of play. A seemingly unannounced move like this by one of the great names in arcade machines does not help matters.
We’re referring to the sudden shutdown of several North American GameWorks franchises, now owned by Sega Sammy Holdings and operated by Sega Entertainment USA. The dominoes fell today, starting with the sudden shutdown of the Ybor City location near Tampa, Florida, as reported by Tampa Bay Online.
The close came without warning and disrupted, among other things, booked reservations for parties, and the lives of 57 employees who are now without a job.
We did some more digging and found that four more locations also shut their doors for good today, all in other major US metropolitan cities. GameWorks locations in Miami, Minneapolis, Columbus, and Indianapolis are now closed–leaving just ten domestic franchises still operating.
The shutdown may be a sign of how ailing Sega Sammy’s arcade division may be, at least in the United States.
A decision is pending on whether customers will get refunds on game card credits already purchased.
Thanks to Sonic Remix for sending this news tip in to us. If you have news to share, be sure to share it with us by clicking News Tips at the top of every page.
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WHAT! I go to school near there. I had no idea that it closed. O_o. Man I only got to go there twice. and I didn’t even get to play any games or win any of the huge Sonic plushies -_-
It just closed suddenly? I was just there not too long ago. I managed to win 4 shot glasses with Sonic’s image on it. If this is true, that glass will be rare.
I better run to all the Gameworks near my area (I live in Miami) and see if any of them are open. This just isn’t fair.
What….? I was planning to go down there. I live only three, or four hours away! God damnit…Why did it have to be Tampa? Of all the places.
I’m honestly not surprised. I’ve actually heard for a while now that Sammy has been trying to push hard in its arcades, but was failing miserably, dealing a lot of damage to Sega’s overall profits.
The closing of the arcades I actually see as good news for Sega. Arcades simply aren’t popular anymore. I for one far prefer buying a game and having all the time in the world to play it as opposed to paying for three lives and paying for every single continue.
If someone wants to grab me some Sonic merchandise from the still-open ones, I’ll pay!
Shooooooooot! I was planning on going to the Colombus one this summer….and now it’s closed….. I think I’m gonna cry…..
I can understand closing arcades, sure…not like they’re excessively popular anymore. but doing it WITHOUT ANY WARNING? Especially when that just ruined some pre-booked parties…that’s just BS. And of course, there’s the employees…did they get any advance warning either?
Well, that blows. At least I’ve still got Dave & Busters.
The closure of the Minneapolis location has been known for some time, was in the local paper a few months ago.
GOD NO! NOT THE ONE IN MINNEAPOLIS! D’=>
@AugieD: What?! WHY AM I APPARENTLY THE LAST ONE TO KNOW ABOUT THIS?
Yeah, there was a report in the Star Tribune that Gameworks was trying to sublease it’s space at Block E in Minneapolis, suggesting it was going to close. Here is the article from April of last year. http://www.startribune.com/business/43397357.html
Well, as far as I know he closings are part of some sort of company restructuring or something like that.
I actually didn’t know the Minneapolis one closed until I found out two days ago. It sucks, but I guess I’ll go to the Las Vegas one next year (I have family down there).