Genda announced that it has renamed Genda Sega Entertainment to Genda GiGO Entertainment after acquiring 100 percent of the company shares. It also revealed plans to rename all existing Sega arcade centers to GiGO as well.
The company’s chairman Nao Kataoka explained on Twitter that GiGO is short for “Get into the Gaming Oasis.” Sega’s arcade centers in Ikebukuro, Akihabara, and Shinjuku will be the first ones to have their names changed. Other facilities across Japan will follow afterward.
When Genda acquired a majority of Sega Entertainment’s shares in December 2020, it only obtained 85.1 percent of the stocks. At that time, Sega owned 14.9 percent, so it still had some say in the company’s decision-making processes in 2021. For example, Genda had to retain Sega’s name on arcade centers and the Genda Sega Entertainment company.
The latest announcement revealed that Genda purchased the remaining stocks owned by Sega. This means Sega no longer has a hand in the arcade facility management company, as Genda now fully owns it.
Despite the massive name change, GiGO is not an unfamiliar name for Japanese arcade fans. The name appeared on the Sega Ikebukuro GiGO building that closed down in September 2021. When Genda opened a new arcade facility nearby in October 2021, the company simply named it Sega Ikebukuro. In the near future, it will rename the facility to GiGO Ikebukuro.
