Aime

Aime (アイミー) is an arcade service operated by Sega in Japan. It fulfils two purposes; as a pre-payment option for accessing arcade machines, and as a means to retain information about scores, game progress and other such details. Players interact with arcade machines either with a physical Aime card, or through a supported mobile device. Aime uses the FeliCa RFID smart card system developed by Sony, which as been widely adopted across Asia.

Aime was launched in November 2010 alongside the release of Sengoku Taisen: 1560 Owari no Fuuunji^[1] as a unifying replacement for two earlier card systems used in Sega Network Taisen Mahjong MJ4 Evolution and Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Arcade. Support has been added to numerous Sega arcade games since, though the system remains exclusive to Japan.

From its inception, Aime was designed to be cross-compatible with a similar system developed by Bandai Namco Entertainment, "BanaPassport" (although Aime was announced before its competitor had settled on a name), however this was not fully realised until the summer of 2018, when, alongside Konami and its "e-Amusement Pass" card system, the three companies launched the "Amusement IC" (アミューズメントIC) "standard", allowing the same card to be used with games from each manufacturer. Taito's NESiCA card system became Amusement IC compatible in early 2019.

While Aime and Amusement IC compatible cards were partially designed to make payment easier, all Sega arcade machines accept physical currency and, since 2018, a wide variety of electronic money systems^[2]. These, however, will not track in-game progress.