SegaWorld London/History

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Background

A key destination of Piccadily Circus, London, the Trocadero first housed various early forms of entertainment venues, until it was given its signature name after the area of Paris in 1896 when redeveloped as a large restaurant by J. Lyons Co.. After closing in 1965, part of its space was refurbished and reopened under the name as an entertainment and shopping complex in 1984, soon receiving the backing of famous British entrepreneur George Walker. By the early 1990s, its lower floors housed numerous virtual reality experiences, a Funland arcade, a Guinness World Records tourist attraction, and a themed walkthrough attraction based on the Alien films, but struggled to find tenants that could occupy the largely empty space found in the upper levels. In 1994, the building was leased for £94 million to Burford Group PLC led by Nick Leslau and Nigel Wray, who sought a permanent large-scale tenant for the centre.

Yokohama Joypolis, the first Joypolis venue and the second indoor theme park opened by Sega under the Amusement Theme Park concept after Osaka ATC Galbo

At the same time, Sega were opening their first branded amusement arcades in Europe in an attempt to replicate initial success seen following the same model in Japan, where it had originated. Sega-owned amusement centres operated in the country since the late 1960s, and the first branded chain, Hi-Tech Land Sega, was established in the mid 80s, however concerted efforts to cater towards families and improve the image of arcades began with the Joy Square in Hamamatsu joint venture and the En-Joint scheme with interactive attractions such as Sega Super Circuit in the late 80s and early 90s. The suburban Sega World facilities, characterised by their bright décor and design, subsequently became the predominant chain of venues, and were supported by larger, elaborately themed GiGO urban centres aimed at young adults.

In the case of the United Kingdom, amusement operations began with Metropolis in London during November 1992 and continued with a handful of venues using the same Sega World name, as well as others such as Sega Park. Sega itself was becoming one of the biggest consumer brands in the UK during this period, with Sega of Europe riding on the successes of the Sega Master System and Sega Mega Drive, and Sega's amusements subsidiary in Europe, separate from the management dealing with the console gaming market and driven by recently-acquired distributors Deith Leisure, benefitted from this association, as well as seeing success in its own right by manufacturing hit Sega machines such as Virtua Racing in the country.

By 1994, operations in Japan had progressed to the point where Sega had launched their Amusement Theme Park concept. Under it, large-scale indoor theme parks containing interactive attractions, amusement arcade machines, and extra amenities designed by the company and others would open in urban areas. The venues sought to expand Sega's customer base and establish the company as a major force in global out-of-home entertainment by providing advanced technology, as well as to compete with Namco's similar Wonder Eggs park and interest from bigger companies including Paramount and Sony. Efforts began with pilot location Osaka ATC Galbo in April, and were expanded on further with Yokohama Joypolis in July. As part of the original plans for the concept, Sega intended to create 100 theme park venues across the world by 2000, with the UK earmarked as an early target.

Development

At first, the Trocadero was intended to be the site for a smaller Sega World amusement arcade, scheduled to open soon after Sega World Bournemouth in 1993. The original venue appears to have never came to fruition - many of Sega's popular arcade machines could already be found in other parts of the venue, with its Funland arcade notably operating R360 and Virtua Formula units. Whilst still continually expanding operations in Europe, Sega originally planned to open their first indoor theme park venue outside of Japan in the United States during 1995; executives held high-level talks with Universal/MCA and later Disney to create a joint venture, however these failed, instead resulting in the company's exhibition space at Innoventions in 1994 and eventually the GameWorks urban entertainment centres during the late 1990s. Undeterred, overseas expansion remained critical to interests for the ATP concept.

Pre-opening press event during the construction period

By January 1995, a joint venture had been made with Burford Group to create a venue under the Amusement Theme Park concept. Named "SegaWorld" to differentiate itself from the smaller Sega World amusement arcades and reassert the Sega brand instead of Joypolis, £45 million in funding was allocated for its creation, with the park proposed to use over 100,000 square feet of the Trocadero site. The agreement's public announcement became a significant news item in the amusement industry during early 1995, receiving front page coverage on the 03/15 edition of Japanese trade newspaper Game Machine.

Contracts were made with Tibbatts Associates and RTKL for design, and Mustoe Merriman and Motive (the latter an arm of Bartle Bogle Hegarty) for marketing. During the development process, Trocadero PLC was spun off from Burford Group to handle building management; Sega would use Sega ATP Europe for its own responsibilities. A large-scale renovation of the Trocadero's central atrium was initiated in early 1995, with 1,500 workers alleged by PR to have spent 8 million man hours, eaten 270,000 sandwiches, and drank 900,000 cups of tea throughout. Construction began on SegaWorld itself in January 1996.

Early promotion of the centre was made in Ultimate Future Games during 1995. A £1.5 million advertising campaign went underway in 1996, with a number of press events and further coverage in several other magazines. More than 8,000 applications were claimed to be made for 300 staff positions at the centre. Before opening, a sponsorship deal was made by Trocadero PLC with Pepsi, attaching the brand to the building as well as a planned 3D IMAX theatre that would open within. Despite the added exposure created, this deal did not benefit Sega directly, with the later IMAX attraction located outside of their space in the main atrium area. After the collapse of plans for the first overseas ATP in the USA, SegaWorld London took its place; interviewed on its prospects in 1996, Hayao Nakayama emphasised his desire for the scheme to not fail, and the importance of carefully chosen high-profile locations like the Trocadero.

Opening

SegaWorld London was opened over a two week period in 1996 with three separate events - a privately held pre-launch preview on 26 August, the official public launch day on 7 September, and a special evening event held for selected ECTS Autumn 1996 press attendees on the following day, for which the UK launch party of Nights Into Dreams was also included. The public launch in particular was heavily promoted in the media and attended by numerous celebrities, with Robbie Williams, Jarvis Cocker, and the Duchess of York among them. Coverage came from across the world, with the Polish Escape and Dutch EenVandaag TV shows filming on-location footage, as well as press features from numerous gaming magazines.

The launch of the park did not run as intended. On the day of the public opening, longer than anticipated queues were said to be common for most attractions as a result of high attendance, low ride capacity, and under-implemented line systems (despite Sega officially claiming this would not be the case in pre-opening promotion). A lack of enthusiasm for the attractions' vaunted technological feats also prevailed, with subsequent reviews in many newspapers levelling criticism at their low-tech aspects.

Also damning was Nick Leslau's immediate assessment of the site - having offered Sega the chance to create the park with the excess vacant space available in the Trocadero and overseeing its development, he was dissuaded by the events of the opening day and following furore. Leslau subsequently took criticism for his investment in the venture, and would later remark "Sega could not deliver what they said they'd deliver... People were queuing for ages... It was a question of over-anticipation and under-delivery.".

The park's pricing and policies additionally proved to be controversial. On top of the £12 and £9 admission fees for each individual adult and child, every arcade machine (costing up to £3) was still paid for; as well as this, no food or drink was permitted to be taken in, with it available for purchase at snack bars and McDonalds outlets located on the premises. The moves were seen as excessive in some reviews - among other video game magazines, Computer & Video Games critiqued them with "Whoever said that Robotnik is supposed to be the fascist dictator?" in reference to the promotional leaflet's description of the rules supposedly made by Sonic himself. The opening of SegaWorld came to be regarded as a PR disaster in retrospect.

Demise

Despite continued investment, consistent updates to its roster of arcade games, and events (including Virtua Fighter 3 Japan Vs England, which saw Sega officially provide travel to London for Japanese VF3 players), SegaWorld regularly struggled to cover its rent. Maintenance also became a problem, with vandalism and a number of attractions reportedly developing technical difficulties mere weeks after opening. Discouraged by the launch and operations issues, Leslau quit, and ex-First Leisure executives John Conlan and Nick Tamblyn joined Trocadero PLC. Under Conlan and Tamblyn, the company diversified into intellectual property and renamed itself Chorion. Though Sega had previously collaborated with First Leisure through successful trials of the Sega World concept in the UK, they were now held in disdain - Conlon would later claim that he had been trying to get rid of SegaWorld since the day after joining.

Trocadero atrium with SegaWorld London main entrance, 1997

Based on a benchmark set by Yokohama Joypolis, Sega hoped to attract 1.75 million visitors to the facility in its first full year of operation, but ultimately fell short of this. Alongside several revisions of payment methods for arcade machines, entry fees had been dropped to £2 in December 1996, and then scrapped entirely in December 1997 to increase footfall and reposition the centre as a large amusement arcade - the move worked in theory, as annual visitor numbers increased to an estimated 4 million in 1998. However, it did not remedy the financial situation, with the centre now operating at a £2 million yearly loss.

During this time, the pre-existent Funland arcade opened a new basement branch and Trocadero management placed arcade machines around the central atrium outside of SegaWorld; alongside the popular Wonderpark arcade operated by Namco in the same area, these diverted further revenue away from SegaWorld. Despite positive official coverage in Saturn Power, working standards continued to fall. By 1998, some attractions were taken out of service and removed entirely due to continued maintenance costs, including Mad Bazooka, with few new additions to replace them besides Power Sled.

Following an assessment of the site's issues by Deith Leisure founder Bob Deith, the lack of a culminative £3 million profit since launch triggered an early termination clause in Sega's original 10-year deal with Chorion. Their involvement in the joint venture duly ended in September 1999. As Chorion sold the Trocadero location back to the direct ownership of Burford Group and Sega extracted itself, SegaWorld's failure soon became emblematic of wider problems within the company; its initiatives to run amusement centres and theme parks around the world largely ceased, with many ventures outside of Japan liquidated as a result of poor performance. Its space was immediately sublet to Family Leisure (established by Martin Bromley), operators of numerous arcades in London including the Funland centre situated in the Trocadero. The centre was stripped of any remaining SegaWorld branding by early 2000.

Aftermath

Disused second "rocket escalator" in 2006

After Family Leisure assumed full control of the former SegaWorld space and Sega ATP Europe operating company as part of the sublet agreement, the company closed the basement Funland branch at the beginning of 2000 and began plans to merge together the former SegaWorld space with their existing Funland/Lazerbowl arcade to create a large, seven-floor family entertainment centre. Architectural firm Proun redesigned and repurposed a number of the SegaWorld floors, with almost all of the SegaWorld attractions except for Aqua Planet scrapped due to maintenance issues and poor condition, and in the meantime created new facilities in an attempt to broaden the appeal of the centre. Two of these additions: a Dodgems set and a bar, were additions for SegaWorld's final year.

With fewer competing locations, Funland ran unopposed in its area by the time of the early 2000s. However, staffing issues were faced, with worsening antisocial behaviour and crime at the facility. To mitigate the strains on the centre, management renewed Funland's lease to cover only two floors (the former exit and Sports Arena levels) in September 2002, closing off public access to the upper five levels in the process. However, the entire Trocadero complex as a whole was not significantly revamped thereafter, meaning traces of the SegaWorld layout and removed attractions still existed for much of the rest of the decade.

Until early 2011, the second rocket escalator that accessed the former SegaWorld reception was not removed, and at one time was simply blocked off with a vending machine. The upper floors were on occasion used for private events during the 2000s, including the 2004 edition of the Absolution fighting game tournament featuring Virtua Fighter 4. Numerous murals remained on the closed-off floors, most significantly artwork of a large aircraft control panel on the back wall of the former Flight Deck level. The first rocket escalator was kept operational to take visitors up to what was left of Funland.

Despite finding success in rhythm action games and hosting location tests for major arcade companies, working standards at Funland decayed. Prolonged internal money management issues combined with plans to open a hotel led to Criterion, the Trocadero's landlords since 2005, cutting off the arcade's power supply on July 4, 2011, resulting in it closing permanently. Many of the former games were sold on or moved to other Family Leisure venues; some went to their nearby Las Vegas arcade in Soho. The remaining unsold arcade cabinets were left scattered in areas of the Trocadero atrium, including the former Funland entrance and makeshift basement arcades, which would stay in parts of the venue until its final closure as an entertainment complex in February 2014.

Following his management of SegaWorld London and guidance in its closure, Paul Williams took a director role at Sega Amusements Europe; he has since became president and chief executive of its successor, Sega Amusements International. Since the closure, plans of a return to theme parks in the UK have been hinted at by Sega, but never materialised. Parts of SegaWorld's former space are now occupied by a Zedwell hotel.