Sega City

To do

• Was Sega City Irvine the first Sega City? Our "happened on this day" section states Irvine was the first Sega City. Which- is actually what I thought as well... But the opening dates on this page list Indianapolis and Cedar Park as opening a month or two earlier. Maybe.... Irvine was the flagship location? Maybe it did open first (some kind of private/non-general-public opening?) Super non-priority but would be nice to figure out which was truly first :)
• Speaking of, Sega City Irvine seemed like it was their flagship location regardless of dates. And I think that's more or less common knowledge (as common as Sega City info can be) but hey, double-check that first.
• Should the venues which later rebranded to GameWorks have their article names moved to their GameWorks titles? Kinda in the same way we name development company articles after their most-recent Sega-relevant names? I think so, but that can be for a little down the line.

CartridgeCulture (talk) 02:05, 28 November 2021 (EST)

see I would normally have the answers on this type of thing, but I'm really not sure which venue came first - however one thing I can tell you is that the impression I have got of Sega City is that it was a less notable interregnum between the earlier VirtuaLand and later GameWorks, merely done to keep Sega's brand out there while talks for what would be its biggest attempt dragged on to eventually bear fruit two years later

notice how the first few open around the same time that the basic agreement for what would later become GameWorks is announced, and connect that with the fact that the only notable arcades Sega had launched in the states up to that point were VirtuaLand and at a push, Innoventions, the former originally being the first of what was intended to be a proper (but aborted) chain of 100 venues. Other overseas territories like the UK had received much more since 1992's initial test facilities, so the amusement operations managers at Sega Enterprises USA were pretty much sitting there doing nothing while Nakayama negotiated back and forth with assorted companies on failed partnership after failed partnership, and their amusement sales colleagues + SOA did much more

these amusement operations guys needed something to do in the meantime so that their jobs were justified and not neglected, so knowing what was happening in the background this whole thing seems like a bit of a stop-gap - indeed, with most of this chain rebranded after it was absorbed into GameWorks, it just doesn't strike as being a particularly key/detailed thing in the grand scheme of their history - doesn't mean that we can't expand on it here though

Ted618 (talk) 02:43, 6 December 2021 (GMT)

malaysia (???)

so I came across this yesterday whilst on a hunt for something completely different - alongside Mississauga, Canada, there was also at least one Sega City outside of the states in Malaysia, within something called Sunway Pyramid. Initially I thought the few sources I could find were getting it wrong as there is a newer arcade there, but no, everything adds up

• https://web.archive.org/web/20180412123732/https://ppkm.org.my/writers-corner/entertainment-key-malls-success/

acts as if it and Sega Republic were still open (they weren't)

• https://web.archive.org/web/20211205195058/https://www.klik.com.my/item/story/532420/sega-to-use-smartcard-at-outlets

aha - "Super Merge Corporation Sdn. Bhd" - included as a subsidiary in Sega's 1998 annual reports, alongside other amusement operation companies which warrant further investigation

• https://web.archive.org/web/20130813050023/http://www.musicalimage.com.my/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30&Itemid=41 (best chance for photos?)

and apparently there was a "Sega Satellite" too, because that company just couldn't stick to even just a few unified names. Even I can't keep up with this crap Ted618 (talk) 20:26, 5 December 2021 (GMT)

o Canada

expanding on its mention above, out of all the Sega City venues I would say this one is most of note. Presumably as the only Sega venue in that country it got special treatment:

• Virtua Fighter 3 before anywhere else in Canada + North America, as one of three key initial release sites after Tokyo Joypolis and alongside SegaWorld London (which it opened on the same date as)
• Indy 500 and IMAX Ridefilm theatre attractions
• what looks like a prototype version of Power Sled (here)
• coverage in facility design books

it closed down after a fairly decent run last year too, though Sega of course weren't associated with it since 1999

Ted618 (talk) 02:53, 6 December 2021 (GMT)