Sega World

Sega World

Industry	Amusement
Area served	Japan (formerly United Kingdom, Australia, Taiwan, South Korea, China)
Owner	Genda GiGO Entertainment

Sega World (Japanese: セガワールド, Hepburn: Segawārudo), sometimes stylized as SegaWorld, is a formerly international chain of amusement arcades and entertainment centers created by Sega.

Though not the first venues to be developed by the company, with operations dating back to the late 1960s in Japan, it would come to involve some of their most prolific and successful examples in the 1990s and 2000s. During their peak period in the 1990s, there were at least 101 Sega World locations across the world.^[1]

Off the back of the initial success of the venues, Sega were able to expand into developing the Joypolis indoor theme parks and several other amusement and entertainment center chains. However, a large majority of these were closed in the 2000s, primarily due to a worldwide decline in the amusement arcade industry rendering some centers unprofitable, an ongoing recession in Japan, and cost-cutting measures at Sega in the midst of their restructuring.^[2] Recent years have seen the name fall out of favour, with most of the remaining venues now using generic "Sega" branding. Alongside these, they currently continue to be operated under the Sega name by Genda Inc., after their 85.1% majority acquisition of Sega Entertainment's shares in 2020.^[3] In January 2022, Genda acquired the remaining shares and announced that it would rebrand all of Sega's venues under the name GiGO (reviving one of Sega's previous brands).^[4]

One of the most significant uses of the name was for the SegaWorld London and Sega World Sydney indoor theme park venues in the late 90s; these were both short-lived and closed after three years of operations.