Japan is no stranger to VR arcades, but gaming giant Sega is now looking to open one in one of its most iconic locations.
A Sega Twitter account last week revealed that one of the floors in its gigantic arcade in Akihabara will soon feature a VR section. In fact, the area was meant to be up and running already, but it appears an equipment failure has delayed launch a little. That won’t surprise anyone that’s had any experience exhibiting VR technology over the past few years.
2017年5月31日（水）「SEGA VR AREA AKIHABARA」がクラブセガ秋葉原新館6階にオープンします！日本初登場のVRアトラクションを楽しめる施設になりますのでご期待ください！詳細情報は近日お知らせいたします。 pic.twitter.com/7Mc9uYk9vk
— セガ エンタテインメント公式 (@SEGA_Ent) May 22, 2017
Sega hasn’t revealed exactly which headsets it’s using in this space — we’d bet on the HTC Vive — nor what experiences it will have on display. The company has made its own VR game in the Hatsune Miku experience that debuted on PlayStation VR (PSVR) last year, though we’d expect to see games from other companies used here.
Hopefully it won’t take long for the company to get everything up and running again; Akihabara is an iconic location for gaming in Japan, pulling in tourists from around the world as well as bringing in local gamers to play the latest fighting games or try out crazy new machines that we can’t even begin to understand.
VR arcades are a great way to introduce people to the technology, so having headsets in a location as popular as this is ideal. Bandai Namco also has a VR site in the popular Shinjuku district, which offers the best of Tokyo’s neon futurism. Start making your holiday plans.
