SegaWorld London/History

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Background

A key building in Piccadily Circus, London, the Trocadero first housed various early forms of entertainment venues, until it was given its signature name in 1896 when redeveloped as a large restaurant by J. Lyons Co.. After closing in 1965, it re-opened under the name as an entertainment and shopping complex in 1984, soon recieving the backing of famous British entrepreneur George Walker. By the 1990s, the lower floors were home to numerous virtual reality experiences, a Funland arcade, a Guinness World Records tourist attraction, and a themed walkthrough attraction based on the Alien films; however it was still struggling to find tenants to fill the large space above them, used at that time for more disposable purposes. In 1994 the building was leased for $141.6 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 designed to appeal foremostly towards families in Europe in an attempt to replicate initial success seen following the same model in Japan, where it had originated. Sega-owned amusement centres had been 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 to a wider demographic and improve Japan's image of arcades began under 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, became the predominant chain of venues, and were supported by larger, elaborately themed urban centres aimed at young adults under the GiGO brand.

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 quickly 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 UK amusements subsidiary, 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 machines for hit Sega games 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 the concept, large-scale indoor theme parks containing interactive attractions, arcade machines, and extra amenities designed by the company or in conjunction with others would open in urban areas. The venues sought to expand Sega's customer base and thusly establish the company as a major force in the global out-of-home entertainment sector by providing advanced technology to consumers, as well as to compete with similar parks created firstly by Namco. The "ATP" business tentatively began with Osaka ATC Galbo in April of that year, and was expanded on further with the then-flagship Yokohama Joypolis in July. As part of the original plans for the concept, Sega intended to create 100 theme park venues across the world, with the UK earmarked as one of the likely countries to receive one.

Development

At first, the Trocadero building was intended to be the site for a smaller Sega World amusement arcade, scheduled to open shortly 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 Nakayama's interests for the ATP concept.

Pre-opening press event during the construction period

By January 1995, an agreement had been reached 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, £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 significant news 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 its design, Mustoe Merriman and Motive for marketing, and Crown Society for the planning of corporate hospitality packages, among other firms. During the development process, a separate company, Trocadero PLC, was spun off from Burford Group to handle the running of the building as a whole; Sega would use Sega ATP Europe to handle its own responsibilities. Construction began on SegaWorld in January 1996, with it causing a £25 million large-scale renovation of the Trocadero's main atrium in the process.

Early promotion of the centre was made in Ultimate Future Games during 1995. A £1.5 million advertising campaign was then initiated in 1996, with a number of press events and further coverage in several other magazines. Shortly before the opening, a sponsorship deal was made by Trocadero PLC with Pepsi, who would advertise the 3D IMAX theatre and indoor drop ride that would later open in the building. Despite the added exposure created, this deal was for the Trocadero itself and did not benefit Sega directly, with the Pepsi attractions 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, Sega president 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, Jools Holland, and Anneka Rice 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 smoothly. 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 and under-implemented line systems (despite Sega officially claiming this would not be the case in pre-opening promotion). A lack of enthusiasm for their vaunted technological feats also prevailed. High-profile newspaper reviews were negative, with Cosmo Landesman of the The Sunday Times denouncing it as "prosaic and tacky".

Perhaps most 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 with enthusiasm, 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 would also prove 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 the Hedgehog himself. The opening of SegaWorld largely 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), the centre regularly struggled to meet its expected profit targets. Maintenance issues were also immediately faced, with vandalism and a number of attractions reportedly developing technical difficulties mere weeks after opening. Discouraged by the launch and problems in its running, Nick Leslau quit his managerial role, and ex-First Leisure executives John Conlan and Nick Tamblyn joined Trocadero PLC. Under Conlan and Tamblyn, the company moved into acquiring more intellectual property to be implemented into the Trocadero; though having previously collaborated with First Leisure through trialling the Sega World concept in the UK during 1994, Sega were now treated with disdain - Conlon would later claim that he had "been trying to get rid of SegaWorld" since the day he joined in September 1997.

SegaWorld London entrance atrium, 1997

Sega hoped to attract 1.75 million visitors to the facility in its first full year of operation, but ultimately fell short of this, recording a loss of £1 million. Alongside several revisions of its payment methods for arcade machines, entry fees had been dropped to £2 in December 1996, and then scrapped entirely December 1997 to increase footfall and reposition the centre's status as a large amusement arcade - the move worked in theory, with annual visitor numbers increasing to 4 million in 1998. However, it did little to remedy the financial situation, with the centre now operating at a £2 million loss.

During this time, the pre-existent Funland arcade opened a 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 potential profits away from SegaWorld. Despite positive coverage in Saturn Power, working standards continued to fall. In 1998, some attractions were removed entirely due to maintenance costs, including Mad Bazooka.

Following an assessment of the site's issues by Deith Leisure founder Bob Deith and the lack of a £3 million profit over the course of its three years in operation, an early termination clause in Sega's original 10-year deal with Trocadero PLC was exercised in September 1999. As 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 were largely halted thereafter, with many of its ventures outside of Japan liquidated as a result of poor performance contributing to worsening financial difficulties. The floors were immediately sublet to Family Leisure (established by Martin Bromley), operators of numerous arcades in London including the Funland centre situated on the lower floors of the Trocadero. Plans began to rename and alter Sega's space accordingly, and the centre was stripped of any remaining SegaWorld branding by early 2000.

Aftermath

Following Sega's exit, the Trocadero building was leased back to Burford Group. Assuming full control of the former SegaWorld space and Sega ATP Europe operating company as part of the sublet agreement, Family Leisure closed their basement Funland branch, joined the two original floors up to the upper six, and ran them together as a large family entertainment centre. Most of the Sega-era features were taken out and replaced with new attractions intended to broaden the appeal of the centre, including a bowling alley, sports bar, and conventional fairground rides. A new façade incorporating balconies and neon signs was also constructed to the right of the Trocadero's central atrium, though décor from the old themes was kept intact in some areas.

Funland was operating largely unopposed in its area by the time of the early 2000s, with Namco also closing their Wonderpark arcade around the same time as SegaWorld; however, dedicated playerbases for some arcade games in the capital had dwindled, and Family Leisure faced staffing issues. A worsened problem with antisocial behaviour and illegal activity subsequently developed at the centre, with incidents including armed robberies. To mitigate the strains on the centre, management renewed Funland's lease to only cover two floors in September 2002, permanently closing the upper four in the process.

At no point was the complex extensively revamped, meaning traces of the SegaWorld layout and removed attractions still existed for much of the rest of the decade. Numerous murals remained in the closed off floors, most significantly artwork of a large aircraft control panel on the back wall of what used to be the Flight Deck level. The first rocket escalator was kept operational to take visitors up to what was left of Funland, where a walk-way had been made to join the second floor up to the midway podium between the two escalators.

Despite finding success in rhythm action games during the 2000s, working standards at Funland had decayed, and the venue ceased operations altogether in July 2011 following internal money management issues and an acrimonious lease dispute with the Trocadero's new owners, Criterion, who had desired to renovate the site to become a pod hotel since their purchase of it in 2005. After this, the centre's machines were bought by other arcades at auction, moved to the front of Funland's shuttered entrance, and maintained by two makeshift venues in the basement, until the final closure of the Trocadero as an entertainment centre in February 2014. Following several years of construction, part of SegaWorld's former space is now occupied by a Zedwell hotel.

Following his management of SegaWorld London, guidance in its closure, and 2000 sale of Deith Leisure, Paul Williams took on a head position at Sega Amusements Europe; he still remains in this role at its successor, Sega Amusements International. Since the closure, plans of a return to the theme park sector in the UK have been hinted at by Sega, but have not materialised. The company has instead taken to licencing its properties out for use in rides found at other parks.