Alan Stone, former President and CEO of Sega Enterprises, passes away

alan stone

Alan Stone, the former President and CEO of Sega Entertainment and Founding President of Sega GameWorks, passed away last Friday due to cancer. He was 71.

Stone had a long career in the video game industry. He co-founded Far East Video in 1979 that imported Japanese arcade games to America, which lead to his being Co-Founder and Vice President of Nintendo of America when the subsidiary opened up in 1981.

Stone remained at Nintendo until 1994, when he jumped ship to Sega Enterprises (now Sega Entertainment). He was a good fit with his long history in the arcade industry. He remained at Sega Enterprises for 10 years before moving onto other ventures.

On Stone’s passing, former President and CEO of Sega of America Thomas Kalinske shared his thoughts on Twitter yesterday:

Check out this awesome GameWorks Virtua Cop statue that never became a reality

This exclusive, never before seen, concept sketch comes courtesy of a GameWorks social media employee who recently joined up with the Sonic Stadium forums. Seems a GameWorks topic brought the forum to his attention. As a special treat, the “GameWorks Social Media guy” shared a very special bit of concept art that he describes as “mock-up art of a Virtua Cop statue from way back when GameWorks was only a glimmer in SEGA & DreamWorks’ eye”. This statue never made it to the construction stage, but it is a very cool piece of SEGA, and Virtua Cop, history. You can check out the full sized image here. After the break, his thoughts on SEGA’s split with GameWorks.

Sega at PAX! + Gameworks Party!

Sega are heading to PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) this year with what I’m sure you will agree is very strong line up. Not only will Sega be on the show floor demoing some of their upcoming games but they will be holding a party event for the Sega community across the street from PAX at the Sega GameWorks Arcade.

HIT THE JUMP FOR ALL THE INFO YOU NEED!

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SEGA to liquidate GameWorks

Remember all those GameWorks locations that SEGA has closed down, stating that they might re-open some of the locations in the near future? Well, fuck those plans.
SEGA shut down 15 locations (which we know) and has began liquadating under “general assignment for the benefit of creditors“.

It was only a  matter of time for this to happen, GameWorks needs to change the way they do business if they want to survive against bigger chains that offer the same entertainment.

[Source: Reuter]

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Seven GameWorks locations shutting down

SEGA Entertainment’s restructuring plan sadly means they will have to shut down some GameWorks locations. SEGA hopes to open up some of the locations again, after the resturcturing is done.

“Long Beach, CA; Columbus, OH; Detroit, MI; Minneapolis, MN; Indianapolis, IN; Tampa, FL; and Miami, FL. The company has introduced potential new tenants to mall ownership, in hopes that some locations may be reopened in the future.

Hopefully SEGA finds a way to make their GameWorks business a bit more profitable. For the full press release hit the jump.