News is still slow coming in about the effect on the coin-op amusement and gaming industry from the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan.
For Sega it appears that the problems were comparatively minor, said Paul Williams. “On the day that it happened, most of the staff spent the night sleeping at the offices as there were no trains.”
John McKenzie at Namco Europe reported that the Tokyo staff could not go home either, but he felt that some arcades were in the affected areas. Many members of staff were indirectly affected by having family in the north-east of the country where the biggest problems occurred.
InterGame’s agent in Japan, Jolly Furusawa, who lives at Yokohama, reported: “There was a very big shake just before 14.50 p.m. on March 11. I was at the local open air bus stop and saw the bus approaching. While it was around 200m from me, I felt the shake. The electricity poles lining the road were shaking and the wires swinging furiously. I got on the bus and it was announced to passengers that there had been a big earthquake in the northern part of the country.
“At the railway station we were told the trains would not move until the system had recovered. There was another big tremor which was very frightening. After an hour I decided not to go home and stay in Tokyo, which was wise as nothing moved until after midnight.”
All of Japan’s major game developers have made significant cash donations to the ongoing relief efforts. Nintendo is reported to have donated 300m yen (€2.63m). Sega Sammy has donated 200m yen (€1.75m), Namco Bandai 100m yen (€870,000) and Tecmo Koei 10m yen (€87,000) to the Japanese Red Cross. Sony Group has announced a 300m yen donation.
