SegaWorld London was an indoor amusement park/arcade operated by Sega within the Trocadero, a longstanding building in London’s Piccadily Circus. The location was one of what the company called “Amusement Theme Parks,” meant to focus on technologically-advanced attractions beyond what one would find at a regular arcade. (Then-president Hayao Nakayama told the New York Times in 1993 that “[Sega’s] target is Disney.”) Work began on the location in earnest in January 1995 (in cooperation with Burford Group, which owned the Trocadero at the time). The end result took up seven floors and over 100,000 square feet. It featured several large-scale attractions, most of which were previously seen in at least one of Sega’s earlier Amusement Theme Parks in Japan, as well as several “deluxe” versions of existing arcade games (such as an eight-player Daytona USA set-up).
Upon entering, guests boarded a large “rocket escalator” to the sixth floor, a reception area that also housed the horror-themed attraction Beast of Darkness. They would then descend to each floor, all of which had a dedicated theme and featured arcade games matching it. The first of these was the “Combat Zone,” entirely dedicated to action games in various genres. Below that was the “Race Track,” dedicated to racing games and also featuring the interactive motion simulator Aqua Planet. Next was the “Flight Deck,” featuring various flying games but primarily focusing Space Mission, a massive attraction combining VR with another motion simulator. This was then followed by the “Carnival,” dedicated to redemption games and claw machines – in addition, it grew to include three separate attractions (the shooting dark ride Ghost Hunt, the sound-centered House of Grandish, and the bobsled simulator Power Sled) by 1997. The final floor, the “Sports Arena,” was devoted to sports games plus the last set of attractions: two AS-1 motion simulators and (until 1998) the ball-shooting bumper car ride Mad Bazooka.
Unfortunately, SegaWorld consistently failed to attract enough revenue to cover its rent and operational costs. The park was beset by issues from the very start – Nick Leslau, one of two men in charge of Burford Group, later commented that the rides’ limited capacity led to excessively long wait times. Contemporary reports from Computer & Video Games and the Times back this up, additionally criticizing the rides as unimpressive and frequently broken-down & the 12 pound entrance fee as excessive. SegaWorld would later drop it to 2 pounds before eliminating it entirely in December 1997. Despite their efforts, consistently lackluster business led to Chorion (the Burford Group under new management) pulling the plug in September 1999. Family Leisure would take over the space, creating a new Funland arcade that would operate until 2011.
