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Continuing cyberattacks hit Japanese arcade hard [Photos]

Casey Baseel a few minute ago
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Preserving arcade culture is hard enough without hacker jerks making it even tougher.

A photo of an empty interior and unused game machines accompanied by the message “This is the harsh reality for arcades right now” might be the kind of thing that would make gamers sad, but not necessarily surprised. Though the video game business as a whole is bigger than ever, the ways that people play them has changed significantly since the arcade glory days of the ‘80s and ‘90s, and the industry trend in Japan has become one of arcades steadily reducing the amount of floorspace they devote to video games while installing more and more UFO catcher/crane/claw prize machines.

But a recent tweet from the Machida branch of arcade chain Taito Station in Tokyo doesn’t show just row after row of unoccupied games, but ones with dark screens too.

ゲームセンターの過酷な現状…
お客様の皆様には大変御迷惑お掛けしています。 pic.twitter.com/gF1YjwSEZ9

— タイステ町田 (@Taito_Machida) November 5, 2026

The reason for all that dark emptiness isn’t because the arcade’s entire customer base decided they’d rather be somewhere else playing Fortnite on their phones. No, it’s because, as with so many other things these days, of the huge increase in hacks, cyberattacks, and other online maliciousness and jackassery over the past few weeks.

One of the ways the surviving arcade video game franchises have survived is by embracing online/network play, especially if it’s coupled to some sort of deluxe control or display hardware that would be impractically large or expensive for many people’s homes, such as a full steering wheel and pedals, expansive dance step sensors, card readers, or gigantic touchscreen arrays. Combine that feeling of immersion with the ability to race, fight, or otherwise compete with other players, either in real-time or through leaderboards, and you can cultivate a customer community by connecting modestly sized, geographically separated pockets of fans.

Unfortunately, that means that if a game network’s security is compromised and it has to be shut down, either in response to a hack or as a preventive measure, the game has to be shut down too. Network play is so integrated into many Japanese arcade games that the first thing they do upon booting up is try to connect to their network, and some can’t progress to a playable state until they can successfully do so, resulting in situations like the one shown in the Taito Station Machida tweet, in which the arcade says “We deeply apologize for the great inconvenience to our customers.”

一角は営業中かも危ぶまれるような写真ですがちゃんと稼働しているゲームも勿論有りますので是非ともご利用下さいね！#タイステ #町田 pic.twitter.com/bcDo1HmieB

— タイステ町田 (@Taito_Machida) November 5, 2026

Thankfully, not every game in the arcade has had to go offline, and classic titles that don’t require a network connection are unaffected, so, as shown in the above follow-up tweet, Taito Station Matsuda still has games that can be played, and they invite gamers to come in for them. Other arcades are likely dealing with similar problems, so if you’re a gamer with a few spare 100-yen coins in your wallet, they’d probably appreciate a visit, even if your regular favorites aren’t currently playable.

Related: Taito Station Machida
Source: Twitter/@Taito_Machida
Top image: Taito Station
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