Awesome and those lobbies looking fantastic. BTW those Sega sales numbers would be actually very helpful for Sega collectors and knowing what games are actually rare and which ones are inflated "rare"
Sales figures for every single Mega Drive game in every single territory?! That’s incredible. I imagine it must be ship-out (rather than sell-through), and surely it only applies to first party titles (for example, I can’t imagine Sega having access to the sales figures for EA or Codemasters games… and certainly not for the early Accolade/Ballistic releases). It would be fascinating to know exactly what they have, though - even if only a select few in Sega are actually allowed to see the raw numbers!
I would imagine its sell in rather than sell through. Although when I works at Sony I did get to see both so maybe. I'm not sure about 3rd parties. Those that had a licensing agreement like EA and Codemasters would have had to send back sales for royalty payments. But Accolade would definitely be off the books.
With many overseas tourists visiting jp it makes sense the library of retro games will start to diminish. I'm just amazed they had so much stock for so many years.
I've got a huge amount of time for sega i love their consoles and always been a fanboy, i remember writing letters to sega when i was a young teen asking for information about the megadrive and saturn with regards to up and coming stuff etc they always wrote back and answered every question lol 😁 When i had my first high street game shop i had no idea where to get wholesale games and consoles from that kind of stuff was top secret back then this was before the internet was around, i phoned Nintendo first and was rudely and abruptly cut off, after that i phoned sega Europe and the lady on the phone was so helpful, i spoke to a few people at sega who put me on the right path and kindly let me have a list of wholesalers around the world, i will never forget thier kindness because without them i wouldn't be where i am today, big respect for Sega.
I think they've always been a more approachable company. Nintendo close down fan projects as soon as they find them. Sega allow the fan projects to happen and have even hired people from these projects.
Fun fact.. I left my wallet on one of those gaming machines at Super Potato back in 2018. I realised about an hour after leaving and frantically made my way back fully expecting not to find it. But no, it had been handed in (money intact) and it was waiting for me at the counter. I love japan!
I remember in super potato being overwhelmed with the famicom and super famicom games, the sticker art is so different I really had trouble identifying a lot of them. RPGs were out of the question so I bought Megaman X, Final Fight 2 and The Firemen which I was pretty happy with.
I was in Japan in May and the places where I (accidentally) found the best selection of Mega Drive and SEGA titles were both far away from Akihabara and Tokyo. One was the Book Off just outside Kawaguchiko and the other was a big shopping center in the western outskirts of Hiroshima, which had everything SEGA related I dreamed of. Super Potato usually has a good selection but the prices are quite high, mostly aimed to tourists.
Amazing! If you need any more staff who you need to take with you to Tokyo I'll send my CV over. 🤣 also - I saw 2 Xbox 360 games and a steel battalion set for the OG Xbox in your video, so there was some stuff there.
Such a beautiful city, really appreciate the b-roll showing it off. And the HQs--wow, that Bandai one! OMG! Hoping to see some cool Sega exclusive merch Mike--perhaps that jukebox? Heh Though limited time, I'm glad you got to do some game hunting while there. Sorry the MD stock was so low though. Wonder why retro stocks are low--collectors? Really adore all the fun extras they have at Sweet Potato--what an incredible looking store! G&W galore, wow! Great share here Mike--now get some rest my man!!
We foreigners wiped out Japan's stock of retro stuff during the pandemic, lol. Mega Drive stuff in particular went through the roof, a Japanese copy of Castlevania is like $800 now! But it's understandable, almost all the nostalgia for pre-Saturn Sega consoles is overseas and it's not even close. The system probably would've been end-of-lifed after 3-4 years in Japan (so around '92), like the SG-1000 & Mark III had been before it. It was only Sonic catching fire in the West that changed its trajectory. But SoJ seemingly couldn't wait to put it in the rear-view, winding things down in '95 in Japan despite it still selling well in the rest of the world.
Not only U.S. citizens. In Argentina we got people who travel or bring for other methods lots of Nes or famicom games. But is not the same way with the Sega genesis titles.
@@juantossici7462 Sorry, I didn't mean "U.S". foreigners, I meant "us" as in "we foreigners." I'm Canadian, and I ordered $1000s of dollars of retro stuff from Japan during the pandemic. Including my Mega Drive collection, sorry everyone.
That's not retro, it's vintage, holy shit! Retro is something brought back, but has an old style, that emulates, or is close to its VINTAGE origins! Example of retro: SNES Classic Mini.
Magic. I'm looking forward to buying a famicom when i eventually go myself. NES prices are a bit too unreasonable for me, and i collect for the jaguar Lol
Be nice if you could get the sales numbers for the Mini Consoles they have brought out! Ha also find it interesting how you said you were not gonna pick up an MD Mini II and you have one right behind you. Funny :)
I would love to visit over there. I feel like Sega is in trouble. I hope not because they produced some of the best games on earth. I can't imagine gaming without Sega or Nintendo. I hope you show us alot of video
It's experiencing a price correction. That's normal; especially since central banks are reducing the money supply by rolling back the QE that they launched during the pandemic. Prices will fall for a time, before rebounding.
I hope you asked Sega of Japan if they would reproduce 32X cartridges and new 32X games ones as well!? I honestly believed or still market for it and people would buy it.
Great video, Mike! I wonder if super potato’s eBay presence has helped them clear out stock which is why there’s less and less on show when you visited?
Super Potato is quite fun, but you didn't show the Neogeo games that were just besides the Game & Watch 😜 By the way, have you visited Beep? It is perhaps the most unique among the retro shops in Akihabara.
Visiting SEGAs headquarters is a dream of mine...one that i"ll get to fulfill very soon. To be clear, regular people ARE allowed to visit the shop and the lobby of the SEGA SAMMY building right?
Wow thank you really wanted to have a look in that Japanese console shop lmao maybe one day when those lottery numbers come up Ima would easily spend a fairly substantial amount in there it looks epic but getting to meet the CEO's of SEGA Japan OMG that is a dream to many of us them memories will be embedded in your heart forever you frigging lucky lucky man hope you got a ton of goodies posters and stuff as said early Japanese Sega MegaDrive consoles and games are getting extremely rare I gave one of my early MegaDrives to my brother along with a rumble blue wifi controller an EverDrive 5X and RetroTink SCART also a GAEMS Guardian Pro for his Birthday and Christmas past lmao currently been living the Commodore 64 nostalgia bought half a dozen Commodore 64's including C's and an extremely rare red C64C case 29 of 500 ever made and heaps of upgrades and new toys including a 1541 in mint condition and a 1541C in good condition with over 400 discs mostly copied however there is original games amongst them sadly no boxes for the games as for cassette games and cartridge games been collecting them also just an addiction that has me in debt lmao that paypal pay by 3 has got me by the baws with all my cash going on payments hahaha can not wait to see your next video on the goodies you managed to collect.
I'm lucky my job takes me to places like Tokyo. I actually had a ton of stuff in my arms at check out but I put most of it back as I had no way of bringing it home😂
@@RetroGamerBoy Ouch bet posting it would also have cost to much due to export import customs dang that must have hurt folks say things happen for a reason yet the best is yet to come in life it always does when staying positive we manage to manifest our dreams keep your chin up lad.
Retro game shopping really doesn’t exist in akihabara anymore. A few pieces priced “insanely” expensive just for the visiting gaijin. Best bet is to stick to agents and some careful watching on yhj, even that’s slim picking these days!
I'm sure that you are aware, that most of the retro stock is now sold at auction on eBay or what have you. We silly Yanks will pay more than they can make at street value, because of the perception of scarcity or rareness. Bit of a shame about the Megadrive shortage, though. Oh well. Probably easier on your wallet.
I speak like four words and it's perfectly fine. The Metro is in english and a lot of people speak English. Restaurants and diners have english menus. Also the Google translate app changes everything.
@@RetroGamerBoy So Sega is still its own company? I got that confused by what happened with the arcades I guess. I take it this means Sega aren't getting any cash fuelling the company from any other game companies?
I bet that Nintendo paid off Super Potato so they’d sell SNES games instead of Mega Drive ones, the “super” in the store’s name is a dead giveaway they’re biased towards Super Nintendo and in cahoots with the big N. /joke
@@RetroGamerBoy Actually it goes deeper, went to the store myself and noticed the non Nintendo game boxes were empty (something you did not point out, I might add). Then the name Super Potato began sounding strangely familiar but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Read up on the history of the Super Nintendo and looked through the Gigaleak files, turns out the the big N’s product managers began to internally call the Super Nintendo the Super Potato after the engineers were unable to match the MD’s blast processing. The store is straight up owned by Nintendo and so is this channel! You thought you could fool us by acting like a Sega fan but I just exposed you!
Awesome and those lobbies looking fantastic. BTW those Sega sales numbers would be actually very helpful for Sega collectors and knowing what games are actually rare and which ones are inflated "rare"
I know. I'm trying to get hold of them.
Sales figures for every single Mega Drive game in every single territory?! That’s incredible. I imagine it must be ship-out (rather than sell-through), and surely it only applies to first party titles (for example, I can’t imagine Sega having access to the sales figures for EA or Codemasters games… and certainly not for the early Accolade/Ballistic releases). It would be fascinating to know exactly what they have, though - even if only a select few in Sega are actually allowed to see the raw numbers!
I would imagine its sell in rather than sell through. Although when I works at Sony I did get to see both so maybe. I'm not sure about 3rd parties. Those that had a licensing agreement like EA and Codemasters would have had to send back sales for royalty payments. But Accolade would definitely be off the books.
Would have been a great trip 🤩🤩🤩🤩
It was awesome 👍
Looks like great fun. Thanks for sharing your trip with us 😎
No worries, it was fun and I love the retro stores over there.
Amazing Mike.
I want to go 👍
Looking forward to seeing what you bought!!
It was a great trip. I'm hoping to get out for Tokyo games show.
Japan is the paradise for retro games and arcade enthusiasts 😁👍
Yes it is. I did not get the chance to check out the new Namco arcade.
@@RetroGamerBoy I see. I miss the old Sega arcade though 😔
So cool. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for watching!
With many overseas tourists visiting jp it makes sense the library of retro games will start to diminish. I'm just amazed they had so much stock for so many years.
Apparently other stores have better stock levels.
Sega should make a modern gaming handheld with powerful specs.
It would be really cool to see that.
I've got a huge amount of time for sega i love their consoles and always been a fanboy, i remember writing letters to sega when i was a young teen asking for information about the megadrive and saturn with regards to up and coming stuff etc they always wrote back and answered every question lol 😁
When i had my first high street game shop i had no idea where to get wholesale games and consoles from that kind of stuff was top secret back then this was before the internet was around, i phoned Nintendo first and was rudely and abruptly cut off, after that i phoned sega Europe and the lady on the phone was so helpful, i spoke to a few people at sega who put me on the right path and kindly let me have a list of wholesalers around the world, i will never forget thier kindness because without them i wouldn't be where i am today, big respect for Sega.
I think they've always been a more approachable company. Nintendo close down fan projects as soon as they find them. Sega allow the fan projects to happen and have even hired people from these projects.
Fun fact.. I left my wallet on one of those gaming machines at Super Potato back in 2018. I realised about an hour after leaving and frantically made my way back fully expecting not to find it. But no, it had been handed in (money intact) and it was waiting for me at the counter. I love japan!
Yup, one of the safest and politest places on earth.
@@RetroGamerBoy can't wait for my next trip in December. Hopefully won't forget my wallet next time!
I remember in super potato being overwhelmed with the famicom and super famicom games, the sticker art is so different I really had trouble identifying a lot of them. RPGs were out of the question so I bought Megaman X, Final Fight 2 and The Firemen which I was pretty happy with.
Yup there were shelves and shelves of stacked famicom and super famicom games.
The best thing about the JP MD model 1 I could still play PAL games.
Yup. I want to get the full Japanese hardware set.
I was in Japan in May and the places where I (accidentally) found the best selection of Mega Drive and SEGA titles were both far away from Akihabara and Tokyo. One was the Book Off just outside Kawaguchiko and the other was a big shopping center in the western outskirts of Hiroshima, which had everything SEGA related I dreamed of. Super Potato usually has a good selection but the prices are quite high, mostly aimed to tourists.
Amazing! If you need any more staff who you need to take with you to Tokyo I'll send my CV over. 🤣 also - I saw 2 Xbox 360 games and a steel battalion set for the OG Xbox in your video, so there was some stuff there.
I believe trips to Tokyo are included in the small print of the pixel perfect coin.
That's Paradise out there 😲🎮🔥✌🏻
It's an amazing place
Can't wait to visit Japan again.
It's such a great country.
Awesome video! Japan looks like Nerd heaven, real-life Blade Runner with extra games haha
😂
There’s a bunch of those Mega Drive Karaoke machines that you touted about. Looks like they’re pretty common.
What are you talking about? There are no units there. Also you make it sound like I'm making up facts on the limited run of these hardware units.
Awesome. Thanks))
My pleasure
Such a beautiful city, really appreciate the b-roll showing it off. And the HQs--wow, that Bandai one! OMG! Hoping to see some cool Sega exclusive merch Mike--perhaps that jukebox? Heh
Though limited time, I'm glad you got to do some game hunting while there. Sorry the MD stock was so low though. Wonder why retro stocks are low--collectors? Really adore all the fun extras they have at Sweet Potato--what an incredible looking store! G&W galore, wow!
Great share here Mike--now get some rest my man!!
It's a very cool city, it's so clean and people are very polite. And the geek culture is everywhere. It's like one large comic con.
I visited Tokyo too.
I played MSR on the Dreamcast.
Tour guides were Scousers.
So was it a good visit?
Wow I’m so jealous Mike u got to visit Sega 👍 video
I did and I met some Sega legends.
Aca viendo el video!!! Que maravilla encontrar juegos de sega CD. Saludos
👋 it so cool what you can find there.
Looks like there were plenty of Sega Saturn games there 😃! Surprised there weren't more Mega Drive games though. Great vid 👍.
I forgot to mention the wall of Saturn 😅
@@RetroGamerBoy when you complete your Mega Drive set, I think it'd be cool if you went for a full pal Saturn set 👍, you know it makes sense 😉.
You lucky boy, I would have loved to have gone shopping in Tokyo's Super potato, Can't wait to see what you brought back with you
I am very lucky. It was awesome.
All those Mark III and SG-1000 games.
I should have picked some of them up.
We foreigners wiped out Japan's stock of retro stuff during the pandemic, lol. Mega Drive stuff in particular went through the roof, a Japanese copy of Castlevania is like $800 now! But it's understandable, almost all the nostalgia for pre-Saturn Sega consoles is overseas and it's not even close. The system probably would've been end-of-lifed after 3-4 years in Japan (so around '92), like the SG-1000 & Mark III had been before it. It was only Sonic catching fire in the West that changed its trajectory. But SoJ seemingly couldn't wait to put it in the rear-view, winding things down in '95 in Japan despite it still selling well in the rest of the world.
Not only U.S. citizens. In Argentina we got people who travel or bring for other methods lots of Nes or famicom games. But is not the same way with the Sega genesis titles.
@@juantossici7462 Sorry, I didn't mean "U.S". foreigners, I meant "us" as in "we foreigners." I'm Canadian, and I ordered $1000s of dollars of retro stuff from Japan during the pandemic. Including my Mega Drive collection, sorry everyone.
@@philmason9653 WOW!!! it´s all right. All Sega Fans from every country are in this channell!
They should have given you a small name plaque in the shop you bought them from once you'd spent a certain amount of money with them😂
Was at Super Potato in January, i was soooo disappointed by the lack of mega drive stuff
When I was out before Covid there was a ton of games and consoles. There were maybe 7 games this time round.
That is my dream trip man....one day....😀
It will happen.
Awesome video !!!
Thank you 😁👍
great video, subscribed!
Awesome, welcome
hot damn looks like a fantastic trip! ✊️✊️🍻
It was cool and I had some great Sake to drink.
🥃😄🥃
very cold my friend looks like you had a really good time
Dale it was very cool. Drinking Sake and eating dinner with Sega legends was also very cool.
Super potatoe is a well known tourist trap, way higher prices.
Yup, but they have so much stock. There are about 5 other stores around but I didn't have the time to visit them.
Great Video !
Thank you very much.
Parabéns meu amigo belo vídeo e viva sega genesis.
🤘😝🤘
Cool vid dude
thank you👍
Going in August. I am only picking up 2 md games though. Mostly nintendo.
Nice. I may get out there again later this year.
It is kind of over those massive consoles in box for sell in Akihabara, I have been in Japan since 2007 and nowadays it is sad to see so empty shelves
Yup those shelves used to be packed with consoles. Now they have CRT's playing games.
真羡慕你哦~厉害！
It was very cool to meet so many amazing people.
Wow lucky for you cograts!
Thanks!
That's not retro, it's vintage, holy shit! Retro is something brought back, but has an old style, that emulates, or is close to its VINTAGE origins! Example of retro: SNES Classic Mini.
I don't mind what it's called, I still love it.
I like Tokyo. It is a cool city.😃
It's one of my favourite places in the world.
I love to go to this 😮
It was very awesome
Just discovered your channel, just subbed.
Awesome, welcome
Magic. I'm looking forward to buying a famicom when i eventually go myself. NES prices are a bit too unreasonable for me, and i collect for the jaguar Lol
I saw a Jaguar CD while I was over. I can't remember how expensive it was. Given the number of sales of the Jaguar, I'm guessing it's very expensive.
@Retro Gamer Boy big homebrew community for the jag cd. I paid 700 for mine but they usually go for around double that.
Be nice if you could get the sales numbers for the Mini Consoles they have brought out! Ha also find it interesting how you said you were not gonna pick up an MD Mini II and you have one right behind you. Funny :)
Yup I was lucky and was gifted the Mini 1 & 2 for Christmas.
Shame we didn't get to meet up!!!!
Next time 👍Did you get to go everywhere you wanted to?
Not surprised that loads of Nintendo games arrive at the pawn shop. Everybody tries to get rid of them. Next stop, the bin. ;-)
😂
cool stuff
Thanks👍
I really hope you convinced them to make a new console, the Mega Satu-Cast X! 😂
🤣
I would love to visit over there. I feel like Sega is in trouble. I hope not because they produced some of the best games on earth. I can't imagine gaming without Sega or Nintendo. I hope you show us alot of video
I think they ok, they have enough great IP to carry them through any storm.
Ohh mannnnn, hättest mich ruhig mitnehmen können, ich bin auch ganz Handzahm. 😂
L.G.Chris
Maybe next time 😅
Im really worried where retro collecting is going. It's like it's ready to implode or something
It's experiencing a price correction. That's normal; especially since central banks are reducing the money supply by rolling back the QE that they launched during the pandemic. Prices will fall for a time, before rebounding.
A bit late to the party bud.
I think it will start to see a drop off as people have less money to spend on old plastic.
Lucky man
Very lucky
I hope you asked Sega of Japan if they would reproduce 32X cartridges and new 32X games ones as well!?
I honestly believed or still market for it and people would buy it.
I wish they would listen to me. I'm still hopeful the community will come through on this.
Great video, Mike! I wonder if super potato’s eBay presence has helped them clear out stock which is why there’s less and less on show when you visited?
They have an ebay store? I had no idea.
@@RetroGamerBoy yep the seller id is superpotato_retro_games 😀
Lucky
Very
Super Potato is quite fun, but you didn't show the Neogeo games that were just besides the Game & Watch 😜 By the way, have you visited Beep? It is perhaps the most unique among the retro shops in Akihabara.
I have but not on this visit. I had literally 30mins to look around before I was off to my next meeting.
@@RetroGamerBoy Oh, I see 😞 Dude you make me so jealous, my dream was to be a game developer, but life took me on a very different path...
Visiting SEGAs headquarters is a dream of mine...one that i"ll get to fulfill very soon. To be clear, regular people ARE allowed to visit the shop and the lobby of the SEGA SAMMY building right?
I have no idea. I was there on business.
You’ll likely have better luck with MD at BOOK OFF and Surugaya.
Yup, I only had an hour to explore before my next meeting 😥
Sega🥰🥰🥰
To be this good takes ages.
Привет из Москвы!👍👍👍
Hello my friend
I've been to Akihabara myself in 2018. What a trip it was! I'm happy you been there too :)
I've been a few times. It's awesome to see so many games. There are no retro stores where I live so it's a real novelty.
@@RetroGamerBoySame where I live. It's so cool that you actually can go to a store and have a good time, instead of browsing ebay.
I want to visit SEGA ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜❤️
I'll take you along next time😅
@RetroGamerBoy will have to win the lotto 649 million dollars to go lol i would love to join you :) thanks for the fun msg :)
I subscribed:) Tokoyo is closer to you then me in Canada lol
Wow, I would like to see does sales numbers!
There are quite a few of us who would like to see this.
Did you happen to mention to Sega about any old franchises?
If I did I wouldn't be able to say anything 😅😥
Wow thank you really wanted to have a look in that Japanese console shop lmao maybe one day when those lottery numbers come up Ima would easily spend a fairly substantial amount in there it looks epic but getting to meet the CEO's of SEGA Japan OMG that is a dream to many of us them memories will be embedded in your heart forever you frigging lucky lucky man hope you got a ton of goodies posters and stuff as said early Japanese Sega MegaDrive consoles and games are getting extremely rare I gave one of my early MegaDrives to my brother along with a rumble blue wifi controller an EverDrive 5X and RetroTink SCART also a GAEMS Guardian Pro for his Birthday and Christmas past lmao currently been living the Commodore 64 nostalgia bought half a dozen Commodore 64's including C's and an extremely rare red C64C case 29 of 500 ever made and heaps of upgrades and new toys including a 1541 in mint condition and a 1541C in good condition with over 400 discs mostly copied however there is original games amongst them sadly no boxes for the games as for cassette games and cartridge games been collecting them also just an addiction that has me in debt lmao that paypal pay by 3 has got me by the baws with all my cash going on payments hahaha can not wait to see your next video on the goodies you managed to collect.
I'm lucky my job takes me to places like Tokyo. I actually had a ton of stuff in my arms at check out but I put most of it back as I had no way of bringing it home😂
@@RetroGamerBoy Ouch bet posting it would also have cost to much due to export import customs dang that must have hurt folks say things happen for a reason yet the best is yet to come in life it always does when staying positive we manage to manifest our dreams keep your chin up lad.
😎👍👉❤
🤘😝🤘
Super Potato is expensive. Trader all the way.
I didn't get the time to visit the other stores. Next time I'm over I'll check out the other shops first.
Retro game shopping really doesn’t exist in akihabara anymore.
A few pieces priced “insanely” expensive just for the visiting gaijin.
Best bet is to stick to agents and some careful watching on yhj, even that’s slim picking these days!
It's very different from my last visit. But the great food and drink is still here. I love finding a new small local bar.
I'm sure that you are aware, that most of the retro stock is now sold at auction on eBay or what have you. We silly Yanks will pay more than they can make at street value, because of the perception of scarcity or rareness. Bit of a shame about the Megadrive shortage, though. Oh well. Probably easier on your wallet.
Yup, I was already to fill a case full of games but I ended up getting one thing.
I would love to visit tokyo but, sadly i'm unable to speak Japanese :(
Can most of em speak English ?
I speak like four words and it's perfectly fine. The Metro is in english and a lot of people speak English. Restaurants and diners have english menus. Also the Google translate app changes everything.
Considering Sega is now owned by Bandai Namco shouldn't it be Bandai Namco Sega? 🤔
They didn't buy Sega, they bought Sega's old Arcade in Akihabara
@@RetroGamerBoy So Sega is still its own company? I got that confused by what happened with the arcades I guess.
I take it this means Sega aren't getting any cash fuelling the company from any other game companies?
all the retro stuff been bought up by foreigners after watching videos like these lol
Well there you go.
I bet that Nintendo paid off Super Potato so they’d sell SNES games instead of Mega Drive ones, the “super” in the store’s name is a dead giveaway they’re biased towards Super Nintendo and in cahoots with the big N. /joke
I knew it. I shall confront them when I'm back there.
@@RetroGamerBoy Actually it goes deeper, went to the store myself and noticed the non Nintendo game boxes were empty (something you did not point out, I might add). Then the name Super Potato began sounding strangely familiar but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Read up on the history of the Super Nintendo and looked through the Gigaleak files, turns out the the big N’s product managers began to internally call the Super Nintendo the Super Potato after the engineers were unable to match the MD’s blast processing.
The store is straight up owned by Nintendo and so is this channel! You thought you could fool us by acting like a Sega fan but I just exposed you!
🤘😝🤘
Dude are you ok? That ending looked painful and possibly expensive.
I manage to survive it every week.😅
2:18 Go bring back a Sega logo acrylic block right there up the highest shelf please 🥹They are so rare yet look so nice
I'll do my best next time.