10,000 videos currently facing deletion dating back to at least 2002
The Covid-19 pandemic truly did irreparable damage to one of the last bastions of big arcades in Japan where the industry and scene is still struggling after more than four years.
Another of Japan’s most iconic game centers is set to close their doors very soon, and it looks as though they may take their entire lengthy video history down along with them.
Late last year, the legendary a-cho amusement arcade in Kyoto made the sad announcement they would be shutting down for good at the end of January 2025, but it wasn’t just the immaculate cabinets and venue that made the place special.
For over 17 years since 2007, a-cho has continued to post fighting game tournament and match footage from the arcade across multiple dedicated YouTube channels.
All of that history is now in danger of disappearing, however.
a-cho arcade in Kyoto will permanently close on Jan 31, 2025.
Pour one out for another legendary FGC spot. https://t.co/EstA1ZzhN1— ふーばー@Ryan Harvey (@fubarduck) December 23, 2024
One of a-cho’s workers, user chibax7jp on X / Twitter, has shared multiple posts now announcing the intention to delete all / most of the game center’s video content.
“About the YouTube channel, a-cho will close, and the staff responsible for managing the channel will no longer have any authority over it,” reads the English version of the post. “In addition, the rights to manage video material that belongs to the manufacturer cannot be transferred to a third party. Please understand.”
https://t.co/viKPBJswgn
— へらちょんぺ (@chibax7jp) January 3, 2025
Between a-cho GAME, a-cho battle movie, and a-cho staff, there’s over 10,000 videos spread across those channels, and while they’re not all about fighting games, a vast majority of them are.
From their descriptions, a-cho has archived tournament matches as far back as at least 2002 for Street Fighter Alpha 3 as well as classic bouts in Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, Street Fighter 4, Capcom vs. SNK 2, Guilty Gear XX, Street Fighter EX, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Melty Blood, BlazBlue, The King of Fighters ’98, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Fist of the North Star, Tekken and many more titles featured over the past few decades.
You can probably find footage of your favorite and / or strongest Japanese players from almost any point in time buried in those thousands of matches.
It’s not really stated clearly why the channels are going to be deleted because of these supposed “video managerial rights” and not just left up as an archive for their arcade’s legacy.
Our only guesses at the moment would be some connection to Japan’s stricter copyright laws and / or other potential legal issues that the owners wish to avoid even if they never actually arise.
I hope you guys keep the youtube channel up. A-cho was an important part of the FGC and the videos serve as an archive for that. Even if A-cho is closing it’s doors, it would be nice if those videos would live on to carry the memory for the future.
— Black Norville Rogers (@YungStarscream) January 3, 2025
This has of course sparked a lot of sadness and confusion among the fighting game community around the world that has been able to look to pieces of history and learn from matches that happened years ago.
There may be some hope for their immediate preservation, however, with chibax7jp also posting about looking into a tool to rip YouTube videos.
But that post also came before the announcement of the channels’ shutdowns, so it may not have been an official option after all.
So the preservation of this 20+ years of FGC history may fall on the shoulders of some dedicated community members to try and download and archive this massive amount of footage on a different channel or elsewhere on the internet.
There’s still almost two months before the planned shutter of the channels, so we have time to try and find a solution.
But just in case, go back and start watching some of these pieces of history and soak in the past of our scene from what used to be one of its most prominent locations.
We’re also on the verge of losing that said location in another sad layer to this story that’s provided a home for decades to fighting game fans.
It’s another unfortunate victim of our current times that’s seen around 8,000 arcades and game centers close in Japan over the past decade, so the decline existed before the pandemic though was certainly accelerated by it.
So if you’re in Japan this month, please go check out a-cho in Kyoto for those of us who will never get that opportunity.