Player One Amusement Group (P1AG), formerly Cineplex Starburst, is a Canadian arcade game distributor. It is a subsidiary of Cineplex Entertainment, and was created via the successive mergers and acquisitions of Starburst Coin Machine, Brady Distributing, Premier Amusements, Sega Amusement Works, Tricorp Amusements, and Dandy Amusements. The company also owns Playdium, a large amusement centre in Mississauga,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

History

Origin Timeline: * 1944 - Brady Distributing established * 1949 - Premier Amusements established (Premier Amusements originally started as Melody Music Company) * 1974 - Sega Amusement Works (SAW) established. Formally, Sunshine Company. * 1975 - Starburst Coin Machine established * 1982 - Tricorp Amusements established * 1994 - Playdium established * 2007 - Starburst Coin Machine acquires Playdium and Premier Amusements * 2012 - Starburst Coin Machine and Cineplex Entertainment partner to create Cineplex Starburst (also known as CSI) * 2015 - Brady Distributing and Cineplex Starburst partner to create Brady Starburst * 2016 - Tricorp Amusements and SAW acquired by Cineplex Starburst * 2016 - Cineplex Starburst, Brady Starburst, Premier Amusements, Tricorp Amusements and SAW become "Player One Amusement Group" * 2017 - Dandy Amusements acquired by Player One Amusement Group * 2020 - Mississauga Playdium permanently closed *2021 - Dartmouth, Nova Scotia location opens

Brands

Playdium

Playdium is a family entertainment centre chain owned by Cineplex Entertainment through its subsidiary Player One Amusement Group. The former flagship location in Mississauga,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

launched as Sega City @ Playdium near

Square One Shopping Centre Square One Shopping Centre, or simply Square One, is a shopping mall located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest shopping centre in Ontario and the second largest shopping centre in Canada, after the West Edmonton Mall. It ...

on September 7, 1996. The centre cost CA$17 million to build and included an

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

batting cage A batting cage (or tunnel) is an enclosed area for baseball or softball players to practice the skill of batting. The optimal material for batting cages is netting, and they are typically rectangular in shape. Chain-link fence is not required bu ...

go-kart A go-kart, also written as go-cart (often referred to as simply a kart), is a type of sports car, close wheeled car, open-wheel car or quadracycle. Go-karts come in all shapes and forms, from non-motorised models to high-performance racing ...

s and

mini-golf Miniature golf, also known as minigolf, mini-putt, crazy golf, or putt-putt, is an offshoot of the sport of golf focusing solely on the putting aspect of its parent game. The aim of the game is to score the lowest number of points. It is played ...

. A partnership with Sega

GameWorks GameWorks is a gaming-based entertainment center with a single location as of 2022, a chain of such businesses. It was owned by then-owner ExWorks Capital, each venue featured a wide array of video game arcades, in addition to full-service bars a ...

, it featured many arcade games from that company such as

Daytona USA is an arcade racing video game developed by Sega AM2 in 1993 and released by Sega in 1994. Players race stock cars on one of three courses. The first game released on the Sega Model 2 three-dimensional arcade system board, a prototype debuted ...

, and eight-player racing setups for ''

Indy 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indianap ...

'' (as '' Virtua Indy'') and ''

Manx TT Super Bike ''Manx TT Super Bike'' is a 1995 arcade racing game developed jointly by Sega AM3 and Sega-AM4. It is a motorcycle racing game built for the Sega Model 2 arcade board. Up to 8 players can race in this game if enough arcade cabinets are linked ...

''. ''Indy 500'' remains available today. In 1999, the centre was renamed to Playdium. The company opened up two more locations in

Brampton Brampton ( or ) is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Brampton is a city in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a lower-tier municipality within Peel Region. The city has a population of 656,480 as of the 2021 Census, making it ...

and

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a maritime, mineral and tourist heritage. Its East Clif ...

in late 2019. The main building is and included over 200 attractions. Some arcade games include ''

Mario Kart Arcade GP DX is an arcade sub-series of Nintendo's ''Mario Kart'' series, developed and published by Namco and later Bandai Namco Games under license from Nintendo. In all installments, for an additional fee, a player's data can be saved on a magnetic card ...

'', ''

Luigi's Mansion Arcade ''Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon'' (known in Japan, Australia and Europe as is a 2013 action-adventure video game developed by Next Level Games and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. It is the sequel to the 2001 Nintendo GameCube game '' ...

'', ''Pac-Man's Arcade Party'' and two '' Pump It Up'' machines (''Pump It Up 2017 Prime 2'' and ''Pump It Up 2015 Prime''). The arcade was previously curated into themed "communities" such as Contact,

Music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

Speed In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (ma ...

and

Sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

, but this is no longer the case. Play credit and tickets for games are loaded on a digital game card and can be purchased in units to use at any time or in time blocks of two hours. While all games require credit, redemption games cannot use time blocks and may also award digital tickets to successful players. A few other machines also cannot use time blocks. Cards from Player One brands are not interchangeable. For example, a Playdium card cannot be used at Xscape, or vice versa. A baseball dome, formerly with a

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since 1989, the team has played its home games ...

partnership, operates year-round and has nine variable-speed

s. There is also a Megabytes

fast food restaurant A fast-food restaurant, also known as a quick-service restaurant (QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of restaurant that serves fast-food cuisine and has minimal table service. The food served in fast-food restaurants is typically ...

on the gaming floor and a full-service mezzanine diner. Megabytes now features marketing similar to Cineplex concession stands and OutTakes restaurants, though at lower prices, while also incorporating a selection of

Pizza Pizza Pizza Pizza Ltd. is a franchised Canadian pizza quick-service restaurant with its headquarters in Toronto, Ontario. Its restaurants are mainly in the province of Ontario while others are located in Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and west ...

and Starbucks menu items. Past cross-promotional partners included HMV Canada, the Toronto Blue Jays (indoor batting cages, baseball camps, and coupons on Blue Jays tickets), the

Molson Indy Toronto The Grand Prix of Toronto (known for sponsorship reasons as the Honda Indy Toronto) is an annual Indy Car race, held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Originally known as the Molson Indy Toronto, it was part of the Champ Car World Series from 1986 t ...

(the outdoor go-kart track was formerly known as the

Mario Andretti Mario Gabriele Andretti (born February 28, 1940) is an Italian-born American former racing driver. One of the most successful drivers in the history of motorsports, Andretti is one of only two drivers to have won races in Formula One, IndyCar, t ...

Racetrack), and

Roots A root is the part of a plant, generally underground, that anchors the plant body, and absorbs and stores water and nutrients. Root or roots may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''The Root'' (magazine), an online magazine focusing ...

(the lounge was formerly known as the ''Roots Treehouse''). The outdoors also include an 18-hole miniature golf, and ''Water Wars''. The company operated four Playdium locations at its peak: Mississauga (next to the

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

(next to

Scotiabank Theatre Toronto The Scotiabank Theatre Toronto (formerly Paramount Theatre Toronto) is a major movie theatre at the RioCan Hall in the Entertainment District of downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada at Richmond and John Street owned by Cineplex Entertainment an ...

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

(inside the

West Edmonton Mall West Edmonton Mall (WEM) is a shopping mall in Edmonton, Alberta, that is owned, managed, and operated by Triple Five Group. It is the second most visited mall in Canada, after the Toronto Eaton Centre in Toronto, followed by Metrotown Mall in ...

) and

Burnaby Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the centre of the Burrard Peninsula, it neighbours the City of Vancouver to the west, the District of North Vancouver across the confluence of the Burrard I ...

(inside

Metropolis at Metrotown Metropolis at Metrotown (commonly referred to as Metrotown) is a three-storey shopping mall complex in the Metrotown area of Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. Opened in 1986, it is the largest mall in British Columbia and the third-largest ...

and host of official ''

Dance Dance Revolution (''DDR'') is a music video game series produced by Konami. Introduced in Japan in 1998 as part of the Bemani series, and released in North America and Europe in 1999, ''Dance Dance Revolution'' is the pioneering series of the rhythm and dance ...

'' tournaments in 2000 and 2001). Though the Playdium brand did exist in smaller arcades that are now known as Cinescape or Xscape. The Rec Room is a spiritual successor to Playdium near the former Toronto location and at the former West Edmonton Mall location. A new Rec Room location took over the former Target at Square One Shopping Centre in 2019. Despite this, future plans regarding the nearby Playdium location have yet to be announced. The company also operates The Playdium Store, which retails arcade games and various other home entertainment solutions. On October 15, 2020 it was announced that Playdium would permanently close on November 1st in Mississauga due to redevelopment of the area however its locations in

and

will remain open. On February 20 2021 Playdium opened its location in Dartmouth Nova Scotia. Playdium Movie Magic was a

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

video rental shop A video rental shop/store is a physical retail business that rents home videos such as movies, prerecorded TV shows, video game discs and other media content. Typically, a rental shop conducts business with customers under conditions and terms ...

that operated using

automated retail Automated retail is the category of self-service, standalone kiosks that operate as fully automatic retail stores through the use of software integrations to replace the traditional retail services inside in a traditional retail store. These sta ...

kiosks. It launched in early 2011 and closed in late 2016. Competitors included

Le SuperClub Vidéotron Le SuperClub Vidéotron Ltée, which includes the Jumbo Video and Microplay chains, was the largest video store chain operator in Canada, with operations concentrated in Quebec. It was owned by Quebecor Media. Since the closure of Blockbuster ...

Redbox Redbox Automated Retail LLC (stylized as redbox.) is an American video rental company specializing in DVD, Blu-ray, 4K UHD rentals, and formerly video games via automated retail kiosks. Redbox kiosks feature the company's signature red color ...

and

Zip.ca Zip.ca was an online Video rental shop, DVD rental and Interactive kiosk, movie rental kiosk company operating in Canada. It had a database of over 82,000 unique titles. Zip.ca was a member of the privately held Momentous Group of companies and ...

kiosks. Contrary to these, Playdium rentals were location-specific and could only be returned at the original kiosk where the DVD was rented.

References

External links

* {{coord, 43.6937843, N, 79.62545749999998, W, display=title Companies based in Mississauga Cineplex Entertainment