An attempted robbery at a 24hr Game Cafe in Okinawa has left one worker dead and the other worker injured, and the perpetrator has still yet to be apprehended.
Gaming Cafes have taken inspiration from gaming history's early days of arcades that have been established with physical interaction and are slowly gaining in popularity around the world. Game Cafes essentially put back the physical presence of the social interaction aspect of gaming by serving drinks and light snacks. At the same time, customers play a variety of games, instead of how many are used to playing at home online.
However, there was an attempted robbery at the 24hr game cafe close to the airport in Naha, Okinawa, on May 25th. The suspect is believed to be a man in his 40s who entered the store, pretending to be a customer. The culprit demanded that the workers empty the cash register, and when they refused, he attacked them with a knife.
Luckily there were no customers at the cafe at the time, but one female worker was sadly proclaimed dead at a local hospital. The other worker at the time was cut in the neck but was able to flee to a nearby convenience store before he suffered a fatal blow.
The robbery suspect fled the scene before police could arrive and has yet to be arrested. Okinawa Times reports that the police are currently investigating leads about the possible suspect on the charges of murder and robbery.
Hopefully, authorities can quickly detain the culprit and put him behind bars for a long time. It is heartbreaking that a place meant solely for creating fun times between friends and new people has to be sullied by someone's greedy actions.
There are plenty of fun Gaming Cafes with exciting themes that have been opening up, and it would be a shame if acts like this would prevent people from wanting to go to them. We offer our condolences to the worker's family who passed away, and we wish that the worker who survived is able to make a healthy recovery as soon as possible.
Source: Kotaku