Sony sells the Metreon

Publisher pulls out of San Francisco-based mall project to focus on electronics, games; PlayStation store to remain open.

Sony's Metreon has been something of a gaming Mecca for the PlayStation faithful since its opening in June of 1999. The shopping and entertainment complex in downtown San Francisco currently hosts an IMAX-equipped movie theater megaplex, an arcade, a variety of restaurants, the Walk of Game, and, most notably, the official PlayStation store, home to the West Coast launch parties for the PlayStation 2 and PSP.

Some of those tenants might soon change. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Sony is selling the Metreon complex to shopping mall developer The Westfield Group and the Forest City Enterprises real estate company for an undisclosed sum of money.

A Sony spokesperson told The Chronicle that the company's decision to sell the 300,000-square-foot facility was based on a review of its corporate strategy and a decision to focus on electronics, entertainment, and games rather than a lack of success on the part of the Metreon. However, she said that Sony will continue to operate the mall's PlayStation store.

Originally planned to be a combination of techno-centric family-friendly attractions and a shopping mall, the Metreon has faced a number of setbacks on both fronts, including the closing of the Microsoft and Discovery Channel stores, as well as exhibits based on The Way Things Work and Where the Wild Things Are.

The latest batch of inductees to the Walk of Game (a diverse group including Lara Croft, Final Fantasy, and Sid Meier) are scheduled for induction March 17. As of press time, Walk of Game representatives had not returned GameSpot's request for comment on how the change in ownership will affect the program.

40 Comments

  • Socomnewbie

    Posted Feb 28, 2006 4:41 pm PT

    Lol Puppiemaster well if you like malls move to the U.S. there are plenty of them everywhere you go. Im not even sure how many malls there are in N.Y.
    Lol saying that makes me want to go to the Palisades Mall. It has been awhile

  • puppiemaster

    Posted Feb 28, 2006 2:57 pm PT

    Living in the UK, I'm love it if we actually had a mall instead of a few clothes shops and 100 pubs in our town centre.

    I like the pubs though

  • B-bad

    Posted Feb 28, 2006 1:24 pm PT

    Come on they are just selling the mall they are still running their stores and the Metreon may not even change much other than being runned by different management. Why do people think Sony is closing shop please grow up Kids and learn that a company can sell a mall and not be going out of business.

  • boo_dat

    Posted Feb 28, 2006 11:12 am PT

    lol...this is so minimal...you're all acting like Sony just lost a huge department or something...geez, get a grip...

  • boolow407

    Posted Feb 28, 2006 9:22 am PT

    And next come the job cuts. This dont look good.

  • blackmage0_15

    Posted Feb 28, 2006 9:04 am PT

    MetaMods: I wonder this site full of little kids now.

    I know, and I am glad I am not one of those kids. Children, at least let us know in your posts if you are below the age of 14 so we can ignore you. Kids these days think they know everything.

    Let's hypothesize for a moment. Say, Nintendo goes out of business. You are all familiar with the company I am sure, and you know that there is a branch called Nintendo of America (or NOA). Now, Nintendo is gone, they went out of business. Company X comes out of the woodwork to tend to children's gaming, the spot Nintendo occupied. Take a look at the list of top people and (surprise!) it has over 65% of the people from the now defunct Nintendo.

    Even if Sony or MS or any company goes out of business, they're place will always be filled by another company.

  • K1

    Posted Feb 28, 2006 7:46 am PT

    I work at the Metreon at the AMC Theater (don't worry, it isn't going anywhere). I heard from one of our security guards that us, the Playsstation store, and the Sony Style store were staying, but pretty much everything else was leaving. I don't know if that includes the restuarants. I hope not, they have some good places to eat down on the first floor.

    Oh well....time to get ready for work at the Westfield Metreon.

  • lageasy311

    Posted Feb 28, 2006 7:06 am PT

    spartan202
    never knew about metreon, i see why they are selling it. (select an action below) ______________ Report Abuse To Moderator Posted Feb 27, 2006 10:05 pm PT

    agreed

  • zukunft23

    Posted Feb 28, 2006 6:04 am PT

    [This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

  • MetaMods

    Posted Feb 28, 2006 5:32 am PT

    I wonder this site full of little kids now.

  • chrisdojo

    Posted Feb 28, 2006 5:21 am PT

    haha.....looks like sony is trimming expenses again!!!

  • ewjim

    Posted Feb 28, 2006 1:00 am PT

    I did't even heard of Metreon... and now it's closing... that's funny.

  • Dirk13

    Posted Feb 28, 2006 12:12 am PT

    awww man i have been wanting to go to the metreon for years but the last time i was in san fran was like a decade ago before i knew about it.

    i had been meaning to because i go to college in los angeles......well i hope it doesnt take a turn for the worse before i can get up there.

  • OmegaGear

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 6:42 pm PT

    THE.PREZIDENT... lol. Sony needs money? You're talking about a company that moves millions of dollars in and out of their possession every day through thousands of transactions. Selling the Metreon is a drop in their bucket, so it's not about needing money, lol.

  • NERDSFOREVER

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 6:31 pm PT

    damn i was going to go there later this week but now they are selling it it wont be the same

  • neodare

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 5:28 pm PT

    Is Metreon only an American thing?, I have heard of it but never knew what it was...

  • THE_PREZIDENT

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 5:20 pm PT

    It looks like Sony is need of some money.

  • acesion

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 5:11 pm PT

    hmm this doesnt matter to me either way im just curious why the microsoft store closed lol. Anyways i thought it was funny for sony to own a mall i wonder if anyone will want to buy i hope not so that they cant sell it lol.

  • darknferno12

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 5:07 pm PT

    The Metreon is a cool place if sony sells it at least they will leave the Playstation store open with that HUGE T.V.

  • noxian

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 4:39 pm PT

    swanlord, why would they have to sell real estate to pay IBM when IBM isn't teh sole owner of the Cell technology? Sony created part of the Cell technology so that would be like selling real estate to pay themselves. as for you and that other guy, you obviously didn't actually read the article. The Metreon hasn't been a particularly money-making venture for a while now. It was a cool place, visited it a lot myself, but this isn't Japan (course even there the weird game/developer related stores/malls are limited to certain places) where these things actually survive with cults of faithful visiting. for starters in Japan such places are where you buy various paraphernalia, which isn't as popular in the US. Point is they decided funds were better spent NOT on a moneysink.

  • BaZoOKajOe

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 4:30 pm PT

    It'll be interesting to see what WESTFIELD will be able to do with that location. They've made some tremendous improvements to some of the malls in the Bay Area & revitalized others.

  • ronin_blade

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 4:19 pm PT

    WolfSkill5544,

    You can still go to the metreon, it'll just be run by a different company. The movie theater, restaurants, and gaming/comic stores are good. I don't know about the arcade. It's nice and huge, but it doesn't seem to have many choices.

  • mickel_darmawan

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 3:54 pm PT

    ??

  • Eribuster_basic

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 3:06 pm PT

    Wondered when they would cave in. I don't care much since the stores in there aren't very good.

  • WolfSkill5544

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 3:01 pm PT

    I always wanted to go there, oh well, too bad.

  • swanlord

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 2:56 pm PT

    Lol they gotta sell realestate too pay IBM for that expensive Cell processor......Lol Sony!!!!= loosers

  • Ghost777

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 2:54 pm PT

    Even though I rarely go to the metreon, i go maybe 4 times a year and thats only if they have a movie I want to see that no other theater has, I hope this new owner doesn't screw with what works. I'm not saying the metreon itself works as when I do go there the place doesn't have that many people there per square foot but it has its own vibe that no other shopping center/complex has. I do agree though that it seems like a gimmicky mall which is probably why it isn't terribly busy. Another reason is parking. The parking near the metreon is expensive, I believe its 3 bucks an hour at some places and as much as 5 bucks an hour at others. To me those prices are not worth it for the few cool stores I like there. Plus barting it is not worth the time.

    I think this is a smart business move on Sony's part. Get out while you can and make the profit off of property value.

  • MiKaNoH

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 2:46 pm PT

    i dont even live in USA, so, this isn't important for me...

  • xaos

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 2:41 pm PT

    Omega, there's an actual arcade on the second level across from the Warhammer store. Pretty meh as far as I'm concerned, except for the back with rad 80's and 90's cabinets. Mmmm, early 90's X-Men beat em up fun.

  • timinator18

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 2:38 pm PT

    so wat...?

  • OmegaGear

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 2:36 pm PT

    This "arcade" they speak of is an open walkway by the theater... lol. The Metreon truly is a cool place to hang out, but deffinately an odd thing for an entertainment company to invest in. It wasn't like Sega's Gameworks Arcades with one specific focus, and that hurt it a lot. Rather than seeing it as something special, a lot of ppl treated it as a gimmicky mall, and maybe that's what it was :/

  • grayoldwolf

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 2:35 pm PT

    Nedemis: The Metreon isn't exactly a store - it's a whole shopping mall. I think that they are just streamlining their business model, which is good business sense. But why do you hate Sony? I've never owned a PlayStation (I'm an Xbox 360 guy) but I like Sony's gear. Their headphones are great, for example. They're just a company doing business, man.

  • wedgewu

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 2:24 pm PT

    I wouldn't care so much if they weren't selling it to the Westfield group. I liked the way the Metreon was run, but I don't particularly like Westfield malls. I hope they keep the arcade and movie theater intact there, that IMAX screen is awesome for movies.

  • nuit_b

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 2:23 pm PT

    Nedemis... how old are you?

    You are wishing for a major corparation to go out of business?

    Do you know what that will do to the world economy, not to mention the tens of thousands of jobs people will lose.

    I bet you own a sony product somewhere, or something that sony made the technology for in R&D.

    What a inane thing to say!

  • spartan202

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 2:05 pm PT

    never knew about metreon, i see why they are selling it.

  • CLONING

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 2:05 pm PT

    and...?

  • Nedemis

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 2:02 pm PT

    hmmm....Sony's debt getting a little too deep to the point where they have to sell a store?.....such a wonderful thing to read about. I can not wait for them to shut down their home entertainment devision as well....DOWN WITH SONY!!!!

  • Donkeljohn Site moderator

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 2:01 pm PT

    *Gasp!* Sony sells the Metreon? Now that PlayStation store will have to start paying rent.

  • Sonicplys

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 2:01 pm PT

    I've been there lots of times.
    California Rules

  • mikey050591

    Posted Feb 27, 2006 1:57 pm PT

    isnt that where they had the giant psp?

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