The big Asian amusement season is slipping into the winter holidays, but there is still a lot to be reported. The Stinger correspondents in the area send a snapshot of news and site testing from the leading factories.
Capcom
The situation regarding Capcom's validity in the amusement scene was made even more complicated when at an international media event (Capcom Gamers Day) announced that 'Street Fighter 4' was in development. After a slew of rumors over the last few years regarding the game TSR had abandoned reporting on the rumored appearance of the game.
Its final confirmation of existence was however thrown into doubt after the announcement when it was later revealed by a Japanese executive that the game would not be ready till 2009, and that it might not make amusement landfall. Many over the web attacked Capcom for stirring interest as a callous publicity stunt to help sell a console compilation of the SF series that was launched at the event.
Capcom was also dragged into further online criticism when it was revealed that the Nintendo Wii would be receiving 'Basara 2 Heroes' only a matter of days after the company presented 'Sengoku Basara X' (Type-X+) for the amusement scene. At the announcement of the Wii release, six cabinets of the arcade game were presented in a lackluster display of AM support. The coin-op game developed by ARC System Works for Capcom had been launched under an obscure web campaign that had seen the 2D fighter mistaken for the launch of the latest Street Fighter game. Many fans have openly voiced criticism of Capcom marketing.
As with Konami; the reality of the financial sector for amusement and consumer game publishers was revealed this month – Capcom's first-half year financial results showed that through revenue showed signs of improvement profits had dipped. The arcade manufacturing business saw net sales down by 68.9 per cent, experiencing an operating loss of ¥971 million ($8.7m) – this compounded by the lack of new releases (the ‘War of the Grail' failure to appear adding to this mess). The Amusement park and facility division seeing net sales down by 1.4 per cent to ¥6,466 million ($58.1m), income down 40 per cent to ¥1,137 million ($10.2m). These poor figures adding weight to the fan criticism of Capcom's marketing hype on coming attractions – and their new found faith in amusement!
SEGA
Missed by many that attended the JAMMA'07 exhibition floor in Japan, SEGA launched at their AM-Show booth their latest foray into Mid-Sized attractions. Developed by the company Professional Systems Inc., the 'MEGA 360 3D' is a 360-degree 3-D Screen theatre offing Hi-Vision 3-D computer graphics for up to 25 people. The system includes 4D effects from air guns and sonic floor surface, and is sold to Japanese sites at a price of ¥6,500 million – with a separate software rental fee. The first film experience is a dinosaur Time Machine epic created by PSI, the first installation reported in a recent press announcement for January 2008 in a Tokyo shopping mall.
This unique agreement between SEGA and PSI follows in the footsteps of previous passive simulation theatre projects with MOOG, and shows the investment that SEGA now places in establishing Mid-Size attractions to place in their facilities. Towards an international presentation of this concept – no word was given if the system would be shipped outside of Japan; if it did it would find itself competing with systems such as those from TrioTech Amusement.
(Breaking Stinger News – the system makes a surprise appearance in the USA – see coverage of the system in our IAAPA'07 report).
What Could this all Mean:
The positive upswing in the Asian amusement market is starting to rub off on other sectors, though there has been some concern that this coinciding with the news of a slowdown in consumer game sales in Japan. The Japanese (as with the international) media is reticent to even consider amusement's viability, and as the downturn takes hold it would seem they will be even less eager to do so!
News Story with thanks to Kevin Williams. Please visit
www.thestingerreport.com for others.
