Main REPORT:
...Also at the Show
The rest of the show floor was a confusing mix of open booths. It was difficult to see where one company started and another ended, the free flow layout mirroring the third-party status of development in the market.
On the floor AQ Interactive surprised some with a unique horse racing medal game linked to a cross platform strategy. 'Derby For All' is a large screen display with multiple player position - control of cartoon representation of horses competing in a series of races uses a unique turning-knob controller. The cartoon character representation has been carried across into a series of UFO Catcher prizes building on the theme. The company also showed its 'CubMall' UFO Catcher style system, using a unique segmented tray design for multiple prize placement. Following a big showing at the AOU'09 event, the new company continued to keep the ball rolling, gathering third-party partners to their expansive booth at the show. SI Electronics (who also launched their system at AOU'09) had a cabinet on the AQ booth with the System Board Y2 hardware running the game 'QQ Baby'.
A short distance away, Cave took a prominent side booth and had four VEWLIX cabinets running the production version of 'Death Smiles of Darkness II', the unusual Christmas themed shoot-em-up. Meanwhile Arusesu showed their 'Parse Rorunpe: Prelude', as seen at AOU'09. The vertical shooting game mixed buttons with a touchscreen application and was launched on the MegaNet hardware platform from MEGA NET&TECH CO.,Ltd., and developed by TURUGIYA SOFTWARE.
Other developers that took space, but were lost in the crowd were Amusement Marketing International (AMI), Amusement Business Corporation (ABC) Corporation, EXAMU (formerly Yuki Enterprise), Skonec Entertainment and Atlus.
NOTE - Amidst the fervor of AM-Show 2009, the latter company had business news hit the wires. Atlus surprised the sector by announcing the spinning off of a brand new division from the main corporation focused on amusement-related business. The new company, NEWS Corporation, will concentrate on the development and operation of amusement and was revealed to be working with customers such as Namco, SEGA and Konami. This news came just after a number of amusement factories had drastically restructured their AM business and facilities.
No word at this moment on the scope of the NEWS facilities being planned or whether the Amusement Land and Atlas GP facility business will be farmed off into this corporation. Following the 2007 acquisition of Atlus by Index Holding – this is the first concrete example of an increased investment into amusement. However, de-merging this operation into its own corporation will allow AM holdings to be placed in their own profit center thus allowing the company to focus on its core strengths.
Returning to AM-Show'09, River Service (RS) showed an extensive (though smaller) selection of new cabinets and spares. The big news was the production version of the 'New Delta', with a big 32" LCD screen combining a unique vertical positioning (based on the successful 'Delta 32', and supported by the 'Delta Stealth') with a new generation in cabinet.
Another exhibitor was HOPE; this emerging Japanese amusement company took a space on the show floor, demonstrating a range of 'kid-friendly' cabinets, comprising simple applications of popular theme skill (Redemption) games as well as a selection of kiddie rides. On this occasion HOPE did not show a redemption (ticketing) aspect to these cabinets, but it must be a matter of time before this aspect is embraced by this emerging genre in Asia.
Finally the question was raised - Where was Capcom? The web-forums buzzed over the non-appearance at AM-Show'09 of the Japanese amusement and consumer company: with the Tokyo Game Show only a matter of days after AM-Show, maybe this could explain the absence? The only presence of Capcom seen at this year's show was on the Namco booth with the licensed 'Mario Party' medal game.
NOTE - The hope that a new Street Fighter title would break onto the amusement scene by 2009 was proven a false one by Capcom, but the rumors of a new release persisted, and there seemed to be substance to these rumors. What seems to be the situation is that a Taiwanese developer has heeded the hunger for an updated Taito Type X2 release of SFIV and created an update kit of their own.
Under the title of 'Street Fighter IV: Turbo', this highly illegal game comprises dongle, software and signage and offers players the complete rostrum of fighters as seen on the unlocked home console version. Those that have seen it in Asia feels it gives a good, if slightly less polished, approximation of the original. As predicted in previous Stingers, Capcom's intransigence has opened the door a crack for the bootleggers and modders to fill the gap -- what the company's response will be is another question.
Breaking Stinger News - Just going to the wire, and the consumer game media was running the rumor that sources at Capcom had suggested that a sequel to 'Street Fighter IV' was in development. An executive at Capcom posted a number of statements on the company's official web forums that an announcement on a sequel to the game would be made; this was followed after the close of the Tokyo Game Show by a teaser web video heralding a Tuesday announcement!
And then the major announcement: Capcom revealed 'Super Street Fighter IV'! The stand-alone original consumer release on the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, will include a full roster of 10 new characters from the Street Fighter library updated for the SFIV environment. This announcement had a zero amusement component (as now seems to the norm), with Capcom focused on the consumer application of the system with improved online support, and targeted a spring 2010 release. Why they would do this away from TGS event illustrated a situation the company needs to recognize. The lack of joined up marketing thinking, abandoning the hoard of AM fan base, is a sad situation for a once major factory to be in, (the Stinger Report has a detailed feature on the changing situation with the game).
The Public Day
AM-Show 2009 gathered major media and public interest in Japan, and the familiar public day, taking place on the 19th of September, was a major gathering for those who love amusement. This year's event was an extreme games fan undertaking, with the game stages taken over by the R&D music teams strutting their music stuff, live interviews with developers and lots and lots of booth babes. The event's public day had a rock-concert feel to it with a lot of extreme video and stage live music action. SEGA in particular rocked their floor with the whole of their music R&D team performing live. It was not sure if the extreme nature of the performance and public action was to attract flagging interest - to distance the event from the coming Tokyo Game festival - or just a chance for the development team to let their hair down in a pressurized market. For all their activities, attendance at the public day was obviously down on previous years.
Off the show floor
- Konami Digital Entertainment
As predicted, although still not attending the JAMMA supported event - the long-running feud showing no signs of cooling - KDE decided to hold the 'Konami AM Private Show Asia' to invited guests at a Hong Kong hotel, only a matter of days before AM-Show '09. On the conference floor was the production version of 'mocap SPORT'; this motion capture sports game offers two player action, using a motion tracking interface (KDE's answer to the Nintendo Wii-Mote). The game incorporated four sports games including boxing - harking back to 'MoCap Boxing' in 2001. The game will support extensive e-AMUSEMENT ranking features.
Further round the floor and the trade had the recently shown 'jubeat Ripples', with two of the impressive rhythm button hitting music games, plus the software update, and the major addition of full e-AMUSEMENT support. Next to this was 'The BishiBashi', the button bashing mini game series, a product offering a new take on the music genre of game. The rest of the event showed the latest satellite terminal game rehash ('Mahjong Fight Club') as well as the latest crop of medal games.
Sources in Asia spoke of surprise that KDE had not relented and brought some examples of 'Guitar Hero Arcade' to the Asian market. KDE is working hard to establish their 'Guitar Freak' product, even though the Guitar Hero brand has achieved great market awareness. There were also questions from Private Show guests as to why there were no major dedicated machines in the more conventional genres at the event, though sources promised a big surprise from KDE's AM line-up for 2010.
The KDE event was an important new gathering for the Asian trade in the build-up towards the AM-Show season. Though KDE will not be on the trade floor, their influence in shaping the new amusement growth will be clearly felt. However there are some issues in getting the message out to the non-trade. Whether KDE and JAMMA could bury the hatchet and look towards a united effort to support AM-Show is an issue for much deliberation. KDE also continued a round of tantalizing loctest presentations in Japan of new systems, including 'Guitar Freaks XG' and 'Drum Mania XG', the big box presentations of the popular drum and guitar BEMANI releases.
Breaking Stinger News - Just as we went to the wire and the 'big surprise' from Konami was leaked by Stinger sources: the new 'Road Fighters' was on loctest in Japan at a secret test facility. A twin-cabinet driving game with customizable vehicles - supported by IC card via the e-AMUSEMENT PASS system - and a keypad, Konami are placing a lot of hope on the interest in this new combat driving game. More details of the game will be released in the coming weeks.
What This Could All Mean:
The JAMMA show took place a week before the Japanese consumer games market's largest show of the year. The Tokyo Game Show hit the Chida prefecture with its vast coverage of all things home gaming related, in stark comparison to the smaller amusement event. But even so the AM-Show did give a good report of the market as a whole. The JAMMA association reported that the show attracted 30,192 visitors (including business, press and public visitors), in comparison to the 43,148 for the 2008 event. A serious shortfall of attendance (general visitors dropped from 11,287 from last years 18,036) could not be downplayed by the amusement trade, and it was suggested that a fundamental restructuring of the Japanese amusement trade association was needed before the 2010 event.
In an interesting indication that it is not just the amusement trade seeing a down turn in attendance, the mighty consumer games industry at the Tokyo Game Show was reeling from a decline of its own. The TGS announced that only 185,030 visited this year's event, compared to the 193,040 that visited in 2008. At the same time the show organizers confirmed they would be reverting to a two (rather than three) day event. In comparison to the 30 per cent short fall of the amusement trade event, this 5 per cent drop for the consumer event would seem on the surface much less painful (called "a slight tailing off in attendance" by the organizers). But this was all very telling of the state of the consumer scene, particularly in the light of a statement made by a leading Japanese Capcom executive at TGS, in answer to an interviewers request for a honest opinion of what he saw at the show: "Personally when I looked around all the different games at the TGS floor, I said, 'Man, Japan is over. We're done. Our game industry is finished.'"
JAMMA'09 - FALL-OUT
- Trends
The movement in the Asian amusement scene was illustrated by the ebb and flow of the AM-Show'09. Some of the key trends spotted by TSR representatives included:
- Green Issues: The official theme of JAMMA'09, and of the Japanese amusement machines for business sector in general was emphasised by the Eco-Design Guidelines, published in July 2009, representing the new initiative of the Japan Amusement Machinery Manufacturers Association, and meeting technical Eco-design guidelines for the operation of amusement devices. One example of green business on the show floor was wind turbines joined with LED lighting, among many energy saving examples. The amusement trade is now clearly considering the green needs of all international commerce.
- Medal Power: The dominance on many booths at JAMMA'09 of medal games, and a strong selection of video reel games, was not lost on many of the international visitors at the show. The move to the more direct form of gaming begs the question of a possible fragmentation in the Japanese business, as the medal game supersedes interest in the sophisticated Japanese audience for the traditional pachinko. SEGA, Taito and Namco all showing deluxe medal games that offer a very compelling attraction - how many of these games could be applied outside of Japan is, however, questionable.
- Getting 'kid-friendly': As covered in the previous 'Kid-Tainment' Stinger feature, JAMMA'09 rammed home the point that amusement manufactures were looking at the younger (baby boom) audience opportunities. The HOPE booth was one example of a dedicated appearance of children centric development, licensed from many major factories - companies that had their own Kid Vending titles. The booths all seemed to include one selection of children (young audience) aimed products.
- The End of Central Control?: At last Satellite divisions have been given autonomy to develop and design their own territorially specific product. This was best illustrated last year with SEGA showing the UK developed 'Rally 3'. This year's JAMMA saw the appearance of Raw Thrills 'H2Overdrive', TrioTech's 'Typhoon' and the IGS 'Speed Rider'. Products representing third-party licenses by the respective satellites were now being brought to the parents' exhibition. Previous attempts to penetrate the Asian arcade scene by North American and Korean developers had fallen flat: 2009 could be the beginning of change.
- Media Coverage
JAMMA'09 was not just reported by the usual Japanese media, hardcore fan sites, YouTube and factory web sites. This year's show did cause a ruffle through the consumer game sector as well, no matter how grudgingly. Some pointed at the oddities of unusual game systems that had no chance of being seen internationally. Most hurriedly borrowed directly from Japanese sites (with no accreditation) to give sparse coverage of the weird and the wonderful from the show, offering their luckless readers a poor snapshot of an industry the consumer reporters still called dead. All that said, the hits (viewings) for those sites that ran coverage showed an interesting spike in interest.
- Final Observation
As previously noted, the show was much smaller in attendance and exhibitors. Empty spaces between booths illustrated the fact that the Japanese amusement sector is hurting. How much of this pain is self-inflicted is another issue. The show floor was also absent of major international executive representation. Travel budgets had been cut, but with international third party games managing to make JAMMA landfall it is a shame that not all the US and UK industry could not be present to see it!
Sources speak of major restructuring continuing in the amusement boardrooms of major factories following the event. It is expected that, by AOU'10, many who walked the floor at this year's show will not be present!
News Story with thanks to Kevin Williams. Please visit www.thestingerreport.com for others.
