I don't think the nail can get buried any deeper into the coffin.
from *snk-capcom.com*
This is very depressing to read....seriously.
from *snk-capcom.com*
State of the Arcade Industry
This is a list of games of what you can expect in your local arcade some time soon.
- Need For Speed Underground
- Derby Owners Club
- Tekken 5
- King of Fighters
- Madden Football
- The Fast & The Furious (basically a "Crusin USA" clone, plays exactly like it)
To review and remind fans, operators or whomever is interested, here is an overview of some of the big gaming companies that have left the arcade market in the past few years, some being as recent as June 30th, 2004:
-Midway
-Acclaim
-Konami (arcade rights bought out by Betson Distributors)
-Capcom Coin-Op Corp.(exited out of Coin-Op as of March 31, 2004)
-SNK NEOGEO USA Corp.(exited out of MVS/Coin-Op as of June 30th, 2004, for US Market)
Compared to years past, the floor space that, for example, Sega or Namco would occupy, has drastically decreased, maybe to half it's size. There is no mystery to this, as the economy has shown it's weakness in arcade game popularity, hence with less demand, there is less production for video games...therefore, less to show.
The disappearance of the larger game developers causes a domino effect, as many mid-level game distributors have closed down in the past few months and many are in the midst of closing down shortly.
We've always been excited to attend the AMOA, simply because it's in Vegas and heck, there's nothing like seeing what's new out there. This year though, we were very disappointed, and quite honestly, don't know how many more shows is left with the AMOA. There simply isn't enough product to show nor buy for arcade operators to attend this event if it keeps up at this pace.
Sadly enough, the most exciting part of our trip was the cab ride back to our hotel. While standing in line, one of the attendees yelled, "Anyone going to the Bellagio?" We decided join this gentleman, as it allowed shorten our stand in line, also relieving us from the beating sun.
So we hop in the cab and started to chat about the show. We forget the gentleman's name, however, we do know he's an arcade operator from North Dakota. During our conversation, he says a number of interesting facts. He's been attending these shows for a number of years, given he's been in the business for over 30 years.
He comments, "there wasn't much at the show to buy, was there?" We ask,"What do you mean, in terms of video games or redemption?" "Video games, there just wasn't enough product. I remember 15 years ago, when the show floor was 3 times as large and the whole show floor was completely video games, with little or no redemption products at all."
So we asked him, "During your years, has it ever been this bad?" His response, "Yeah, during the late '70's to early '80's it was pretty bad." The market as we know it, is a different beast now. Back then, it was different in terms of production. There were only a few developers, so product and technology was limited. Today, we have all the resources to develop pretty much whatever we can imagine. The problem the arcade market faces today is evolution of the home consoles. With the processing power of the home console surpassing most of the arcade hardware, few and few people find a good enough reason to leave their homes and make their way to the local arcade. To put the stake in the coffin, with on-line capabilities, having the ability to challenge virtually anyone across the country in the comfort of your own home (chips & salsa included), pretty much says it all.
To add more damaging facts to the matter, the King of arcade fighters, Capcom will be releasing Capcom Fighting Jam/Evolution to both arcade/home almost simultaneously. Great for fans of console gaming, but terrible for the arcade operator as their biggest competition is no longer the operator down the street, but the kids holding their own tournaments at home.
The arcade industry knows it's in trouble, with little hope and no escape route in sight, it will take some innovation, not only in creating new games, but also the business model of the arcade in itself. What can an arcade offer that we cannot get at home, that would make us, dress up, get out of the house, make a drive (with the associated high gas prices) and fork out more money to play a game in the arcade? Video games? Nope. Redemption? It's helping. On site food service? Yuck, not the way most of them taste.
So what is the solution? Like any "big mess" (as Kerry likes to put it), there is no single solution to recovery. It is a grouped effort, with different trial and error practices to see what works and what doesn't.
What we do know that has worked in terms of keeping the scene alive:
Monetary Prizes in Arcade Gaming
The makers of Golden Tee, Incredible Technologies came up with a great idea, which isn't in any way new to us, but because of it's timing and how they implement it, it works. If anyone is familiar with their system, it's something, if thought up correctly, could work for a number of other games. We're not sure of the name of the association that sets up these touraments, so forgive us for an errors.
So in short, players of the Golden Tee Network enter in a weekly/monthly contest. A number of these machines are, as described above 'Networked' (works wirelessly, wherever cell phones work, these cabs will work or with broadband connection) to each other keeping scores of each contestant. The person with the highest score (lowest score in golf) would win and get a check sent directly to them. Any time there is money involved (gaming market, aka gambling), it's a very sensitive issue, however, this part of the market will have the older (21+ age group) pretty much taken care of. So the bottom line is, like legalized gambling which is so huge, we wouldn't be surprised to see this implemented in arcade games at a higher scale in the future. Money always brings people to the table and it works.
Organized Competitive Gaming Tournaments
Without gaming tournaments we would say Capcom arcade games would've died a long time ago. For some reason, many companies, such as SNK and Capcom, at least here in the states don't and haven't seen the huge benefit of what an official tournament could do for the growth in their arcade sector. At this point, it's too late. Both SNK and Capcom has asked us on occasion on ideas of how to help their bottom line numbers in the arcade market. Numerous times, we have suggested to them the idea of officially hosting arcade tournaments. To this day, as we know it, neither company has taken the suggestion, and we understand as they are held by strict guidelines and budgets controlled by their parent company, both located in Japan. Furthermore, we don't believe they truly see the overall benefit, which for some reason is clear to us.
In the U.S. market at least, sites such as www.shoryuken.com, we would say have single handidly increased Capcom's sales for both the arcade and home markets due to their large annual gaming tournament. Now how exactly does these tournaments help sales numbers? Anyone involved in the competitive gaming scene would have some idea on how this works.
The most 'effective' form of advertisement, isn't the internet. It's word of mouth advertising, as long as it's positive. Think about it. Have you ever been to a friend's house and saw their FAT home theater set up? You ask "dude, that is simply BAD ASS!!." "Yeah bro, let me tell you about this and where you can buy it" your friend replies. You will normally trust a friend recommending a product more than one that is advertised in a magazine, on TV, whatever the source. What tournaments provide is word of mouth advertising. One of your friends may play competitively, talks up a storm about how awesome the tourney was, what games were played in them, etc. You get excited, go out to the store to BUY the game (and the joystick, the memory card, the strategy combo guide) to practice those infinite combos constantly, talk your trash, join the tournament and tell another (different) friend about how good you are. That other friend talks trash back, is influenced to buy his own copy to beat you down in M v C 2. The competitiveness in players stirs up excitement, anger, egos and in the end promotes the gamer to do whatever is necessary to get better....which is to buy the gaming gear to get better. You get the idea.
Only thing is, we sure hoped Capcom, SNK and other gaming companies would see this a long time ago. It's what we would consider a surefire growth plan, that costs a helluva lot less in terms of marketing and advertising expenses, which is also much more effective in terms of returns. Many of these larger companies use conventional advertising methods (such as TV, magazine advertisements; however they cost millions of dollars), as they've worked before, but the market has drastically changed, from it's distributors, all the way down to the end-user themselves. The most successful companies (like Dell) out there today think outside of the box and use methods that are unique, methods that work, methods that give you 2 dollars for every dollar you spend = profit. With today's advertising, it's more like forking out 4 dollars, while getting only 1 dollar back = loss.
Continuing on the idea of hosting tournaments, enter in Namco. Someone in Namco is listening to it's fans, yay!!! For Tekken 5 fans out there, Namco has announced a nationwide tournament to be held in February 2005. Whether this tournament they're hosting is to be courteous to it's fans or they really see the benefit in this, we must give them high fives for taking the initiative to make an attempt in increasing their market share. In the current harsh conditions as we call the arcade market, it's either push your product or push you ass out the door. Not to sound vulgar, but that is the reality of how it is these days. We salute Namco for going after their checks, not waiting by the mail box for the check to arrive. For those interested in Namco's Tekken 5 tournament, check out www.tekken.vg shortly for updates.
What does this all mean?
We're upset about the current condition of the arcade market and the efforts that companies have put in making it work. From the software standpoint, Incredible Technologies and Namco is making a bold effort in restructuring what is left of the video gaming biz. Unless more companies join this group in making innovative software, expect more and more closures of arcade distributors nationwide along with it's supporting operators or arcade shops. One nightmare we don't want to wake up to one day is an arcade location that is void of video games, stocking only skee ball and other redemption items.
Like the stock and real estate market, there will one day be a resurgence in the U.S. market with arcade gaming, but it doesn't look like it'll be anytime soon. On the bright side, it's nice to know some gaming companies putting in their efforts along with websites hosting tournaments to support the cause.
So if anyone cares about the arcade market, the clock is ticking and there isn't much time left. If anyone wants to keep it alive, there's more to do than to say. We (fans) are waiting. Let us know when you come up with something that makes us want to leave comfort of our house.
Hey, maybe if some of these companies make some of their fighting games on-line (at higher speeds than what we currently have at home), that would be a good enough reason. Just throwing ideas out there, hopefully something will click. =)
This is very depressing to read....seriously.
