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Namco: Wii Damages Arcade Industry

By Jorge Ba-oh (jb)

33663 on 07.02.2008 at 12:36

Namco Bandai are blaming Nintendo's Wii for damaging the increasingly declining arcade industry.

It seems that the Wii's "arcade-like" experience at home is one of the contributing factors to the decline of the Arcade industry. Namco Bandai has announced that 50 to 60 of its arcades will have to shut down with a downward revision to its earnings outlook.

"A lot of the types of games that people played at an arcade can now be done at home"
Yuji Machida - Namco Badai

Machida stated that money had shifted from being spent in arcades to buying similar games to play in the home; for most a better long-term investment. He added that the increase in oil prices had affected the industry, with Japanese folk spending less time at shopping malls where arcades are mainly located.

Namco Bandai cut its full-year net profit forecast by 38 percent to 16.5 billion yen ($155 million).

Thanks to Next-Gen.biz

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mOojc on 07.02.2008 at 12:41#1

Honestly, the whole point of arcades is that you go OUT of your house with mates to play them and put them hard earned coins into the machine. Sure you could port many arcade games to consoles and the gameplay would certainly match but the experience is something that could never be replicated at home. DDR for example is great fun in a social environment compared to an isolated setting at home.

jb on 07.02.2008 at 12:46#2

mOojc said:
Honestly, the whole point of arcades is that you go OUT of your house with mates to play them and put them hard earned coins into the machine. Sure you could port many arcade games to consoles and the gameplay would certainly match but the experience is something that could never be replicated at home. DDR for example is great fun in a social environment compared to an isolated setting at home.

Aye, tis true - its one of the things to do when hitting town, especially if you're running out of options Smilie

I think what they perhaps need to do is to close down a fair few of their arcades and really pimp out one or two bigger ones as the place TO go for new arcade games, so hopefully people would flock to these several few instead of having a mixture of decent-running locations and declining areas.

Perhaps reduce the price per play.

E.g. �1/race for Mario Kart GP is ridiculous. Per cup would be fine imo.

Cubed3 Admin/Founder & Designer

mOojc on 07.02.2008 at 12:54#3

Very true, I have a few arcades near my place and they are all quite small with only a handful of the popular arcade titles available. Would love to see a bigger arcade area with more to offer rather than small outlets scattered all over the place. Heck none of them even have Mario Kart GP, the only arcade I know of that has it is a 1 hour drive from my place and it happens to be the biggest arcade I've been to. (Even has tenpin bowling and dodgem cars). Now it would be great to see a place like that near my area.

I think the price should be brought down as well, in AUS $2 bucks for 1 play isn't exactly cheap and sometimes not worth it at all.

Modplan Man on 07.02.2008 at 13:02#4

Arcades have been in decline for years, what exactly is new about that?

jb on 07.02.2008 at 13:06#5

RyanT said:
Arcades have been in decline for years, what exactly is new about that?

Arcade managers have got something to blame Smilie

For me one of the best parts of hitting London is going to the huge Sega World arcade, purely because it's big/well known so you can expect:

- Latest games available, in good condition
- Non-joystick games (i.e. amusements/coin slots etc)
- Clean, working stuff.
- Decent prices (not too different from the norm)

We make sure we always pop into the Trocodero for some arcade time, and because its quite rare to hit central London all the time, we spend a fair bit of time and money in there.

If there was a local arcade, I probably wouldn't be arsed!

Cubed3 Admin/Founder & Designer

Mandown on 07.02.2008 at 13:07#6

Namco have always had long expertise in Arcade gaming, it's good to finally see that they realise the market is running dry, for them anyway.

Arcades will forever be around, but not Namco, they do not create the sort of Arcade machines that live long, and they rarely push the technology in the same way others do constantly.

I would like to see some classic franchises make the move to Wii before they are lost forever. Point Blank and Galaxian to name but a few.

( Edited 07.02.2008 12:11 by Linkyshinks )

Flynnie on 07.02.2008 at 15:52#7

Basically was going to make the point that JB made, Trocodero is great and they need to make more arcades like that, but most of them are overpriced.

Birdo Is A Tranny on 07.02.2008 at 17:45#8

all the arcades i know don't have a game younger than 10 years! all the cars racing games are block racing games and the only shooting game i see is time crisis (the very first one)! and paying a euro a pop even two it's a joke

( Edited 07.02.2008 16:45 by iangennery )

Ikana on 07.02.2008 at 18:48#9

Arcades have been dying out for years...who wants to play dated games at an extortionate price when you can play them in the comfort of your own home?

Many games found at arcades can be found on consoles, and thats been the case for decades...as for the 'experience', that's been replicated at home for decades aswell, with the likes of steering wheel controllers, etc.

I doubt anyone has thought 'Great, now I have this Wii, I won't have to trudge down to the arcades everyday!". Smilie

Plus the only arcade games I've ever wanted to play (Mario Kart and F-Zero), I've never seen. Smilie

L on 07.02.2008 at 18:59#10

I hate the mario kart arcade, it's not that reponsive. However my local cinema has got mario kart 2 arcade, I wouldn't mind trying that out.

The Wandering Sword on 07.02.2008 at 20:01#11

there are absalutly no arcades near me at all so the VC on the wii is great for me... Smilie

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TAG on 07.02.2008 at 22:59#12

"A lot of the types of games that people played at an arcade can now be done at home"
Yuji Machida - Namco Badai

Which says to me "We know arcades are worse that home consoles, but we want you to spend money at arcades anyway."

For me to go to play an arcade game, it has to offer something different and really draw me in, like lights guns, racing booths, touch screens, rhythm games (like a drum, dance, or keyboard game). Or even a solid classic with arcade controls is nice.

I only have a really cruddy arcade around me. And a few games in Walmart.

TAG: That American Guy

"If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." Romans 12:18

JustJoe on 07.02.2008 at 23:17#13

RyanT said:
Arcades have been in decline for years, what exactly is new about that?

exactly.

Simple N Clean on 07.02.2008 at 23:50#14

Arcades are Dead in Australia...I only know 3 places in Sydney that can be count as Arcade... Smilie

( Edited 07.02.2008 22:52 by Simple N Clean )

..Simple and Clean..

Agul on 08.02.2008 at 00:42#15

Good grief. The arcade industry has been taking a major dive for years since quality arcade games have been released on home systems (many which actually outperform their arcade counterparts). This is old, old news.

In fact, here where I live in the States (Southern California), almost all the arcades are gone and have been for quite some time. Only a small handful have remained and they don't see a whole lot of action. For these same reasons, I have NEVER scene Mario Kart GP or F-Zero AX in any of them. Smilie And I REALLY wanted to give them a whirl.

Chance favors the prepared mind.

Darkflame on 08.02.2008 at 02:18#16

Arcades need to give us new expirence.
They should have stayed ahead of the home market (both input and output), now a lot of them are hugely behind.

Please give our little random review show a try;
http://randomreviewshow.com/index.html
We have special effects and umm...stuff...

Glenjamin on 08.02.2008 at 12:21#17

Yeah most of you are saying the same thing I am. There are virtually no aracades around anymore. Heck most places I know of that have them are places I have to pay to enter just to play and that's not worth it. And A couple people stated that the games that arcades have nowadays are at least ten years old... Completely true. I am a bit of a traditional gamer myself, but I'd love to see more new games in arcades instead of just Ms. Pac-Man and Marvel vs. Capcom all the time.