We’ve been having a lively discussion about Capcom and their attitude towards the arcade market in the SSFIV Price Tag comment thread and surely this will continue to stir the debate. Capcom has already stated that there are no plans for Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 in arcades, which is something we heard about early on about SSFIV as well. Now we have this video from Japanese news site Gigazine that shows a very arcade-like setup for MVC3 at what I assume is the Tokyo Game Show. We still can’t get our hopes up yet – if it were a real arcade release we would expect to see it in a VEWLIX cabinet and I haven’t seen any “MVC3 coming to Arcades” announcements yet . As such this looks like an ‘arcadified’ kiosk, similar to what we saw recently at PAX in the US so all we can do is dream (or I’m sure people will be planning their own MVC3 home-made arcade cabinets). Once again, this is where the Game Gate VU can come in handy, as that has a modular control panel where you can add arcade sticks to itassuming that MVC3 will be a part of the iGames license which includes Capcom games.
Speaking of TGS, there is some arcade love there at Konami’s booth, who brought Love Plus Arcade to the show and unveiled another arcade title that appears to be a variation on Love Plus called “Happy Daily Life”. More details on that @ 4Gamer.net
It wasn’t long ago that we heard that Super Street Fighter IV would be getting a December release. Now we have a price tag to chew on as AM-Net reveals the following about the kit:
HDDROMKIT4セット\1,912,000(税別) Set HDDROMKIT4 \ 1,912,000 (U.S.)
In a currency converter, 1,912,000 in yen is around $23,000USD. That can’t be for a single kit – you might recall that the first SFIV Arcade was sold in packages of four complete cabinets for around $40,000 and the HDDROMKIT4 seems to indicate that these kits are being sold in fours as well. That would put the kits individually around $6000USD per unit and of course for an operator to get a 2 player setup going they have to purchase two since Capcom seems to think that the VS. configuration is perfect for everyone. I’m sure SSFIV will sell to those who already plunked down a several grand to get SFIV Arcade the first time around, assuming they still have the funds for such a purchase but I have a hard time believing that Capcom will really obtain sales on the scale of thousands that they are looking for at such a price. What would make far more sense is to A) offer a decent price for the game and make a build for 2p on 1 cabinet(ex. the new Blazblue is going for a little over $2k per kit) or B) offer the game on NESiCAxLIVE for a download, which eliminates the costs of hardware that SFIV operators have already invested in(it’s all running on the Type X2) and it could be sold at a reasonable price that many more could afford. Seeing how several other fighters are being made available on NESiCA including Blazblue Continuum Shift II, KOF98 Ultimate Match, Samurai Spirits Sen, Battle Fantasia, and KOF Maximum Impact Reg. A, it’s not like SSFIV should be out of the question. Then again I have heard that NESiCA will charge a small fee per game (like CoinUp does on Big Buck online games) which will increase the cost of each play which can be a hindrance on the users end depending upon the price per credit. Of course there is always C), which is available now – get a Game Gate VU and purchase a copy of SSFIV for the 360 or PS3 and you get a 2 player arcade setup for much less.
Today we have a guest post to share with you by James Mowery. He takes a look at the effects the upcoming Super Street Fighter IV Arcade can have on the scene. Continue on the link below to read James’ take on Capcom’s next big arcade release
This seems to be a new trend for Capcom these days, announcing a fighter with coin-op roots but only talking about a console version of that game until later when they suddenly allude to the coin-op version of the same game. That’s how it was with Super Street Fighter IV and now that could also be the case with Street Fighter X Tekken and Tekken X Street Fighter. According to Kevin Williams of The Stinger Report:
Sources at GamesCom reported that while Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono and Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada –demonstrated Street Fighter X Tekken gameplay to event attendees they alluded to a amusement version of the Capcom and Namco Bandai versions.
It will probably be a while before we hear anything else on the coin-op versions of these games but it’s nice to know that they are being considered. Namco at least has a strong network setup internationally for handling the production and sales of these games in the coin-op sector. I wonder if they would have Street Fighter X Tekken use the same setup as SFIV (VS. configuration) and Tekken X Street Fighter use the same cabinet as Tekken 6(2p on 1 cabinet). Such options would be a great way to see what players and operators really prefer (according to our poll players the standard 2p cab setup won the vote) although why not offer both cabinet configurations for both games and see what sells best?
Super Street Fighter IV Arcade is out testing and 4Gamer.net has pictures to prove it. The article mentions some fine tuning in the game with the health but beyond that there isn’t much else to report. Too bad they don’t try it out the Darius Burst cabinet since they insist on using the dual cabinet setup. Now THAT would really help set SSFIV apart from it’s console counterparts.
As for a release, the other day ArcadeUFO (a well-known arcade in Austin TX) stated that Super Street Fighter IV Arcade is confirmed for a December release and that they will be getting the game.
There really isn’t anything new to report on the arcade version of Super Street Fighter IV after it’s most recent location test but at least some in Japan have had a chance to play it now. That and we know that the arcade version will be getting new characters but I’m sure the cries of anguish from the console players will have Capcom rectifying that soon after the arcade release. The pic above actually reminds me from a stage from the old, mostly forgotten fighter Primal Rage but I digress. Two more Japanese location tests are planned over the next two weeks.
For more pics and a little info on the game’s card system hit up Dengeki Online.
Back in 2005 Capcom released a new game for the Playstation 2 called Sengoku Basara. Five years and well over a million sales later they are preparing to release the 3rd installment of the series and as part of the fifth anniversary of the game’s release, they already have an amusement park attraction to go along with it. Located at the Fuji-Q Highland park, the new attraction has you wandering through an ancient Japanese castle, collecting BASARA cards that you insert into certain devices placed throughout the complex as you play some sort of game and near the end, one gets a chance to play Sengoku Basara on a large projected screen with motion-controls. According to the translation @ Game Watch:
Will play the final round, which it will be cut with a sword and a giant video screen. First, kill the fireball as a practice stage. The fireball on screen, “Zan” as someone called Mark, swing the sword away at it. Nobunaga military confrontation with the practice followed by the stage. I cut the first 100 and first stage. Continuously appear on Nobunaga army soldiers invaded from the front, “Slasher” will cut down the mark. There is also an element of Whack Even though, as I can not kill easily. However, the number must defeat is not so much GANBAROU never give up.
While it’s slightly difficult to understand what all of that means, I imagine it’s something similar to the arcade title Mazan, but with a huge screen.
Back in 2005 Capcom released a new game for the Playstation 2 called Sengoku Basara. Five years and well over a million sales later they are preparing to release the 3rd installment of the series and as part of the fifth anniversary of the game’s release, they already have an amusement park attraction to go along with it. Located at the Fuji-Q Highland park, the new attraction has you wandering through an ancient Japanese castle, collecting BASARA cards that you insert into certain devices placed throughout the complex as you play some sort of game and near the end, one gets a chance to play Sengoku Basara on a large projected screen with motion-controls. According to the translation @ Game Watch:
Will play the final round, which it will be cut with a sword and a giant video screen. First, kill the fireball as a practice stage. The fireball on screen, “Zan” as someone called Mark, swing the sword away at it. Nobunaga military confrontation with the practice followed by the stage. I cut the first 100 and first stage. Continuously appear on Nobunaga army soldiers invaded from the front, “Slasher” will cut down the mark. There is also an element of Whack Even though, as I can not kill easily. However, the number must defeat is not so much GANBAROU never give up.
While it’s slightly difficult to understand what all of that means, I imagine it’s something similar to the arcade title Mazan, but with a huge screen.
An editor for the Japanese game magazine Famitsu sat down with the producer of Street Fighter IV and it’s Super update, Yoshinori Ono. Thanks to a translation of the article by Andriasang.com, we now have a slightly better idea of what will set the arcade version apart from the home editions (beyond the obvious difference of the cabinet). First he states that it’s more than just a port – which is a good thing. He then details a little bit as to how they will balance the game out (which is fairly typical of SF updates, each new addition making improvements in “balancing” over the last so that no one character it too powerful or too weak), laughs about the possibility of new characters and costumes and a little more talk about whether the home players will get access to the exact same content. Read the article at Andriasang.com
To save myself another long paragraph of ranting, I will run a poll to see where people stand on the issue of players per cabinet (since it wasn’t brought up in the interview)
In case anyone was wondering how Super Street Fighter IV came to be considered for an arcade release, Kotaku has a few minor details on that. It’s nothing mind blowing so I’m not really sure if this warrants a post all by itself but plenty of people are interested in the game and it’s nice to read about how the game’s producer was lobbying for an arcade release. Kotaku is wrong about that being the first picture of SSFIV running on an arcade cabinet, we already saw one almost a month ago, making the picture above the second known pic (not that it really matters). Unfortunately Capcom still seems to think that one player per cabinet on a game already released on consoles is a brilliant idea suitable to the thousands of locations they are targeting. Not that it can’t be done, arcades still sell in the thousands of units but I have my doubts on this setup judging by what took place the first time around. It might look cool to have two or four machines running the game but I still contest that they are limiting their potential sales by pursuing the idea.
Arcade Heroes 
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