Sega Merges With Pachinko Company Sammy

conform writes "The New York Times reported today that Sega Corporation (the Japanese parent company) has merged with Sammy Corp, a vendor of pachinko machines. The Sammy side of things are expected to dominate post-merger operations, and will likely shift Sega operational focuses back to the arcade market. Also, the end of the article notes in passing that SquareSoft has been aquired by rival RPG manufacturer Enix."

Comments

Re:Arcade Dead?

[johny_qst]

I definitely do not agree that the arcade is dead. Are you familiar with how popular arcades and plinko arcades are in japan? Do you realize that there are countries other than the USA that are consumers of such machines? Maybe to slashdot the endnote about square merging with enix is bigger news, but arcades are far from dead.

Enix buys out Square? Probably good news.

[Thag]

Is this the merger that was reported before, or has Enix actually bought out Square lock, stock & barrel?

Either way, hopefully we'll get better RPGs out of it. I'm playing Final Fantasy X now, and my enthusiasm is dropping like a stone. Watch cut scene, walk, watch cut scene, walk, it's like they combined the linearness of a rail-type shooter with the annoying random encounters and levelling-up of an RPG. And the characters just don't emote. Pretty, but shallow, and ultimately boring.

I just finished Grandia, a Sega Saturn game that was ported to PS1. It was far more advanced than FFX.

Jon Acheson

Re:Does anyone care-not spam bate on purpose

[amuro98]

Yeah, and you won't see those expensive machines in the arcades either...

At least around here, the only arcades that are left are:

* Dave & Busters - if you convert your credits back into $$$, you'll find you're paying $.50+ for most of their mis-maintained games.

* Nickel City - Cheap old arcade games! Yay. Overrun by rugrats! Boo.

* Putt Putt/go-kart places - A few newer machines, most $.50/game.

* Sony Metereon - $2 to play DDR. No. No thank you.

Arcades as I knew them from the 80s and 90s are dead. I used to pump $10, even $20 into machines, but why do that now? $20 will *buy* you some pretty good games, regardless of what machine you've got at home. And now with online play, there's even less reason to go to the arcades where you could play an online game for $3-7/session...

Re:A joke, right?

[SpinyNorman]

Actually, Pachinko is MASSIVE in Japan. I was in Tokyo a while back, and there are galleries of Pachinko machines all over the place - packed with people. It looks like rows and rows of people playing slots in a casino (but packed together more tightly). I think you can win credits (maybe money?), but anyways for whatever reason the Japs are nuts over it!

Uh...Sammy makes GAMES, too.

[Alkaiser]

Try Guilty Gear, Initial D, Art Truck Battle, etc. etc.

I don't know how a pseudo-responsible news agency like the NY Times can do mountains of research to find out what video games the Beltway Sniper was probably playing, and zero to find out stuff like this. It make it sound like Sega gets bought out by a non-player and that you'll see Sonic Pachinko games.

It's what they do best anyway...

[stonedCoder]

At least it sounds like SEGA will be concentrating on arcade tech again. Since the megadrive/genesis they've not really been on the ball in the home market but in the arcade they've been a real force to be reckoned with for many many years.