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

EA?

[BgJonson79]

I thought EA owned Square, or do they just publish Square's titles, or what?

Re:EA?

[Osty]

I thought EA owned Square, or do they just publish Square's titles, or what?

EA and SquareSoft have a publishing deal, and that's all (that I know of -- EA very likely owns some stock in Square, but certainly not enough for a controlling interest). Sony owns a minority interest in the company, after bailing them out from the Final Fantasy Movie failure (sad, really, because the movie had much promise but didn't deliver). And now Enix and Square merged, with Enix likely to be the dominant side of the merger. However, this is a dupe in a way, though it would've better been noted as an item in Slashdback. "Hey, remember that article about Enix and Square merging? Well, they've done it!" Or something like that.

Re:EA?

[Osty]

They set up two companies, one for EA to publish Square titles in the US, and another for Square to publish EA titles in Japan.

That's what I would call a "publishing deal", as I said before. EA is still EA, and Square is still Square, so I don't get the "set up two companies" part.

Re:EA?

[Aronymous Coward]

Very simple. They set up two companies, one in Japan, and one in the U.S. The U.S. one is called "Square Electronic Arts LLC" and is the one that publishes some of the Final Fantasy series. The rest were/are published by Nintendo of America (daughter company of Nintendo of Japan) and SCEA (sister company of SCEI, etc.). The Japanese one is called "EA Square KK," which is the Japanese publishers of EA games and Square's fighting games.

Companies can start new companies, you know.

Re:EA?

[Osty]

Companies can start new companies, you know.

Duh. However, my point was that I had not heard about these "extra" companies, and was wondering exactly what the AC meant. Thanks for the explanation.

Does anyone care-not spam bate on purpose

[diablobynight]

Seriously, I know news is slow, but ummm... This article simply doesn't offer a whole lot to comment on

Re:Does anyone care-not spam bate on purpose

[Pieroxy]

IMO, focusing in the arcade market is really silly. When everyone will have it's own gamecube/PS2/XBox at home, the arcade market will just collapse.

Re:Does anyone care-not spam bate on purpose

[Iguanaphobic]

Well, the arcade is the arcade. It's not like you can go over to your friends house and play a realtime, realboard, real water surfing simulator. There's a new generation of arcade games coming out and they all run between $40 and $70k for the machines. You won't see that on your Gameboy.

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:Does anyone care-not spam bate on purpose

[Lemmy Caution]

That may be so in the US, but in Japan the arcade market is still quite strong and profitable, and in much of the world "public" gaming is a bigger sector than stay-at-home gaming.

Re:Does anyone care-not spam bate on purpose

[Iguanaphobic]

Think of it as watching a movie at a theatre or watching on VHS on your 19" TV at home.

Re:Does anyone care-not spam bate on purpose

[Iguanaphobic]

Can I come over to your house and play with these?

Or perhaps this?

And when we get tired of this, we can head out to your 5,000 square foot games room and look after these.

I'm glad that there are no arcades still around where you are. More for me here. :-)

Re:Does anyone care-not spam bate on purpose

[Com2Kid]

• Think of it as watching a movie at a theatre or watching on VHS on your 19" TV at home.

DVD rocks. :)

Buy a bigger screen, heh.

One of those 36" Destination screens (some other company released a newer model a few years back actualy), high enough rez for those type of games, bigger screen, fun.

Re:Does anyone care-not spam bate on purpose

[Exiler]

"Overrun by rugrats!" I'm only 15 yet I spend prolly 15 bucks or so a month on Pacman, Space Invaders, and Centipede. How is this any different than what you did in your prime? Let us enjoy OUR youth too, stop bitching.

Re:Does anyone care-not spam bate on purpose

[amuro98]

Dude, you're about 10 years too old to be a rugrat.

Yeah, there's a bunch of junior high and high schoolers around Nickel City as well, but when I say rugrats, I *mean* rugrats. Kids who seem to be as young as 4 or 5 who are too short to even see the buttons they're hitting. And since most machines are on free-play, their game never ends...theorhetically... Oh, and you do not want to try to pry a rugrat away from his machine. He'll scream and cry making you look like an oversized bully.

The place has degenerated into an off-hours daycare center for neglected children.

Re:Does anyone care-not spam bate on purpose

[Exiler]

Heh, most retrogamers are in their mid 30s to early 40s, and the few around here do treat kids my age as 'rugrats'

Nice!

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe we'll see a Dragon Warrior vs Final Fantasy RPG. That would be awesome.

Re:Nice!

[Mr. Gus]

I'd call that Chrono Trigger 2...

Re:Nice!

[jwilcox154]

It already happened, in FF1, a tombstone in Corneria has "Here Lies Erdrick" on it. ;)

Not just Pachinko

[EvilJello]

Sammy has done a bit more than just Pachinko, notably the very fun shooter, Viewpoint : Some sammy games emulated in mame

Guilty Gear series

[Demon-Xanth]

They've also done the Guilty Gear series (which I'm particularly fond of)

Re:Guilty Gear series

[Matarick]

Actually, ARC System Works developed the popular Guilty Gear fighting series for the Playstation, Dreamcast, arcade, and Playstation 2 systems. They also worked on various PC and Playstation dating simulators as well.

I think they would continue to work with Sammy for newer games in the Guilty Gear series but I don't think Samy owns ARC System Works. I think the next game in the series would recieve the Sega Promotion treatment on television, internet, and in magazines. The only thing that could go wrong with the Guilty Gear series if Sega would get involved in the process.

Only if ARC works on the next Sonic game or even remake Streets of Rage :~~~~~~~

Re:Guilty Gear series

[KewlPC]

The only people who should be allowed to make Sonic games are Sonic Team, and the games should be sidescrollers. 2D optional.

This, to me, is actually kind of sad. I was always a big Sega fan.

squarenix!?

[OwlofCreamCheese]

sonic the hedgehog on the gameboy... square and enix together...

insaine I tell you! insaine! I remember when the nintendo/sega war was as bad as the windows/linux war is today

Re:squarenix!?

[Joe the Lesser]

the windows/apple war is much more heated then any windows/linux war, as most windows users have likely never heard of linux. (Probably due to lack of advertising, and much to the disdain of the good, hardworking linux users.)

Re:squarenix!?

[joe_bruin]

What do you mean, "biblical?"

We mean real wrath-of-God type stuff. Plagues, darkness--

The dead rising from the grave!

Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes--

Riots in the streets, Square bought by Enix, Sega on Nintendo, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!

Cool!

[sulli]

So if I win enough at the arcades on the Sega machines, I can win carefully wrapped packs of cigarettes that I can exchange for cash at the shady back window? Excellent!

Arcade Dead?

[muzzynat]

From what I've been hearing the past couple of years, arcades are about dead(true from what I've seen too). I really don't think it would make sence for Sammy to push Sega tward the Arcade again. Especially when Sega is establishing itself as a third party developer for counsels. On the other hand, Sega does make a few games that would be cool in arcades(Panzer Dragoon, anyone?). Just curious if anyone else thinks arcade develpment is dead (whimpers, remembering "killer instinct" machines)

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.

Re:Arcade Dead?

[briancnorton]

Arcades are FAR from dead, they are just in a state of transition. If you think they arent making money, go into a "Dave and Buster's" or a "Jillians" or another adult themed entertainment establishment. The arcades of the past were killed by the home consoles, no doubt.

The arcade of tomorrow (today) offers an experience that one cant get at home. They offer FUN, short multiplayer games that are more suitable to social situations than vegging on your couch, and they offer large expensive Virtual-reality systems that jimmy nintendo could never afford. You walk in and see motion capturing games like 911 Simulator or mocap boxing. You see racing games with wheels, force feedback, and motion simulation.

Most importantly, you see BEER. Adults can walk in and blow $100 on food, drink, and games and not bat an eye. Arcade kids had to bum $5 off dad. It's amazing how much money the nintendo generation now has control of. There is a VERY bright future in arcades, as there is going to be a big demand for very large, very expensive multiplayer gaming rigs. I'm glad sega has more insight than Atari.

Re:Arcade Dead?

[ez76]

You forgot to mention the missing detail that has driven me away from such arcades, which is that the video games tend to cost more than the alcohol. Yeah, 8-way racing is cool but so is beer and billiards.

Re:Arcade Dead?

[Anonvmous Coward]

"Just curious if anyone else thinks arcade develpment is dead (whimpers, remembering "killer instinct" machines)"

I think it's in a depression, bout I wouldn't say it's dead. The problem is that home consoles have caught up to what Arcades can produce. As a result, arcade games were no longer premium experiences. This has caused arcade game manufacturers to do things consoles can't.

That's where games like Dance Dance Revolution (hope I got the name right...) changes the variables. DDR is technically feasible in the home, but not really all that practical. Not to mention the social implications of playing it in a public place. Then there's a cop shooter game.. grr I can't remebmer the name, I think it had 911 in the title though. What's different about it is that there are motion sensors that can track your body movement, so if you duck out of the way you can avoid being shot. I have difficulty imaginging that game being faithfully ported to a Playstation.

I honestly believe that we'll see a reniassance in arcade gaming. A theater near my house has a small arcade, and every single game they have there would be difficult to port to a home console without a seperate hardware add-on. That place is constantly busy despite not being in a mall or being an official 'arcade'. It's just a matter of getting a new round of creativity brewing up new types of games.

So, in short, I think arcades are in a slump right now. They will pick up, though.

Re:Arcade Dead?

[On Lawn]

Looking at Appleby's and Dave and Busters, I see a real blurring between bar and family establishment. We recently attended a birthday party at D&B's, but we had misgivings since we couldn't find a babysitter for our daughter. We thought that they didn't allow anyone under 21.

Well they told us "we are a family establishment", and that they allow three minors for every person over 25 in the group. When we got there and went inside, there was about a 2-1 ration between adults and kids at the arcade machines.

Its a wierd collision. I'm not quite sure what to make of it and your "neighborhood family bar" like Appleby's. But I can say that I enjoy those establishments better then say Denny's and the local arcade (but not better then a local family park like Boomers! or Scandia). I wonder how much its cutting into the Chuck E. Cheese marketshare.

On a grander note, I think the aquisitions are inevitable. With all the downsizing going on I think its hard to say if there is a depression in video games, or just a depression in general.

----------------
OnRoad: Delving into the social ramifications of racing games.

Re:Arcade Dead?

[geekoid]

Interesting, they transitioned to sell a service and product to the exact same generation the where in arcades when they where peeking.

Brillant, really.

Re:Arcade Dead?

[ecchi_0]

That's where games like Dance Dance Revolution (hope I got the name right...) changes the variables. DDR is technically feasible in the home, but not really all that practical.

DDR is most definitely feasable in a home setting - a new version just came out for PS2 (the American version is actually better than the Japanese one this time!) and there are at least 7 different incarnations for the PS1. All that is needed is a dance pad that can be aquired from the local video game store for about 20 dollars. In some places (apartments, etc) it might not be convienient due to the noise but it is just as fun :)

Re:Arcade Dead?

[Broodje]

I was just at a Dave & Busters in San Jose, CA. From the top of my head (~6:30pm Sat)

• 1:20hrs wait for a table.
• $16 for 3 beers (Sam Adams).
• $24 for 4 "arcade cards": each had $5 (21 credits) on them + $1 per card.
• drank beer, used up card in 3-4 games (damn!).
• dinner=$120+ for 5 people (ok we had dessert, but its soo good!).

I'm not saying we didn't have fun, but this isn't exactly affordable hehe. I'm all for blood and gore (read: Quake etc) but here are some games that stunned me a little (especially popular at that):

• "commercial airplane pilot" I don't know the real name, but you fly a plane through cities and land it. Fun. PC? not really ;) I care? No.
• "sniper ..." I saw like 2-3 kinds of sniper games with mass gore. PC? not at all!

Not a biggie, but lastly something I realized is that "Dave and Busters" is a meat market, tons of dudes and chicks trying to get lucky, ridiculous prices, and KIDS RUNNING ALL OVER THE PLACE! The only reason I care if a game is "PC" is because of the kids swarming this place. Its like a casino with 12yr olds all over!

I think I'm too old for this, or I haven't been out for a long long time.

Re:Arcade Dead?

[amuro98]

I dunno about you, but I've gone to my friend's house, where there was alcohol, food, and multiplayer video game fun for all - and it cost a heckuva lot less than going to Dave & Busters.

And don't forget that even consoles are now going online, so this isn't something unique to arcades.

Yeah, D&B is fun once in awhile, until you realize that most of the arcade machines aren't maintained well, and $10 on a D&B card just doesn't go very far. Your best bet at D&B is to play the token games and earn enough to win a gaming console or something.

Re:Arcade Dead?

[BIGmog]

Calling Dave & Busters an arcade is like saying your local movie theatre is an arcade. The arcade portion is by no means the main source of revenue nor was it ever intended to be. D&B makes most of it's revenue on beer and food.

If any company can save american arcades, it's Konami. Let's see some more american DDR and bemani games so arcade owners aren't forced to import them.

-BIGmog

Re:Arcade Dead?

[blowhole]

It would be funnier if your friend were named Dave or Buster. Extra points for his name being David Buster or some variant.

Re:Arcade Dead?

[Cheeko]

The other thing I've noticed about these places, Jillian's particular, is the number of vintage games. The Jillian's here in Worcester MA, has gotten a number of old games, including tetris, arkanoid, galaga and a few others. As well as some nice early 90s pinball machines that I fondly remember wasting my high school days playing. Add to this the latest DDR craze, and the arcade is certainly not dead. However I will miss the good ole days of blowing a few bucks at the old dingy arcade at the mall where the attendants used to go smoke up in the back room, and the games were always a quarter.

Re:Arcade Dead?

[CONTROL_ALT_F4]

Arcades are still alive and kicking. A few of my local favorites have included PCs with LAN and internet gaming. Nothing beats first person shooters or StarCraft when you have three or four buddies playing in the same room. It is fairly cheap and easier than a LAN party at home since everything is already set up.

Re:Arcade Dead?

[Jester99]

DDR is definitely playable in the home. I have two pads and I have a great time playing with the big-screen TV.

That having been said, the DDR machine in the arcade *always* has a line in front of it. DDR's fun to play with a friend or two. But it's really fun to show off in front of a crowd of other people if you're really good at it. (Remember Back In The Day (tm) when you could draw a large crowd by kicking ass at Space Invaders? Yea, same concept.)

Furthermore, arcade DDR machines have a very nice sound system in them that's usually better than whatever you've got in your house, which makes them attractive for that reason too.

The profit off of a DDR machine in the local arcade probably carries a half-dozen other games along with it.

Re:Arcade Dead?

[Anonvmous Coward]

'DDR is most definitely feasable in a home setting -"

I didn't say it wasn't feasable, I said it wasn't practical. That was a little harsh, in retrospect.

Let me clarify my idea because I think some people misunderstood me. Typically, games that require a peripheral do not do well. Rob the Video Robot. The Power Glove. Super Scope 6. Mario Paint. Etc. Sometimes the problem is cost. Nintendo Power Pad. Sometimes the problem is how intrusive the hardware is in the home. (There's no way I could keep the DDR pad on my floor in my tiny apartment, I'd have to put it away.) Sometimes the problem is that peripherals break.

That's what I meant by practical. There's lots of conditions that exist in a situation like DDR that can work against its success. Can you imagine trying to have all the games/peripherals I just mentioned out at one time?

Re:Arcade Dead?

[ecchi_0]

Sometimes the problem is how intrusive the hardware is in the home. (There's no way I could keep the DDR pad on my floor in my tiny apartment, I'd have to put it away.)

I agree with your statement, however the thing about the DDR pads (the cheap ones that is) is that they are meant to be folded up and put away after use. I have mine hiding in my closet right now :) Also, many of those other peripherals aren't exactly neccessary to the experience (yes, the mario paint mouse and the super scope were but both had VERY few uses. The DDR pad can be used in a few other series besides DDR, like Bust a Groove and *shudder* Britneys Dance Beats. Also a new "aerobics" game by Konami will use it.) while the DDR pad is almost essential to the gameplay. While it will never become mainstream, there are lots of people who want to play DDR and would rather spend their money on a home version instead of the (in my area) 1.50 for 3 songs of the arcade.

Re:Arcade Dead?

[Tsuzuki]

That's where games like Dance Dance Revolution (hope I got the name right...) changes the variables. DDR is technically feasible in the home, but not really all that practical. Not to mention the social implications of playing it in a public place. Then there's a cop shooter game.. grr I can't remebmer the name, I think it had 911 in the title though. What's different about it is that there are motion sensors that can track your body movement, so if you duck out of the way you can avoid being shot. I have difficulty imaginging that game being faithfully ported to a Playstation.

Funny you should mention that... DDR and Police 24/7 are both made by Konami, whose Australian division is entirely devoted to producing poker machines.

There is actually a home version of Police 24/7 in Japan, with a video camera that senses your movement (you play standing between it and a white wall). I think Konami's home version philosophy is that you should practice the game for free at home and then come to the arcade to show off. :D

Sammy's Mind

[burgburgburg]

From here:

" We contribute to creation and development of culture with our creativity and foreseeing in entertainment while moving forward with people."

Ok. ...ugh ...Huh?

Re:Sammy's Mind

[sethamin]

Perhaps the fish can help (E->J->E):

While moving with the people first, we contribute to our creative cultures and the compilation and development of prediction of entertainments.

Yes, yes, I see now.

Re:Sammy's Mind

[Camulus]

Well you obviously haven't been to Engrish.Com if that still throws you for a loop. 8-P

P.S. Not trying to harp on or make fun of any one, but that stuff is seriously funny. Hell I can't even speak Japanese so they do better then I would.

Re:Sammy's Mind

[Monkeyfarmer]

All your SEGA belong to us!

WINE or LINE

[wantedman]

Yeah! Its almost as crazy as WINE or LINE...Linux on Windows? Windows on Linux? Crazy! Bring me back to the opensource movement of just AB being printed over and over again!!!!

Re:Not just Pachinko (sexy)

[$$$$$exyGal]

Pachinko Sexy Reaction

Nice game titles from that company ;-)

--sex

Wow ...

[B3ryllium]

Wow ... this is like Vivendi ... merging with ... Las Vegas! Imagine the kids from THAT marriage. *shudder*

The is Gabby Hayes Big

[Anonymous Coward]

I think this may be the most important merger of Japanese titans since the joint venture of Matsumora Fishworks and Tamorobuchi Heavy Manufacturing.

EA doesn't own square.

[Thag]

And I wasn't aware they distributed their games, either. I thought SCEA distributed Square games. Though I don't have a box handy to check that with.

Jon Acheson

Sega's financial troubles.

[larsoncc]

This isn't a particularily stunning move (that SOMEONE would take an interest in Sega), as Sega has been a target for quite some time. Sega has been bleeding money - earning less than expected even though they ceased hardware production.

The reason? Poor sales of the "2K" sport series, combined with heavy marketing of the series. They've been unable to dethrone EA, even though they're producing quality product.

Personally, I've got a soft spot for Sega because of Phantasy Star and "blast processing".

Here's a good Genesis game (Thunder Force III): Review.

What's the name gonna be?

[Sexy Commando]

I can't really think of a good name combo if Sega and Sammy want to change it. On the other hand, Suqare-Enix has an uber duper name Squarenix that sounds like a GNU/Linux distro. oh, BTW, Sega stands for SErvice of GAmes.

Re:What's the name gonna be?

[XxtraLarGe]

How about "Smegy" :-)

Re:Not just Pachinko (sexy)

[Angry White Guy]

That is an absolutly baffling game! (The fact that I don't speak Japanese adds to the confusion). Download it and play it, and you'll marvel at how it even made it as an arcade.

Re:Enough with the NYT already.

[AssFace]

someone told me this one and I felt it apropos given my username on here.

l: assword
p: password

Re:Pachinko?

[napdawger42]

It's a Japanese variation on pinball, used as a form of automated gambling. It was huge in Japan in the 70's/80's, and still big today, though less so.

If I recall correctly, Nintendo's foray into video games grew out of their interests in pachinko.

Um, Acquired?

[ultor]

I'm pretty sure that Squaresoft wasn't acquired by Enix. Rather Square (not Squaresoft) merged with Enix. As I recall this was a long time ago and there was a large fight over stock prices. Square's stock only got about 60 some cents to Enix's dollar in the new company, making square stockholders quite angry. The dispute was settled about a month ago.

Re:Um, Acquired?

[La Temperanza]

That makes more sense. I was thinking "Enix can afford to buy Square? Did they lose *that* much money on FF:TSW?" I recall Dragon Quest 7 set a sales record lasting a few months in Japan, so Enix isn't exactly earning peanuts, but they probably don't they have the spare cash on hand to buy Square outright.

Re:Um, Acquired?

[gamgee5273]

It is a merger and was announced about two months ago. The merger will take place on April 1 (no, this isn't an April Fool's joke).

Re:Um, Acquired?

[zapfie]

Does Square have any relation to Squaresoft?

Re:Um, Acquired?

[_KiTA_]

Actually, you're about half right. It's being called a merger on paper, but in reality, it's a buyout.

A little background for those of us not familiar with Japanese role playing game companies: Squaresoft is a game development company, but Enix is a publishing outfit that handles all sorts of stuff (manga, anime, games, etc). Enix Japan is *much* bigger than Squaresoft Japan.

Enix' flagship RPG, Dragon Quest 7, sold 2.2 million copies it's first day in Japan and hit 4.06 million total, while Final Fantasy 9 hit about 2.9 million total.

Which is one of the reasons Squaresoft is in so much trouble -- their games are costing more and more to make, but are selling less and less in Japan.

The main shareholder of Squaresoft had a issue with the previous terms of the buyout, which basically was that 1 share of Squaresoft would become .81 shares of Square Enix. In other words, the Squaresoft stock lost about 20% of it's value / power in that deal. In the new deal, it only loses 15%. He's now ok with it. Interesting note, Sony owns about 20 percent of Squaresoft, and will thus own about 8.5 percent of the new company, unless my math is off.

As part of the deal, Enix is going to absorb Square's name and employees into their company, and pay off all of Square's (considerable) debts. Squaresoft saves money by not having to go through Sony to publish it's stuff, Enix gets a big boost to it's US sales due to Square USA's better presence. All in all a lot better than Microsoft buying them -- they made an offer a long while back but were basically laughed at.

They're promising not to fire anyone at Square, but, to be honest, I can't imagine them not trimming at least some of the fat in a few months.

Personally, I'm hoping to see a "Final Fantasy Monsters" type game come out of this with a similar or same engine as "Dragon Warrior Monsters." Or even better, a crossover monster breeder.

Or better yet still, a new Chrono Trigger sequel by the original development teams. For those of you who don't follow classic gaming, the development teams for Chrono Trigger was basically the guys behind both Dragon Quest and the guys behind Final Fantasy. Sorta an all-star RPG dream team thing. The man who does the story (Yuji Hori) for every Dragon Quest game did the story for Chrono Trigger, the guy that does the art for Dragon Quest did the art for CT, the fight engine was done by the guys that made Final Fantasy, etc etc. Now that they're one shop, the chances of them working together again are much higher.

Um hey...

[TerryAtWork]

Aren't the Yakuza deeply mixed up in the Pachinko business?

Re:Um hey...

[Kintanon]

So Rumour has it... Much like Rumour will tell you that the Mafia controls most of the Vegas casinos. Of course, Rumour is a dirty little snitch and if he doesn't keep his mouch shut we're gonna cut out his tongue and dump him in the river....

Kintanon

Next game from Sega?

[ackthpt]

The next big game from Sega, Pachinko?

I wonder what percentage of Sammy is:

Supported by debt backed up by Microsoft (This in regards to speculation on what japanese entity is benefitting from $590 million insured by Microsoft in their last quarterly statement.)

Run by North Koreans. (note: not a Troll! It is well known that most Pachinko parlors in Japan are run by North Korean families (think: mafia), for the purpose of exporting cash to North Korea.

"Pachinko for the XBox, great, what shall we call it?"

"How about AI Pachinko."

"We'll get sued, but I like it..."

Re:Next game from Sega?

[Cryptnotic]

Run by North Koreans. (note: not a Troll! It is well known that most Pachinko parlors in Japan are run by North Korean families (think: mafia), for the purpose of exporting cash to North Korea.

That sounds like an urban legend intended to get Japanese to stop playing Pachinko.

Re:Next game from Sega?

[ackthpt]

Run by North Koreans. (note: not a Troll! It is well known that most Pachinko parlors in Japan are run by North Korean families (think: mafia), for the purpose of exporting cash to North Korea.

That sounds like an urban legend intended to get Japanese to stop playing Pachinko.

Whatever, try doing some research before next post, ok?

Re:Next game from Sega?

[Cryptnotic]

Bah. It still sounds like an urban legend, even if it's not.

Re:Next game from Sega?

[pao93]

It's no myth. I've lived in Japan for a number of years and dated a Korean-Japanese girl for some time who told me all about this (she had family in the business). Most of the Korean Japanese think it's quite funny that the Japanese are giving them so much money. Especially considering how crappy the Japanese gov't treats them...

The only debate though is whether this money is going to North or South Korea. I think the truth is that the money is going to both places depending on the family.

What's interesting is that gambling is technically ILLEGAL in Japan. They get around it by giving you little 'prizes' for your pachinko balls (1 box of balls is about 10000 yen worth). You then must physically leave the building and take these 'prizes' to a place which will 'buy' them back for money. Actually, one can get quite good at Pachinko. I knew somebody who was a Pachinko professional (pachipro) and who told me the trick, nowadays at least, is to have a good eye for the placement of the pins on the board in deciding which machine to sit at.

And oh yeah, if you've seen any pachinko machines recently you'll know they are almost like video games, with little screens in the center showing graphics and extra games you can play.

c

Re:Next game from Sega?

[enichols]

> "How about AI Pachinko."

Even funnier because chinko == penis in Japanese...

Re:This is SO cool!

[Anonymous Coward]

Its good to hear your palm is getting some action.

What happened to the Microsoft merger?

[grungeman]

Wasn't Sega supposed to be bought by Microsoft? I could imagine that some Keiretsu decided that the Microsoft/Sega merger would be a major threat to the Japanese consumer electronics industry (Sony/Nintendo), so in order to prevent that merger they made Sammy to merge with Sega.

Re:What happened to the Microsoft merger?

[gamgee5273]

That and Nintendo buying Sega has been in the rumormill for months on end.

Sigh.

I guess Sonic won't be joining up in the next version of Super Smash Bros. after all...

The future

[Mustang Matt]

Maybe "linux" will buy Microsoft. Errr.. wait a sec...

Re:Not just Pachinko (sexy)

[x mani x]

me and some friends really got obsessed with playing that game on my mame cabinet. think three red-eyed young men furiously tapping one button for a good 3 hours (we started around midnight).

yes, on that fateful evening we finished Pachinko Sexy Reaction.

-Mani

Can't barely wait...

[XxtraLarGe]

I can't wait to play pachinko on my PS2!

Re:Can't barely wait...

[NineNine]

Screw regular pachinko. I want Pachinko Sexy Reaction on my PS2!! I wonder if they'll make a Super-Lucky-Ultra-Mega-Ghost-Samurai Pachinko?

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:Enix buys out Square? Probably good news.

[irritating environme]

Uh-oh. FFX is boring in comparison to Grandia? Considering I played Suikoden I+II, FF 7-9, Grandia, Chrono Cross, and Vagrant Story on PS1, and am considering the PS2 jump, this isn't good news. Grandia was the most irritating RPG I played on PSone. But maybe it was the fact it was a direct rip of Lunar and the voice acting was predictably bad.

Re:Enix buys out Square? Probably good news.

[Tofino]

All Final Fantasy games with the exception of the first have been the same. The difference is how pretty the cut scene looks. "Spoony Bard!" came from a cut scene, after all!

Re:Enix buys out Square? Probably good news.

[amuro98]

I liked Grandia. Yes the voices were pretty bad (though, Sue's was good...)

I didn't notice any paralells between Lunar and Grandia, other than both use many of the same cliches...but then again so do most RPGs.

As for going to the PS2, do it. The PS2 is backward compatible to the PS1 and there are a small, but growing, number of PS2 RPGs including:

* Shadow Hearts
* Kingdom Hearts (more of an action-RPG)
* Okage
* Grandia 2 (though the Dreamcast version looks better)

Then there's also Xenosaga, Star Ocean and a new Breath Of Fire title all of which are due out soon or later this year...

Re:perfect

[The Bungi]

Boromir, you funny, funny troll. You're almost done with your Slashdot Haiku!

Re:Pachinko?

[purplebear]

It's kind of a pinball slot machine. You use little steel balls instead of coin tokens.

Hell, why not just try it and find out.

Pot, meet Kettle

[ackthpt]

How long does it take you people to goto news.google and find a site that doesn't require registration or giving our personal info?

You certainly could have provided a couple links, but noooo..

Here's a couple:

Sega, Sammy to Combine Operations

UPDATE 3-Sega to merge with Sammy, slashes 02/03 forecast

Sega joins Sammy:

Or just follow this crummy link for the whole pile of poop.

Re:Arcade Dead? NOT!!!!

[rbenech]

I agree. Last time I went to Japan I spent more than half of my spending (for food) in the Arcades. Of course, you can smoke in them and they have a hip-hop nightclub feeling (dancing to Dance Dance Revolution Version 47#$% - which is quite entertaining to watch by the way)... I need to go back...

Anyway, those types of Arcades would NEVER make it in the current US (except Dave & Busters)...

Re:pachinko machines...

[Anonymous Coward]

Next thing you know, Nintendo'll be selling playing cards...

Bitch Bitch Bitch

[LordYUK]

Look, the NYT isnt the end all of evils, and last time I checked, they are in the business of selling the news. Now, its nice of them to let us register for FREE, and read these articles without having to buy their newspaper. If you dont like that they want to register, DONT FRICKEN REGISTER AND FIND THE LINK YOURSELF!!! Everytime someone links to the NYT or similar sites, there is at least one idiot poster who bitches about "link to non registering site" or whatnot, and its fricken old.

Not everything is meant to be free people, enjoy the stuff that it is and stop being so damn paranoid, or be paranoid and enter crap into the registration info, or be paranoid and live in your parents basement eating cheesy poofs while wearing a tin foil hat and pretending the gov't is out to control you with mind altering radiation.

Heres a clue: NO ONE FUCKING CARES THAT MUCH ABOUT YOU!!!

Re:Pachinko?

[XxtraLarGe]

According to "GameSpot's History of Video Games", Nintendo started out as a playing card company, and their first arcade game was Othello.

Stick with their older stuff

[scotay]

Neither 1994's Protection or 95's No Protection have any protection other than protection.

Re:OT: Your sig

[The Bungi]

Does the fact that you can recall that at a moment's notice scare you in any way?

Enix and Square? Foretold in FF 1

[eclectric]

One of the gravestones in the Elf kingdom read "Here Lies Erdrick"....

Re:Enix and Square? Foretold in FF 1

[bludstone]

In the new version of FF1 (coming soon as final fantasy origins) the gravestone reads "Here Lies Link."

Hmmmm.

Re:Enix and Square? Foretold in FF 1

[Aronymous Coward]

That was a Nintendo of America addition. In the Japanese version of FF1, as is widely known, that was the tomb of LINK.

Of course, Nintendo of America published both Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy here.

Re:Enix and Square? Foretold in FF 1

[Xenographic]

What is this new version? A port of the one done in Japan for the WSC? I understand that they'd made an enhanced version that had some nifty features for that (including nice things like not attacking dead monsters any more, etc. which were also selectable to some degree...)

Anyhow, "Here lies Link" is the translation of the gravestone in the Japanese version of FF1. It was changed to "Here lies Edrick" for the US version for some strange reason? Perhaps because they felt that their style of RPG had superceded the very popular Dragon Warrior in Japan [I dunno, but the mechanics of it, IMO, are a LOT smoother in FF as compared to DW... :]

I remember so much about FF1, BTW, mostly because I've played it recently [see sig :]

Re:Pachinko?

[Night Goat]

"If I recall correctly, Nintendo's foray into video games grew out of their interests in pachinko."

Close. Nintendo started out making playing cards for gambling. They may have made pachinko machines for a while, but cards were their bread and butter for many years.

Re:Enough with the NYT already.

[matvei]

The biggest problem with mandatory registration is that it's really easy to forget login names / passwords for sites which you visit only occasionally. I've forgotten my password 3 times already, since I check the site only when slashdot links to it's articles.

Another thing that annoys me as an IRC addict about it is that you can't spread the news on IRC by just pasting the link on some channel (99% of people don't have an nytimes.com account and they won't bother to create one just to check out some url). I usually end up googling for a site with no reg required and tell people to check the news there.

My Sega soft spot...

[BitwizeGHC]

Sonic... and Rez. Holy smokes, if you don't have a copy of Rez, you need to get on eBay or Amazon and snag one before they're all gone.

Anyhoo... it's kind of ironic since Sega made a Japan-only DC game called Segagaga, an RPG set in the near future. Sega is nearly out of business, and in a last-ditch effort to save the company hires some cartoony anime kids to upper management positions. You wander around the city fighting monsters, and after you defeat certain ones, you get to hire them! Of course you have to negotiate salary terms...

Of course this was the platform that gave us "ChuChu Rocket" and "Bomber Hehhe"... god I love Sega...

Re:My Sega soft spot...

[that_guy]

Rez was one of the biggest time eaters that I've ever played.. Hours in a trance like state making funking music while almost playing a game. Does it ever end? all I've managed to do is just keep unlocking more levels.

Re:Someone like Nintendo 64

[abigor]

Huh?

Ironic return to roots...

[silentbozo]

SEGA started out as the Japanese subsidiary of an american pinball machine company (Service Entertainment Games of America.) Although the American parent folded, the Japanese company went on to become a major player in the US video games market. Now they're getting back into pinball machines...

Re:Not just Pachinko (sexy)

[Angry White Guy]

You mean two buttons, one being the credit button. What a game! And that was an arcade. Imagine the quarters dumped into that thing.

Re:Enough with the NYT already.

[RobotRunAmok]

"Justify this behavior?"

C'mon, niblet, they're the New York friggin' Times, they're in business to make money. You have access to everything in the print edition at a cost of zero beans. It's among the best, most amazing, values on the Web. You want to go slogging through Google to find an imprint of the story, be our guest, but please excuse the rest of us who have registered there years ago and have somehow managed to survive this long with our privacy, dignity, and self-esteem intact.

Grow up!! just... grow up...

Re:Not just Pachinko (sexy)

[jgerman]

Actually, I'd really like to know what you did to build that, I was thinking of building one myself. What kind of machine are you using, how well does it run? Ect. ect.

Don't forget

[darkmayo]

Square + Enix = SQUENIX

Sega + Sammy = something not as funny.

Re:Arcade Dead? NOT!!!!

[amberspry]

Who really knows? With emulation and desktop PCs becoming more powerful, as with gaming consoles, is the arcade truly dead? There is a small transformation in the arcade with some that offer their own LAN party. A bunch of gaming machines where one can go and play for as long as they can afford. Barring more powerful machines and prettier games not much has changed in the basic arcade since its inception.

One thing we are not seeing as much is networked arcade machines. Sure, always in the arcade there are the racecar games with at times 3 or more linked together, or the shooter games where you are paired with a partner. But mostly it is you and the machine; there is not much interaction unless you bring your own group.

Most people would prefer a console for that type of entertainment. There is a one-time charge and you can play as much as you want. No lines, no wait and you can even sell back you games to get a bit of money for your next purchase. "Halo Fests" and other such events have become commonplace. There is more interaction between people, in general more comfortable and arguably better food.

Maybe arcades will make a comeback. However, they would have to put in something to attract back all the gamers that put their money into their consoles and games. Maybe we will see an arcade-online venture similar to the XBOX or PS2 Internet game playing. Or maybe for the same reasons arcades were there in the first place, to provide people with a better gaming experience than they could afford on their own.

Either way arcades may be doing very well in other countries, maybe that will last, maybe not. As far as the US market is concerned, most people want more for their dollar, not just during these times, but for the future as well. As for now, I think I will dig up my Genesis and enjoy the blissful sounds of collected coins.

Re:Pachinko?

[stratjakt]

Is pachinko the "Lucky Hit" stand that I had to operate for hours on end in Shenmue II?

Because on The Price is Right, that game is called "Plinko" which sounds like pachinko and ...

Anyways, if it is, I hate it.

"Wanna try lucky hit?"
"How about a game of lucky hit?"

A joke, right?

[pla]

Pachinko...

Pachinko?

One of the previous generation's best video game companies has decided to do... Pachinko?

The stupid game which consists of "invert bucket of ball-bearings over machine, watch them drip through, every third bucket or so win a colored ping-pong ball that you can trade for crappy chucky-cheese-esque prizes"?

Nope. This proves it. I have finally lost any sense of contact with the world whatsoever. Time to wander off into the woods and live on skinned squirrels and assorted tubers. You folks have just gotten WAY too sureal for my liking.

And here I considered myself something of an eccentric. Heh. I can't possibly compete with how cracked reality seems.

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!

Re:A joke, right?

[mikio71]

Not exactly... The only legalized form of gambling in Japan is the horse races. Pachinko uses a loophole in the laws by allowing you to win various kinds of prizes, and using your credits from the pachinko ball bearings that you win, you can "purchase" all kinds of goods from daily sundries and candy, all the way up to Gucci bags and other high priced items, and typically, is you go back and figure out the costs of each credit, these items are heavily discounted. On the loophole side, you can opt to win other prizes, usually packages of flint or small gold pendants, which can be taken to another "store", usually around the corner from the pachinko hall, and "sell" them back for cash. On a sidenote... I always thought pachinko was an interesting gambling game... it doesn't feel like gambling because you are feeding a machine with money to dispense balls to play the game with, so I never looked to it as playing for money... even though you are... weird...

Re:A joke, right?

[Tsuzuki]

Aruze's a pachinko company and they bought SNK.... gaming (poker machines et al) and arcade cabinets have an awful lot in common.

Hopefully this'll work out well. Sammy have already published Guilty Gear X and X+ as well as the King of Fighters games for GBA.

Re:A joke, right?

[greggman]

Pachinko is GAMBLING!!! I have friends that make there living playing off the money they make playing pachinko 8 to 10 hours a day.

You buy some balls, you put them in the machine, when you are done you cash the balls out. If you end up with more balls then you started you are ahead.

The funny thing is, gambling is illegal in Japan. They way they get around it is the pachinko place pays you in prizes, kind of like trading in tickets from skeetball. BUT, then, you take your prizes around to the back of the building (or usually the building next door). There is a little window that looks like a bank teller window. You *sell* your prizes to them for cash. The windows are of course run by the pachinko parlors. The police all know it but nobody really cares so they look the other way.

It's not hard to understand that GAMBLING is popular. Just go to any city where it's legal and see all the people doing it.

Re:Not just Pachinko (sexy)

[x mani x]

hey,

i built it using an mk2 cab i purchased off a friend for $300, a pc w/ a duron 1300, 512mb ram, and a trident blade t64 video card. interfacing between the pc's ps2 port and vga out with the joysticks, buttons, and arcade monitor done largely with the help of andy warne's j-pac.

all games run perfectly, with the exception of newer 3d additions to mame, such as cruis'n world. i've done a/b comparisons between mk2 running off the actual game board and emulated with MAME, and i cannot tell the difference.

it took a lot of work to get it right, but it was definately a labour of love. the hardest part was getting my video card to output at low horizontal refresh rates and resolutions that are compatible with both the monitor and various games - but you can now bypass all this hassle by purchasing andy warne's new arcadeVGA, a new radeon-based video card made for outputting video compatible with 15khz arcade monitors! no special software or configuration, you just pop this into your pc and you're all set. i wish this card was available 4 months ago when i got started.

good starting points:

Build Your Own Arcade Controls
J-Pac and ArcadeVGA
Happ Controls (however you can save some $$$ by not getting it from their online store, and finding a local distributor)

good luck!

Enix buys SquareSoft?

[objekt404]

So does this mean that they'll remove the tombstone to Erdrick in Final Fantasy?

This is the End Times!!!

[sryx]

I held my tongue when Sonic appeared on a Nintendo console, but Squarsoft and Enix in the same bed!? What's next, Cats and Dogs sleeping together!? That's it! I'm going to lock my self in my room with nothing but Jolt Cola, my NES and Genesis and a stack of games and a pile of old EGM and Nintendo Power mags and not talk to ANYONE until they reinstate the 8Bit/16Bit console wars! :P
-Jason

Re:This is the End Times!!!

[Absurd Being]

...And the Lion shall lie down with the Lamb, and we'll beat our swords into plowshares...

That sounds like it will be cool. Except for the fact that I think I fall almost entirely into the damned category. Oh well, hope the rest of you enjoy the coming paradise (those who aren't damned, that is).

Prop Cycle

[Andy Dodd]

Ever thought of how popular a multiplayer deathmatch version of this game would be?

Something that could never be done at home - Too easy to cheat.

to a fellow pachinko sexy reaction fan

[x mani x]

go into the mame config menu. there's two buttons that are not configured, i think its "left paddle" and "right paddle". set those to buttons you have access to. now you can control how far the little balls shoot out!

so it's actually a four button game, but of course we didnt figure this out until after we finished it the first time. :)

Re:Not just Pachinko (sexy)

[Angry White Guy]

Lotsa good links. Rob Malda's home page has some good info. Check out Happ Controls for buttons etc.

I use a Celeron 300A (clocked to 450) on Slacware Linux and Xmame, compiled for X11, and most games run alright. If you have more horsepower I suggest using the SDL library for your games (I'm also running it in a 1280x1024 window because it's my desktop machine, so I don't know how it will run under 640x480).

Mame is severly cpu dependant, so beef up there. Also get a good graphics card that does 2d well. You don't have to overkill.

Pachinko pictures here!

[docbrown42]

Look at the bottom of the page.

My uncle used the own a Pachinko store in Cincinnati in the early 80's, and still has part of his garage full of old machines. About a month ago, my brother and I drove down there and gabbed 10 machines (so far, 3 are in working condition, with 2 more needing some minor repairs). And, this weekend, my uncle is driving up with a truckload of more machines! WooHoo!

Re:Pachinko?

[amuro98]

Haven't played Shenmue, so I don't know about Lucky Hit...

Plinko is sort of similar to pachinko though...

A pachinko board is vertical and will have a number of nails in it, similar to the plinko board. There will be a number chutes, targets, etc. on the board. If you get you ball into these chutes/targets/etc. you win more balls.

There's a lever or a wheel with which you can controll the speed of the balls you launch.

Offically, you can only trade balls back in for prizes, ranging from a packet of tissues, to home appliances, etc.

However, if you know what you're doing, you can indirectly convert your winnings back into cash...

Re:Not just Pachinko (sexy)

[stratjakt]

I've found MAME tends to run its fastest under DOS. Gasp! (It doesn't have to be MS-DOS, DR-DOS will work fine) It likes a realtime singleuser environment. ArcadeOS makes a great dos-based front-end for a dedicated mame cab.

Personally I prefer it under Win32 with a card with some decent opengl support, as it just looks much better stretched fullscreen with opengl. Of course if you output to a TV or Arcade monitor, this isnt an issue.

Does the X11 port of mame support opengl based hardware boosts as well? X is just not something I assosciate with "good 2D performance"

I've also found that although MAME is CPU dependant, it doesnt miss the extra cache that a pentium has over a Celeron. Celeron 1ghz tualatin-based procs are like 40 bucks, and run pretty much everything fullspeed.

Merger

[AegisKnight]

Also, the end of the article notes in passing that SquareSoft has been aquired by rival RPG manufacturer Enix.

RPG manufacturer? Are they really that stale nowadays? :)

I played Pachinko once...

[krumms]

... and as a result I'm short two fingers and a big toe

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.

Your mileage may vary.

[Thag]

I wouldn't necessarily take my word as gospel. I hated Final Fantasy 8, for instance, which others liked. (I thought the gameplay was just too tedious.)

My faves are FF7 and Skies of Arcadia on Dreamcast.

You might also try renting the game first.

I never played Lunar, but have heard vaguely good things about it.

Jon Acheson

Re:Your mileage may vary.

[blackwidowb]

Ugh. I'd be almost willing to give you my copy of Lunar.

I hated that game. The story line was really good, but all the monsters were five times stronger than you ever could be, and it mostly consisted of setting all characters but one to heal and having the one remaining character beat on monsters forever until they died. *shudder* I may try it again at some point, just to see if I missed what everyone else raves about, but I didn't care for the actual gameplay at all.

I thought Grandia was much better, but that was just IMHO.

Re:Your mileage may vary.

[irritating environme]

I actually didn't finish Lunar, I will someday, but it was really hard from what I could tell. I think you needed to actually know boss weaknesses and where to get good equipment, unlike FF7 where you could sleepwalk through the bosses.

Re:pachinko machines...

[SimplexO]

Man! I love Bob Barker...

Oh wait, that's PLINKO.

Square Enix deal?

[Junta]

Ok, I had heard this once, then that Square was backing out, then that Square was appeased, and then again that Square was backing out again..... What is the true status of this?

Thanks

[Lord_Of_The_Beer]

Tried it.
Got bored
Left.

Now I know...

pachinko commercials...

[maiku]

You know who's obsessed with Pachinko? Nicholas Cage!!

Re:Not just Pachinko (sexy)

[Angry White Guy]

Xmame can be compiled ou use gl, sdl, etc... and there are some speed ups that you can do at compile time. The biggest drawback to running it without the SDL/GL stuff is that when you play some games fullscreen, they have a black border on each side (about 1/6th the screen). I also use the gxmame frontend. Not too pretty, but it gets the job done. I'm actually looking around my hometown for a cabinet, controls, etc that I can work with. As for the "good 2d performance", some cards do 2d better than others. I'm using an Asus v7100 Magic and it seems to handle the X11 fine, without pushing too much to the processor.

Re:Guilty Gear series(correction or clarification)

[Demon-Xanth]

They were developed by Arc System Works, however they were published by Sammy.

Whether this is a correct, clarification or admission of fault is upto you.

What, are you kidding?

[patrixmyth]

Sega + Sammy= SAGGY!

Re:What, are you kidding?

[RealDhar]

Sega + Sammy = Smeggy

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.

Ooof

[psycho_driver]

Just in case the current "war" turns out the same as the old one, do you mind if I re-write that as "nintendo/sega war was as bad as the linux/windows war".

There, all better.

The deal with Pachinko

[Rayonic]

Most of us think of pachinko as non-interactive pinball and think "WTF? Why would anyone want to play that??"

But that's the wrong way to think about it. It's not non-interactive pinball, it's like a more-elaborate slot machine. I never understood the appeal of gambling myself, but if I had to throw my money to the winds of chance, I'd rather play packinko than a slot machine any day of the week.

But actually... I think the Japanese do consider it interactive on some level. They place a high societal value on luck, and presumably your luck is what influences the outcome.

Um.. I think you got that backwards...

[GearheadX]

From what I remember, Square actually wound up buying out Enix. The stock buyout ratio was cast in Square's favor when the two companies combined, giving Enix owners somewhat less in return than what Square owners got.

Re:pachinko

[TPIRman]

It's not stupid -- at least no stupider than many, many Japanese words. It's an onomatopoeia (like "snap" or "buzz"), which are much more common in Japanese speech than in English. As such, Japanese distinguishes between three kinds of onomatopoeia:

gisei-go imitate the sounds of nature.
gitai-go relate to the state of tangible things.
gijou-go relate to internal feelings.

The last two aren't onomatopoeia in the traditional English sense since they are not imitating actual sounds; rather, they're portraying an ethereal sense of things. More details here.

Anyway, pachinko is derived from the gisei-go word pachi-pachi, which imitates the clicking together of small objects or the sound of hands clapping. So it's appropriate, and it's a fairly standard Japanese construction.

The baseball connection...

[Anne_Nonymous]

>> The New York Times reported today that Sega Corporation (the Japanese parent company) has merged with Sammy Corp, a vendor of pachinko machines.

Let me guess, the new company will be known as Sega-Sammy, and they have retained Sammy Sosa as their spokesman.

Arcade Not Dead.

[Alkaiser]

And Sammy is leading the way. If you've been in an arcade in Japan recently, the machines that are the most packed are Sammy machines.

Guilty Gear XX is always busy with men and women both waiting for their turn at the controls.

Initial D, ver. 2 is in arcades in Japan, and the head to head cabinets are ALWAYS occupied.

Guys in Japan started getting clever with the concepts. One of the early thrills in arcades was getting the high score, and seeing your name dominate over everyone. Until the jerks started resetting the machine every night and wiping 'em.

With Initial D, you can buy a card for 100 yen. You pop the card in every time you play, and gain points. The points upgrade your car, you get new parts, and are able to compete with higher level opponents, and progress in the arcade machine's storyline. Basically...it's like playing a console game in the arcade...and you take your save card with you wherever you go.

Soul Calibur II has a mode called Conquest. You join up on a side, and battle other players to try and gain control of 100% of the map.

You build your character up by winning and using certain styles of fighting, and your chracter's AI is based off of how you fight. If you throw a lot, your character will throw a lot when other people have to fight against it. If you have certain attack combos you use prevalently, so will your character when you are away from the machine.

It gets highly addictive, and it locks you into playing at that machine, making sure you can progress and build up your character. When I was there, one guy on the other side had plunked, by calculations off of his win/loss record, nearly $330 (US) into the game. I was ranked 10th for my faction on that machine...I'd only popped $35 in. But it hooks you. The arcades are back.

Sigh...not *60* cents.

[Alkaiser]

It was 81 cents initially and the majority stock holder for Square objected, saying that since Enix outsourced their development Square had more costs, but also more assets, and the calculations were weighing just the titles far too heavily. Then they reconvened, I believe changed the rate of the purchase to 85 cents, and that sealed the deal.

Sega & Sammy - perfect together

[badasscat]

This reminds me of the manga success thread of a few days ago. You have to understand that arcades ("game centers" is what they're called in Japan) are very different over there than they are here. The industry as a whole is not doing all that great there either, but Sega has been one of the few profitable companies in terms of their arcade business in Japan and I'm sure this is what attracted Sammy to them. Why?

Pachinko is big game center business in Japan. Seriously, it's a perfect match. Every major game center in Japan has a large section devoted to pachinko, including many Sega game centers (such as the multi-story monstrosity in Akihabara, which has an entire floor of pachinko machines). These are generally not "real" pachinko machines in that you don't actually gamble, but the real thing is extremely popular as well with a pachinko parlor seemingly on about every other block in some towns. The point being we may laugh at pachinko - but the Japanese don't. It'd be the equivalent of making slot machines legal in every municipality in this country - they'd sprout up like weeds all over the place. Pachinko is just the way Japanese people gamble mechanically, and pachinko and "regular" arcade machines are very closely related there.

Also, as has been mentioned, Sammy is not just a pachinko company. They just released Guilty Gear X2 in this country, which is doing quite well and has gotten a lot of good reviews. This is an old-school 2D fighter with modern visuals, and I think this also fits in with Sega's arcade business very well. It also obviously gives Sammy a new distribution channel for home consoles, along with a respected game development studio. Sammy Studios now just becomes another of Sega's development teams - which is great for Sega and Sammy both. 2D fighting is still quite popular in Japan and Sega really didn't have any major franchises in that area before.

As to what else it gives Sega... money, I would guess. They just revised downward their forecasts by 90%. 90%! That's huge. They have not made the transition to 3rd party developer smoothly at all, and their stock price has dropped by about 80% from its highs of a few months ago. They were in need of a white knight. I'm personally glad it was Sammy and not Microsoft, as unexpected as it was. They were increasingly vulnerable and now they are less vulnerable - I don't think Microsoft would be interested in acquiring Sammy, and I don't at all think this is the mysterious unnamed Japanese company that MS is invested in (I continue to believe that company is Tecmo).

Sammy's official Management Objective

[Animats]

"We contribute to creation and development of culture with our creativity and foreseeing in entertainment while moving forward with people." A good fit for old Service Games?

By comparison, Microsoft's corporate objective was, for many years, very clear: "A computer on every desk, running Microsoft software".

YES

[Spiff28]

Guilty Gear X2 / XX is THE quentissential 2D fighting game. It has the most evolved and polished gameplay I have ever seen. It is balanced beyond belief, yet all the characters are wildly different (from style of play to art).

Sammy revitalized the 2D fighter. I haven't been this blown away since Street Fighter II. They paid very close attention to what's been done in the gameplay of the genre, and improved upon it. Take the tension meter, for example. Not only can this be used for super moves, but also to block w/o taking damage, or to instantly Roman Cancel out of a special move to avoid the entire animation time penalty.

The graphics in Guilty Gear X2 are insanely nice, yes, and OK the loading times are low. But they clearly focused all of their efforts on the gameplay.

They're not going to be known for their Pachinko machines much longer :)

- spiff

Re:YES

[Baiken]

Look at my nick, I cant`agree more with you GGXX is the best fighting game ever, in fact the only thing left to do is a superb aniamtion of this game,

Re:YES

[rtechie]

Guilty Gear XX is a pretty good 2D fighting game, but it's not as good as either Capcom or SNK's best like Alpha 3 or KOF2K. All the "serious" 2D players are big Capcom or SNK fans, or often both.

Guilty Gear XX is pretty, no doubt about it. Better than either Capcom's or (especially) SNK's best. But the fighting system and gameplay are nowhere near as good as those on Alpha or KOF games simply because they don't have the decades of refinement (particularly in KOF) of the fighting system. It's still raw, so there are still balance problems, stiffness, etc. It's also too easy, IMHO.

I could also complain about the wonky character design (take a tip from Capcom people, less is more) but that's a highly subjective issue. But then again, I really hate Tekken, which millions of people seem to love. So what do I know?

I'm sorry, I just can't resist.....

[SoVi3t]

SAMGA!!!

Great...

[joshsnow]

...yet another Murder and Acqusition.

on the serious side of pachinko

[lingqi]

besides, pachinko is NOT about chucky-cheese prizes (even if you knew that, other readers might not).

you would take your prizes and "sell" them to a "hole in an alley" and get way more than they are worth. sometimes more than what you invested in the buckets of bearings.

this is the only way to gamble besides horse-racing and lotto (as far as I know), since gambling is supposedly illegal in japan. the prizes and the selling is just a loophole of some sort that I don't think the government has any intention of plugging.

hell, there are magazines DEDICATED to this stuff - they have pages upon pages of charts that will tell you a machine's win-rates over time (i.e. as a function of how long you sit over there). It's really a professional hobby, if gambling can be called one.

Re:Pachinko?

[chillywillycd]

see pachinko

great place that everything2 is...

Sammy's Mission Statement

[dwdyer]

From their site (go hunt for it -- Sammy's Mind)

"We contribute to creation and development of culture with our creativity and foreseeing in entertainment while moving forward with people."

They do admit it's a translation.

Slightly relevant...

[Wolfrider]

The old DOS "Shadow Warrior" game had a nice little cheat code called "winpachinko" that would give you free items from every p. machine. :)

Still some good quotable stuff from that game, and (strangely enough) I actually enjoyed the 2 paperback books they published (fiction) based on the game!

You live by Metreon and you're complaining?!

[s0nicfreak]

All I have is a Chuck E. Cheese's :(

Yakuza do gambling, not pachinko machines

[jpatokal]

Aren't the Yakuza deeply mixed up in the Pachinko business?

Gambling for money is illegal in Japan, which means that the prizes you win in pachinko parlors aren't cash, but teddy bears, cans of abalone, etc. This bit of the business is perfectly legal.

Now, the yakuza's role is to run shady little shops next door, which exchange your teddy bears and abalone cans for cash, and sell the prizes back to the pachinko shop. This is not legal, but the police are bribed enough to not care, and it makes pachinko a lot more popular; some people play well enough to earn a living.

So Sammy, being at the other end of the chain (designing the machines), has virtually no contact with the yakuza. Their business would collapse if the police started cracking down, but they aren't about to as it's a rather innocuous racket as far as these things go.

Cheers,

-j.

Home DDR is bigger than that.

[bileduct]

The difference here is that DDR isn't your "typical" peripheral game. It's an obsession. None of the peripherals you mention above had the soft of following that DDR does. You don't see the Power Glove in Sketchers commercials on MTV.

You can buy cheap DDR pads from the mall, but there's a whole industry of much better pads, really great pads, and custom, homemade pads. Cottage industries like this don't crop up without the following to support them.

It's not unusual for people without room in their house to drag a TV out to their garage to play. There's DDR clubs at colleges. DDR's been used in high schools as an alternate gym class activity.

DDR is a Whole Thing.

Game companies unite

[Vandil X]

You may recall a small game publisher named "American Sammy", the US division of Sammy (of Japan) who churned out a few arcade game releases and even a Gameboy game series (Rolan's Curse 1 & 2).

American Sammy soon realized they sucked at games and got out of the business.

It's kind of interesting that two game makers would unite, one famous for console/arcade games (Sega) and one for it's products after it's gaming attempt (Sammy).

I wonder if Sega of America and American Sammy are merging, too.