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Xbox Coming to Arcades
Stanl writes "The San Jose Mercury News reports that Microsoft will be taking Xbox technology into arcades, including a statement that, 'arcade titles influence the kind of console games that fans buy.' That is an interesting unattributed observation."
Depends on the arcade. The local Dave & Busters looks to be doing quite a bit of business. Something can be said for mixing games with alcohol and marketing them to adults.
...I can see why they thought of it.
It is black-letter fact, the arcade is dead. Has been dead, in fact, for a long time. From the article itself:
Eddie Adlum, publisher of arcade magazine RePlay, said arcades have been in decline ever since the rise of console gaming. About a decade ago, he estimates there were 10,000 arcades, but that number has since dropped to about 3,000. Hit games such as ``Ms. Pacman'' once sold 100,000 machines, but today, typical hits sell maybe 4,000 to 6,000 units, Adlum said.
However, there is something very similar to the arcade which is growing moderatealy well both in the U.S. and especially in Asia. It's a kind of mutation of the "internet cafe." It seems, while kids won't plunk down dollars to play conventional arcade games, they will go out and "rent" a PC to play Counterstrike or Starcraft for an hour or three. Multiplayer games, it seems, still have draw. And thus the article goes on...
Lately, the rise of online gaming, especially in Asia, has transformed many arcades from stand-alone machines to networks of connected computers where players can play against each other or anyone else over the Internet. That transition plays to the Xbox's strength, since it is primed for broadband gaming, and it also plays to Microsoft's strong relationship with Sega, which is a big supporter of online gaming.
So they think they will somehow tap into this growing phenomenon, instead of merely blowing 50 million or so producing expensive collectors items. I'm not holding my breath, but anything is possible, I guess.
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Dreamcast was developed from the Naomi technology available in arcades in the first place.
;)
This is the reversed process. And add the fact that the hardware in the XBOX isn't new or revolutionary at all. Is basically Intel x86 + nVidia + hardware locks + a now-crappy HD + a huge ugly case. Anyway I love some of the games
The implication here is that the Xbox crashes and freezes to a degree similar to MS Windows.
In fact, it does not. I've played the hell out of mine for 15 months, and it flows like buttah. I'm no MS apologist, and their PC operating systems have nearly made me Elvis my monitors on a number of occasions. But their XBox? Technical problems on an un-modded unit? Unheard of.
Somebody mod this ignorant buffoon down.
I'm surprised more companies don't do it
More companies do release arcade hardware similar to their home hardware. I think just about every console going back to the NES has had an arcade equivalent. Naomi, for example, was Sega's hardware platform that was very similar to the Dreamcast. Sony teamed with Namco to do an arcade version of the PSX, and I believe there's also a PS2 platform as well.
This site does a good job of going over hardware platforms used by Sega, Namco and Konami. I think there may be info on the XBox platform if it's being used by any of those companies.