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."

Comments

Competition

[Sophrosyne]

Microsoft is always trying to undermine their competition, and they do that by copying what other companies do and try to saturate the market..
Nintendo/Namco/Sega - have their Triforce arcade system based on gamecube arcitecture, and I think Microsoft is just scared and lost, as usual.
I don't think they actually have a solid plan for what they are doing- just release a few arcade games to push out Triforce's dominance, and in turn take away some thunder from beaneath the wings of Nintendo.

They're already there (sort of)

[tweakt]

I was in a local arcde walking around and saw an arcade machine being rebooted. I saw the Windows 2000 splash screen come up. I'm not sure but I think it was a standing up jet-ski or speedboat racing game.

Can anyone confirm this?

Re:They're already there (sort of)

[artemis67]

Yeah, also check out Beachhead 2000, which bombed as a home-PC game, but is pretty cool as an arcade game because of the 360 VR cabinet design.

Re:They're already there (sort of)

[Keith Russell]

I saw the Windows 2000 splash screen come up. I'm not sure but I think it was a standing up jet-ski or speedboat racing game. Can anyone confirm this?

Midway had been using Windows 2000 for their racing games, and maybe more. I figured this out when I saw a Hydro Thunder machine with a Blue Screen Of Death. And before anybody gloats, it was INACCESSABLE_BOOT_DEVICE, which is, 99% of the time, a hard drive failure.

Re:Ummm..

[Cutriss]

I don't know about Midway or other arcade game manufacturers, but I find one of the major problems with the arcade business to be that nobody wants the arcades around.

There are at least three shopping malls in Jackson, MS, the largest city in the state. Only one of them has an arcade (Owned by Namco), and it's in the process of closing up. Why? Because the mall owners wanted to stiff Namco out of more money for the same location, while simultaneously enacting rules cutting back on the amount of money Namco can make at this location. Metrocenter enacted a new rule which basically forbids anyone under the age of 18 from entering the mall without being accompanied by an adult during the hours of 3-Close on Friday or Saturday...pretty much the only time you could have kids/teens in the arcade without it being a schoolnight.

Furthermore, Northpark Mall shafted the Cyberstation's lease (also owned by Namco), because they just didn't want an arcade. The complaint was that "the arcade went against the family atmosphere" which the mall was trying to obtain. They offered a renewal for an exorbitant amount of extra money, but the manager turned down the extortion rate and went on operating the arcade in Metrocenter (until recently anyway).

I went to all of the Wolfchase malls in St. Louis, and *none* of them had arcades anywhere. I checked later, and it seems that most of the arcades are in smaller complexes and shopping centers that are out of the way. Nobody seems to want them around anymore. Perhaps it's somewhat of a "fashion taste"? Are arcades *so* 90's now?

Games like Dance Dance Revolution and Mo-Cap Boxing are demonstrating quite clearly that the arcade industry has life left in it. I disagree with the assertion that the arcade industry is dying, and say instead that outside influences are killing it purposefully.