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Sega To Launch New High-End Arcade System?
arcade_memories writes "GamesIndustry.biz reports that British tech company Imagination is building a new cutting edge arcade system for Sega, which will launch early next year. It's going to be based on the next generation of the PowerVR hardware, apparently - earlier versions (as well as being marginally popular PC graphics boards) powered the Dreamcast and the Naomi arcade board. This is interesting because Naomi was the last time Sega actually built its own arcade hardware, so this is a sure sign that they're bumping up the importance of the arcade market - just like new chairman Hajime Satomi (president of arcade and gambling machine company Sammy) wants, right?" Elsewhere, there are also new reports on Sega/AM2's new Chihiro-based CCG arcade game Quest Of D, featuring an interesting "touch-screen interface" concept, albeit on existing Xbox-based hardware.
But yeah, Sega has no rights to any desirable games.
Blaming GW Bush for the Iraq war is like blaming Ronald McDonald for the poor quality of food.
Yeah, looking at that list of games, I'd have to "agree". None of them really seem desirable to me.
Rejuvinating the arcade business with its introduction of a new high-end board will go even further to help out Sega Sammy's revenues. As we know their first-party games have done very well in the past (Outrun 2, being one of the latest examples), but the real big bucks will come from licensing their technology to other developers, and the even bigger bucks may come in later on if Sammy Sega decides to take a 7th(?) chance with a console based on this existing arcade technology.
Karma police, arrest this man, he talks in maths....
While I don't know a thing about Sammy outside of pachinko machines, I do know that Sega has been a company of innovation for 20+ years.
;-)
The touch screen interface sounds like a "gambling"-influenced innovation to me (from slot machines, perhaps pachinko machines). I am a bit skeptical on how well touch sensitivity could work in a relatively fast-paced (and network) multiplayer arcade game. You know there will always be some kids (or adults) that have unusually strong/dirty fingers and will break the sensitive touchscreen
Karma police, arrest this man, he talks in maths....
Can we also call it the neo geo? :)
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ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only
Lately I keep seeing claims that Sega's last custom arcade hardware was the Naomi1. But unless I am massively mistaken/insane, Sega has created at least a couple of new hardware platforms since then, the Naomi2 (Virtua Fighter 4) being the most prominent and profitable. Hikaru is another one.
Is this just seeing some shoddy games journalism (oops, I repeat myself)? Or I am missing something?
(Gamespot reported that this was "first new Sega hardware since Naomi1", too - of course, they suggested that a 'Super Dreamcast' could be made out of the new Sammy Atomiswave arcade hardware, not knowing that the Atomiswave is basically just a slightly tweaked Dreamcast, strictly sub-Naomi1 level, so what can you expect?)
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. -- Francis Bacon
I am sorry but the last time I paid less than $1.25 for a sega game was probably 1999. Between their racing games and virtual-on like joysticks there is nothing in the arcade, sega or not, worth that kind of money.
What the arcade needs is an 8 player golden axe with super moves, controls, graphics, dinosaurs with extreme brutality.
"NintendoFanBoy"
Son-ic with your say-ger makes it even gay-er!
"/NintendoFanBoy"
Come on guys where are the Sonic games!
I'm glad to see that Sega, Namco, and Stern (yes, i'm a fan of pinball) are still out there giving us new arcade hardware. I was sad to see Midway bow out back in 2000. It seems like there's quite a few more titles coming out now than there have been for a few years. They still need to work on prices ($2 games are now commonplace), but I'm glad that everyone isn't giving up just yet.
the post mentions a CCG arcade game. I remember hearing about an arcade game in Japan where you actually bought booster packs from a vending machine and then used those cards in the arcade game, swiping them to use them or something. Does anyone have any info or links to this?
You can tell someone's a game developer fanboy when, when he's confronted with someone who doesn't like the developer's games, he lists a bunch of the developer's games like it's supposed to prove something. Protip: Listing a bunch of games that you like isn't going to convince anyone that they're good.
Rob
However, in this case, the games he listed were mostly all critically acclaimed.
Sunday you're Thinking Different, Monday you're a huge tool, paying too much and waiting to think like everyone else.
Why isn't Sega Sammy focusing on writing their new arcade games for the Atomiswave platform? It's a nice and reasonably priced arcade platform that may well become the next Neo Geo. I mean sure their Naomi hardware was good but it's not like most of their games require a supercomputer-ish arcade platform to render.
Arcades are almost dead. All of my old favorites places have closed shop. Part of it is the equalization of the home and arcade hardware market but the curve could be soon seperating hopefully. Arcades should first and foremost blow people away. Remember the old school days where you would walk into an arcade and just be staggered by the incredible visuals and sounds that stayed in your mind way after you left them. Arcades need to get back to that! So yes Sega, Namco etc invest the money, push the limits and makes arcades once again a memorable experience. Link them up to the internet, provide memory cards or the ability to save your info in your email account, stats high scores etc, provide special events where you premire certain new features or equipment (physical and software (Mechs, Jets etc) at the arcade first. Provide online tournaments where those at the arcade can join the console users in tournaments. Bring back the glory!
R/
rrivera
"Critically acclaimed." Heh heh heh.
Rob
Ok, so what evidence do you require to consider a game as being "good"?
If you play Sonic Heroes, you won't want to see another Sonic game for a long time. What a mess.
If you like a game without feeling guilty about it, it's good. There's no such thing as objective "goodness" or "badness" unless you're talking about lacking things that are necessary for a game to even be a game (e.g. controllability, interactivity, stability). Even Pong could be considered a good game to some people (though I still can't comprehend how it beat River City Ransom in that GameFAQs poll).
Rob
I'm not trolling here. I have a DC and really love the little system. It was genuinely underappreciated.
The industry rumor mill had it that the upcoming next-gen Sega console "Blackbelt" would use a Voodoo chipset. Sega and 3dfx never could come to terms on pricing, so Sega chose rivaling PowerVR hardware.
Sega had the chance to capitalize strongly on the existing installed base of programmers familiar with 3dfx/Voodoo solutions at the time of the Dreamcast's launch. The PowerVR2 had some strenghs, but involved an unnecessarily steep learning curve for most developers. Coding well for it was harder than it should have been.
As with any console, the launch titles were nowhere near as good as the later games in terms of utilizing the power of the hardware, but that was especially the case with the Dreamcast.
Sega has shown with its arcade cabinets that they know how to make good machines using PowerVR hardware -- and in the arcade world, that's fine if you're the only one that needs to know how to make games for your system -- but it was no easy task to build a console that needed broad developer support.
Of course, there were other factors that hurt the DC, but the gpu choice that Sega made was one of their biggest mistakes.