Namco Blames Wii for Arcade Closures

milsoRgen noted a story about Namco Bandai is shuttering between 50 and 60 arcades in Japan and blaming the success of the Wii for the closures. "A lot of the types of games that people played at an arcade can now be done at home," said company spokesman Yuji Machida. To be fair they also blame the high cost of gasoline as well.

Comments

O RLY

[wampus]

They blamed me personally for not upselling birthday parties when they closed the one I worked at here in the US.

Re:O RLY

[Anonymous Coward]

You probably didn't have enough flair either.

Re:O RLY

[banzairun]

Namco Arcades in America were always a joke.. In fact they almost single-handedly killed off most of the mall arcades by buying out many of the existing chains (Aladdin's Castle, Pocket Change, Time-Out, Monte Carlo, etc..). This wouldn't have been such a problem, but Namco does not like to purchase new equipment for their stores as a cost-saving measure, where most of the chains they bought out did. This turned their arcades from a destination to just the place you might go to kill a little bit of time before heading to the theater. Maybe this was their business model, but why go to an arcade when you know you're not going to see anything new? Only the few hardcore DDR and Tekken 5 players ever made the trek away from their Xbox360's to reallifeland after that.

Look at their stores now and nearly half of the games in them are 10-year old gun games and a few driving games.. They also got in trouble by upgrading their DDR machines with PS2's instead of dedicated arcade hardware, as a cost saving measure.

Namco killed their own business (and the Texas-based Tilt chain did as well by making some poor purchasing decisions).. around my area, local companies are starting up new mall arcades that seem to be doing fairly well.

The real money the past couple years was in machines like Derby Owners Club, which cost $128,000 to buy but will pay for itself within 9 mos in a high-traffic location.. That game single-handedly kept Dave & Busters in business.

Arcades were still operating in Japan?

[Zouden]

They all closed here years ago. I think Playstation was blamed at the time, though many probably closed earlier and blamed the Genesis.

Re:Arcades were still operating in Japan?

[The Orange Mage]

Arcades in America closed because almost all but the largest were terribly maintained and many games took more quarters than they were worth. Bad management and little retarded kids breaking in the buttons till they don't work anymore is what killed the Arcade in the U.S..

Re:Arcades were still operating in Japan?

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

Seriously, compare a CPS-2 setup or something to an American made counterpart of the same era. They just simply don't compare.

and then there's the cabinets themselves, American cabs are these flimsy hulks of wood with low res monitors that break when you sneeze at them. In 1996, there was a major sea-change in arcade hardware. JAMMA was fine... in the 80's. 3 buttons, low res monitor, and mono sound. Fine. But come oh, 1994, 1995, hardware gets to be a whole lot better. VGA graphics, stereo sound, complicated input systems(not just multi-button fighters; light guns, optical and analog inputs) and something had to be done. So the JAMMA people got back together and came up with the JAMMA Video Standard, JVS for short. USB I/O(output for things like coin counters), stereo sound and 31kHz VGA high resolution monitors. Now, in 1996 there was only one company in America making arcade cabs and it was the Valley-Dynamo company(who got out of the cab making business all together), and all they made were low res, JAMMA compatible systems, completely ignoring the new JVS standard. Compare that to Japan and Korea where in Japan, you had Sega, Konami, Capcom, Taito, Namco and Andamiro making these sturdy metal candy cabs that still have long lasting monitors that just keep chugging along AND if not in the year 1996, had atleast by 1998 produced cabs that were JVS compliant.

Wii will survive

[erick99]

"What are wii going to do?" said the Japanese arcade executive to his robot pet dog.

Re:Wii will survive

[ScrewMaster]

Later that day, the same Namco executive was heard to say, "Wii will prevail!"

It's not just the wii, though

[jpfed]

Dance-pads, guitars, and guns have shown that people are willing to buy alternative input devices of many stripes, which had been a niche for arcades.

Bring back pinball!

[Anonymous Coward]

Arcades want to survive? Easy, bring back pinball. A real, physical pinball game, not the emulator kind made by GlobalVR.

Re:The market there was too saturated anyway.

[WarlockD]

To be honest, I doubt its the gasoline prices. Allot of arcades over in Japan are usually within walking distance of schools and residental areas. They are just freakishly expensive.

Take the Gundum Pod Game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNSodeMJ2u0

The thing takes 500 Yen. Thats a little more than $4.50 a GAME. Oh and you can't just play it once, you have to play it multipal times to raise your skill so you can get better mechs. Sure it was networked and you could play with other people in pods, but games like this make the PS3 look like a worthy investment.

If they made the games cheaper, I think arcades can last longer there. But I doubt it as most of these "pod" like machines are pricey as it is.

PS - Missed a br:P

Good old days...

[eNygma-x]

I was just thinking lastnight how much I missed the old days of arcades. People gathering around "World Heroes" or "SoulEdge" or better yet "Virtua Fighter" to test our skills. I still haven't beaten "S.T.U.N. runner" (I was so close.) And yes I do blame game consoles. Online game play makes things better.... but it still doesn't compare to walking into an arcade and feeling the tension of arcade battles. =)

Re:Good old days...

[operagost]

The "old days" of "Virtua Fighter"? Try Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga, punk! Get off my lawn!

You have no idea...

[interactive_civilian]

They really are everywhere in Japan. To the extent that, when I saw the summary say "shuttering between 50 and 60 arcades in Japan" my thought was, "Oh no, how will the other thousands and thousands of them survive?"

I wish I could come up with a real number of arcades open in Japan, but my google-fu is weak today. However, given my experiences there, 50-60 does not sound like a big number of closings...

Arcade closures in the US, too

[AtariDatacenter]

According to Play Meter magazine (the magazine for the arcade/amusement industry), the arcade industry took an even bigger dive in 2007 (from its long decline starting in 1984).

Family Entertainment Centers (FEC) locations were down 60% year-over-year. OUCH!

Arcades can evolve

[HalAtWork]

Arcades can evolve too. The market is there for people who want to rent out movie-theatre sized screens to play multiplayer games. How about an arcade that contains actual consoles where you just bring your memory cards or wiimotes (w/character data on) and just pay a cover charge and for drinks, or for a private room with friends (like billiards) all so you can play with a crowd on a giant screen? I'm sure parents would appreciate the break, and kids can be as loud as they want or game with their friends all night.
 
There is a giant rift between arcade games and their console counterparts because we cannot exchange character data between them or game on a console vs an arcade cabinet. If we allow this, then the popularity of the living room will also be interchangable with that of the public gaming outlets, and both can coexist and benefit from each other. Perhaps if you visit the arcades you can get the newest demos first, or the arcades can download them for you and burn them on disc and charge a token fee. Wii demos for full games could be distributed exclusively at arcades. There are many opportunities to increase the popularity of both at the same time.

Re:Arcades can evolve

[Kris_J]

Wow. Truly a story for the ages. Disney should make a movie.

Re:Um... what?

[milsoRgen]

And considering the high density population their urban centers are known for, one would think a nearby arcade wouldn't be to far away. I'm thinking the Wii might be playing a part in this, but if it is it's merely a blip in the grand scheme of things. As nothing really compares to a well designed arcade machine, no matter how much fun flailing your arms about is in the privacy in your own home.

I just wonder if it's become cost prohibitive to truly innovate (or differentiate yourself) in an arcade machine. Graphics are pretty good these days, I can't see any company willing to invest the money to make an arcade machine truly stand out compared to a GeForce 8xxx or PS3/Xbox. And if you can't win on the graphics front, you have to start doing novelty things like incorporating movement or force feedback, again increasing costs.

It's hard to say, as Japan is such a different beast than the U.S.

But I can say personally I quit going to the arcade when games were no longer 25 or even, 50 cents. I really don't care about paying for the newest hardware, as the newest hardware/graphics doesn't equal the greatest game play. I still play A.P.B. (that top down 2d cop game, where you pull people over and go through the donut shops), and that 2d sidescrollin' X-Men beat-em-up, when I can find them.... Simply because they are the most fun... IMHO

Re:Um... what?

[MidnightBrewer]

Living in Japan, I'd say that the arcade still has a lot of appeal for the younger crowd because of the social aspect (spending time with your friends and not having to be around your family), but the games are definitely feeling their age; Namco isn't making much effort in the innovation or updating graphics department, so it's their own fault.

Unless these are game centers out in the middle of nowhere, blaming the gas prices is total crap, since the trains are unaffected and most kids are going to their local game center by bicycle. Certain shopping malls are indeed out in the suburbs, but again, unless we're talking about the rural countryside here, all of them are within a short walk or bus ride from the station. I'd definitely go with the idea that Namco has been sitting on their coattails and not bothering to bring anything good to the table.