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.

O RLY

[wampus (1932)]

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

Re:O RLY

[by Anonymous Coward]

You probably didn't have enough flair either.

Re:O RLY

[banzairun (1236378)]

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 (232738)]

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

Re:

[lobiusmoop (305328)]

Plenty of them around in Tokyo last time I was there (along with the ubiquitous pachinko parlors). I guess if you live in a shoebox sized apartment, you are going to relish all the city entertainment you can get though.

You have no idea...

[interactive_civilian (205158)]

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...

Re:Arcades were still operating in Japan?

[The Orange Mage (1057436)]

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:

[mikael (484)]

Last time I saw the prices of the arcades in the UK, it was around 1 pound/2$ for every 30 seconds of play. For an afternoon's entertainment, it is obviously cheaper buying a console system

Re:Arcades were still operating in Japan?

[RyuuzakiTetsuya (195424)]

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.

Playing catch-up

[Purity Of Essence (1007601)]

Same thing happened in the US when the NES came out. What comes around goes around. Or something.

Wii will survive

[erick99 (743982)]

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

Re:Wii will survive

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

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

Re:

[OMNIpotusCOM (1230884)]

I say good riddance. Maybe next time some little Asian kid won't come up and beat me at Tekken next time I've played 20 minutes straight on two quarters and am right at the boss. Maybe it's just me... they didn't let me back into that Chuck E Cheese again.

It's not just the wii, though

[jpfed (1095443)]

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.

Re:

[jalefkowit (101585)]

Well, there are still some controllers [seanbaby.com] you can only find in the arcade... (thank God).

Bring back pinball!

[by Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:

[ZorinLynx (31751)]

I second that.

I don't know why pinball died. It's so much fun! It's physical and noisy and just *cool*.

Video games seem to sterile by comparison. An acquaintance collects and maintains old electromechanical pinball tables... Has about 20 of them in perfect operating condition. Tons of fun...

Bring back pinball, damnit.

Re:

[zotz (3951)]

I felt like playing one the other day myself.

all the best,

drew

Good old days...

[eNygma-x (1137037)]

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 (62405)]

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

Arcade closures in the US, too

[AtariDatacenter (31657)]

According to Play Meter magazine [google.com] (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!

For all those expressing shock..

[crossmr (957846)]

You do realize you're on the internet right? I know it requires a couple extra clicks, but its not really that hard to find information on how gaming in North America is vastly different from that in places like Korea and Japan. In both countries youth are very much social gamers (and at least in Korea people are just way more social anyway).

Koreans have the PC Rooms, which shouldn't be in danger of being wiped out as computers have been available in the home for a long time now and if they were going to be

I got an itch between my legs, I'll blame it on..

[3seas (184403)]

Computer technology.... just like everyone else is doing....

From the RIAA to my hemorrhoids from sitting down all day.

technology in the computer industry is supposed to make things easier, cheaper and overall better.

So complain about it!

And while you are at it, complain how there is no more horse manure in the streets for the manure sweeps to earn a living by, because of cars.

this is asking for a mod down, but...

[C0vardeAn0nim0 (232451)]

Wii for the WIIn!!!

got it ? WIIn !

i'll go back to my cave now.

Clearly they learned nothing from RIAA

[causality (777677)]

The obvious solution is to bribe^H^H^H^^H contribute to the campaign of enough politicians to get the Wii outlawed. Call it an "income circumvention device". Man, have Namco learned nothing? Are they that dense? Whenever your industry is threatened by new "consumer" technology, just abuse the law to protect your position in the market. Damn, this should be Business 101 in America; doesn't Japan want to be competitive in the global market?

kids have more money than ever

[Anonymous Cowpat (788193)]

and so do their parents. Arcades work well when the kids can't possibly hope to play video games any other way, so they hand over their money bit-by-bit, every week. But now a games console is not out of the financial reach of the average kid \ parent, and if you can afford to buy a console and play an unlimited amount for no further spending, why wouldn't you? It's the same as the death of hiring televisions, or why more people are paying a mortgage rather than rent. Repeatedly paying to use something but

Passing the blame is great and all

[rolfwind (528248)]

but it won't stop the customer base from shrinking.

I don't know any dedicated arcades anymore. In this area. they started closing down mid-90s, and the last one I remember, from the 6-7 that used to be around, closed 2 years back. I think Chuck E. Cheese has been down because of similiar woes, but since I haven't been there since many, many years -- don't take that as an informed opinion.

So that leaves what? The bowling alley, billiard places, theatres, and most other recreational centers usually have so

The best thing about the Wii...

[Kjella (173770)]

...in the Wii vs arcade fight, is that the Wii is so flexible. Ever since home computers became affordable, the arcade has lived off the fact that a bunch of large arcade machines just aren't practical to have at home. Well, the Wiimote is your one-stop tennis racket, baseball and bat, bowling ball, golf club, boxing glove, steering wheel, gun, fishing pole, joystick (e.g. rolling ball in SMG) and whatever else I don't remember at the moment. Sure it's nothing like a proper steering wheels with force feedba

Social Gaming

[ddrichardson (869910)]

Surprised they didn't mention on-line gaming really, maybe it's my age but I remember people queing up to play Street Fighter II. People still enjoy the challenge of another person, its just that they are doing it at home.

Don't spook the horses...

[pla (258480)]

A lot of the types of games that people played at an arcade can now be done at home

So basically, you have yet anothing industry built upon an obsolete business model (scarcity of high-quality video games), and choose to blame the concept that made your product worthless, rather than adapting to provide a better service (cheaper would help - When an hour in the arcade costs me as much as buying a new game, why would I ever pick the former?).

Don't worry, the buggy-whip manufacturers and the RIAA feel for

Arcades can evolve

[HalAtWork (926717)]

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:

[rpillala (583965)]

There used to be one of those in Laurel, MD called Galaxy Computing and they had to close their doors due to lack of customers. They had:

• Big-screen TVs (two or three?) with consoles parked in front
• 20 gaming PCs on a LAN
• Deals with game studios to provide games at a much lower rate, and in some cases prelaunch
• Advertising campaigns at local schools and whatnot
• Group rates for things like birthday parties
• lots of launch events - I saw the Baldur's Gate II launch event it was kind of sad
• participation in na

Re:

[xenocide2 (231786)]

Dave & Busters does the game and alcohol/food thing already, but they really pander to a more general audience than would play Soul Calibar 3 twice. For example, in Kansas City, they built one near the new NASCAR track, and the D&B has ridiculous amounts of redneck games. Turkey shooters, NASCAR racers etc. The problem appears to be that the people who try to cater to redneck fans have terrible ability or attention to quality, making the game's only attraction an initial familiarity.

As for turning a

Re:Arcades can evolve

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

Well, back in the BBS days I had about sixteen machines in my basement. I would bring a half dozen of the line servers down for the evening, and we'd play Duke Nukem 3D or Shadow Warrior into the wee hours of the night. It was intense. No online game can quite compare: hearing the guy across the room yell "Son of a bitch!" or "Goddammit!!!" and knowing it was that perfect sniper shot you had lined up ... well. "Satisfying" is an understatement.

One day I put a small TSR on one of the PCs that would let me send keystrokes to that machine. I would randomly fire the player's weapons for him, and if he happened to be, say, facing a wall at the time he'd blow himself up. This usually resulted in an anguished "What the FUCK!", with hilarity ensuing amongst the remaining players. Sometimes I could blow him up and take out a couple of nearby opponents as well. Eventually they cottoned on to me, and then it was me running for my life for the next couple of hours while they taught me a lesson I'd never forget.

Re:Arcades can evolve

[Kris_J (10111)]

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

I call BS

[grouchomarxist (127479)]

I've been to a number of video arcades in Japan and they're more like gambling joints. They're more focused on pachinko, slots, artificial horse races, robot arm games, games that require extensive expertise and lot of money. They're focused on a different market than the Wii.

Movies blamed for death of Vaudeville

[istartedi (132515)]

VHS destroys Hollywood. Horseless carriage destroys buggywhip biz. Craigslist kills newspaper classifieds. Rise of city-states and domesticated livestock reduces esteem of hunters. And many more...

Re:The market there was too saturated anyway.

[WarlockD (623872)]

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 [youtube.com]

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

Re:

[donscarletti (569232)]

but games like this make the PS3 look like a worthy investment.

Try playing Mobile Suit Gundam: Target In Sight (called Crossfire in North America) on the PS3 and you'll see why it's not a good investment. The graphics are abysmal, the animation is clunky (and not in the good robot way), the controls are unresponsive and the missions are repetitive, boring and frustrating. Combat is fairly arbitrary, you can't move fast enough to dodge so you end up just hoping that the bad dudes don't hit you (they usual

Re:

[crossmr (957846)]

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/shuttering [reference.com]

"To furnish or close with shutters: locked the doors and shuttered the windows."

Sometimes when businesses are closed, they do just that.

Re:

[Torvaun (1040898)]

Score another grammarian for Randall. [xkcd.com]

Re:

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

Something that has been happening in the US since, what, the 90s? Late 80s?

Early eighties, I'd say, maybe even late seventies. I was a regular at several local arcades (yes, we had several back then) but once I got an Apple ][ and the family got a VCR I had less time for them. Yes, the PC games were crude compared to what the arcades offered, but they were more convenient and didn't cost quarters.

The original personal computers began taking share away from arcades decades ago. The small ones closed f

Re:

[zakezuke (229119)]

Japan is just now feeling this? I thought they were supposed to be ahead of the times technology wise than us.

Keep in mind that Japan like many old school countries have a high population density and space is at a premium. Entertaining at home tends to be impractical due to space concerns. But with broadband and lower cost small hardware make it possible to play at home as well or better than an arcade.

While I live in the states and haven't been to an arcade in 10 years, I have to admit I rather hope a few stay around and actually embrace netplay. While spendy in the long term, it would be nice to taste games f

Re:

[ohtani (154270)]

Japan is not the US and the US is not Japan, and may have cultural differences helping it last longer. Though sometimes the two combine [tokyogameaction.com].

Re:

[Nar Matteru (1099389)]

Let's make sure the grammys gets the lowest ratings ever and bring the riaa to its knees. If you watch the grammys, you are supporting their racket of destroying our rights.

Even though you are just an idiot troll, I still feel the need to correct you. Watching a show doesn't have any effect on its ratings at all. Unless, of course you have a Nielson box.

Re:Um... what?

[milsoRgen (1016505)]

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 (97195)]

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.

Re:

[billcopc (196330)]

I blame Namco for releasing the same regurgitated crap for 25 years.

People certainly won't be going to the arcades for single-player games or palette-swapped sequels to Soul Edge. There's also the ridiculous prices being charged for games - I can tolerate (begrudgingly) paying a dollar for a big game like DDR or Drummania where you actually get 5-6 minutes of play. I can't stand paying that much for a crappy low-res racing game with anime physics and "gone in 60 seconds" difficulty.

There's just no fun in

Re:Um... what?

[DDLKermit007 (911046)]

Yeah the gasoline argument doesn't really hold water with me either. I spent the Summer in Japan bouncing around the country, and you really don't see cars, let alone parking spots around arcades. You take a freaking train to get everywhere. Driving to an arcade in Japan is pretty superfluous in Japan. All you need to bring is a few thousand yen, and your good to go. It's more likely the best arcades are getting all the business really. Usually I stayed away from Namco's arcades since they usually have the games that are a couple years old, and their UFO catchers in my experience are substantially harder (translation: require more $$$) to win. Find it odd that Sega would be closing arcades though, probably just the under performing ones in bad locations.

Re:

[Riktov (632)]

If you get outside of the urban core, suburban Japan (for example, large parts of Chiba and Saitama prefecture) has become, in the past decade or so, quite like suburban America, where you actually do need a car to get around, and amenities are being built with that assumption.

Sure, there's always a train station in the vicinity of such communities, but those are for commuting in to the city, and not very useful for getting around in the area -- the end of the line is a big urban hub, but most of the statio