Namco Pushes Counter-Strike LAN Centers In Japan

Thanks to GameSpot for their extended four part series discussing Namco's attempt to launch gaming-specific LAN centers as an alternative to arcades in Japan. The company has made moves to "..license Counter-Strike from Valve Software, create a localized version called Counter-Strike NEO for Japanese gamers, and install specially designed [PC setups] running the game in Namco's LEDZone LAN arcades." Although PC gaming is still weak and arcade gaming strong in Japan, Namco has put a lot of effort into these gaming-only PC LAN centers, which even have a "subwoofer mounted flush with the floor in front of each seat... so gamers feel each gunshot and explosion through the soles of their feet." Namco also mentions Counter-Strike NEO shows gradually increasing revenues, as opposed to Japanese arcade games, which "...are most profitable shortly after installation, and then suffer declining revenue until the arcade owner replaces them."

Cup holders?

[jptechnical]

Cool consoles, but how are you gonna fit a 2 litre bottle of MtDew in those little bitty cup holders?

Used to work at a LAN center...

[Anonymous Coward]

Posting anonymously... because this is what anonymous posting is for:

I used to work at a LAN center. The store-level management was superb, but the network-wide management was absolute crap. The most successful LAN center has to cater to it's individual target audience - different locations breed different types of gamers.

Our LAN center worked great holding fun, informal events and having open servers where everything went. Company policy clamped down and slowly killed the customer base. I left the company because I moved, but the profits are half what they were at the time I left. Sucks real hard.

The other big issue is obsolescence. People don't realize how fast gaming techonology dies and is reborn in the newest, $1000 form. When you *never ever ever* spend the money to upgrade, you find yourself without a reason for your customers to game with you. The biggest draw of the traditional arcade is new, inventive gameplay with technology one can't find anyplace but the store. That, and the social aspect - but the internet and voice chat are slowly killing that draw for the LAN crowd.

Re:Used to work at a LAN center...

[Anonymous Coward]

The Above-mentioned LAN center chain, which you can find here, is www.battlelan.com. I'm an idiot and forgot to include it in my purposefully anonymous post. :)

Bad move

[Lord_Dweomer]

So what happens when CS isn't popular enough anymore to drive enough players into the CS arcade to make it cost justifiable?

We've got it here too

[IANAL(BIAILS)]

The campus arcade replaced a bunch of it's larger games (DDR and the like) and put in a few rows totaling 30 or so networked computers running CD, Starcraft, Warcraft, Wolf*, etc. It's amazing how busy the place has been since they made the switch. We're even getting high school kids that make the trip out here to play the games... it's funny: I would have thought that by now everyone has a semi-powerful computer and high speed cable connection at home. I guess not!

Re:We've got it here too

[Ieshan]

Just so you know:

DDR machines make a whole lot more than those computers, from a cash standpoint, in most arcades.

Re:We've got it here too

[irc.goatse.cx troll]

High bandwidth yes, high latency yes. Online gaming is usually 80ms or so, 120 becomes unplayable. less than 50 and you're pretty good, but thats hard to do, and all it takes is one opponent with 250ping to really throw your game (they shoot you and you jump back 250ms due to lag compensation).

On lan, theres a lot less general BS from stuff like that, and you have your friends right there to yell at.

Re:We've got it here too

[MMaestro]

Well based on the names of the games you listed, saying that its busy isn't saying much. Starcraft and Warcraft (3)? Those are strategy games, and those have generally been known to last no less than 20 minutes per game (unless one of the players REALLY sucks at stopping rushes) with longer games going over 2 hours (an unlimited resources maps + 4 vs 4 humans? Yeah...)

A "semi-powerful computer" is an extremely relative term these days. College kids tend to get spoiled with their campuses (usually) providing

You are off by half.

[DAldredge]

40*8 is $320 not $640

Re:We've got it here too

[WoTG]

There's also cheating to worry about over the internet. On a 3rd party LAN Gaming Centre, everyone is theoretically at the same technical advantage.

It's also more fun to frag folks when they're physically with earshot!

Intresting to note.

[Quadfreak0]

On my last visit to taiwan, which isnt that far away from japan, Lan-cafes or lan party pubs seemed to be a booming biz, and most people go play there than at the arcades just because you pay the hourly rate and play whatever games you want. amazing how diffrent these two gamer cultures are when separated by a little water. Oh and last I check CS is still quite popular, but I dont think they should have payed to put their little name on it...

Re:Intresting to note.

[alphaseven]

Lan-cafes or lan party pubs seemed to be a booming biz, and most people go play there than at the arcades just because you pay the hourly rate and play whatever games you want.

I've noticed this in Toronto too, there's a stretch on Bloor from Christie to Spadina that must have more than a dozen different lan places, several open 24 hours. Mostly people playing games but also surfing the web.

I had just assumed the lan places thing was happening everywhere, but articles I read suggest it's only really gott

Re:Intresting to note.

[bugbread]

Well, as a Tokyo resident, I can confirm that there are very few LAN gaming places. In fact, I only know off-hand of one (though I suspect that there are a few near Akihabara). The one I'm thinking of is nice, very well appointed, in a part of town known for its youth, with gigantic, obvious signage, and yet it's pretty much always empty. It's a shame.

Just remember...

[karmyk]

...this is in Japan and not America... this could probably be really successful there.

Console Gaming LAN

[VikingBrad]

A local guy has setup a Computer Gaming shop with the feature being a 4 x X-box LAN playing System Link games such as Halo. Each console has own big TV and works quite well. Cheaper to setup & run than a PC gaming LAN and less support issues, just reboot & go. The consoles are behind the counter so users only have access to their gamepad. Mainly for casual gaming and LAN parties Sounds good and with a decent Internet connection & Xbox Live could even do some Internet gaming. Anybody know of an