For a while on Highwaygames.com they have had a banner sitting there with a countdown towards an “Xbox
Arcade Machine” for sometime now and according to the countdown, tomorrow is the day that it will be revealed to the world. Now whether or not it actually will come around is up for debate as I think it was a few weeks ago that the counter was almost done when it was reset and I just went to the site to take a look at it and at the moment it is at 1:15:12 – higher than the image that was sent to us by The Stinger Report. So we’ll wait and see if that happens again and if it doesn’t then we’ll have to see what Microsoft officially states about it as this is not the first time someone has tried to do this and disappeared shortly after distributors demanded to know the legality of such a machine. If it has Microsoft’s blessing then it may very well show up all over the place otherwise there won’t be much to say about it until the next company comes along trying to do the same thing.
I am curious to know what you arcade gamers think about this. Does such a system have any appeal to you or to those that you know? It could make a nice system that is a step up from store kiosks where full games are available to play as opposed to demos and I know that it would be used as an easy way to hold a Guitar Hero tournament. I also wonder if they already have distributors for the machine in the US and Europe, as the banner mentions that they are looking for distribution in Asia, the Mid East and South Pacific.
[Highwaygames via The Stinger Report] [Discuss on the Forum]
A lot of gamers always say why would they go to an arcade to play games when they can basically the same thing at home on thier xbox. Which makes me wonder will gamers actually be prepared to pay per play for EXACTY what theyve got at home?
I am very skeptical about this – we have another feature in the Stinger about legal arcade machines and this one seems… unusual!
I have tried to contact MS about the system and get a official statement, but all this normally (this is the third such occasion I have tried) cause the proposed start-up to suddenly disappear – feeling like the angle of death regarding arcade start-ups.
Regarding the possible interest in a MS coin-op, the truck stop, hotel and cybercafe market could be good homes for this system.
That looks like a FIFA 08 machine to me, dude.
Shaggy: The time discrepancy is easy to explain if the flash movie reads the user’s clock. TSR’s machine is probably set to UK time, yours in Utah will be 7 hours behind!
Anything that gets cheap arcade games (and lots of easily swappable games) in the hands of small operators is a good thing.
Why would people play what they can get at home? Beause they aren’t at home. They’re in a public environment with other people. It’s the social aspect that makes arcade games distinct from console games. Plus, you’re not going to be playing your console while you’re drinking in the pub or waiting to see a film at the cinema. That’s assuming you’ve even got a machine at home.
VHS didn’t make cinema redudant. Live music didn’t kill CD sales. I always get annoyed when people don’t see the distinction in playing a game at home (even online) and the same game in an arcade. It’s a totally different experience even if the hardware and controls are entirely identical.