When I have read about the arcade industry from other news sources in recent times they mostly ignore any
good news the industry has to offer such as new game releases but they focus on the fact that in Japan, several arcade developers have had some trouble because of their arcade divisions. And of course this is used to continue the clarion call that the arcade is “dead” and most recently this was done with Capcom suffering some loss on that side.
Well Konami has released some information on their operating profits and they are doing quite well and profits are up 66% over the same time last year – in part because of Metal Gear Solid 4 but also because of their arcade division. One arcade title is even mentioned by name on the report, Konami’s Horse Riders.
It’s unfortunate that this information is usually not disseminated about arcade developers outside of Japan but the whole point is that every company is different – they have different games and different strategies for making money. Sometimes things work out and sometimes they don’t. In my view, Konami has certainly been working harder on creating success for their arcade division than say Capcom and I think that is reflected in these results.
UPDATE on one Konami game, Action Cop (or Deka): Just some quick news on this motion-controlled Konami game that is in Japan (I might show up in Europe but I have heard nothing about a US release), they 
have released a new level for the game which includes a new boss called Zaemon. It looks like the battle against this boss is a sort of mini-game inside the regular game and while I don’t know how long the game normally is, the addition of one extra level is probably nice for those already familiar with the game.
[Via The Stinger Report via ITMedia]
its still pretty shitty that Konami currently has no arcade division for the US.