We have been following the efforts of those who have been attempting to bring console gaming back into arcades (you might recall that consoles have been used before in arcades to promote a game system in particular – the Nintendo VS. or Sega’s Mega Play come to mind) and so far no one had been successful at creating a legal platform where operators could set-up a console like the Xbox 360 and go from there. The Arcade Station T2 got close but apparently had dropped the ball somewhere but now the T2 is back, redesigned and legal. In addition to the Xbox 360 it can also play Playstation 3 games now and the unit already has distributors set up in Europe and the US. As a sign of legitimacy to it, Sega Amusements Europe will be distributing the unit in Europe (except for Italy); a company called American Reload will handle it in the US and Highway Games will take care of it in Asia. More details will be forthcoming at ATEI 2009 and I imagine that this will probably see Street Fighter 4 being played at many locations since an operator could save gobs of cash on it and still charge quarters/tokens for the game without having to keep a constant eye on the thing.
Click on the image above for a full view of the flyer.