GlobalVR’s NASCAR Team Racing title is scheduled to have it’s online features activated today, allowing you access to new tracks as well as the ability to race against people in other connected arcades. As this feature wasn’t available at the shows I can’t say what it’s like but I certainly would like to test it out. Since we haven’t seen online play with this level of interactivity in US arcades for a while now (i.e. where you play an active game against someone else as opposed to posting scores), it’s a notable development. A few other companies currently have plans to put their racing games online as well (Taito’s Top Speed and UNIS’s Crazy Speed) but I do have a hope that we will see games that aren’t racers receive a similar treatment down the road. We could, if rumors about GlobalVR next taking Blazing Angels online hold out to be true. You can visit the official page for NASCAR here.
What are your thoughts on the online arcade gaming scene?
While I would welcome any moves to play against people in real time, how long would the servers remain active? A lot of older home games are no longer playable online (ie XBOX 1 titles). Would operators be happy to purchase games that may have this facility cut at any time?
I think that you make the most important point about online gaming (for any platform really). THere was an online version of SF Rush 2049 but when the servers went down, that put it out of commission.
I think one solution would be to allow fans/operators to run their own dedicated servers. Not sure how that could be setup but it would be one way around the problem.