(Via a tweet and forum post at ArcadeOtaku)
ArcSystem Works, makers of fighting games like BlazBlue has another 2D fighter in the works for arcades and this one is called Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka. This will be a fighter based upon the popular RPG released by Atlus for the PS2 but will be a little more related to the PSVita port which will come out at about the same time as this fighter. Famitsu has some details on the fighter and they also show that console players won’t have to wait very long to get their hands on the console port of the arcade version as it will come out to Japanese arcades in the Spring of next year and will come to the PS3 and Xbox 360 a couple of months later. It hasn’t been confirmed what hardware it will run on at the moment but I imagine that it will use Taito’s NESiCAxLIVE network, which is really the best way for operators in Japan to get it since that works on an online revenue sharing basis.
UPDATE: Today comes confirmation that the game is coming to NESiCAxLIVE. GameWatch and Andriasang agree. As I mentioned, since NESiCA allows ops to do it on an online revenue share basis, that means that the risk can be minimal to them since they can download the game for free, share payment on how much it’s played and if sales sink, no major loss of being stuck with a board that might not pay itself back. But this isn’t a Capcom fighting game so it’s unlikely that a standard arcade board for this particular game would cost more than $3000.
Other than that there isn’t much to say about it at this point although I found it amusing that it already has some Engrish going on there. Free Pray!
UPDATE: So a trailer for this has been released and no mention of the arcade version. I can’t understand why they wouldn’t want to promote the arcade version, seeing how it’s something they’ve spent time and money producing.
Your guess is right, it’s coming on NesicaXLive. Because ASW is not capcom, operators are saved from having to pay loads for game that will stay arcade exclusive for so short….
Source: http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/09/01/persona_4_at_tgs/
There’s a petition for this game to be released in Europe: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/personafighereu/
Arc System Works Europe is watching closely, here’s their Facebook post where you can post comments they’ll read: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.392392424976.58320.126073299976
Of course, they talk about localizing and releasing the console port only in Europe. So please, post a message about localization of the arcade version (as what Aksys Games did with BlazBlue Continuum Shift in the past for the US).
Of course, as it’s a NESiCAxLive release, chances are slim for the arcade version to be released in West but it’s our chance to show them that there’s interest in arcade games here too!!! Thanks in advance.
They did release BlazBlue CS2 as an offline kit despite that being a NESiCA game. So I think it’s certainly possible for Persona 4 to make it as well. Thanks for sharing!
The big issue with ASW and their non-NESiCA releases is that they either release them just before or after the console release, which ensures that operators will never see an ROI, which defeats the entire purpose of an arcade release.
Taito needs to either release NESiCA to foreign (non-Japanese) operators or just make small quantities of non-NESiCA versions available for presale to foreign operators.
This type of borderline xenophobic activity is discouraging.
Taito did release BlazBlue Continuum Shift II as an offline kit but few seemed to notice. I covered it here:
https://arcadeheroes.com/2011/05/18/taito-begins-selling-blazblue-continuum-shift-ii-globally/
Honestly though I think that a NESiCA US platform would be a huge plus to arcades here, it wouldn’t have to have replace the big releases just serve as a supplement so we can offer more content every year and as an online rev share. I’ve been pushing for it but few seem interested, perhaps because arcades in the US don’t have a great reputation for putting their games online as this would have to be.