Sega has had many racing series under their belts over the years and one of those which gathered a loyal fanbase together was Initial D. It and Namco’s Wangan series both have had strong followings as they offer a much more technical side to arcade racing than most games do; in particular with Initial D, versions 1-4 were sold in the US and did very well in some areas although after 4 it deflated to the point where Sega hasn’t bothered with 5 or 6 outside of Asia. That doesn’t stop 
importation but I do not know of any places out West that have bothered. Will Sega’s latest entry into the series be any different? I can only guess but I will venture to think, probably not.
For those Initial D fans out there, Sega begins testing Initial D Arcade Stage 7 AA X at select locations in May. This official page has some of the details as to what is new, including a new tag mode, a revival course from ID3, a new boost and probably more.
[Via AM-Net]
Do you have any idea what hardware it will use? RINGEDGE?
No idea yet but seems likely since Sega Japan seems to focus on Ringedge more then anything else at the moment
It’s possible. After all all SEGA boards(including shortlived mid range ones) will always have at least one racing title.
BTW, SEGASammy is already in the process of reorganizing their entire company, the Amusements department will soon become “Orbi Amusements,Inc” a R&D department for Arcade hardware and home consumer game products.
Kabushiki Kaisha Sega filed a new multi media,multi industrial trademark in January and is already in the process of registering this as a global brand.
http://www.trademarkia.com/orbi-85517210.html
So don’t be surprised if they replace the RINGEDGE with new hardware and announce LINDBERGH’s successor before JAMMA.
Well technically Lindbergh had successors in Ringwide and Ringedge. You could also through Europa in there too although that wasn’t really a piece of hardware made to be used on more than one or two games, kind of like whatever was used for GRID. We’ve heard talk of something after Ringedge although I wonder how much longer anyone will care about Sega hardware development while they all continue to be PC-boxes which is what everyone else uses. But chances of going back to something other than PCs these days seems pretty slim. I heard that NG:Dev.Team is making some sort of ARM based system but I don’t imagine that an ARM system will be making the rounds as a PC-killer anytime soon.
I also haven’t seen any updates in the west for Wangan Midnight MT3 (3DX, 3DX+, 4). Perhaps the majority of regulars have simply grown up and moved on, and the market isn’t ther anymore. I guess there’s more money to made these days with casual racers like Fast & Furious and coin-op versions of GRID and Sonic Allstars.
Namco’s MaxHeat was meant to bridge the gap. The game used a modified engine of the game, and was claimed by the Namco US sales team to be a better bet than importing Wangan – so a lot of red faces when if turkey’ed.
Seems the traditional trade do not want to sell the network series as they need online support – also there is the issue of importing expensive cabinets that cost more than these casual racers.
I thin MaxHeat and GRID showed that though simple they are not strong players – while F&FS offered a strong, but simple player.
I ask this as I am ignorant of all of the semantics that go on with these things behind the scenes but why not just build different cabinets here? That seems to work out when any Japanese-led company really wants it to.
Also – is there a future in the new SuperCars style kit where you guillotine off the head of an old cab to use your own LCD monitor for racers? Until one of them tries to experiment with something different in monitors I would not be surprised. But there is that issue of a network to worry about.
Those games are still fun, even to this day, GRID in the arcades sounds exciting, i’ll definitely find it and give it a shot.
The latest in the series has been a big earner at the CA’s new RoundOne site. Shame that they had to import their ID6 machines form Japan!!
Ah that’s right. I keep forgetting that Round 1 is importing pretty much everything. Do they happen to have Border Break units yet?
See, I’m keeping my eyes on Big Buck HD and their ‘wireless out-of-the-box’ verizon system. If something like that is successful and the cost of operation is reasonable, that might encourage domestic online support for future releases like ID7 and beyond. I mean, it looks like a lot of Japan’s arcade releases nowadays has online features in some form or another.
Wow. The full pronounciation of that game’s title is Initial D Arcade Stage 7 Double As Cross. That’s a mouthful. Usually when Cross is used in a title, it means source material from two series are being combined into a game. I don’t know enough about Initial D, though, to determine if this is true from the site.
ArcadeHeroes. You have heard that NVIDIA is developing its own inexpensive non x86 ARM based Microprocessor design called “Project Denver”, right? SEGA Orbi’s brand is said to be more interested in developing OEM friendly, and budget inexpensive arcade hardware for future home consumer licensing and use(Sega renewed its old home consumer licenses and license to publish gaming hardware in 2009-2010)
http://www.trademarkia.com/sega-75167958.html
http://www.trademarkia.com/sega-73742284.html
Sega Sammy as a different brand name like Sega Orbi would mean that Sega would no longer use PC towers in arcade hardware like SegaSammy has been long doing.
Based on the brand description(which includes descriptions of off the self electronic parts and game hardware parts,) the delays of JAMMA 2011 and AOU 2012 and the sudden 2009-2010 renewals of SEGA’s old “Sega Enterprises” brand and license to sell home game products.
All this suggests that not only is SEGA planning a RINGEDGE replacement and technological graphical leap over the aging LINDBERGH, but that SEGA is indeed moving towards ARM based hardware for future home use which will eventually lead the company back into a console manufacturer.(I’m bold when I say this, but non PC hardware would point toward that direction.)
All ARM-based developments I am aware of are for mobile devices – new tablets and such. Of course if any of these new platforms can be adapted for arcade use, by using more RAM or higher clock speeds, that is possible but until it happens I’m not going to bet on it and say they are going the ARM route. I would like to see some non-PC hardware come along for arcades, especially if it was powerful enough but except for the rumored NG:Dev.Team hardware, there’s not much else to go on right now. There has been talk of new Sega hardware to replace Ringedge for a while now (Lindbergh isn’t being used in anything new for Sega currently) but they have held back on any announcements as the company has been faced cuts and re-organization on a few different fronts for both their home and arcade divisions out West. Pretty much everything Sega Europe is doing uses custom PC hardware that they aren’t giving any specific name to (although some are combining any of these into the Europa hardware category, even though the specs are completely different between games). And I remember there being talk that at AOU last year new Sega hardware was going to be unveiled but as of AOU2012 that still wasn’t the case
I would take any Sega trademark stuff lightly, even patents as often companies will patent a bunch of stuff they never publicly use to cover their bases for what they might do down the road. I remember doing a story on a bunch of stuff Namco did about two years ago but except for technology being used in the 3D for DeadStorm Pirates, none of that has come to light so far. And Sega has been known to trademark and patent stuff they never really use either, like the supposed controller patents for Ringedge.
Considering that the home division of Sega is laying off much of their workforce and scaling back what is under development, that is not the behavior of a company that is about to launch a new console, which would takes billions of dollars to pull off successfully. I know many Sega fans that want such a thing but I doubt that Sega could afford to do so when they can’t make big bucks off of software development. Even if Sega has had plans in the works, economic realities can get in the way of such plans. I hope it all turns around for them but it’s going to take some time.
While I can understand your assessment and respect your opinions, the formation of Sega Orbi as well as the process of shuttering and shrinking down their decade long global 3rd party division into niche digital-only,PC-only,social networking and mobile games will be interesting to watch. We really don’t know if SEGA even believes the losses on overseas 3rd party sales is a big deal for them at all and SEGA has kept its actual R&D budget figures secret not disclosing how much money it actually spent on R&D altogether. So the $87 million loss overseas probably is more of a benefit for their investors. Also SEGA had spend 7 years trying to renew these brands and the “Sega Corporation” brand is set to expire at the end of this summer. Based on the large trademark, the fact that registration is imminent, and the fact that Sega paid a $5,000 fee for its processing to be completed quickly, ORBI sounds like a brand that will go into use pretty soon.
Also as for ARM, well most reports have confirmed that Nvidia Denver will use a SoC(System on a Chip) ISA(Instructional Set Architecture) design with a 8 core 64-bit ARM design and will feature a built in GeForce GTX 680. While the release date has not be revealed, the projection by PC anylists is that Denver will be announced later this year and will debut in early 2013, with Nvidia approaching a $249-300 price point for the Mircoprocessor. An OEM price point would be even less.
We’ll both have watch how this Sega Orbi”formation unfolds. We never know what Kabushiki Kaisha Sega is planning.
Okay – to all readers, I am not sure how many of you have heard, or followed the rumors about the new SEGA console/arcade hardware from ARM or the proposal ORBI Amusement Inc., operation.
Much of the rumor is just that rumor, with smoke and mirrors and a lot of speculation. The appearance of the logo and more rumors not helping: http://www.trademarkia.com/company-kabushiki-kaisha-sega-669446-page-1-2
What I would like to say is we should all keep our powder dry and wait for more concrete information before going speculation-mad at this point.
We know that Namco and SEGA satellites in the US / UK are in a state of flux and it dose not help the situation with running around spreading rumors without more information – especially as some of those spreading the rumors have vested interests to promote websites or boost their credibility.
Editor. You are correct. But based on my assessment and research, this brand “ORBI” is a new conglomerate that will take over operations for SegaSammy Holdings,Inc called “Sega Orbi Enterprises,Inc”. The brand will be associated with both home consumer products,arcade amusement hardware,non gaming entities like overseas Vending Machines,Casino Machines, Restaurant and Hotel/Resorts Franchising,OEM manufacturing,mobile phone manufacturing,contracting for industrial services and parts and many other different investments.
The brand sounds like the dying wish of Isao Okawa 11 years ago for Sega to become a non gaming entity and someday become a hardware company again. It sounds like he’s getting his wish.
But for now, we definitely need to wait and see what happens as I agree with you.
Im glad to see that wangan and initial D series are going strong.
I love how Wangan Midnight 4 And Initial D7 Are Developing,
They Probably Are Releasing Wangan Midnight 4 in Late Summer And Initial D7 in Late Fall
This game needs to come out in the US at least give it one more chance I’m prett sure people will buy this game