As you know, Bandai Namco Amusement’s Star Wars Battle Pod is soon upon us and as such, promotion for the game is ramping up. This game already has received more media attention by itself than most arcades manage to get combined within a year, so it is different from the norm. The game is scheduled to be available at all Dave & Busters locations this February, with a handful of locations getting their units in already. That number will increase over the next week although I do not know the shipping schedules on the games. Suffice it to say, if you have a D&B near you then that is the place to look for now. Once that is taken care of then focus will be on production for other venues. With a cost similar to Mach Storm (around $30k) the pool of venues that will be able to afford to grab one is not as large as your typical $8000 arcade game but I would not be surprised if theme parks and other high-end FECs manage it over the next while.
StarWars.com has put together this video which they have shared called Star Wars Battle Pod: From Concept to Cockpit, which provides some behind the scenes info on the development of the game. That includes some statements from the BNA staff that has been working on this, such as Kazushi Imoto.
Mentioned on Facebook yesterday, I discovered that SWBP uses Namco System ES3 X to drive the game experience – that is a Windows-based PC arcade board similar to the PC-board used in Mario Kart Arcade GP DX. While the tech I spoke with didn’t have the exact specs on hand, obviously the setup is capable of handling the game in HD at 60FPS. For those that have played the game, what are your thoughts/impressions of it?
