We’ve been speculating for a while now about additional content coming to Bandai Namco’s Star Wars Battle Pod. Given the success of the latest film installment, it only makes sense that the big new arcade game should capitalize on Episode VII (which makes much more sense than Star Wars branded fruit). The main question was: Which part of the movie were they going to utilize for an arcade sequence?
Today we have the first confirmation of that content thanks in part to this screenshot below. If you’ve seen the latest movie then you will recognize this as “The Battle of Takodana” that happens somewhere in the middle of the film. The Battle Pod version will focus on the aerial combat of the battle so it should be interesting to see how they ultimately handle it (and if the director/developers read this, please make better use of the camera that the deluxe pods have for the single player game! 😛 )
4Gamer.net states that the Episode VII content will launch this May although the translation seems to indicate that it is already available for the special home versions of the game. We will be confirming that and update this post if necessary. What are your thoughts on this battle being used? Is it what you expected or were you hoping for the battle that happens more towards the end of the film at the Starkiller Base?
UPDATE: Confirmed, Namco is not cancelling their arcade developments.
Along those lines on a slightly different subject, news came along today that indicated that Bandai Namco has ceased all arcade development in response to a dip in profits/sales. I reached out to Bandai Namco Amusements America (the US branch of their arcade division) for comment but as of this writing have not received a response. That news seems to fly in the face of this Star Wars announcement above (which was published 2/15/16), as well as an announcement for the arcade release of Tekken 7 Fated Retribution coming this Summer in Japan and the presence of Bandai Namco at JAEPO 2016 later this week where they are expected to unveil several new arcade products. Either way it is best to wait and confirm on business news like this although that didn’t stop various lamentations on social media about them “leaving the business”. We’ll update you as soon as we have word!
well given that the arcade of star wars came out and gained popularity in the arcade and with the latest film coming out it only makes sense to include some game content related to the latest film. I had a hunch that they would or at least should given the updates for their other arcade games like mariokart.
NAMCO! CEACING ALL ARCADE DEVELOPMENTS?! that can’t be right can it? last year was probably the best year in a while for arcade games with time crisis 5 and star wars battle pod as well as lost land adventure. I thought it was great overall. I hope its only just temporary as it just wouldn’t be the same without the latest namco arcade games.
I really hope its just a rumour that was twisted and blown out of proportion.
I’m kinda saddened to hear about this. With Namco being one of the main pillars, there’s probably not much left to keep the industry afloat (in japan).
On the plus side, I guess console users won’t have to worry much about waiting/not getting home ports of their favorite titles anymore…. (yeah I know this isn’t exactly the right place for such humor)
but surely namco would just to need to do what sega did and simply restructure their business arcade division. its not like namco haven’t managed to sell any arcade games last year and to be honest who would be left? konami’s more or less abandon the west and though sega still make arcade games they don’t nowhere as many as what they used to. there would only really be raw thrills and sega supposedly. there would be so very little arcade games to look forward to in the future if namco has indeed pulled the plug on their arcade business.
While the report was incorrect, the numbers published are not rosy. So them beefing up console/mobile stuff seems to be a certainty.
Just read the update and it looks like we won’t be seeing a collapse after all. This is a good sign for business, but it’s makes me wonder on the whole restructuring if they’re going to adapt more to casual gaming, or if they finally realized they need the games out there that are serious about competing. (i.e. real games the likes of which we haven’t seen since the 90’s)
That is certainly up-in-the-air – there are always those behind-the-scenes factors that we never hear about. But AFAIK, Maximum Tune 5 is still supposed to show up. Whether ops will treat that as a game changer or not remains to be seen. I know a lot of ops that are desiring more kits or Pac-Man Battle Royale range games as opposed to Dark Escape or Lost Land Adventure range since the ROIs are better on the former end. I won’t be surprised though if Namco does start to bring along more mobile-to-arcade ports though.