The Walking Dead Coming To Arcades In 2017 (UPDATED)

New games are always in the works for video arcades, it’s just a matter of time before we find out what is next. The current arcade industry has fully embraced the idea of licensing popular media to bring to market. The latest revelation is sure to be popular – AMC’s The Walking Dead is coming to arcades sometime in 2017. (Note: Update with new image below)

NOTE: This is NOT the final cabinet design nor a reflection of the production version of the game.

UPDATE: 9/19/16 – Thanks to Jdevy for this pic. The mounted guns being used in the prototype are crossbows. Apart from the classic game Crossbow, the only other game I can think of to use such a thing is Robin Hood by ICE. It was also very common for arcade games in the 1970s to use realistic looking weapons mounted to the game cabinet. We also learn from the second photo that there is a unique reload feature in place. Using a lever on either side of the crossbow, the player pulls that back to reload. Please keep in mind – this is NOT the final/production cabinet design. Anything can change on this between now and release (such a thing occurred with Dirty Drivin’, which had a slot machine style lever on it before being completely changed right before production):

Personally I hope they stick with the crossbows and the reload feature. They look much cooler than a plain ol’ plastic dome that pretends to be a gun and give this game a unique feel.

ORIGNAL POST: We don’t have a lot of information on the game yet as we have only received this image and a tiny bit of info on it from an anonymous source.  I believe this is on test at Dave & Busters as you will notice on the far left of the image above is the marquee for their exclusive Ghostbusters video arcade game (also designed by the developer of TWD).

As you can tell, this is currently a reskinned Jurassic Park Arcade machine by Raw Thrills; in the lower corner you can see the Play Mechanix logo (they are owned by Raw Thrills). You might recall that Play Mechanix has already developed one zombie shooter game for arcades – In Case of Zombies: Doe of the Dead which is found on current Big Buck Wild arcade machines. They have also been involved with numerous other light-gun games including Terminator Salvation, Aliens Extermination and Armageddon and they still have a few employees who worked for Midway back in the 90s (having developed CarnEvil).

The info I got mentioned that this will make an appearance at IAAPA 2016 prior to its 2017 launch (unless of course there is a decision change between now and then…it has happened before); they also mentioned that this is “certainly not the final cabinet design.” Given that Jurassic Park itself went through a few changes, particularly on the marquee, I won’t be surprised if they add something like a zombie marquee or change other elements of the cabinet so it isn’t just a JP reskin. I also am guessing that there will be a “Thrill-D” motion cabinet produced for TWD.

UPDATE: Thanks to reader Jdevy, who tracked this down to a D&B location in Addison, IL. Here is a new image:

It also appears that the trigger handles have been redesigned from JP, but it is hard to tell exactly. You can click on it for a larger view.  It is an environmental mounted gun game and of course, you’ll be mowing down zombies. If there are any other gimmicks built into it, we’ll have to wait and see.

So let’s through it out to you, the players – what would you want to see in a The Walking Dead arcade game? Jurassic Park has dominated the earnings since it was released last year so it seems likely that this will do well while following similar game mechanic formulas. That also begs the question – since we often see competing companies ‘respond’ with games in similar veins, could this lead a company like Sega to come up with House of the Dead 5? Or should the market only have one zombie shooter at a time?