At the end of 2010, Taito released their version of a digital game delivery service to Japanese arcades by the name of NESiCAxLive. The idea was to replace the hardware kit with download-only software titles, splitting the revenues and allowing locations to get more content on-site. Due to that rev share system, Taito never setup a wide reach of the network in the States after looking at the challenges and deeming them too difficult to work out. One exception to that was Round1USA, which began offering games through NESiCA back in 2015.
NESiCA 2 was released to Japan back in 2016, and was created to focus on 1v1 fighting titles. While it has not been host to a plethora of titles, it has allowed Japanese locations to offer some modern fighting goodness to their customers. Like the first version of the network however, this was limited to Japan – until now.
Yesterday on their Facebook page, Round 1 announced that they will have select locations host a location test for the NESiCAxLive 2 network and software. This means that The King of Fighters XIV Arcade Ver., SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy AC and Fighter Layer EX will be available to play for a limited – possibly longer (if the test is successful) – amount of time.
I notice that the Round1USA near me is a part of the hosting sites, so perhaps I will have to plan on making my first visit to the venue to check it out. It isn’t often (almost never) that a location test happens anywhere near me, so this could be an interesting way to finally get the rundown on such testing personally.
While they do not mention when, I imagine that the shipments of any hardware are on their way, so it’s safe to say “soon.” What do you think of this move?
I’m skeptical about KOF. TMNT by Raw Thrills has a better concept, because exploring a world is more interesting, compared to arena fights.
I wish Taito good luck with a location test for Online-connected arcade games and hope they do well enough to secure its niche. However, there will be plenty of exciting news at JAEPO 2019.
I do see that having a system like this in place for multiple locations is a major boon for the industry if it can be expanded upon more then just major cities, but more or less into those areas where there isn’t room for a full arcade setting. Getting the library list of releases (in japan) over here is a must, but also what’s getting in the way is this issue on revenue sharing which bothers smaller business on opening and staying open, not to mention anyone store owner who just wants to have a single cabinet.
That’s great news but they really need to somehow be able to play against users on consoles/pc via steam/Xbox live/psn.
Most games may not bother to have cross compatibility due to being easier to have multiplayer on the same machine. Only very few games support cross platform.
I do not believe allowing arcade hardware having online play with console players would help in any way.