Welcome to Newsbytes, a post that curates quick news from around the world of arcades and pinball machines. There isn’t a ton of news to chew on this time, but just enough to have some fun, including a fairly big announcement for Street Fighter 6 upfront. Let’s get to it:
Street Fighter 6 Type Arcade Gets A Date
That’s right, if you live in Japan or perhaps at Round1USA, then you can soon enjoy Street Fighter 6 where it’s meant to be played. Street Fighter 6 Type Arcade will launch on the 14th. If you’re a little arcade like myself and want to get one though, good luck. I’m sure it’ll cost a ridiculous amount as every SF does when these, and no one comes in to play it the second that Capcom will release this software to consoles, which they always do. That said, for the short time it’ll be arcade exclusive, it does apparently have some extra content such as two new characters and some balancing changes.
EDIT: I’ve since been corrected that there is in fact zero difference between the console and arcade editions of Street Fighter 6 at the moment, excepting that the arcade version is “slightly laggier”, although there has been more positive reports on that aspect being much reduced from what it was on test. In that case, I personally can’t see much point in this release, other than Capcom once again using the arcade as a way to run a commercial to get people to buy more copies of SF6 on console.
They also are holding some special tournaments over in Japan, which is a great thing to be doing for the arcades over there – at the very least.
Sega’s Men In Black Is Now Play-For-Fun
In a world where many video games function as videmption machines (i.e., play for tickets), it can be a little difficult to track which ones have an amusement or “non-ticket” option or not. Since they released it back in 2021, Sega had Men In Black operating purely as a ticket game. Now, they’ve announced that software is available for it to play as a standard video arcade game.
The story doesn’t mention if there are any content changes to the game – I would assume that it doesn’t end right at 90 seconds anymore but if there is a change there, I’ll update this space.
Sega’s “New Energy”
If you’re a Sega fan then you’ve already watched this video below, announcing a new initiative that brings many of their big names back to consoles. Several of these come from games that got their start at the arcade, although most like Crazy Taxi and Golden Axe have already had numerous home-first sequels or revivals. Sega is reportedly looking to recapture that energy they had with the Dreamcast…which I get in one sense, but in another, that was where the company massively stumbled and fell. Perhaps “that ’90s arcade energy” would be more appropriate but whatever.
I’m looking forward to seeing how all of these games turn out, with that hope moored to a healthy “please don’t suck” feeling. I have no idea if this energy will find its way back to Sega’s arcade efforts in Japan, as from the sounds of things at least some of these projects are taking advantage of how much of their ‘AM’ resources have been merged together with everything else they do (Sega Amusements International mentioned above of course remain as their own independently managed entity).
Which of these announced reboots interest you the most? I’m caught between Shinobi and Golden Axe myself.
On another quick note, there were quite a few nods at arcades seen at the Game Awards on Thursday night. That is always nice to see, even if they don’t recognize arcade games in any award category.
Is The Amusement Industry “Recession Proof?”
This year has not been great for my arcade, where I just saw the weakest earnings of the year in November. This has me a little bit on edge, as I have never in 15 years seen a time where a November performed particularly badly, let alone the worst of all. In actual fact, it is generally the second or third best performing month of the year. Even coming off the back of peak lockdown anxiety in 2020 we didn’t see these levels of revenue.
I’ve also been hearing that other operators have noticed a decline too – this is a double edged sword, as although I at least have the knowledge that I’m not alone, this isn’t a pointer towards a healthy industry. I will still be as proactive as I can in marketing, but it begs the age-old question… how economically resilient is amusement? This was also asked and debated in the recent episode of Sound Off with the LBX Collective:
The IAAPA 2023 Wrap-Up Coming Next Week
It’s almost been a month since IAAPA 2023 started and I’m only now finishing up on all of the videos. For all the doom and gloom mentioned above, as covered previously this show was a great success. I now plan on holding a livestream this coming Monday where I will discuss all of the new games that were unveiled at the show, plus answer your questions. If you want to join, just stay tuned to the Arcade Heroes YouTube channel.
Headlines
Benchmark Games Launches The VRX Arcade Cabinet
Joypolis Tokyo Has Rolled Out New Paint For Transformers: Human Alliance Special – Apparently there is no change to the software though
LAI Games Is Selling Their Virtual Rabbids: The Big Ride For 15% Until 12/31/2023
Bandai Namco’s 2nd Gen Gundam Pods To End Service In March 2024 – Sadly one of several very expensive failures for Japanese operators in recent years, alongside Starwing Paradox by Square Enix
Andamiro’s Chrono Circle Is Also To Go Offline From 2025
Here’s The IAAPA 2023 Press Conference For DOF Robotics
Well There’s One Big Disadvantage Of Using ePayments/eTickets – haxxorz
Looney Tunes/Texas Chainsaw Massacre Q&A Livestream – Of course, if you say that out loud, that’s a totally different game…
I Expect The Last CEC Animatronic Band To Soon Have Documentaries Made About It
If Anyone Has More Details On This EM Game Called Monster Maze, I’d Love To Find Out More
I Don’t Know Who Johnny Fairplay Is But He’s Taking A Tour Of The Stern Factory
Is This The First Christmas Song To Be Featured On An Arcade Dance Game? – Asking sincerely here as I don’t know song lists for DDR/PIU that well
[Consoles] All Of The Games Awards 2023 Announcements
[Consoles] Konami Has A New Contra
[Consoles] Taito Launches Their Laserdisc Arcade Game Collection On Nintendo Switch In Japan
[Console/VR] The Time Crisis Inspired Game Under Cover Is Launching On Meta Quest VR Soon
[Console/VR] The Trailer For Arcade Paradise
[Console/VR] Street Fighter VR Is Getting Some Competition With Final Fury
[Retro Console] Atari Adds 12 Games For Free To The Atari 50th Anniversary Collection
That’s all for this week. Does any of this news e.g. Street Fighter 6 interest you?
It’s funny you say “when” SF6 gets ported to console as the thing has already been out on consoles since June. All the content launching with the arcade version is already available on console. Not sure what Capcom is thinking but hey at least the Arcade exclusive tournaments should help.
Sorry, what I mean is – when they release Type Arcade on console, just like they did with Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition and such.
Makes sense, sadly those days seem to be gone as SFV and Tekken 7 all had the content come out on console first and then arcade months later, same deal is happening with SF6 from what Capcom has said with all the balance and new characters either coming out same time as the console version or slightly after. “Type Arcade” and Console are the exact same game aside from the subtitle added to the arcade version 🙁
I would respectfully disagree about the Dreamcast being the source of Sega’s fall, it began with the Genesis add-ons and snowballed with the Saturn’s failure in the US. They just needed a massive Genesis-level success, and the Dreamcast wasn’t that, it sold about as much as the Saturn despite being on the Saturn being on the market twice as long. So I think a lot of people in the US(where the Dreamcast was best received) have kind of grown a cult following around the Dreamcast’s innovative features and games.
Sure I agree with that – my general meaning though is that technically, the Dreamcast, for all its great games and features, was still their last console. They could have turned it around and I think deserved to, but since they didn’t, it missed the mark. I’d think that Genesis and mid-90s-era arcade energy, where the brand was truly cool and producing its best.
The new characters are the DLC released Rashid and A.K.I.. They’re good!