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chazumaru
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"SNKP to end (internal production of) games?" , posted Wed 19 Jan 10:34:post reply

(Original source, I think? In French)
English version
Follows on developments mentioned by Prof here.

quote:
Besides, two contacts confirmed to me that the new president of SNKP, Ryo Mizufune, wants the video games section to be shut down. He wants to live from license exploitation (queen's blade, kof sky stage) and his influence is one of the things that made Kukino leave the company.

You know what this means! Day-1000 until official SNK porn comes to the market! Telenet all over again!

This is still a rumor for now, but the source seems to have some credit given their recent contacts with Kukino. Also, I think Prof's most recent post deserves to kickstart a new conversation. I am quite busy these days but I will try to get confirmation from former SNK staff and other Kinki studios. Maybe exodus/Prof/others can dig up something more concrete as well.

Not shocking at all if true; I am rather surprised they kept going this far.

(Happy new year by the way!)





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[this message was edited by chazumaru on Wed 19 Jan 10:38]

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Spoon
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"Re(1):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Wed 19 Jan 13:04post reply

It's not at all implausible, but I have to wonder how well they're going to be able to exploit their licenses. Sky Stage wasn't exactly a monster hit, and maintaining the value of their IPs as licenses is going to require either some really clever work, or some other significant on-going work that keeps their characters relevant.

It'd be sad if KOF could no longer be kept alive through any actual KOF games. Maybe KOF pachislot is all we'll have left.





Professor
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"Re(1):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Wed 19 Jan 19:21:post reply

[edit] Added/fixed some wordings and indentings.
[edit] Updated KOF XIII videos.


If the rumor of the new president's focus is true, the result of SNKP's business shift would probably be a scaled down videogames operation rather than its total disappearance.

As for Licensing, it may not be the president's final goal, but it's not a good part-time solution either [if done just alone without any future releases by SNK]. Licencing brands without continuing to maintain their value is quite meaningless. If at all, it would only work as a short-term method.

SNKP from its past experience should know how difficult it can be for a small-scale company in Japan to reassemble quality development staff. If the company is letting a good chunk of their in-house game development go, it's likely to bring a long-term effect to the future of its division. It doesn't look like they're completely shutting down their game business though, as Matsushita from the consumer division is apparently still with them (see bottom of post).



On a separate subject, SNKPlaymore unfortunately doesn't list earnings by division on its annual sheet so it's not clear how much profit or loss that its arcade gaming, consumer gaming, mobile, and Pachislot divisions are each making. But it's quite clear that the Pachislot is where SNKP is placing its focus.

SNKPlaymore is a very minor contender in the Pachislot industry and doesn't have anywhere a brand name the way it does in the arcades. But because of the raw size of the market--over 12,000 Pachislot gaming halls in a country the size of California, they seem to be making profit. --That's more than triple the number of Mcdonalds in the country.

While SNKPlaymore hasn't been making too many new IPs in the games division, it's been aggressively doing so in the Pachislot division. However, none of it has yet to gain any recognition the way some others have, take for instance Tecmo's Rio/SBJ franchise.



On a side note, Yoshiyasu Matsushita seems to be still working at SNKP and quotes, "We still have people that worked on games like Metal Slug, KOF, and ASO". FYI, the quote should not be taken out of context-- it wasn't a comment about the recent movements, but of SNKP compared to the old years when Twinkle Star Sprites was released.






Note: For anyone wondering about the total number of arcades in Japan, statistics declares the figure to be a little over 8,000 but it's highly inaccurate. This is due to the law that states any store which land mass is occupied 10% or more by amusement machines, including locations such as local eateries with a few cabinets, requires to be declared as an arcade. The actual number should be quite lower, possibly like a third of that. Major chains currently total to only about 700 stores. (Adores: 90, Bandai Namco: 200, Capcom: 34, Sega: 200, Taito: 180, News[Purchased from Atlus]: 20. Figures are approximate.)

The major chains have closed down around 20% of their stores in the past two years. The store count continues to drop, which could factor in as one of the reasons why SNKP may be making a change.





[this message was edited by Professor on Sat 22 Jan 01:20]

Gojira
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"Re(2):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Wed 19 Jan 20:33post reply

If this rumor is true, it comes as no surprise considering how much KoFXII really damaged SNKP in budget and reputation for nearly 3 years straight. It's sad; as competent as XIII was, by the time it came out their condition was so severe that it only took some very small missteps to cripple them. Anyone in that president's position would probably want to put a stop to something that's only lost them money.

quote:
Licencing brandings without continuing to maintain their value is quite meaningless. If at all, it would only work as a short-term method. If the information is true, it may not be the president's final goal, but it's not a good part-time solution either.



I don't know, in spite of certain missteps, they've maintained their IPs for a very long time. Companies usually don't come to a decision to license out unless there's a few decent offers on the table already, so this may have been encouraged by something of that nature.





Professor
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"Re(3):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Wed 19 Jan 22:24:post reply

quote:
I don't know, in spite of certain missteps, they've maintained their IPs for a very long time. Companies usually don't come to a decision to license out unless there's a few decent offers on the table already, so this may have been encouraged by something of that nature.



If the company's new tactic is indeed to grant more licenses as rumored, I'm not sure if the decision came due to offers, or if it's simply one that's going to be the result of downscaling. It may be a combination of both.

With Matsushita still in the company, it could be plausible that SNKP is cutting back on its game development but mainly towards the arcade.

Personally, I think that the new president, unless he's completely incompetent, would be smart enough to continue the periodic release of KOF to at least keep the IP's value at the current state, whether in-house or outsourced.




On miscellaneous news, KOF98UMFE and KOF2002UM now have the electronic distribution date of January 24 for arcades running the NesicaLive system. That's 5 days from now.

http://game.snkplaymore.co.jp/game/details.php?item_id=210
http://game.snkplaymore.co.jp/game/details.php?item_id=211


And on other topics, extremely crisp endings of KOFXIII in 720P have been released by SpekSNK.
http://www.youtube.com/user/SpekVideo#g/u



Also, Random taunts and King corner-to-corner that were forgotten to be posted.
http://www.youtube.com/user/MMCstation





[this message was edited by Professor on Thu 20 Jan 05:01]

karasu99
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"Re(4):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Thu 20 Jan 04:03post reply

quote:

Personally, I think that the new president, unless he's completely incompetent, would be smart enough to continue the periodic release of KOF to at least keep the IP's value at the current state, whether in-house or outsourced.


I could swear we've discussed just this kind of thing before, perhaps in reference to the 'problem of KOFXII' (i.e. its lack of completion) a few years back, but I've always wondered why SNKP's properties do not seem to be more valuable-- I mean really, even mainstream sources got excited when KOFXIII was announced, so clearly there is some value there.

The question then is: is KOF still KOF if it's made by someone else? I suspect an Arc Systems KOF would necessarily change the character of the game itself.





Professor
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"Re(5):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Thu 20 Jan 17:18post reply

The previous posts were kind of long so here's a rough summarization-


What's rumored: New president may be thinking of closing down games division
What's confirmed: Multiple staff are no longer with them, but some are still there
What's probable: Major downscaling of games division, particularly where it's losing money





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"Re(6):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Thu 20 Jan 18:16post reply

I wonder what will happen to SNK USA and Ben Herman. He's still there, right?

I think it's sad that SNK may be downsizing its game division, but unfortunately its brands don't seem to have the same hold on the public that they once did, the quality of the games not withstanding.

I actually thought the newest KOF looked really promising... it's a shame if it doesn't get ported to console in some form or another.





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"Re(5):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Thu 20 Jan 20:58post reply

Professor: You've really provided a wonderful wealth of (industry) knowledge lately! For what it's worth, I've really appreciated the insight.

quote:

The question then is: is KOF still KOF if it's made by someone else? I suspect an Arc Systems KOF would necessarily change the character of the game itself.



(rant)

Last time we talked about this, I think I got irritated because people wanted KOF sold off to Capcom or Arcsys. Saying "I like KOF, but I want it to be made by a group of people who have nothing to do with KOF" doesn't make sense. And if you don't like KOF, but you just like Capcom and/or ArcSys, then wouldn't you want them to make their own game, rather than KOF?

But that's an extreme case. I'm actually a big fan of outsourcing to an extent. I don't remember his exact words, but Inafune said something about that, like "How many Capcom employees does it take to make a Capcom game?" Meaning, if you have 5 Capcom employees directing an outsourced team, it (ideally) will still feel like a "Capcom game" (remember, all their fighting games now are outsourced).

So when I look at the (possible) current situation with SNK, it makes sense to keep a few people on and outsource otherwise. It's not like they haven't done this before. Seeing how much they've struggled with things like ports and netplay, this model seems like a welcome option. It just gets complicated because sprite artists are involved.





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kofoguz
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"Re(6):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Thu 20 Jan 22:46post reply

quote:
Professor: You've really provided a wonderful wealth of (industry) knowledge lately! For what it's worth, I've really appreciated the insight.


The question then is: is KOF still KOF if it's made by someone else? I suspect an Arc Systems KOF would necessarily change the character of the game itself.


(rant)

Last time we talked about this, I think I got irritated because people wanted KOF sold off to Capcom or Arcsys. Saying "I like KOF, but I want it to be made by a group of people who have nothing to do with KOF" doesn't make sense. And if you don't like KOF, but you just like Capcom and/or ArcSys, then wouldn't you want them to make their own game, rather than KOF?

But that's an extreme case. I'm actually a big fan of outsourcing to an extent. I don't remember his exact words, but Inafune said something about that, like "How many Capcom employees does it take to make a Capcom game?" Meaning, if you have 5 Capcom employees directing an outsourced team, it (ideally) will still feel like a "Capcom game" (remember, all their fighting games now are outsourced).

So when I look at the (possible) current situation with SNK, it makes sense to keep a few people on and outsource otherwise. It's not like they haven't done this before. Seeing how much they've struggled with things like ports and netplay, this model seems like a welcome option. It just gets complicated because sprite artists are involved.


I agree if someone must buy SNK, it should be (and hopefully) square enix. IIRC they bought the Eidos but kept the name and let the franchises have new chances. Like the Ottoman style. Conquer but let the culture go on.





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"Re(7):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Thu 20 Jan 22:55:post reply

quote:
I agree if someone must buy SNK, it should be (and hopefully) square enix. IIRC they bought the Eidos but kept the name and let the franchises have new chances. Like the Ottoman style. Conquer but let the culture go on.



Now, that's an interesting idea.
Taito, which currently leads the arcade market as the manufacturer of the TypeX series, Vewlix, and Nesica system, is a subsidiary of Square Enix. If SquEnix decides to find a leeway with SNKP, that could lead to something. I don't think it's realistic, but some form of partnership definitely is a practical concept.





[this message was edited by Professor on Fri 21 Jan 05:55]

Iggy
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"Re(7):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Thu 20 Jan 22:56post reply

quote:
I agree if someone must buy SNK, it should be (and hopefully) square enix.

Why would anyone want that? It would make as much sense as wanting Coca-Cola to buy the Royal Bank of Scotland.





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"Re(7):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Fri 21 Jan 00:19post reply

quote:
I agree if someone must buy SNK, it should be (and hopefully) square enix.
Wait, we already have a KOF: The Movie, we don't need Squareenix to get them to make another one.





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karasu99
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"Re(8):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Fri 21 Jan 02:34post reply

quote:
I agree if someone must buy SNK, it should be (and hopefully) square enix. IIRC they bought the Eidos but kept the name and let the franchises have new chances. Like the Ottoman style. Conquer but let the culture go on.


Now, that's an interesting idea.
Taito, which currently leads the arcade market as the manufacturer of the TypeX series, Vewlix, and Nesica system, is a subsidiary of Square Enix. If SquEnix decides to find a leeway with SNKP, that could lead to something. I don't think it's realistic, but it definitely is a practical concept.


I'm with Iggy-- I would rather not see Square Enix doing the purchasing-- despite their deep pockets. They are actually one of the few companies that I could really see altering the franchise in a detrimental way rather than letting the culture continue. Someone could probably make the argument that SNKP culture is part of the problem though I suppose.

I would prefer Arc Systems, or even (please, no one laugh) someone like Capcom, even if they then outsource it-- at least someone who has produced fighting games outside of the 90's. Maybe even Namco?

I think a full Arc Systems do-over of KOF could be really excellent, especially if they don't top load it with a huge number of new characters.





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"Re(9):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Fri 21 Jan 04:06post reply

I personally favour Namco-Bandai myself - they have a nice foothold on the fighting game genre, but nothing notable in the 2D subset of the genre that stands out. They've assimilated at least Banpresto, whom they've let keep their name and SRW series. Harada has Samurai Shodown marked as something he likes in his Facebook account. After SS Sen, a crossover between Soul Calibur and Samurai Shodown (or even Last Blade) wouldn't be completely outrageous. Not to mention a Tekken/KoF crossover possibility opening up ("King of the Iron Fist Fighters"?...). They're on good enough terms with Capcom to have NvC and a couple of fighting game crossovers in their plans, so they wouldn't have a hard time negotiating a CvS or SvC sequel. It would make it easier to have Banpresto make a fighting game counterpart to the SRW series (Super Kakuge Taisen?...) if they were so inclined, instead of just having fighting game girls in a Queen's Blade spin-off...

I don't know... lots of little insignificant factors, but all put together they make Namco-Bandai a much nicer option than Capcom, that barely uses their owns Darkstalkers license...





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Professor
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"Re(10):SNKP to end (internal production of) g" , posted Fri 21 Jan 05:30:post reply

[edit] fixed typo and some wordings.

To get one thing straight, SNKP isn't selling itself off-- if they were, they wouldn't be depreciating their current workforce. They're not bankrupting either, at least according to their last year's financial sheet (2008-2009).

If the rumors hold truth, it'll kind of be like a Deja Vu from the Aruze days in more ways than one. But this time, self-inflicted. Oh the bad memories. If anyone remembers Eolith, that's what happened last time a KOF was made under another company.


Outsourcing can be good depending on the developer. As long as there's a good producer and director taking control of the project, it may actually be better than making in-house. The only issue is, when you pay cheap, you get cheap...





[this message was edited by Professor on Fri 21 Jan 06:09]

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"Re(8):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Fri 21 Jan 08:33post reply

quote:
I agree if someone must buy SNK, it should be (and hopefully) square enix.Wait, we already have a KOF: The Movie, we don't need Squareenix to get them to make another one.



Come on, Kofoguz and the Professor make sensible points and you still say this? If you wanted a Square-Enix/SNK burn, you should've said "They're a great match, since they both ruined their reputations by releasing incomplete games." Tohoho...I mean... *sob* *sob*

I know there isn't an indication here that SNK is getting bought out, but I'm starting to wish it would happen. I love their fighting games, but everything else could use some work. I have given up hope that they're going to fix things on their own.

We've seen plenty of mergers and buyouts that haven't hurt the integrity of either company's IPs. Even if someone like Square bought SNK, it's not like they would start making KOF RPGs. Why would they?

As a sidenote, the Queen's Blade game on PSP was really surprisingly good. I wouldn't have picked it up on my own, but it was highly recommended by a friend and I ended up enjoying it a lot. Of course, I like SNK games too, but I'm completely uninterested in the combination of the two. Kind of like with Sky Stage. I like KOF...I like shooting games...I have no interest in the two together. Just like I wouldn't want KOF Monster Hunter or like...I dunno...mint ice cream curry.





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"Re(9):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Fri 21 Jan 08:38:post reply

quote:
Come on, Kofoguz and the Professor make sensible points and you still say this? If you wanted a Square-Enix/SNK burn, you should've said "They're a great match, since they both ruined their reputations by releasing incomplete games." Tohoho...I mean... *sob* *sob*
i'm sorry i don't have the patience to explain my comment

time to go watch the mgs4 movie on my nintendo redring xbox bbl





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[this message was edited by mbisonhatclub on Fri 21 Jan 08:56]

chazumaru
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"Re(330): Max Mega Pro Spec" , posted Fri 21 Jan 09:42:post reply

Thanks for the replies. Many points I want to comment on. I'll try to keep it brief and easy to read.

Prof - SNKP's business shift would probably be a scaled down videogames operation rather than its total disappearance.

Yes, this is an important distinction and the reason I specified the "internal production" bit in my topic title. It seems the future of SNKP would be closer to what happened with Sky Stage, possibly combined with a stronger inclination in licensing their IP to other publishers in various media. The big mystery to me is how SNKP produces their mobile games and whether this business is lucrative or not. The many episodes of Days of Memories hint at good business.

Prof - SNKPlaymore is a very minor contender in the Pachislot industry

Maybe SNKP is hoping for a situation akin to how the Gen-san franchise evolved from being an obscure former game hit to being one of SanyoBussan's strong IPs in the Pachinko business. Obviously, through their involvement with Eizo, Irem was in a slightly better situation than SNKP to transfer the IP from one business to another (I can detail this paragraph if it is unclear but it is slightly off-topic).

What I am curious about is how the short tenure of Aruze has affected the course of SNKP in the slot business. I am pretty sure SNKP is never going to work with or near Aruze in the near future, which might create some obstacles in their expansion. On the other hand, even with such a short exposure to Aruze's methods and business, they must have learned a few things from them. The scenario speculated in this topic for SNKP's future is very close to what Aruze intended to do when it owned SNK ten years ago.
[edit] Ah Prof beat me to this.

Prof - I think that the new president, unless he's completely incompetent, would be smart enough to continue the periodic release of KOF

Does this annual KOF update need to be a fighting game, though? Does it need to be a game at all? I don't have an opinion yet but I suspect the answer can be argued convincingly either way. The proper way to keep KOF bankable might have been to refocus it much earlier (around 1997~1999) as an ambitious cross media project and adapt focus towards the area emerging as dominant.

kofoguz - if someone must buy SNK, it should be (and hopefully) square enix.

I don't think this is good business for SQEX. They benefit as much from SNK with their current strategy as they would by buying the company. While the game division of Taito might want to secure exclusivity of SNK franchises for Nesica, the AM division as a whole would benefit much more from franchises which can be turned into medal games, which means they need higher profile IPs (which Taito and SQEX can aleady provide).

karasu99 - I would prefer Arc Systems

Highly implausible for financial reasons. On the other hand, ASW making the next KOF (for SNKP or another publisher) is much more plausible.





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[this message was edited by chazumaru on Fri 21 Jan 19:35]

kofoguz
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"Re(8):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Fri 21 Jan 13:27post reply

quote:
I agree if someone must buy SNK, it should be (and hopefully) square enix.
Why would anyone want that? It would make as much sense as wanting Coca-Cola to buy the Royal Bank of Scotland.


I didn't say it was realistic.

I think it's a better option (still not realistic) than bought out by Capcom. If they would have interest in 2D games they have(Hellooo, look what we found here. Its heart still beats) Darkstalkers. No need to buy a company for a project they can already do. I dont know how the Japanese gaming companies works one bit, but that doesnt mean I'm completely blind. No offense.

Arc systems? Dont know, skeptical for the reasons Pollyanna previously explained. Namdai seems also a good candidate.
And this all if they MUST be bought out.
Out sourcing with the good quality studio/developer/whatever looks like the best way to go if SNK no longer want to work with the gaming division. For us fans.





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"Re(9):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Fri 21 Jan 19:42post reply

quote:
I think it's a better option (still not realistic) than bought out by Capcom. If they would have interest in 2D games they have(Hellooo, look what we found here. Its heart still beats) Darkstalkers. No need to buy a company for a project they can already do


If Capcom produces a Vampire/Darkstalkers game, I am pretty sure the character models will be in 3D (I mean outside of an AnakarisxSasquatch dating sim on mobile phones). Using 2D would make no sense in their current strategy, unless they hire Arc System Works again and decide to focus on Japan only. It would depend on Capcom AM's agenda, though.





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"Re(10):SNKP to end (internal production of) g" , posted Fri 21 Jan 22:46post reply

quote:
I think it's a better option (still not realistic) than bought out by Capcom. If they would have interest in 2D games they have(Hellooo, look what we found here. Its heart still beats) Darkstalkers. No need to buy a company for a project they can already do

If Capcom produces a Vampire/Darkstalkers game, I am pretty sure the character models will be in 3D (I mean outside of an AnakarisxSasquatch dating sim on mobile phones). Using 2D would make no sense in their current strategy, unless they hire Arc System Works again and decide to focus on Japan only. It would depend on Capcom AM's agenda, though.



If they're wise enough, CyberConnect 2 is on their side. I can trust only them do to a proper cartoonish feel, graphics and colors in a 3D Vampire. Dimps or other team involved in SFIV may result in a mere "let's do Vampire in SFIV way", and that's not sounds good for sure.
The point is SFIV has is own style, good for SF series, but not much appealing to Vampire (I mean the filters, shadowing, graphics in general).





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"Re(2):Re(10):SNKP to end (internal production" , posted Fri 21 Jan 23:12:post reply

As Chazu said, it's the internal production downsizing that's the biggest question.

A comment from SNKPlaymore has been released at GameSpot but it's rather vague, just confirming that the games division won't be shut down. The article is short and unfortunately doesn't go into details about the subject of the department's probable downsizing or the departure of in-house development staffs. But it at least puts the topic on spotlight in the general media.

From the representative's comments, it sounds as though they're unsurprisingly planning to continue and release a full slate of rehash ports this year as well. That's not really saying much since they're always outsourced anyway.

Personally, I have nothing against outsourcing. It can be good. As long as the publisher doesn't go cheap on budget.



FYI for anyone interested, here's the current fate of people who've left the company. These are publicly known so it shouldn't be an intrusion to their privacy.

Kukino (left in November)- New workplace unknown but is in Kyoto. Was in Shanghai two weeks ago to do a sales pitch.
Programmer1 (left in September)- Taking on a temporary job as Security guard. Will switch to a teaching job next month.
Programmer2 (left in November)- Working as a part timer at a Japanese pub.

[edit] I'm omitting Akio since it's unclear whether he was working at SNKP to begin with.






[edit2]
As long as we're on the thread of an arcade games. HORI is releasing a Real Arcade Pro V[3] SE for the PS3 and 360. It's the same price range as the previous SA model but uses Seimitsu parts instead of Sanwa (modern fighting game cabinets use Sanwa, Seimitsu is often preferred for old fighters and shoot'em ups).





[this message was edited by Professor on Sat 22 Jan 02:20]

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"Re(3):Re(10):SNKP to end (internal production" , posted Sat 22 Jan 00:41post reply

Thanks to everyone for the info and updates on this nutty situation.
quote:
A comment from SNKPlaymore has been released at GameSpot but it's rather vague, just confirming that the games division won't be shut down. The article is short and unfortunately doesn't go into details about the subject of downsizing or the departure of staffs. But it at least puts the topic on spotlight in the general media.
I'm glad to see this was picked up by a mainstream outlet since the rumor mill has been working like crazy the past week. Still, the vague "we're not dead yet" response from SNKP is a bit disappointing for those of us who were hoping for more details.

quote:
Prof - I think that the new president, unless he's completely incompetent, would be smart enough to continue the periodic release of KOF

Does this annual KOF update need to be a fighting game, though? Does it need to be a game at all? I don't have an opinion yet but I suspect the answer can be argued convincingly either way. The proper way to keep KOF bankable might have been to refocus it much earlier (around 1997~1999) as an ambitious cross media project and adapt focus towards the area emerging as dominant.

That would have been a great idea but for whatever reason nobody at SNK was thinking along those lines fifteen years ago. I'm certain it must be hard to think more than a few years ahead in the game industry since the hardware and the tastes of players constantly change. But instead of having a ten year plan SNKP appears to have tried to use the same plan for ten years.





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"Re(4):Re(10):SNKP to end (internal production" , posted Sat 22 Jan 01:59post reply

I wonder if they're going to try to hit one of the social portals. While all of the hit games on Facebook are not character driven, it'd be interesting if they could find a way to create a game where the presence of established characters is a draw and strongly felt, while preserving the "i can accomplish something even if i only have 60s to play" and "this shop/farm/army/whatever is my shop/farm/army/whatever" feelings that are so important to the currently successful games. They'd probably have to license a project like that out to somebody else though, since it's not likely that they have the expertise needed to make that. Then again, there was that KOF MMORPG...........

I really do have to wonder what the future of KOF as a fighting game is, though. We all know what a monumental effort the current-gen sprites alone were, and I highly doubt that they're going to let an investment like that fall by the wayside. Still, I have no idea what it will cost to make regular editions to the current gen KOF. Will they try to make it yearly again? How much does it hurt them for it to NOT be yearly? I have no idea!





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"Re(4):Re(10):SNKP to end (internal production" , posted Sat 22 Jan 02:33post reply

quote:
That would have been a great idea but for whatever reason nobody at SNK was thinking along those lines fifteen years ago.

Well obviously, it is always easier to give them lessons with hindsight 20/20. Their biggest mistake was the debacle of Hyper Neo-Geo 64 and SNK completely missing the boat on the music genre boom.

(OK, their biggest mistake that did not include the letters S, A, C, N, O, T and H in some order.)

In retrospect, the new hardware should have been focused on delivering quality music games and possibly powering their own purikura machines to reduce dev cost by accelerating production, while the MVS system would have been kept as cheap fodder for their core audience and the foreign market. Then wait for 3D to becomes much cheaper thanks to the distruptive PC accelerator cards model promoted by Naomi. But all this happy scenario would have required an insane degree of foresight and we are talking about the company that released Neo Geo Pocket one week after Game Boy Color came out on the market.

Spoon: one big problem for Japanese companies (especially small companies such as SNK) is the relative lack of success of Facebook in Japan. It makes it hard for them to understand what to do on social networks which do not fit the Mixi model. However I am not on a social network myself so my view might be outdated; is Mixi still the thing? I get the impression Twitter+Twitpix ended up killing everything else in Japan. It took the country quite some time to adopt Twitter but the boom has been impressive.





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"Re(5):Re(10):SNKP to end (internal production" , posted Sat 22 Jan 03:11:post reply

quote:
Spoon: one big problem for Japanese companies (especially small companies such as SNK) is the relative lack of success of Facebook in Japan. It makes it hard for them to understand what to do on social networks which do not fit the Mixi model. However I am not on a social network myself so my view might be outdated; is Mixi still the thing? I get the impression Twitter+Twitpix ended up killing everything else in Japan.


Google trends region analysis for Japan
In terms of interest, Facebook is gaining momentum but at the speed of Molassas.

Twitter took on a major success since it was something that fit the Japanese users, and a similar service wasn't offered by Mixi at the time. Personally, I don't think Facebook has that.





[this message was edited by Professor on Sat 22 Jan 03:20]

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"Re(6):Re(10):SNKP to end (internal production" , posted Sat 22 Jan 03:51post reply

Yeah, I was thinking of Mixi and the like at the time, but I had completely forgotten the names of things!

Asia has its own social networking heavyweights, but the idea of the thing is what I mean, not the particular platform. All of the students I've met lately from China have only gone and made Facebook accounts since coming to America, though they've got 100s of "friends" on RenRen or QQ.

Is there any one SNS that has dominance in Japan the way that FB has in North America (or the way myspace once had in the US)? Mixi's been around for awhile, but I never knew how big it actually was/is.





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"Re(7):Re(10):SNKP to end (internal production" , posted Sat 22 Jan 18:43:post reply

I almost neglected on writing one minor thing about SNKP's official site. Since everyone seems to be relieved from SNKP's PR comments, I thought this should be addressed.


New Years is always a big thing in Japan. For the past years, SNKP released a bucketload of new years greeting cards on their official site to commemorate the occasion. ( 2010 / 2009 ) Take for example this one, which was kind of cute.


This year, it was just one picture of Game-manteau and that was it. At the time, it was pretty puzzling why the company would release only just one greetings card that looked like a 15 minute job, even taking into possibility that they could've been consumed at XIII's home development.


If that was any indication of SNKP's attitude towards future game operations, it's not exactly great. Hopefully it's just the internal productions downsizing.






quote:
Yeah, I was thinking of Mixi and the like at the time, but I had completely forgotten the names of things!

Asia has its own social networking heavyweights, but the idea of the thing is what I mean, not the particular platform. All of the students I've met lately from China have only gone and made Facebook accounts since coming to America, though they've got 100s of "friends" on RenRen or QQ.

Is there any one SNS that has dominance in Japan the way that FB has in North America (or the way myspace once had in the US)? Mixi's been around for awhile, but I never knew how big it actually was/is.



Spoon- Mixi is pretty much the single powerhouse with Twitter being about the only indirect competition. They offer a wide variety of services much like other SNS including game apps which've really been a hit.

Unfortunately, traditional Japanese game publishers are utterly bad at making casual games and they've entered the market way too late. Even with Mixi, by the time some of the first domestic contenders like Success came in, the top slots were already taken by other asian publishers.





[this message was edited by Professor on Sun 23 Jan 04:58]

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"Re(8):Re(10):SNKP to end (internal production" , posted Sun 23 Jan 08:58post reply

quote:
I almost neglected on writing one minor thing about SNKP's official site. Since everyone seems to be relieved from SNKP's PR comments, I thought this should be addressed.

Thank you Prof. on your insights. I hope this turn out true. I'm not sure how SNKP as a disembodied license holder can handle KOF and other licenses (Eolith again?!). It's not like The Tetris Holding company where anyone can make a Tertis game.

Its hard for me to believe that SNKP is going to throw years of work on the KOFXII and XIII sprites to waste and let KOF go 3D like SF at least for the near future, and thats a very hard to find talent as mentioned.

I wonder if SNKP could have benefited from being sort of a developer to hire where they would do sprites for other companies and licenses, just like how ASW is doing with Hard Corps: Uprising.

Back when this happened before in 2001 I always though that SNK and SEGA had many similarities and that I wouldn't be surprised if SEGA would have purchased them. But now I'm not this would benefit any party of they did.





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"Re(9):Re(10):SNKP to end (internal production" , posted Tue 25 Jan 00:00:post reply

KOF98FE and 2002UM for the Nesicalive is out today. I haven't checked it yet but all cabinets with BBCSII should play them. Only thing is, most people probably don't know how to switch games on the Nesica: button1+Start before throwing in credit.

It didn't dawn to me until now, but the Nesica's system is a good way of checking the rough player popularity/population of a given game.

According to stats, less than 10 people played 2002UM throughout Japan today with a card.
http://nesica02um.snkplaymore.co.jp/ranking3.php

With 98FE, it's better, but under 30.
http://nesica98um.snkplaymore.co.jp/ranking3.php

Today is a monday. The rankings will get more users during the week and the stats should stablize in a week or two. Players with no wins shouldn't be ranking in the first place.

The figures for 2002UM seem quite low, possibly since people are playing on the old machines that aren't Nesica; they're often half priced. 98FE on the other hand is gone from many stores and it's also tuned.





quote:
Thank you Prof. on your insights. I hope this turn out true. I'm not sure how SNKP as a disembodied license holder can handle KOF and other licenses (Eolith again?!). It's not like The Tetris Holding company where anyone can make a Tertis game.

Its hard for me to believe that SNKP is going to throw years of work on the KOFXII and XIII sprites to waste and let KOF go 3D like SF at least for the near future, and thats a very hard to find talent as mentioned.


Well, they're not disembodied as a company so management of licenses should be of no problem.

Again, they're likely to be shifting busiess focus, and that's not exactly surprising. They've already built a Pachislot manufacturing plant in Hyogo prefecture that can mass produce up to 60 thousand machine units a month, and that was two years ago.


As for the probability that the KOF franchise could go 3D again... To do so at current standards costs a lot more money than doing 2D. So unless there's a company that's willing to do that...





[this message was edited by Professor on Tue 25 Jan 00:55]

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"Re(10):Re(10):SNKP to end (internal productio" , posted Tue 25 Jan 03:31post reply

This is all very interesting

The test version of KOF13 for home consoles has a 25 second load time before every match and a 5 second load time between rounds.

Insane!





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"Re(2):Re(10):Re(10):SNKP to end (internal pro" , posted Tue 25 Jan 07:56:post reply

Mondays are never good. Who plays in the arcades from a Monday?

Lol, that is God awful. The arcade's back in last April had to be reset every 3-4 matches, seemingly for a memory leak, but that sure is at par. At least they're testing a build though, Hopefully it'll be optimized. Thanks for the heads up!

Tuesdays are a bit better.





[this message was edited by Professor on Tue 25 Jan 08:57]

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"Re(1):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Wed 26 Jan 02:55post reply

Hey guys, I had a question, the input delay that the arcade version of 98um has, was fixed on 98UMFE right?





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"Re(3):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Wed 26 Jan 03:19:post reply

quote:
Hey guys, I had a question, the input delay that the arcade version of 98um has, was fixed on 98UMFE right?


By theory, it should be mostly gone if played on a CRT cabinet. Unfortunately, noone's really been able to report on it since most arcades have the game running on an LCD.

Currently, those who've played the game have bigger complaints than latency. The game gets stretched out to a 16:9 ratio on LCD, and what's more, since it shares cabinets with BBCSII (the games are selectable on startup kind of like the old MVS machines), they're running with BBCSII button layouts which makes things odd for SNK games.


Welcome to the board!



Thanks for the welcome!

And lol, sucks to hear that

Even though Nesica is in theory a very good idea, the system has so many cons that made me hate the fact that 98umfe will ony appear there, I'm still praying to see a console release, but I had my doubts (even though, I could see SNKP releasing it for PSN, but dammit, I want it for xbox too)

One last question, so far how has been the balances? I know that is still earlier to tell, but maybe some players could put their point of view about the buffs and nerfs in the game (and how much krauser was destroyed)





[this message was edited by sibarraz on Wed 26 Jan 03:22]

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"Re(10):Re(10):SNKP to end (internal productio" , posted Wed 26 Jan 03:32post reply

quote:

According to stats, less than 10 people played 2002UM throughout Japan today with a card.
http://nesica02um.snkplaymore.co.jp/ranking3.php

With 98FE, it's better, but under 30.
http://nesica98um.snkplaymore.co.jp/ranking3.php


It's pretty awesome that this data is so easily available! Professor, is there a portal to other Nesica games' data, or are these the only two? It would be cool to visualize all this info at some point (once there is enough of a sample to go by, that is).





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"Re(2):Re(10):Re(10):SNKP to end (internal pro" , posted Wed 26 Jan 03:41:post reply

[edit] deleting previous post with some additional sentences and moving it down here

Karasu:
It should become available for all Nesica games, though there's only 3 right now. Are you thinking of making a script to tally them in some form?

BlazblueCSII has a different, mobile-friendly GUI
http://bbcs2.net/index.php?m=036_rank_total

Nesica portal is here
http://nesica.net/


quote:
Hey guys, I had a question, the input delay that the arcade version of 98um has, was fixed on 98UMFE right?

Sibarraz: By theory, it should be mostly gone if played on a CRT cabinet. Unfortunately, noone's really been able to report whether it feels like vanilla 98 since most arcades have the game running on an LCD. It reportedly feels less laggy than 98UM though, and the few who've reported say that it's smooth.

But all in all, those who've played the game have bigger concerns than latency issues. The game gets stretched out to a 16:9 ratio on LCD, giving it an even more pixelated look than it already does and also making it hard to figure distances correctly. What's more, since it shares cabinets with BBCSII (the games are selectable on startup kind of like the old MVS machines), they're running with BBCSII button layouts which makes things odd for SNK games.


Balance, too early to tell. It's only been out 2 days and it's a Wednesday. According to players, Krauser is weakened just enough so that he's still good and not 'nerfed'.

Personally, I'm wondering how the player population will grow since, with the Nesica system, the game is only available for 100yen a credit. The previous 98UM was 50 pretty much anywhere. That's double the price.

Welcome to the board!





[this message was edited by Professor on Wed 26 Jan 04:17]

karasu99
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"Re(3):Re(10):Re(10):SNKP to end (internal pro" , posted Wed 26 Jan 03:49post reply

quote:

Karasu:
It should become available for all Nesica games, though there's only 3 right now. Are you thinking of making a script to tally them in some form?


I was thinking about it. It's interesting to see the data all in one place, and I was thinking other cafe members might be interested as well.

Thanks for the additional links!





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"Re(4):Re(10):Re(10):SNKP to end (internal pro" , posted Wed 26 Jan 04:10:post reply

Kararsu: It's a pity they don't offer any sort of public API. SNKP apparently isn't taking advantage of all the data the Nesica provides like character stats. Arc/BBCS2 on the other hand does, and even shows the name of the player's homeground arcade.

SSF4AE also has a site, but you need a cell phone or iPhone to view it. I'm guessing that fiddling with the User-agent might work but never tried. http://sf4.jp/




Ratio matches. includes total beginners
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm13407809 - Nico
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm13408007 - Nico

Sibarraz- I think very low. The whole purpose of Nesica was to dislodge manufacturing and shipment. And so far it's turning out to be a double-edged sword in more ways than one. IMO it's bound to come out for consoles sooner or later, not that much effort needed.

[edit] answer to Q' below & shortvids





[this message was edited by Professor on Wed 26 Jan 04:42]

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"Re(5):Re(10):Re(10):SNKP to end (internal pro" , posted Wed 26 Jan 04:15post reply

How are the odds to see this game launched later into a normal arcade board?

If they don't do it I will never see the game here, lol (we got 98um 2 years after it's release





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"Re(6):Re(10):Re(10):SNKP to end (internal pro" , posted Wed 26 Jan 05:20:post reply

quote:
How are the odds to see this game launched later into a normal arcade board?



More than pretty good. But sadly, it's 99% certain that they are going to launch it on those Chinese multi game pcb boards that are impossible to find outside HK, Taiwan, China & maybe Philippines. So it's as the Professor said, Japan is probably stuck with the nesca release and that's going to be kept that way.

Since pretty much 90% of the arcades that I have heard of across the globe get their boards from jp exporters, that means that the game is pretty much not going to be found outside japan unless the nesca live system gets upgraded with a better coverage (very unlikely).







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[this message was edited by Toxico on Wed 26 Jan 07:09]

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""Re(7):Re(10):Re(10):SNKP to end (internal pr" , posted Wed 26 Jan 23:42:post reply

Well, how about the third day of the game? some interesting info to share?

By the way, I always had this doubt, I once heard that even though Eolith did an important part of the devolopment of KOF 2002, Playmore who recently regained the rights of the game was the company who did almost all the work

How was the development of 2002? even though they share lots of common things, the improvement from 2001 to 2002 was incredible





[this message was edited by sibarraz on Wed 26 Jan 23:50]

Professor
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"Re(8): KOF & SNKP Thead 6" , posted Thu 27 Jan 07:14:post reply

quote:
Well, how about the third day of the game? some interesting info to share?

By the way, I always had this doubt, I once heard that even though Eolith did an important part of the devolopment of KOF 2002, Playmore who recently regained the rights of the game was the company who did almost all the work

How was the development of 2002? even though they share lots of common things, the improvement from 2001 to 2002 was incredible



Not by much, and it'll probably be like that for a while. According to reports, people are playing BBCSII on most Nesicas and some stores apparently have game select locked, so unfortunately, it's pretty difficult to try KOF98FE. And the others who've played it are debating whether it's worth paying double the price for its mild balance fixes (weak characters buffed a bit, strong ones toned down but not nerfed). In other words, it doesn't have any new additional content, at least for now.

With Aquapazza now announced for a spring distribution, I think 98FE and 02UM(Nesica) are going to have a tough time bringing niche income to SNKP even after BBCSII's popularity starts to fall.


I don't remember too well but if I'm correct, 2002 was licenced by Playmore, developed by Brezzasoft, and published by Eolith. Brezzasoft was established by some staffs of the former SNK. After a few twists and turns, they later became a part of SNKPlaymore.





[this message was edited by Professor on Thu 27 Jan 08:58]

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"Re(6):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Mon 31 Jan 12:18post reply

quote:

Last time we talked about this, I think I got irritated because people wanted KOF sold off to Capcom or Arcsys. Saying "I like KOF, but I want it to be made by a group of people who have nothing to do with KOF" doesn't make sense. And if you don't like KOF, but you just like Capcom and/or ArcSys, then wouldn't you want them to make their own game, rather than KOF?



This got me thinking about whether other companies that have used SNK's IP will gain more flexibility about re-releases. Of course, the only thing that comes to mind in this respect is Capcom vs SNK 2... would this make it easier for Capcom to do an Xbox/PS3 re-release (or HD Remix)?

Would it also give Capcom flexibility to do Capcom vs SNK 3? Then again, the earliest it would be possible would be after Capcom and Namco's versions of SF X Tekken were released.






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"Re(7):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Mon 31 Jan 20:56post reply

quote:
Would it also give Capcom flexibility to do Capcom vs SNK 3? Then again, the earliest it would be possible would be after Capcom and Namco's versions of SF X Tekken were released.


Does anyone expect SNK's IP to have any kind of value by 2017?
I'm not sure Capcon will want to have its characters sharing a game with Mai after the terrible Kinect boob groping game they'll release by 2015.

Maybe a crossover with Alice soft...





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"Re(8):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Tue 1 Feb 01:31post reply

quote:

I'm not sure Capcon will want to have its characters sharing a game with Mai after the terrible Kinect boob groping game they'll release by 2015.

Maybe a crossover with Alice soft...



C'mon, you totally know that at that point SNK's IPs are going to be fused with either a surprising revival of Variable Geo or Super Valis
Looking at it from that spectrum, they have chance of being used by Star Ocean?







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"Re(7):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Wed 2 Feb 02:16post reply

quote:

Last time we talked about this, I think I got irritated because people wanted KOF sold off to Capcom or Arcsys. Saying "I like KOF, but I want it to be made by a group of people who have nothing to do with KOF" doesn't make sense. And if you don't like KOF, but you just like Capcom and/or ArcSys, then wouldn't you want them to make their own game, rather than KOF?




To be fair, if Capcom were about to make a KOF, developed by dimps, the game will had more that had something to do with that the own SNKP

Hell, with Arc System Works will be the same, I had heard that lots of ex workers of SNK went to ASW after they broke





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"Re(7):SNKP to end (internal production of) ga" , posted Wed 2 Feb 05:54post reply

quote:
Last time we talked about this, I think I got irritated because people wanted KOF sold off to Capcom or Arcsys. Saying "I like KOF, but I want it to be made by a group of people who have nothing to do with KOF" doesn't make sense. And if you don't like KOF, but you just like Capcom and/or ArcSys, then wouldn't you want them to make their own game, rather than KOF?
SNKPlaymore doesn't even give 10 shits about THEIR OWN stuff anymore, so no, I wouldn't want them to make products based on "their own" material. Most of the people who devised "their own" material most likely aren't even with the company anymore--just a bunch of inhuman salarymen just trying to make a yen in a programming job. And besides that, people already mentioned that a lot of the people who used to be in SNK are now working at aforementioned companies, among others.
quote:
Would it also give Capcom flexibility to do Capcom vs SNK 3? Then again, the earliest it would be possible would be after Capcom and Namco's versions of SF X Tekken were released.

The problem I have with people thinking of a CvS3 game is that SNK no longer has the star power it used to, and it'd be like McDonalds doing a cross promotion campaign with your local burger joint. Nobody would really care besides you and the people in your town who go there. SNK is a washed up has-been and it makes more sense for Capcom to prefer Namco simply because Tekken has star power and SNKP stuff is very niche. Shine get.

I'm not saying I wouldn't like a CvS3, but even if Capcom grabbed some of SNK's property for that idea, again, the only people who would care are those who still like CvS2, and Capcom sees no benefit in making a product of hype that receives little to no attention.

At this point, it'd be more viable to do an Arcsys vs Capcom, or Arcsys vs Examu





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"It's finally announced" , posted Wed 2 Feb 06:00:post reply

The long rumored game is slated for April.


SNKP also closed its Yusa PR diary and opened up an official blog.. hosted at an external, free blog service site. What the.





[this message was edited by Professor on Wed 2 Feb 06:01]

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"Re(1):It's finally announced" , posted Wed 2 Feb 06:10:post reply

quote:
The long rumored game is slated for April.


SNKP also closed its Yusa PR diary and opened up an official blog.. hosted at an external, free blog service site. What the.


Wow, those are some good selections! I'm especially excited about some of the obscure shooters in there like Bermuda Triangle!





[this message was edited by karasu99 on Wed 2 Feb 06:11]

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"Re(1):It's finally announced" , posted Wed 2 Feb 07:45post reply

quote:
SNKP also closed its Yusa PR diary and opened up an official blog.. hosted at an external, free blog service site. What the.


That's... Woah. Are we even sure it's the official one, and not someone who does it on his free time...? Not that I expect this company to pay the people who do this, and that's why it's free.

But then, when they don't even have enough money to hire a decent artist to draw the cover of their game...





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"Re(2):It's finally announced" , posted Wed 2 Feb 08:03:post reply

quote:
SNKP also closed its Yusa PR diary and opened up an official blog.. hosted at an external, free blog service site. What the.

That's... Woah. Are we even sure it's the official one, and not someone who does it on his free time...? Not that I expect this company to pay the people who do this, and that's why it's free.

But then, when they don't even have enough money to hire a decent artist to draw the cover of their game...



It's definitely official. But we're talking about a company that had troubles paying bandwidth for its short trailers back with KOFXII and switched to using Youtube ever since then. So they do cut corners and use free services.

It's probably that they're too lazy to set up a decent blog on their own server.





[this message was edited by Professor on Wed 2 Feb 09:50]

mbisonhatclub
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"Re(1):It's finally announced" , posted Wed 2 Feb 12:42post reply

quote:
The long rumored game is slated for April.
>long rumored
>SNK Arcade Classics 0
Goddamn, I was trolled so hard, 10/10, etc.





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"KOFXIII 2-on-2 Ratio Tournament Video" , posted Thu 3 Feb 21:11:post reply

Tournament runs on a renewed chart.

Carnival Arcade's 2-on-2 Ratio Tournament.
Video part 1.
- Nico



Max 6 points
4- K' Raiden
3- Andy Shen Kyo Iori Kula Elisabeth Takuma
2- Leona Ash Benimaru Yuri Kim Duolon Chin
1- Goro Terry Kensou Mature Maxima Joe Robert King Hwa Ralf Mai Athena Clark Ryo Vice



Unfortunately to say this might be the last tournament that we could be seeing from Carnival; they've only got two KOFXIII cabinets now, and they've been moved right next to the retro fighting game section. The game is starting to disappear from arcades. The units are probably hitting the used market now.





[this message was edited by Professor on Thu 3 Feb 22:21]

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"Re(1):KOFXIII 2-on-2 Ratio Tournament Video" , posted Fri 4 Feb 05:55:post reply

quote:
Tournament runs on a renewed chart.
Unfortunately to say this might be the last tournament that we could be seeing from Carnival; they've only got two KOFXIII cabinets now, and they've been moved right next to the retro fighting game section. The game is starting to disappear from arcades. The units are probably hitting the used market now.



Professor, how many cabinets did they have before? Curiously, SoCal started having XIII cabs popping up everywhere in the last 6 weeks or so, however at least one is v1.0 strangely (We had one cab at AI for ages, then within 4 weeks we have about another 3 and now 1 in NorCal). Maybe it's just a coincidence.





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[this message was edited by Kane317 on Fri 4 Feb 06:00]

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"Re(1):KOFXIII 2-on-2 Ratio Tournament Video" , posted Fri 4 Feb 07:00post reply

quote:
The game is starting to disappear from arcades. The units are probably hitting the used market now.



This is just depressing...





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"Re(2):KOFXIII 2-on-2 Ratio Tournament Video" , posted Fri 4 Feb 10:39:post reply

quote:
Professor, how many cabinets did they have before? Curiously, SoCal started having XIII cabs popping up everywhere in the last 6 weeks or so, however at least one is v1.0 strangely (We had one cab at AI for ages, then within 4 weeks we have about another 3 and now 1 in NorCal). Maybe it's just a coincidence.



I believe Shinjuku's Carnival had 4 when the game launched. December it was down to 3, now it's 2. At least two other arcades in the district took theirs out as well. Unfortunately, I hear that it's disappearing from many arcades in Japan.

If the used PCBs are making their ways overseas, 6 Weeks would make sense because KOFXIII is being pushed out of their cabinets by BBCSII/Nesica(12/9) and SSF4AE(12/16). The player population is immensely different.

XIII seems to sell out in second hand PCB stores as soon as they come in, probably because their price is only around 130,000 yen (approx $1600) in the used market. Good deal for a half-year-old game.

However, I'm not sure about a v1.0. That sounds really odd since no arcades had it in operation after the recall as far as I know. If more 1.0 cabinets pop up, that would arouse various suspicions.



BTW Kane, can you try out the reflex test on this thread? I'm wondering how an active arcade player would do.




On a side note, it should be a sin to move the game into a CRT cabinet as a few arcades are starting to do. The game is quite a pixel art masterpiece. There's a lot of details in the backgrounds that are too small to see on Youtube videos, like in the UK stage, the really ugly driver that's sweating like a pig, and two really freaky kids at the corner buses normally hidden by the HP bars. In terms of character details, I'm wondering how many people noticed the extremely small differences in alt colours, like in King's case, how she has an earring on some colours or no gloves.





[this message was edited by Professor on Fri 4 Feb 19:53]

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"What imprudence, you human being!" , posted Sat 5 Feb 04:10:post reply

or こしゃくな人間め . Magician Lord www







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"Re(1):What imprudence, you human being!" , posted Sat 5 Feb 08:43post reply

quote:
or こしゃくな人間め . Magician Lord www

Too bad it only seems to be for Playstation Plus members and not groundlings like myself.





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"Re(2):What imprudence, you human being!" , posted Sun 6 Feb 07:50post reply

Well, there are probably as many PlayStation Plus members as there were owners of the original Neo Geo cartridge so it is quite fitting, really.





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"KOFXIII 2-on-2 Ratio Tournament Video pt.2" , posted Sun 6 Feb 22:33post reply

Part 2 of the tournament.

Carnival Arcade's 2-on-2 Ratio Tournament.
Video part 2.
- Nico



Max 6 points
4- K' Raiden
3- Andy Shen Kyo Iori Kula Elisabeth Takuma
2- Leona Ash Benimaru Yuri Kim Duolon Chin
1- Goro Terry Kensou Mature Maxima Joe Robert King Hwa Ralf Mai Athena Clark Ryo Vice





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"AI Casuals" , posted Thu 10 Feb 08:43:post reply

quote:

BTW Kane, can you try out the reflex test



Done.

I actually debated whether to post these or not since the videos here are usually of high level gameplay, but in the interest to keep the KOF XIII momentum going:

Arcade Infinity KOF XIII 01-26-11 Casuals matches
Arcade Infinity KOF XIII 01-26-11 Casuals matches part 2





www.youtube.com/kane317

[this message was edited by Kane317 on Thu 10 Feb 08:58]

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"KOF'99 in Pakistan" , posted Thu 10 Feb 18:40post reply

Amazing picture.

Taken from here.





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Professor
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"Re(1):AI Casuals" , posted Thu 10 Feb 21:07:post reply

Kane:
Nice vids! I'm sure everyone appreciates them.
Your Chin is really good! Mai is sharpening up well too.

Chazu:
What's more, that's KOF97 on the left side! I wonder what the game on the right is, it kind of looks like green flames. And.. what in the. Someone must have enjoyed a bonus stage.




Now, this is an interesting idea.

KOF13, Flavored-Team Matches - Nico

These were matches where the players needed to pick a fixed team from one of the options below.

1.KOFXIII Default teams
2.KOFXIII Special ending teams
3.Original Concept teams: French team, Muay Thai team, DDK team, Southtown team, XI team, Kyokugen family team, Historical rivals team, Historical sidekicks team, XI AOF team, 96 AOF team, Hero team, Ponytail team, Bandana team

The video (part 1) features the following matchups:
Elisabeth team vs AOF team / XI team vs Females team / French team vs Iori team / XI team vs New Heroines team (Sp.ending) / Elisabeth team vs Muay Thai team





[this message was edited by Professor on Thu 10 Feb 21:50]

karasu99
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"Re(2):AI Casuals" , posted Fri 11 Feb 01:05post reply

quote:
Kane:
Nice vids! I'm sure everyone appreciates them.
Your Chin is really good! Mai is sharpening up well too.


I really enjoyed them as well! Sorry I don't often comment on match videos-- I watch nearly all of them, but I am such a crappy player that I don't feel as though I can comment on them very well.

Professor, you mentioned the level of detail in the game-- have you or anyone else picked up the master guide? I'm just wondering if it has some nice presentation of the game's art, like a lot of these types of guides.





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"Re(3):AI Casuals" , posted Fri 11 Feb 01:52:post reply

quote:
Professor, you mentioned the level of detail in the game-- have you or anyone else picked up the master guide? I'm just wondering if it has some nice presentation of the game's art, like a lot of these types of guides.



Yes and No. That is, I've got the guidebook, but it does absolutely no attempt to show the art side of the game. Which was very unfortunate since the art was what I was anticipating for. There's only about 3 pages of art, and two of them are in B&W mainly showing the rough storyboards for the opening sequence. The colour page shows small thumbnails of drafts that were declined for the official poster. Frankly, the game's blog has better art.

As for the level of detail in the game, the HD videos on Youtube are probably the best reference available. Unfortunately they don't do complete justice since they're too compressed and blurs out the pixels...





[this message was edited by Professor on Fri 11 Feb 02:02]

chazumaru
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"koihime" , posted Sat 12 Feb 01:33post reply

Recap posted some screenshots of Koihime:
http://www.advantaged.net/boulette/viewtopic.php?pid=189038#p189038

Way more impressive than Aquapazza and... That other moe fighting game. But that dot style and the tone of the backgrounds is very reminiscent of KOF12. I wonder if this is the worker of former SNKP staff.





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mbisonhatclub
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"Re(1):koihime" , posted Sat 12 Feb 05:15:post reply

quote:
Recap posted some screenshots of Koihime:
http://www.advantaged.net/boulette/viewtopic.php?pid=189038#p189038

Way more impressive than Aquapazza and... That other moe fighting game. But that dot style and the tone of the backgrounds is very reminiscent of KOF12. I wonder if this is the worker of former SNKP staff.


Those sprites look cel-shaded and polygonal





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[this message was edited by mbisonhatclub on Sat 12 Feb 05:16]

Professor
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"Re(2):koihime" , posted Sat 12 Feb 05:32post reply

quote:

Those sprites look cel-shaded and polygonal



I don't think they're sprites; Probably 2.5D.
Nevertheless, it looks like 2011 will be another prosperous year for fighting games.





chazumaru
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"Re(2):koihime" , posted Sat 12 Feb 09:27post reply

Oh crap those are polygon models ? Never mind, then.





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nobinobita
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"Re(3):koihime" , posted Sat 12 Feb 09:47post reply

quote:
Oh crap those are polygon models ? Never mind, then.



Pre-rendered Polygons ala Killer Instinct and Ragnagard.






www.art-eater.com

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"Re(4):koihime" , posted Sat 12 Feb 21:48post reply

I was hoping for the same as KOF12/KOF13, pre-rendered sprites coated in dot art. It seems the publisher is a successful arcade reseller in Akebonobashi? Never went there but I'll check when I go back. Would be funny if Mak Japan financed a game...





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Professor
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"Re(5):koihime" , posted Sat 12 Feb 22:56:post reply

quote:
I was hoping for the same as KOF12/KOF13, pre-rendered sprites coated in dot art. It seems the publisher is a successful arcade reseller in Akebonobashi? Never went there but I'll check when I go back. Would be funny if Mak Japan financed a game...



It seems to be just an office. Their classifieds say they're a company of seven employees that just moved in to the area last year, so they're small-scale trying to go big by expanding into the ever growing Chinese market. The above link has a really short video of the office as well.

So the company is distributing. The question is, who's developing..?




More team-flavored videos - Nico

KOF heros vs rivals team, K' vs Kim team, ponytail vs sidekick team,
hero team vs Kyo team, new heroine team vs Muay tai team





[this message was edited by Professor on Sat 12 Feb 23:25]

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"Re(6):koihime" , posted Sun 13 Feb 02:26post reply

quote:
I was hoping for the same as KOF12/KOF13, pre-rendered sprites coated in dot art. It seems the publisher is a successful arcade reseller in Akebonobashi? Never went there but I'll check when I go back. Would be funny if Mak Japan financed a game...


It seems to be just an office. Their classifieds say they're a company of seven employees that just moved in to the area last year, so they're small-scale trying to go big by expanding into the ever growing Chinese market. The above link has a really short video of the office as well.

So the company is distributing. The question is, who's developing..?




More team-flavored videos - Nico

KOF heros vs rivals team, K' vs Kim team, ponytail vs sidekick team,
hero team vs Kyo team, new heroine team vs Muay tai team



It seems that the game is developed by a company named RCL with the help of the team than developed twinkle queen. The first rumours said that the game was developed by milestone





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"Re(7):koihime" , posted Sun 13 Feb 13:00:post reply

quote:
It seems that the game is developed by a company named RCL with the help of the team than developed twinkle queen. The first rumours said that the game was developed by milestone



By God you're right! I completely forgot about that awful looking Wii game's existance since its initial announcements. It had Koihime characters to begin with.

Looking at its trailers now, it... egh, it's got to look better in HD. Though it's really the motions that are the problem. Hopefully they'll redo them.


2.5D isn't all that bad when done right. Battle Fantasia.





[this message was edited by Professor on Sun 13 Feb 13:05]

mbisonhatclub
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"Happy Birthday @ Shermie" , posted Sun 13 Feb 15:22post reply

^ thats all i wanted to say in this post





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"KDDI" , posted Sun 13 Feb 21:42:post reply

The Milestone post made me finally open my sealed copy of Twinkle Queen. You are right, the connection between the two titles makes sense. That game used pre-rendered sprites and already featured Koihime Musou characters. It is probable that the sprites look slightly different because of the higher resolution. They simply ditched the awful 3D backgrounds for nicer 2D ones.

[edit] koihime discussion moved here since it is most likely not related at all to SNK.




Capcom announced that KDDI is stopping their multimaching service this summer; which means Capcom online games on PS2, such as the Monster Hunter series and Biohazard Outbreak, will not be supported anymore.

Relevant to this thread because SNK's PS2 ports and "online collection" releases are also using KDDI for online. So they should get offline as well. This spring is your last chance to play all these people online on RB2! Hurry up!





無限早見は無限早見は無限早見は無限早見は無限早見は無限早見は無限早見は無限早見は無限早見は無限早見は

[this message was edited by chazumaru on Mon 14 Feb 22:59]

Professor
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"98UMFE Tourney" , posted Wed 16 Feb 03:39:post reply

KOF98UMFE Tournament - Nico





[this message was edited by Professor on Wed 16 Feb 03:46]

sibarraz
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"Re(1):98UMFE Tourney" , posted Wed 16 Feb 09:48:post reply

quote:
KOF98UMFE Tournament - Nico



That benimaru was weird as hell, and now that he puts you in juggle status, and was weird to see him beating Krauser without problem


Anyway, tribute video of the neo geo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqVGN2MIifs





[this message was edited by sibarraz on Wed 16 Feb 11:07]

Professor
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"Re(2):98UMFE Tourney" , posted Wed 16 Feb 19:48:post reply

An outline of the changes in 98UMFE were released at SNKP's blog but it's unfortunately too lengthy for me to cover. However, the advent of technology does the job well.

Also, the company has released KOF96 on Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console. 94 was released in late 2007, meaning SNKP is pacing themselves very well at around one KOF archive per year. How long will it take them to release the later titles on the PSN's NGS library? Time will tell.





[this message was edited by Professor on Wed 16 Feb 19:49]

chazumaru
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"Re(3):98UMFE Tourney" , posted Wed 16 Feb 20:02:post reply

VC releases are not handled by SNK Playmore. The games are published by D4E under license from SNK. You might notice an interesting pattern in their release schedule.

I don't know the exact situation regarding Neo Geo Station on PSN since SNKP never made clear whether they handle this service internally or have contracted a developer (which is more likely). However SNKP is releasing the games themselves in this case.

[edit] I am told M2 is developing the PSN stuff. I am surprised SNKP actually handled this properly.





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[this message was edited by chazumaru on Wed 16 Feb 20:56]

Professor
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"Re(4):98UMFE Tourney" , posted Wed 16 Feb 21:24:post reply

So the VC's rights are licensed to a third party company? I didn't know that.

From what I understand about the PSN stuff, M2 developed the program shell that the games run on and provided the suite for porting. But the releases should be by SNKP.



Taito announced its Nesica Lineup for the AOU this weekend. Quite frankly, there's nothing new aside of Aquapazza.

Nesica, IMO, is pretty much facing the same fate as the old select-type MVS machines. What's more, I think they will hurt small-scale arcades on the long run rather than help out their finances, since they can't offer half-priced credits with the system. Why go to a small arcade when you can play them at the same price elsewhere with better maintained cabinets?

BLAZBLUE CONTINUUM SHIFT II
AQUAPAZZA
THE KING OF FIGHTERS’ 98 ULTIMATE MATCH FINAL EDITION for NESiCAxLive
THE KING OF FIGHTERS 2002 UNLIMITED MATCH for NESiCAxLive」
Strania The Stella Machina
Senkou no Ronde Duo
Exception
DragonDance
SPACE INVADERS for NESiCAxLive
Fatal Fury 1
World Heroes 1
Art of Fighting 1
Samurai Spirits 1
Choutetsu Burikingar
PuzzleBobble
THE KING OF FIGHTERS 94
MetalSlug
Raiden IV





[this message was edited by Professor on Thu 17 Feb 00:32]

chazumaru
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"Re(5):98UMFE Tourney" , posted Thu 17 Feb 00:54:post reply

Well, as Recap pointed out elsewhere, it is the first time Brikinger/Ironclad can be officially played in an arcade.

I did not follow so much but what is the business set-up of Nesica? The operators still collect the money directly, right? If so, don't you think there will be an option to set up the price you want for each game?

The last time a big corporation tried to mess with independent arcade operators, it was Sega and it cost them Virtua Fighter's dominance over Tekken. I would have thought Taito would have learned from that.

Then again, many things about Nesica confuse me.



…え!?





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[this message was edited by chazumaru on Thu 17 Feb 05:41]

sibarraz
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"Re(6):98UMFE Tourney" , posted Thu 17 Feb 10:31:post reply

quote:
Well, as Recap pointed out elsewhere, it is the first time Brikinger/Ironclad can be officially played in an arcade.

I did not follow so much but what is the business set-up of Nesica? The operators still collect the money directly, right? If so, don't you think there will be an option to set up the price you want for each game?

The last time a big corporation tried to mess with independent arcade operators, it was Sega and it cost them Virtua Fighter's dominance over Tekken. I would have thought Taito would have learned from that.

Then again, many things about Nesica confuse me.



…え!?



As far as I know, Nesica works in this way

Basically, YOU MUST charge 100 yens, because for every time that you play, Taito and the company that developed the game charges you with 33 yens (or were 66, I can't recall) this makes that it doesn't matter if you put a coin with a lesser value, you must pay that feed, also, it seems that taito charges with a suscription and other things, but I can't recall that well, I read somewhere, maybe professor could give us a more deep explanation

EDIT: Wait, you can play AOF 1 and Fatal Fury on nesica? and at 100 yens? what's the point, at this moment I would only pay those prices for games like garou, RB2, some samshos, and maybe fatal fury special, but not to play those games





[this message was edited by sibarraz on Thu 17 Feb 10:35]

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"Re(7):98UMFE Tourney" , posted Thu 17 Feb 15:00:post reply

quote:

I did not follow so much but what is the business set-up of Nesica? The operators still collect the money directly, right? If so, don't you think there will be an option to set up the price you want for each game?




as I know, Nesica works in this way

Basically, YOU MUST charge 100 yens, because for every time that you play


He obviously knows how it works, the question was probably mostly a rhetorical issue of "what the heck is Taito thinking, can't the operators change the worth of the credit via dip switch?" or "Can't the coin socket or whatever can't be replaced by something that takes / reads 50yen instead?"

The said answer is that probably they can't, otherwise we might have heard of it by this point already. And Taito seems to be quite happy with the way things are working as of now. I get the feeling that the system could probably collapse if the number of available games is greatly increased, the more the available choices the board has will ultimately dispel in in that third party developers without big hits aren't going to see the cash.

quote:

Wait, you can play AOF 1 and Fatal Fury on nesica? and at 100 yens? what's the point,



The prospect of playing AoF 1 or SS1 in single player mode and preventing those stupid emo brats from touching BB for a period of over 40 minute time while the player hogs the machine all to himself is easily worth much more than a mere 100yen







目に焼きつけて、死ぬがいい・・・
Update 23 as of 25/10/10 (Temporary mega upload link).

Now sponsoring : video game analogies (ES)
Last update : Chapter 22 as of 10/01/11

[this message was edited by Toxico on Thu 17 Feb 15:03]

Professor
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"Re(8):98UMFE Tourney" , posted Thu 17 Feb 18:37post reply

Well the thing is, the machine keeps tabs by credit rather than price. And of course there's no config to set the credit of price, otherwise some arcades would set the machine on 50y and and actually charge 100y.

Anyway, the games are offered for free. So it's not going to hurt arcades in terms of buying new titles. But for small-scale arcades, they don't have the luxury of slashing prices, and what's more, there doesn't seem to be a freeplay/rally mode option right now. Thus, they may lose customers to larger arcades.

So obviously, most arcades have all their Nesica locked to the game that rakes in the most profit. In the current case, that'd be BBCSII.


For publishers, this makes a life-or-death situation for them because they can't sell a crappy game and run away. If their game sucks, no arcade will run their game, and thus no profit share.





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"Re(9):Nesica" , posted Thu 17 Feb 19:10post reply

I was genuinely asking how it worked! The answer is more or less the business deal I had understood previously but I was not sure, so I wanted confirmation. Thanks Sibarraz.

Maybe Taito does not care so much about Nesica becoming a success in venues other than their own. Maybe they simply calculated that, in terms of costs of goods and maintenance, it was more affordable to swamp their own arcade centers with Nesica cabinets.

Was there a change of staff at the top of Taito AM? They were completely dominated by Sega and Namco from the end of the F3 generation until the mid-2000s, and suddenly they have all these unconventional ideas such Type-X, Nesica etc. I am not sure everything they bring up to the table is a goldmine but they sure have disrupted Sega's anticipated hegemony in a struggling business sector.


Prof:
True, but it also creates some interesting situations such as G.rev releasing a game simultaneously on Arcade cabinets and XBLA. If this becomes a norm, it will completely change the traditional eco-system for arcade business. There would be no more ultra-expensive PCB, no more second hand market, no more changes/extras/bonus for the home release etc.

To be honest, I am not sure I see the point of playing an game in an arcade if it immediately loses the benefit of being exclusive for a while. There are just too many advantages playing at home. Especially for shooters, which are score competitive and can absolutely rely on weak online connections. G.rev is either shooting themselves in the foot, or being very savvy by anticipating the end of the traditional arcade business and already adapting to the new revenue architecture everyone will have to face soon.





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sibarraz
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"Re(8):98UMFE Tourney" , posted Thu 17 Feb 22:59post reply

quote:

I did not follow so much but what is the business set-up of Nesica? The operators still collect the money directly, right? If so, don't you think there will be an option to set up the price you want for each game?




as I know, Nesica works in this way

Basically, YOU MUST charge 100 yens, because for every time that you play

He obviously knows how it works, the question was probably mostly a rhetorical issue of "what the heck is Taito thinking, can't the operators change the worth of the credit via dip switch?" or "Can't the coin socket or whatever can't be replaced by something that takes / reads 50yen instead?"

The said answer is that probably they can't, otherwise we might have heard of it by this point already. And Taito seems to be quite happy with the way things are working as of now. I get the feeling that the system could probably collapse if the number of available games is greatly increased, the more the available choices the board has will ultimately dispel in in that third party developers without big hits aren't going to see the cash.


Wait, you can play AOF 1 and Fatal Fury on nesica? and at 100 yens? what's the point,


The prospect of playing AoF 1 or SS1 in single player mode and preventing those stupid emo brats from touching BB for a period of over 40 minute time while the player hogs the machine all to himself is easily worth much more than a mere 100yen







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"Re(9):98UMFE Tourney" , posted Tue 22 Feb 06:34post reply

Mmm, can anyone translate this page?

I can assume this are some of the changes we'll see in the KOF98 Final Edition, Crack shoot now has overhead properties, Benimaru's Strong Raykoken allows juggle, Leona's move can now be performed in mid air?

http://snkpmgame.exblog.jp/12118656/





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"Capcom increases Pachislo presence" , posted Fri 25 Feb 02:28post reply

Somehow related to this topic: Capcom mentions they will increase their pachislo business next fiscal year to make up for the inevitable loss in revenue from the games division (following the year of MHP3 will be very tough). Sales of the Sengoku Basara pachislot were apparently very satisfying.

More competition for SNK, unless one of these projects is a Capcom Vs. SNK slot machine.





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Professor
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"Re(1):Capcom increases Pachislo presence" , posted Fri 4 Mar 23:06:post reply

It's been a while since there were any KOFXIII videos; a-cho arcade in Kyoto prefecture has footage from a tournament on 2/27. There was also a tournament in Yokohama around the same time featuring some top players including Dune so those videos should come around the Internet in the near future as well.

Part1 / Part2


On a distantly related note, with Evo vs. Garden coincendently getting announced, I was taking the occasion to rework on an arcade guide map that was in the making since last year. Taking a rough tally, only about one in five arcades (that have fighting games) in the the main areas of Tokyo remain to have KOFXIII since it's been replaced with the Nesica system for the most part. SNKP isn't distributing the game on the Nesica at least yet, which is a pity and income left unearned.

And for those who are wondering, Tekken6BR continues to be the definite king of the arcades at the current time. Figures set aside, SSF4AE and BBCSII seem to be doing equally popular and their audiences seem to be vastly different. 4AE seems to be popular amongst the older and hardcore players whereas CSII seems to have more players in residential areas; students, schoolgirls, and young workers play the game.



samberto: It was a bit too much text to translate so I had a link to Babelfish for it on a previous post. Interestingly, it came out pretty legible.





[this message was edited by Professor on Sat 5 Mar 01:04]

mbisonhatclub
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"Re(2):Capcom increases Pachislo presence" , posted Sat 5 Mar 14:02post reply

quote:
Part1 / Part2
It's like watching MvC2 tourney footage with MSS vs MSC vs CSS vs MSS.

Or Litchi vs Bang vs Litchi vs Bang

But at least a Taokaka won a BBCSI tournament





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Professor
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"Re(3):Capcom increases Pachislo presence" , posted Mon 7 Mar 01:01:post reply

quote:
Part1 / Part2It's like watching MvC2 tourney footage with MSS vs MSC vs CSS vs MSS.

Or Litchi vs Bang vs Litchi vs Bang

But at least a Taokaka won a BBCSI tournament



Yeah, tournaments tend to be that way. Fortunately, casuals usually aren't that bad and people play with characters they actually like.

It took me a while to figure out why the game isn't so popular in the arcades, although one thing....





[this message was edited by Professor on Mon 7 Mar 09:33]

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"Official Thread of Pachislo information" , posted Mon 7 Mar 23:54post reply

During the weekend, SegaSammy announced they lost 5.5 billion yens in the process of replacing faulty Sakura Taisen 3 CR machines.





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"Re(1):Official Thread of Pachislo information" , posted Tue 8 Mar 04:28post reply

quote:
During the weekend, SegaSammy announced they lost 5.5 billion yens.



I haven't laughed so much since that time that I slapped a nun.

Speaking of sacred, SNK Arcade classics 0 site has been updated, let us rejoice over that awkward art from the old age arcade poster.







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"Re(2):Official Thread of Pachislo information" , posted Tue 8 Mar 23:33post reply

quote:
During the weekend, SegaSammy announced they lost 5.5 billion yens.


I haven't laughed so much since that time that I slapped a nun.

Speaking of sacred, SNK Arcade classics 0 site has been updated, let us rejoice over that awkward art from the old age arcade poster.

The new cover art went with a different style but managed to be just as odd as the originals. What's the deal with Ralph's head? What's the deal with everyone's head?

That said, I do like the art for Ikari 3. It's all speed lines and Rambo clones and is very indicative of its time period.





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"Re(3):Official Thread of Pachislo information" , posted Wed 9 Mar 03:20post reply

quote:

The new cover art went with a different style but managed to be just as odd as the originals. What's the deal with Ralph's head? What's the deal with everyone's head?

That said, I do like the art for Ikari 3. It's all speed lines and Rambo clones and is very indicative of its time period.


I have to say I'm really pretty excited about this (probably no surprise to anyone). I know, it's yet another set of old games collected, and all are probably available in emu, but still, it's nice to see SNKP collecting games that do not involve Garou, SamSho, or KOF. You know, kind of like if Namco released something (post PS1 Namco Museum) that did not include Pacman, Galaga, and Dig Dug.





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"Re(1):Official Thread of Pachislo information" , posted Wed 9 Mar 06:45post reply

quote:
During the weekend, SegaSammy announced they lost 5.5 billion yens in the process of replacing faulty Sakura Taisen 3 CR machines.


I read it as "The Paris Flower Brigade didn't tolerate evil and went to punish the evil SegaSammy for making a lousy Pachinko with their brand on it. Long live the Paris Kagekidan"!





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"Re(2):Official Thread of Pachislo information" , posted Wed 9 Mar 07:46post reply

which problem had the ST machines?





Olivier Hague
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"Re(3):Official Thread of Pachislo information" , posted Thu 10 Mar 13:25post reply

quote:
which problem had the ST machines?


People were winning.





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"Re(4):Official Thread of Pachislo information" , posted Thu 10 Mar 18:51post reply

quote:
which problem had the ST machines?

People were winning.

I had no idea Charlie Sheen and his legion were regular players of ST





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sibarraz
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"Re(5):Official Thread of Pachislo information" , posted Tue 15 Mar 07:51post reply

quote:
which problem had the ST machines?

People were winning.
I had no idea Charlie Sheen and his legion were regular players of ST



I loled with boyh comments

btw, is kinda sad that the SNKP thread is becoming a pachinko one, I hope that this is not what soon will be ''the future is now'' on the company : (





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"Re(6):Official Thread of Pachislo information" , posted Tue 15 Mar 11:12post reply

quote:
btw, is kinda sad that the SNKP thread is becoming a pachinko one, I hope that this is not what soon will be ''the future is now'' on the company : (
Blame Ryo Mizufune

But noone cares enough about KOF anymore to make death threats to Ryo like they did to Konami staff when Kojima said he was going to step down after MGS3 to let someone else direct MGS4

To be quite honest I hope the Pachinko business fails so bad he has to sell all the property for cheap





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chazumaru
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"Re(7):Official Thread of Pachislo information" , posted Tue 15 Mar 20:38post reply

quote:

To be quite honest I hope the Pachinko business fails so bad he has to sell all the property for cheap


Let's see how 2010 went according to Enterbrain:

Pachinko market ¥21.700.000.000.000
Horse racing market ¥3.300.000.000.000
Mobile contents market ¥1.500.000.000.000
Porn market ¥500.000.000.000 (high estimate; hard to confirm)
Game market ¥493.700.000.000
Downloadable music market ¥86.000.000.000
Dojinshi market ¥55.300.000.000
Idol market ¥54.200.000.000
Cosplay market ¥42.200.000.000
Pet market ¥41.100.000.000
Blu-Ray market ¥40.500.000.000
Boys Love market ¥21.300.000.000
Art Auction market ¥17.000.000.000

Oh well.





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sibarraz
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"Re(8):Official Thread of Pachislo information" , posted Tue 15 Mar 22:39post reply

I don't want to see SNKP fail with the pachislot market, I think in the mind of ryo and is very inteligent to focus in the market that gave you more money

My grip is how the videogame section is being totally ignored (or worse, we don't know if it's ignored or not)





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"Re(9):Official Thread of Pachislo information" , posted Tue 15 Mar 23:19post reply

Who knew there was that much money in the horse racing market?





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"Re(9):Official Thread of Pachislo information" , posted Tue 15 Mar 23:49:post reply

quote:
I don't want to see SNKP fail with the pachislot market, I think in the mind of ryo and is very inteligent to focus in the market that gave you more money

My grip is how the videogame section is being totally ignored (or worse, we don't know if it's ignored or not)

That's the problem, he's going to totally blow off the video game side of things because the Pachinko business seems to be the money maker for him. Did you even read what he said he wants to do with the company and its property?

And with that considered, if that's all he's going to do from now on, SNK as far as I'm concerned, is dead--neverminding a lot of people had considered them already deadaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA a decade ago

So where's that KOFXIII rom leak at, bros





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[this message was edited by mbisonhatclub on Tue 15 Mar 23:50]

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"Re(10):Official Thread of Pachislo informatio" , posted Fri 18 Mar 00:49post reply

Fluffy blog has made yet another combo movie, we can see it in youtube Uploaded by SMOAI







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"March 18th 2011 Alex's Arcade tournament" , posted Wed 23 Mar 07:50:post reply

It's been rather quiet in this thread so I'll post this to spice things up. Special guest No.17, Kunio from Japan appears as well. Apparently he plays at a-cho.

Disclaimer: We tried all week to get the direct feed to work but between burning out a component (it literally started smoking up) and spending a $150 for a new one, we still couldn't get it to work. Atlas, it was old school Camera tripod style but ppl kept knocking it around so sorry for the angle.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F131C5879993970A





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[this message was edited by Kane317 on Wed 23 Mar 07:51]

chazumaru
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"Re(1):March 18th 2011 Alex's Arcade tournamen" , posted Wed 23 Mar 20:51post reply

Too bad about the direct feed issue but thanks for the effort in filming and uploading these.





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Kane317
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"Re(2):March 18th 2011 Alex's Arcade tournamen" , posted Thu 24 Mar 09:41post reply

quote:
Too bad about the direct feed issue but thanks for the effort in filming and uploading these.



It's a shame since it's one of our best tournaments yet.





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Professor
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"Wrapup for March" , posted Fri 1 Apr 00:52:post reply

I'm a little late on these subjects--actually, I'm a little late on pretty much everything thanks to the damn situation on the east side here--but here's a few things that may spark some interest.


1. Eisuke Ogura still at SNKP : Nippon Chichi!!

Unfortunately the quake happened right before the EB fest, so the artwork never had the chance to go on public display. Pity.


2. NeoGeoFreak Section closing from Dorimaga Gemaga, and hints to..
According to reports, the SNKP page/column on Gemaga will end after this month's issue. The reports also say that SNKP publicist Yuzuko hints in this final column that "the game that everyone is anticipating will soon..."

Now again, I haven't checked the issue so I can't confirm on this Dorimaga news until a bit later. And
[Edit 4/2] It's legit, the section is closing down in this issue after its 6 years of running, and the slight comment is there. Still, it can be about anything. However...

Fixed name of magazine. I keep calling it by its former name.

3. Official KOF's novelist Akihiko Ureshino makes some really weird comments on Twitter (3/29).

I recently asked assistant manager Copplay, "Is it ok if I write a few short stories for KOF or MI and post them on my personal site?". Well, I've just received a call saying "Not now, We've got things on our side that we're thinking of". Is something going to happen soon!?

No, there's now way it's about MI. I can pretty much testify to that. There's nobody to make it anyway. Unless of course they're doing things without my knowledge. I guess it's because if I write anything fuzzy, people would still take it as an official word.

If they did give me the go-ahead, there's stuff I can write immediately, like a story about Alba and Soiree.

But if they're saying not to touch on KOF around this time of the year, I think it's not too hard to imagine things. Heh.





[this message was edited by Professor on Sat 2 Apr 17:10]

mbisonhatclub
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"Re(1):Wrapup for March" , posted Fri 1 Apr 03:35:post reply

quote:
2. NeoGeoFreak Section closing from Dorimaga, and hints to..
According to reports, the SNKP page/column on Dorimaga will end after this month's issue. The reports also say that SNKP publicist Yuzuko hints in this final column that "the game that everyone is anticipating will soon..."

They're obviously hinting at KOF98 Rebout!!!! SO EXCITED FOR MORE KOF98!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Huehuahuehua.

And one other thing:
quote:
If they did give me the go-ahead, there's stuff I can write immediately, like a story about Alba and Soiree.

No.

They really must be having fun with their April 1st

Here's an April 1 remark

I have fantasies about Hideo Kojima sneaking into Capcom headquarters to take down Yoshinori Ono





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[this message was edited by mbisonhatclub on Fri 1 Apr 03:46]

Professor
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"Re(2):Wrapup for March" , posted Fri 1 Apr 04:20:post reply

quote:

They really must be having fun with their April 1st

Here's an April 1 remark

I have fantasies about Hideo Kojima sneaking into Capcom headquarters to take down Yoshinori Ono



Lol.
Well, Ureshino's comments are from 3/29 so he's not saying them for an April fools.
Whatever it turns out to be, we'll have to wait and see.





[this message was edited by Professor on Fri 1 Apr 04:22]

karasu99
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"Re(3):Wrapup for March" , posted Fri 1 Apr 04:46post reply

quote:

Whatever it turns out to be, we'll have to wait and see.


Well, it is good to hear that SOMETHING will be announced.

I wonder if it could be that a home port of XIII is coming? I can't imagine that it is something as ridiculous as a new game...





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"Re(4):Wrapup for March" , posted Fri 1 Apr 19:29post reply

quote:

I wonder if it could be that a home port of XIII is coming? I can't imagine that it is something as ridiculous as a new game...



To me part of SNK's charm was always the ridiculous ideas that turn out to work well (so you want a crossover with Capcom? Here's a card game!).

Oh well, it's nice to have something resembling news, although other dates would be more comforting...





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"Re(5):Wrapup for March" , posted Sat 2 Apr 02:38post reply

It's good to hear some news about SNK, and about that console version of KOFXIII it's almost a sure thing, it's SNKP bittersweet farewell.

And on another note, who's going to this?

I see No. 17 is gonna be staff there, also will be my first time playing KOFXIII so I am pretty excited fellas!





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"Re(6):Wrapup for March" , posted Sat 2 Apr 17:08:post reply

I've checked the Dorimaga (I keep naming the magazine by its old name! It's Ge-maga). The mysterious comment is there and the column is ending its 6-year run.

The cover of the issue is nice and there's a poster of it inside.





[this message was edited by Professor on Sat 2 Apr 17:10]

Kane317
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"AI Farewell XIII Tournament Part 1 in HD =)" , posted Sat 9 Apr 13:03post reply

This was from February 26th, technically before the last set I posted. Finally salvaged it. The sync is off at times but I'm sure most will find it acceptable. Yes, I do get destroyed. =)

AI Farewell XIII Tournament Part 1 in HD =)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP6rcGGSiIc

Tomorrow, 4/9/11, we're having another tournament this time with special guest No. 17 from Japan and Bala returns (from Mexico).





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Professor
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"Re(1):AI Farewell XIII Tournament Part 1 in H" , posted Sat 9 Apr 19:14:post reply

quote:
This was from February 26th, technically before the last set I posted. Finally salvaged it. The sync is off at times but I'm sure most will find it acceptable. Yes, I do get destroyed. =)

AI Farewell XIII Tournament Part 1 in HD =)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP6rcGGSiIc

Tomorrow, 4/9/11, we're having another tournament this time with special guest No. 17 from Japan and Bala returns (from Mexico).



Nice! I think posting videos is probably the best form of promotion for the game. Looking forward to pt.2 and more!
It's a pity about Arcade Infinity...





[this message was edited by Professor on Sat 9 Apr 20:11]

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"Re(2):AI Farewell XIII Tournament Part 1 in H" , posted Tue 12 Apr 02:21post reply

Females/UK team combo exhibit - Nico





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"AI Farewell XIII Tournament Part 2 in HD" , posted Tue 12 Apr 04:42post reply

quote:
Females/UK team combo exhibit - Nico



Nice! Allegedly, those videos are made by No.17's friends...small world.

So we debated back and for whether to fix this video's audio or to just release it as is until we get a chance to "remaster" it later since our last tournament is 80% uploaded from the weekend and it's technically 3 tourneys ago so we want to quickly finish uploading this the AI one (Another one with No.17 from Japan in it).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qC8drskTZY





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Professor
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"Re(1):AI Farewell XIII Tournament Part 2 in H" , posted Tue 12 Apr 09:30:post reply

quote:
Females/UK team combo exhibit - Nico


Nice! Allegedly, those videos are made by No.17's friends...small world.

So we debated back and for whether to fix this video's audio or to just release it as is until we get a chance to "remaster" it later since our last tournament is 80% uploaded from the weekend and it's technically 3 tourneys ago so we want to quickly finish uploading this the AI one (Another one with No.17 from Japan in it).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qC8drskTZY


Aha, that's interesting! Small world indeed. It seems that the KOF community is is awkwardly divided despite of its size. Hopefully your Dreamcancel.com and Gunsmith's site will become furthermore the dominant portals.

Desynch is hard to fix unless you have proper software so it's probably best to release the footage as is. Great to see part 2, everyone seems to be having a fun time. 720P is nice!





[this message was edited by Professor on Tue 12 Apr 11:15]

Kane317
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"Re(2):AI Farewell XIII Tournament Part 2 in H" , posted Wed 13 Apr 03:15post reply

quote:
Females/UK team combo exhibit - Nico


Nice! Allegedly, those videos are made by No.17's friends...small world.

So we debated back and for whether to fix this video's audio or to just release it as is until we get a chance to "remaster" it later since our last tournament is 80% uploaded from the weekend and it's technically 3 tourneys ago so we want to quickly finish uploading this the AI one (Another one with No.17 from Japan in it).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qC8drskTZY

Aha, that's interesting! Small world indeed. It seems that the KOF community is is awkwardly divided despite of its size. Hopefully your Dreamcancel.com and Gunsmith's site will become furthermore the dominant portals.

Desynch is hard to fix unless you have proper software so it's probably best to release the footage as is. Great to see part 2, everyone seems to be having a fun time. 720P is nice!



Hmm thanks for the tip for the desynch, I feel better now =)

Gunsmith is coming to LA this month and we'll definitely get some games in. It's funny how 3 major sites (your's, gunsmith's, and dreamcancels) all have people from the kofml days.





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"Alex's Arcade 4/9/11 Tournament vids" , posted Thu 14 Apr 03:35post reply

Argh double post but well worth it.

UPDATE:  The AI tournament vids are giving me lots of trouble between dropping frame rates and audio desyncing when I edit each vid (each taking 5+ hours per edit and I've done parts 3 and 4 twice.).  I've also uploaded parts 3 twice and failed (they take 8+hours including processing) and part 4 failed yesterday.  So for now I'm just going to release the tournament we had over the weekend that CMD.Duc (Ash) has been kind enough to upload onto my account already.

KOF XIII - Alex's Arcade 4/9/11 Tournament in HD Playlist.





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Professor
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"Re(1):Alex's Arcade 4/9/11 Tournament vids" , posted Thu 14 Apr 06:39post reply

quote:
Argh double post but well worth it.

UPDATE:  The AI tournament vids are giving me lots of trouble between dropping frame rates and audio desyncing when I edit each vid (each taking 5+ hours per edit and I've done parts 3 and 4 twice.).  I've also uploaded parts 3 twice and failed (they take 8+hours including processing) and part 4 failed yesterday.  So for now I'm just going to release the tournament we had over the weekend that CMD.Duc (Ash) has been kind enough to upload onto my account already.

KOF XIII - Alex's Arcade 4/9/11 Tournament in HD Playlist.



Wow, that's a lot of footage from Alex arcade! I'm looking at them, thanks! It's pretty fun to watch other players--your gang picks a good variety of characters too.


I know the headache you must be going through with the videos, Youtube can be pretty annoying. Does the original footage/raw video have dropped frames? If yes, a pseudo-solution may be to try saving the video without sound and see if Youtube accepts it. If its does, it probably means that Youtube has an issue understanding the video file when the desynched sound is in there. There's ways around that, like saving the sound as an audio file, using an audio program to match its length to the video, and then merging it with the video that you've made that doesn't have sound.

If the original footage doesn't have any dropped frames, it's probably just an issue with your software. Uploading by single matches might be a solution.





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"Re(2):Alex's Arcade 4/9/11 Tournament vids" , posted Thu 14 Apr 08:00post reply

quote:
Argh double post but well worth it.

UPDATE:  The AI tournament vids are giving me lots of trouble between dropping frame rates and audio desyncing when I edit each vid (each taking 5+ hours per edit and I've done parts 3 and 4 twice.).  I've also uploaded parts 3 twice and failed (they take 8+hours including processing) and part 4 failed yesterday.  So for now I'm just going to release the tournament we had over the weekend that CMD.Duc (Ash) has been kind enough to upload onto my account already.

KOF XIII - Alex's Arcade 4/9/11 Tournament in HD Playlist.


Wow, that's a lot of footage from Alex arcade! I'm looking at them, thanks! It's pretty fun to watch other players--your gang picks a good variety of characters too.


I know the headache you must be going through with the videos, Youtube can be pretty annoying. Does the original footage/raw video have dropped frames? If yes, a pseudo-solution may be to try saving the video without sound and see if Youtube accepts it. If its does, it probably means that Youtube has an issue understanding the video file when the desynched sound is in there. There's ways around that, like saving the sound as an audio file, using an audio program to match its length to the video, and then merging it with the video that you've made that doesn't have sound.

If the original footage doesn't have any dropped frames, it's probably just an issue with yo

-- Message too long, Autoquote has been Snipped --


Hmm that makes a lot of sense. Yes, the original raw footage has dropped frames and desynced audio. Thanks for the suggestion.





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"Re(3):Alex's Arcade 4/9/11 Tournament vids" , posted Fri 15 Apr 02:30post reply

It can be a headache to work with video that frameskips. I guess your recorder either couldn't take all the graphical data or couldn't keep up on compression. That's something that can be fixed with a couple of trials and errors on the recording settings.

Btw your interview, it was interesting to hear things about the West coast situation!





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"Re(4):Alex's Arcade 4/9/11 Tournament vids" , posted Fri 15 Apr 04:01post reply

quote:
It can be a headache to work with video that frameskips. I guess your recorder either couldn't take all the graphical data or couldn't keep up on compression. That's something that can be fixed with a couple of trials and errors on the recording settings.

Btw your interview, it was interesting to hear things about the West coast situation!



Lol, Gunny said it was going to be a trial run so I thought to myself, "good, coz who wants to listen to me ramble?"





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"Trouble Witches Neo" , posted Sat 16 Apr 00:58:post reply

Slated for 4/27, 800MSP.
http://game.snkplaymore.co.jp/game/xbla/lineup/trouble-witches.php/

Scheduled DLC includes additional character "Ryukka" on 5/11, no announcement on price.
http://snkpmgame.exblog.jp/





[this message was edited by Professor on Sat 16 Apr 01:02]

sfried
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"Re(1):Trouble Witches Neo" , posted Sat 16 Apr 03:03post reply

quote:
Slated for 4/27, 800MSP.
http://game.snkplaymore.co.jp/game/xbla/lineup/trouble-witches.php/

Scheduled DLC includes additional character "Ryukka" on 5/11, no announcement on price.
http://snkpmgame.exblog.jp/

Finally the not-Touhou Magical Chase-like gets some recognition. Although I'm still wondering why they're sticking with the "Episode 1" moniker after all this time...

Wonder when Success will revive the Cotton series, and I don't mean pachinko. The had some crazy things going on in Boomerang (input commands? Twinbee-esq juggling combos?). It was one of the few shmups I thought that was "adventurous" in its design.





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"Re(2):Trouble Witches Neo" , posted Sat 16 Apr 04:46post reply

quote:
Slated for 4/27, 800MSP.
http://game.snkplaymore.co.jp/game/xbla/lineup/trouble-witches.php/

Scheduled DLC includes additional character "Ryukka" on 5/11, no announcement on price.
http://snkpmgame.exblog.jp/
Finally the not-Touhou Magical Chase-like gets some recognition. Although I'm still wondering why they're sticking with the "Episode 1" moniker after all this time...

Wonder when Success will revive the Cotton series, and I don't mean pachinko. The had some crazy things going on in Boomerang (input commands? Twinbee-esq juggling combos?). It was one of the few shmups I thought that was "adventurous" in its design.



At least SNK is busy with something right? =)





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"Re(3):Trouble Witches Neo" , posted Sat 16 Apr 06:50post reply

Look at you guys, whispering to each other about interviews that nobody wants to listen to and not even sharing the link!

KANE317 - OUTED HERE!
Teh ON show: Podcast 01
There's also a youtube version with stereo with one person per speaker which I find cool but ppl hate so I won't be doing it again.

LIFE. DEATH. SNK. And more death.

Next Episode: Rebirth of an abortion!





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"Re(4):Trouble Witches Neo" , posted Sat 16 Apr 09:19:post reply

quote:
Look at you guys, whispering to each other about interviews that nobody wants to listen to and not even sharing the link!



IT'S MINE, NO ONE ELSE CAN HAVE IT!!!!!

SNK is distributing the game that made history as the first LCD fully animated multi path interactive Pachinslot game (Making history.... Yeah, I know), with the voice of the popular (really!?) Ami Koshimizu. For what I remember of the original trailer and the storyline preview, the game actually seemed interesting.... Except for the pachinko part.

... I remember hearing about this long ago (I think that the main character actually gave birth to her love interest, don't ask), is this a sequel? a redistribution to other field? a remake? a refit? a terrorist attack? Who knows. I think is a virtual pachinko simulator app

超能力, ああ?







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Last update : Chapter 22 as of 10/01/11

[this message was edited by Toxico on Sat 16 Apr 13:22]

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"FRESNKPLEAKS" , posted Sun 17 Apr 09:38post reply

If you didn't read the original article, tough, it's been edited now. OH MY TONGUE. BE STILL.





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"Re(1):FRESNKPLEAKS" , posted Sun 17 Apr 10:16post reply

quote:
If you didn't read the original article, tough, it's been edited now. OH MY TONGUE. BE STILL.

Gunsmithden, turn the game console off, right now.





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"Re(1):FRESNKPLEAKS" , posted Sun 17 Apr 10:35post reply

quote:
OH MY TONGUE. BE STILL.



THAT SOUNDS SICK





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"Re(2):FRESNKPLEAKS" , posted Sun 17 Apr 10:49post reply

quote:
If you didn't read the original article, tough, it's been edited now. OH MY TONGUE. BE STILL.
Gunsmithden, turn the game console off, right now.



Stop humping my leg, you won't survive the after~shock







目に焼きつけて、死ぬがいい・・・
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"Re(3):FRESNKPLEAKS" , posted Mon 18 Apr 09:22post reply

quote:
If you didn't read the original article, tough, it's been edited now. OH MY TONGUE. BE STILL.
Gunsmithden, turn the game console off, right now.


Stop humping my leg, you won't survive the after~shock



My chibi chubby is radioactive, we'll die togetherrrrrr

More sick stuff up : podcast 2 AND the snkleaks article is back up - check it before it gets removed again

prof, we should do a podcast!
*geese voice* C'MON





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"Re(4):FRESNKPLEAKS" , posted Mon 18 Apr 15:43post reply

That's one hell of a long translation, kudos!
Personally, I think the possibility of additional characters is a great welcome as long as they're from Tsukibito

...What, you don't know Tsukibito? HOW DARE YOU CALL YOURSELF AN SNK FAN
http://lab.tsukibito.com/ds/


If I did a Podcast do I get a Lolipop?





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"Re(5):FRESNKPLEAKS" , posted Mon 18 Apr 20:04post reply

quote:


If I did a Podcast do I get a Lolipop?



I'm sure we can find something for you to suck on...





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"Re(5):FRESNKPLEAKS" , posted Mon 18 Apr 20:18post reply

I should be honest, I never heard about tsukibito, is a good game?





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"Re(5):FRESNKPLEAKS" , posted Mon 18 Apr 21:12post reply

quote:
That's one hell of a long translation, kudos!
Personally, I think the possibility of additional characters is a great welcome as long as they're from Tsukibito

...What, you don't know Tsukibito? HOW DARE YOU CALL YOURSELF AN SNK FAN
http://lab.tsukibito.com/ds/


If I did a Podcast do I get a Lolipop?


I would rather they add characters from Dokidoki Majo Shinpan





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"Re(6):FRESNKPLEAKS" , posted Mon 18 Apr 21:20:post reply

quote:
I should be honest, I never heard about tsukibito, is a good game?



It's quite a different game from anything you'd expect SNKplaymore to release. It's an entry level adventure game for all ages, and the art style has a really light touch to it. The thing about wanting its characters in KOF is a joke of course.

I actually kind of liked this game. I wouldn't nessesarily suggest it's a good buy though. It's got rough spots and it also lacks in volume despite of its full price as a DS game. Something like a good weekend rental.

Trailer here





[this message was edited by Professor on Mon 18 Apr 21:24]

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"Re(7):FRESNKPLEAKS" , posted Mon 18 Apr 22:30post reply

quote:
I should be honest, I never heard about tsukibito, is a good game?


It's quite a different game from anything you'd expect SNKplaymore to release. It's an entry level adventure game for all ages, and the art style has a really light touch to it. The thing about wanting its characters in KOF is a joke of course.

I actually kind of liked this game. I wouldn't nessesarily suggest it's a good buy though. It's got rough spots and it also lacks in volume despite of its full price as a DS game. Something like a good weekend rental.

Trailer here



thanks for the info, The game requires some level of japanese to play it? I love to play obscure SNK games, since well, they are a different aspect from the company that is always good to see, it's sad that the RPG for DS was cancelled, and I still has hopes that mamedev emules the HNG64 to play buriki one and then SNKP uses that source code remember where they left the source code of the original game and sell it for some consoles

And back to the leak, It's kinda weird seeing which logic will you SNKP, New Characters? If they put them they will not even try to do some balance? If the netcode isn't good, people will still bitch about raiden (even though seems that now he is not that bad as is used to be), so it's weird of them themdon't try to do anything there. If there's DLC, they will rebalance the game just like Blazblue does?

I'm kinda excited to see which new extras will add the game, even though I will not be surprised that they don't add anything, I mean, samurai shodown sen was released 2 years later, and they didn't put nothing worth it (still love the game lol)





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"Re(8):FRESNKPLEAKS" , posted Tue 19 Apr 11:50post reply

quote:
I should be honest, I never heard about tsukibito, is a good game?


It's quite a different game from anything you'd expect SNKplaymore to release. It's an entry level adventure game for all ages, and the art style has a really light touch to it. The thing about wanting its characters in KOF is a joke of course.

I actually kind of liked this game. I wouldn't nessesarily suggest it's a good buy though. It's got rough spots and it also lacks in volume despite of its full price as a DS game. Something like a good weekend rental.

Trailer here


thanks for the info, The game requires some level of japanese to play it? I love to play obscure SNK games, since well, they are a different aspect from the company that is always good to see, it's sad that the RPG for DS was cancelled, and I still has hopes that mamedev emules the HNG64 to play buriki one and then SNKP uses that source code remember where they left the source code of the original game and sell it for some consoles

And back to the leak, It's kinda weird seeing which logic will you SNKP, New Characters? If they put them they will not even try to do some balance? If the netcode isn't good, people will still bitch about raiden (even though seems that now he is not that bad as is used to be), so it's weird of them themdon't try to do anything there. If there's DLC, they will rebalance the game just like Blazblue does?

I'm kinda excited to

-- Message too long, Autoquote has been Snipped --
The new characters will be Orochi Iori and Orochi Leona

Spoiler (Highlight to view) -
that's how Capcom's Ono would have it

End of Spoiler







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"Re(9):FRESNKPLEAKS" , posted Tue 19 Apr 12:13post reply

SNKP needs his own Ono, maybe as a joke.

Had him put updates on his facebook status every 2 hours with comments like :

- SF IV = QCF + P
- 3d is for losers
- The netcode in our games is god awful because REAL MENS PLAY OFFLINE IN THE ARCADES
- We released an incomplete kof xii because that will create hype on the next game since couldn't be worse than the previous one
- Raiden dropkick is purposely broken since that had people talking about the game
- The original SNK is overrated
- I think that KOF XIV should be on 3D since that means that THE FUTURE IS NOW!
- I'm talking with Ryo Mizufune to do the sequel of Garou Mark of the Wolves on 3D
- I think that we will never see KOF XIII on consoles
- KOF XIII is what every fan of fighting games in the world is expecting

oh, and all this updates needs to be attached with a picture showing what he is doing at the moment with a figurine of cham cham, in wacky situation like going to a night club, in front of a viewlix cabinet with blazblue running on it, in the offices of SNKP, or before he is going to had sex with his wife while cham cham censures some private parts

And with all that included, he will still be less obnoxious than Ono : (





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"Re(10):FRESNKPLEAKS" , posted Tue 19 Apr 17:26post reply

quote:
SNKP needs his own Ono, maybe as a joke.

Had him put updates on his facebook status every 2 hours with comments like :

- SF IV = QCF + P
- 3d is for losers
- The netcode in our games is god awful because REAL MENS PLAY OFFLINE IN THE ARCADES
- We released an incomplete kof xii because that will create hype on the next game since couldn't be worse than the previous one
- Raiden dropkick is purposely broken since that had people talking about the game
- The original SNK is overrated
- I think that KOF XIV should be on 3D since that means that THE FUTURE IS NOW!
- I'm talking with Ryo Mizufune to do the sequel of Garou Mark of the Wolves on 3D
- I think that we will never see KOF XIII on consoles
- KOF XIII is what every fan of fighting games in the world is expecting

oh, and all this updates needs to be attached with a picture showing what he is doing at the moment with a figurine of cham cham, in wacky situation like going to a night club, in front of a viewlix cabinet with blazblue running on it, in the offices of SNKP, or before he is going to had sex with his wife while cham cham censures some private parts

And with all that included, he will still be less obnoxious than Ono : (



That's material for a fake Kukino account right there, but didn't he leave some time ago? I can't recall any other name from an SNKP staff member still involved with the KoF series, I'm a terrible SNK fan ;_;

Mind you, the thing about incomplete XII is kinda consistent with the 1st iterations of many SNK series (only 3 character selectable in FF1, only 2 that play practically the same in AoF1, no team edit in KoF94), which made it easier to make the sequels look like great improvements.





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"Re(2):Re(10):FRESNKPLEAKS" , posted Tue 19 Apr 20:42post reply

I don't know, I think that was more a case of ''We're still new on this'' at least fatal fury should have been like the first street fighter with only ryu as a playable character (or ken with second player) so at first could have been like ''yeah, 3 is a big improvement instead of one!''

With AOF maybe was the same, plus the fact that the story mode was focused on the protagonists, at least you can use the other guys on versus

And KOF, well, maybe they were pushing the gimmick? Or they stil tried to make teams just ''one character but with 3''

but yeah, we need SNKP Ono As soon as possible





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"Re(3):Re(10):FRESNKPLEAKS" , posted Thu 21 Apr 09:42:post reply

Looks like termites are going to have a lot of fun with this baby.


KOF13: Osaka vs Kyoto Prefecture Pt.1 - Nico
KOF13: Osaka vs Kyoto Prefecture Pt.2 - Nico
KOF13: Hyogo Prefecture vs Kaoru Woo Pt.1 - Nico
KOF13: Hyogo Prefecture vs Kaoru Woo Pt.2 - Nico





[this message was edited by Professor on Thu 21 Apr 10:29]

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"Re(4):Re(10):FRESNKPLEAKS" , posted Thu 21 Apr 10:49post reply

quote:
Looks like termites are going to have a lot of fun with this baby.



The Yellow face in the neo geo logo represents the first time that I saw your games

The blue one, the first time that I saw your price

What a nice gadget, the detail is very beuatiful, maybe the only detail that I would have loves to see is a convertor of AES to MVS games, that would have been perfect

They don't sell the sticks right?





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"Re(5):Re(10):FRESNKPLEAKS" , posted Sat 23 Apr 21:46post reply

quote:
Looks like termites are going to have a lot of fun with this baby.


The Yellow face in the neo geo logo represents the first time that I saw your games

The blue one, the first time that I saw your price

What a nice gadget, the detail is very beuatiful, maybe the only detail that I would have loves to see is a convertor of AES to MVS games, that would have been perfect

They don't sell the sticks right?



Lol, you have a good sense of humor.

Almost forgot to answer-- the aformentioned Tsukibito is unfortunately very heavy on Japanese so you definitely don't want to pick it up-- just watch a little bit on youtube and check the site, and you'll get the gist of its graphics. I don't think it fared too well in Japan either for that matter, it's not the type of game that screams good sales.

The Walnut wood MVS doesn't have a joystick, which is definitely unfortunate. That would really be interesting. As long as you don't get splinters.



Another short set of Kof13 matches - Nico

On a separate note, Carnival arcade in Shinjuku is having yet another KOF13 tournament tomorrow, this time a single player tournament with no ratios, no holds barred. How cheezy will it be with K' Raiden Kula Liz? They'll probably have it recorded again so we'll see in the near future.





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"Nesica Live interview w/Price model, etc" , posted Tue 26 Apr 13:38:post reply

Gigazine features a lengthy interview with Taito's AM division subcheif Takafumi Fujimoto, and it discloses a number of interesting points about the Vewlix and its Nesica Live system.

For anyone that's new to the Nesica Live, it's a system where new game titles get distributed online to arcades for free. Arcades can purchase the kit and hook it up to their cabinets, and from there on, there's no more need to go through wiring hassles and whatnot to switch between games. Most arcades in Japan are already upgrading their Type X2 machines into Nesica Live systems, leave aside the machines running SSF4AE. It's expected that most (if not all) future TypeX2 games will be released on the Nesica Live.



-Nesica Live's concept came up as early as 2005, but it took until 2009 to to materialize. Fujimoto says it's a good deal for arcades because they don't have to risk the purchase of a new arcade board. Once they install a Nesica Live, they can download games for free. It's a pay-per-play system. It started out with 9 participating game publishers, and it's now up to 16. By September, it should be up to 20.

-About the pay-per-play price model: Taito charges 30-20 yen per game to the arcade. The model has three prices depending on the type of the game: 30 yen, 25 yen, and 20 yen. A standard game is charged 30 yen, whereas a classic/vintage game is charged 25 yen, and past games (on the Type X) without any real changes are charged 20 yen.

-In the case of the standard 30 yen, Taito takes 10 yen as its share and the remaining 20 yen becomes the publisher's profit. (So that means, if an arcade offers their games at 100 yen per credit, they'd make a 70 yen profit. But if they're a nice arcade that charges only 50 yen, they'll only be making a 20 yen profit).

-The Nesica Live kit costs under 300 thousand yen, which Fujimoto explains is a low price when considering that a modern arcade game can cost 200-300 thousand for a HDD kit or 300-400 thousand for a full kit. Again, once it's installed, all future games are for free.

-The Nesica Live system currently consists of an authentication&distribution server, a ranking server, and a money charge&storage server.

-With the new e-cash law established in Japan in 2009, Taito was able to launch the services for Nesica Live and its Nesys IC card system. The law causes issues for people to charge money directly on ic cards, but it allows users to accumulate points when they throw in money to play a game (kind of like a mileage program for arcades). The points aren't being used for anything yet, but Taito plans a programme in the future where they can be traded for in-game items and other services.

-The Nesys' user data can be moved from one ic card to another, meaning that, for instance, players can freely switch to a new card if it has a better artwork. Unlike other similar systems, a single card can hold the player's data for all the games on the Nesica Live.

-Player scores can be checked online, which is a big difference from the old days where the top national scores had to be self-reported. It's all automatic now. Taito was also thinking about making location data of strong players available, but they're currently still debating since it can also be the cause of problems, such as people being discovered that they're skipping their jobs. They might implement it with an option to switch it on and off.

-Nesica Live can be a solution to fighting game balance. The Nesica Live is connected to the internet and its game's records are shared with its developer, meaning that they can see what characters are strong and whatnot. And using the Nesica Live, the publisher can patch the game before a major tournament, such as the Tougeki SBO preliminaries.

-Online play can be implemented on Nesica Live, but it hasn't really been done due to the issue of lag. It's not a problem for games that include latency by design, but when considering how much effort is put into the Vewlix cabinet to reduce latency, it kind of kills things. For instance, with the old KOF franchise, its input device was directly connected to its PBC so there wasn't any latency at all. With the new i/o boards for the Nesica Live, there's zero latency as well. The new Vewlix cabinets (Vewlix Diamond) features a low display latency LCD on top of that. But when online play is implemented, that practically all gets thrown away since the game needs to be designed with up to around 4 frames of buffering. So the participating publishers are considering it an issue as well, but it shouldn't be as much an issue for new games that are designed with latency in mind. It's completely possible with non-fighting games such as mahjong. Fujimoto doesn't think there's a workaround to the latency issue. Their company has the arcades connected to an optic fiber line called the Nesys Hikari, but there's still lag issues depending on the region. He thinks that the only true solution would be the invention of something even faster than optic lines. (the interview makes no mention or question about GGPO nor methods such as rollback implementations in hiding latency)

-The Nesica Live's lineup is mostly fighting games at the current time but other titles such as Senko no Ronde and Strania: The Stella Machina will be released soon. There will also be classic titles in the future including Elevator Action, Puzzle Bobble (Bust A Move) and NeoGeo titles. Fujimoto thinks that only having fighting games in the lineup won't allow people to really kill time in the arcades, and he wants to "fix" that. He believes arcades are leaned towards installing fighting games because they bring in more money, but having them as the only lineup in the will scare off customers. He says he would like to see things like they were in the old days, where they could release a more inexpensive smaller sized cabinet that could be placed at shopping centers or mom&pop candy shops for children and family to enjoy.

-There were over 100 thousand table style and standard style arcade cabinets in operation at the peak of the arcade market, but now it's down to 40 thousand. Large-sized specialized cabinets are the current trend. Fujimoto believes that the standard cabinets are better for the arcade's economy since they cost less and there's less risk in investment. In the end, he believes balancing out on the installed machines, let it be prize machines or print club machines, is the key.

-Taito was initially expecting about 500 orders of Nesica Live kits, but the response they received was above their expectation and they had to rush on additional production (no figures disclosed). One of the contributing factors was that its first title was Blazblue CSII. Again, Fujimoto emphasizes that unlike traditional PCBs, the arcades don't have to pay anything after their initial purchase of the kit. If the current game on the Nesica Live isn't bringing good income, the arcade can switch to another game that they've downloaded for free. Fujimoto also expects that the unit sales of the Nesica Live will continue on, because as new games are released, arcades with only one unit will figure out that it isn't enough to run all the upcoming lineup titles such as Strania and Aquapazza.

-Fujimoto says that the Nesica Live solves inventory and financial risks for publishers as well. In a way, Taito is carrying the burden now because they're paying up for the server costs. Together with the fact that its games can be made on a PC environment, they expect that should really lower the hurdle for developers to make arcade games. Companies that have only made console games and companies that have PC games are already knocking on Taito's door. As the selection of games begin to grown on Nesica Live, other issues such as the game select screen getting too crouded and the cabinet's instruction panel are expected to rise. Taito is already thinking about solutions to them.

-Another vision for the future is to have some form of connectivity between home consoles/handhelds and the arcades using the Nesica Live system with the use of wireless LAN.





[this message was edited by Professor on Tue 26 Apr 13:52]

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"Re(1):Nesica Live interview w/Price model, et" , posted Tue 26 Apr 22:36post reply

Very good interview Professor

Some points that caught my attention

- About the online High Score, I never thought that the fact that your boss can caught you skipping job with this system could be a problem.

Don't get me wrong, I understand that this could be a problem, on january from this year 2 friends who work were invited to the launch conference of EA CHILE, and they took me with them because they don't wanted to appear on camera, but to be fair, heredoesn't make sense since unless I'm missing something. I doubt that players are that stupid to put their real name on the arcade high scores, they will put some nick or at best their initals, I will never Put Sebastián Barraza, I will just put sibarraz, or SIB (and this reminds me that when I had a children, I must name him Sebastian Nietzche Krauser)

Also, there's a tracking system to search players? there's a register of which time of the day they played?

- Also, it seems that now arcade operators can charge 50 or 100 yens unlike the initial days where it seems that you can only charge 100 yens, good to hear that, and good for taito to be changing almost all the machines with viewlix cabinets or taito type x2 boards

- I'm still hoping to see one day the nesica system here on the western, the idea could be so good, free games for the operators, what a big catalogue, the only turning point seems to be that charging 50 yens here is already expensive, and 100 is only possible in overpriced arcades on shopping centers. Also, I don't know how dangerous could be bringing those systems here, I know that they could find a way to unlock those games after being downloaded and play them free, alas.

Semi off topic, how is doing KOF98UMFENxL? Did the game pick up? or just was killed by nesica system used only for CSII?





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"Re(2):Nesica Live interview w/Price model, et" , posted Wed 27 Apr 03:28post reply

Thanks for the summary Professor!

quote:
-There were over 100 thousand table style and standard style arcade cabinets in operation at the peak of the arcade market, but now it's down to 40 thousand. Large-sized specialized cabinets are the current trend. Fujimoto believes that the standard cabinets are better for the arcade's economy since they cost less and there's less risk in investment. In the end, he believes balancing out on the installed machines, let it be prize machines or print club machines, is the key.

So the arcade market has been constantly losing ground and their solution is to stay the course? I'm certain this is the talk of a company that doesn't have the resources to try anything new and crazy but that doesn't sound like a winning formula. Still, I admire their efforts to make certain that every man, woman and child alive has access to Bust A Move.





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"Trouble Witches Neo" , posted Thu 28 Apr 00:36:post reply

Goddamit SNKP, I want to give you my money, but I can't unlock the game, even though I already downloaded the demo of trouble witches, and I had the points, I hope to be able to download it after I came back from college





[this message was edited by sibarraz on Thu 28 Apr 00:38]

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"Re(1):Trouble Witches Neo" , posted Thu 28 Apr 03:29post reply

quote:
Goddamit SNKP, I want to give you my money, but I can't unlock the game, even though I already downloaded the demo of trouble witches, and I had the points, I hope to be able to download it after I came back from college



Well, the game can't be purchased on any place in the world

I guess that SNKP is on *puts glasses* Trouble now!





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"Re(2):Nesica Live interview w/Price model, et" , posted Thu 28 Apr 19:33:post reply

quote:
Very good interview Professor

Some points that caught my attention

- About the online High Score, I never thought that the fact that your boss can caught you skipping job with this system could be a problem.

Also, there's a tracking system to search players? there's a register of which time of the day they played?

- Also, it seems that now arcade operators can charge 50 or 100 yens unlike the initial days where it seems that you can only charge 100 yens, good to hear that, and good for taito to be changing almost all the machines with viewlix cabinets or taito type x2 boards

-- Message too long, Autoquote has been Snipped --


sibarraz: Nesica Live should have absolutely no problem in figuring out where and when the users played their game. I'm not sure if they keep a log, but there should be no technical limitations. FYI, in the case of some other arcade games like Konami's Quiz Magic Academy, when you're playing the game and facing human opponents on network, you can actually see their names and what arcade they're playing at.

As for the pricing, arcade operators were actually able to freely choose between charging 100 or 50 yen from the beginning, just that no store owner would set their machine at 50 yen. And I still haven't seen arcades with a 50 yen setup, except when they have special occasions. For example, some arcades set their machines at 50 yen for 1-2 weeks after the earthquake to try and get customers back; nobody was going out to the arcades and they were losing business.

KOF98FE is an interesting case: some people are still playing UM since it's cheaper, but many of the players have apparently switched to FE now, one of the main reasons being that the input latency is better. Despite the popularity of BBCSII and SSF4AE, most large-scale arcades have a cabinet running KOF98FE now. I'm not sure for how long though, considering Aquapazza is slated for release soon.





[this message was edited by Professor on Thu 28 Apr 19:40]

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"Re(3):Nesica Live interview w/Price model, et" , posted Thu 28 Apr 23:32post reply

KoF98 represented in new Lord of Vermillion.

Oh, yeah, Blazblue is also mentioned there along with a Sega game I'm unaware of.
I've only ever heard of this series before as in a previous iteration they've included bosses from Final Fantasy XI, which have been too obscure to the masses to be referenced anywhere else...

This is a Japan-only arcade game, isn't it?...





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"Re(4):Nesica Live interview w/Price model, et" , posted Thu 28 Apr 23:52post reply

Thanks a lot, Prof. Very interesting.

So there really is no value in going to 50yens. You make more money with one 100y session than with three 50y sessions; an operator would need an incredible turn rate of consumers to make-up for the loss. It might be good for special events such as tournaments, maybe. Interesting that Taito is effectively killing the 50y market.

I am really surprised at the LOV/ST collaboration. Shouldn't these two titles be competitors? Why would SQEX be in cahoots with Sega on this? I know that Taito(=SQEX) is not so big on the card game front and that the card game craze is dying down but I did not expect two direct rivals to collaborate like this.





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"Re(5):Nesica Live interview w/Price model, et" , posted Fri 29 Apr 00:18post reply

quote:
Shouldn't these two titles be competitors? Why would SQEX be in cahoots with Sega on this? I know that Taito(=SQEX) is not so big on the card game front and that the card game craze is dying down but I did not expect two direct rivals to collaborate like this.



ST is the cameoed Sega game, I take it?...
Maybe some Sega series will get to feature SE characters later on...
Capcom and Namco-Bandai are supposed to be competitors in the fighting game front, but they'r making a couple of collaborations, and it's a both promotion opportunity for both, each getting some attention from the other's fans, if nothing else.

Either way, I'm all for collaboration/crossover opportunities.





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"Re(6):Nesica Live interview w/Price model, et" , posted Fri 29 Apr 00:35post reply

Battle Festa... So, a Multiplayer KoF Kyo?







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"Re(7):Nesica Live interview w/Price model, et" , posted Fri 29 Apr 00:58post reply

quote:
Battle Festa... So, a Multiplayer KoF Kyo?



I'm not sure if this is a bad thing or not.

Why does the character art look so familiar? Or am I just starting to see some of that Nomura-like sameness in Hiroaki's art?





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"Re(7):Nesica Live interview w/Price model, et" , posted Fri 29 Apr 01:00post reply

quote:
Battle Festa... So, a Multiplayer KoF Kyo?

Hmmm...I was confused at first about why the trailer had lots of Internationally travelling arrows going about around the world. I thought that with these type of mobile games that they were just japan-only.

Then I looked at the MOBAGE logo and remembered that they recently bought veteran iphone developer and Locoroco ripoff makers ngmoco and are want to Conquer the world. So SNK might finally release something else for iphone and its ilk other than the treacherously made Metal Slug Touch. Of course, rampant speculation is just rampant speculation.

Also, I'm seeing Duke from Burning Fight in one of the screens. So maybe KOF 2000 "Another" strikers might appear in the game.





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"Re(8):Nesica Live interview w/Price model, et" , posted Fri 29 Apr 01:09post reply

quote:
Why does the character art look so familiar? Or am I just starting to see some of that Nomura-like sameness in Hiroaki's art?



Aren't most of those from KoF2002UM?





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"Re(8):Nesica Live interview w/Price model, et" , posted Fri 29 Apr 02:27post reply

quote:

Also, I'm seeing Duke from Burning Fight in one of the screens. So maybe KOF 2000 "Another" strikers might appear in the game.


Ohoho! Awesome to see Duke's sprite at least.





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"Re(9):Nesica Live interview w/Price model, et" , posted Fri 29 Apr 04:41post reply

quote:

Aren't most of those from KoF2002UM?


Thanks, now I remember.





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"Re(10):Nesica Live interview w/Price model, e" , posted Fri 29 Apr 07:22post reply

today trouble witches neo was finally avaliable

The game is very beautiful, and for one the interface is very cool, and the arrange mode has new artwork than the arcade game


Seems like a very polished product, I wonder if SNKP has some influence on the development of the game





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"Re(7):Nesica Live interview w/Price model, et" , posted Fri 29 Apr 20:42post reply

quote:
Battle Festa... So, a Multiplayer KoF Kyo?


Yay more mobile gaming shit





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"Re(8):Nesica Live interview w/Price model, et" , posted Sat 30 Apr 01:08post reply

Shinjuku Carnival singles tournament pt.1 - Nico





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"Re(9):Nesica Live interview w/Price model, et" , posted Sat 30 Apr 01:57post reply

quote:
Shinjuku Carnival singles tournament pt.1 - Nico

THAT was the most beautiful KOFXIII Ralf I've ever seen.





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"Tournament stream" , posted Sat 30 Apr 14:10:post reply

Tougeki stream channel is right now doing a SNK classics tournament, I just missed a gekka no kenshi 2 tournament (glad I did though! hyo hyo hyo). Right now a 98' is going to start and after that a MotW tournament is coming next.

For "right now" is Saturday 2am from where I am standing (technically laying down & zipping booze) (should be Saturday morning in japan or something) Details about were to get the viewing links are in the Orochinagi thread. I say, who knew that not going drinking one day should be rewarded so handsomely!

edit : 777 is playing in the tournament. Oz is there too.

So, it ended :
3rd place : 777 (This tournament was my first time seeing him... So he was a grumpy office style old man ready to kick people with Taekwondo in every year? The KoF scene is diverse)
2nd place : Cap
1st place : Sue







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[this message was edited by Toxico on Sat 30 Apr 18:18]

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"Re(1):Tournament stream" , posted Sat 30 Apr 22:56post reply

quote:

3rd place : 777 (This tournament was my first time seeing him... So he was a grumpy office style old man ready to kick people with Taekwondo in every year? The KoF scene is diverse)




On local scenes here you saw lots of players, trashers, visuals, office men (some very old) and others, is very diverse like you said





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"Re(2):Tournament stream" , posted Mon 2 May 18:43:post reply

Carnival Singles tournament Pt.2 - Nico
Carnival Singles tournament Pt.3 - Nico





[this message was edited by Professor on Tue 3 May 00:19]