Hmmm, Nintendo is getting back into the arcade business, could mean some new games, and even better, they have announced a developmental partnership with Sega and Namco...

[Gone to Shakers]

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>"The hardware is being called the Triforce board, and is aimed to accomplish several things. Nintendo highlighted three points, listed as follows:

Expand the videogame market

Create a less expensive development environment for the high-cost arcade sector

Offer new ways to play videogames, linking the arcade and home market


In a world where arcade hardware is often prohibitively expensive, the low-cost, efficiently powerful GameCube hardware could provide an attractive solution." -IGN


It's unveiling will be this Friday, the 22nd.</div>

[Blotus]

<div style='font: 10pt "arial narrow"; text-align: left; padding: 0% 5% 0% 5%; '>Well... it certainly is an odd time to jump back into the arcade market.</div>

[Zeus]

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Well, Sega and Namco are two of the only companies that know how to survive in the current arcade market, so if they have a chance, it's with them. I just don't know....</div>

[Gone to Shakers]

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Well, Rare will definetly take Advantage of this, Killer Instinct was a hit Arcade series</div>

[Gentz]

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>Dude, the arcade scene now is bigger than ever! Or perhaps you missed Turkey Hunter!</div>

[Mr.Person]

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Bleh..., this will end up like the N64 arcade hardware, where Nintendo didn't make any games for it, but just liscensed it out to Seta</div>

[Gone to Shakers]

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Why do you say that?</div>

[Zeus]

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>But this time they're doin' it with Namco and Sega off the bat, not just toyin' with the idea</div>

[Ganath]

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Huh, that sounds interesting... Like Seeker said, I would like to see if Rare will do something with it.</div>

[Mr.Person]

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>I mean *something* as in done by a in-house party, rather than some 2nd party group like Rare, who provide a decent(not good) fighter in Killer Instinct.</div>

[SineSwiper]

<div style='font: 11pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light"; text-align: left; '>Unless they had a recent operation, siamese twins generally follow each other around.</div>

[Zeus]

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>That's just it, they know they're not good at the arcade market, so they team up with the two companies that still are. The fact that it could lead to great games for their home system with two important third parties sure doesn't hurt, either</div>

[Gone to Shakers]

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>My guess is that's the reason why they're teaming up with Sega and Namco, When Killer Instinct was released, there wasn't really anything that compared to it for a while yet. That's probably why it was the most popular Arcade game the year and year after it was released, check NPD.</div>

[Ganath]

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Hmm... I'd like to counter, but you're right actually. So touche.</div>

[Gone to Shakers]

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>There's two demo's already released, one is a Gundam game the other is Soul Calibur 2.</div>

[Mr.Person]

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>That's precisely what sort of game Killer Instinct was. A button masher game which didn't compare favorably at all to games such as MK2 and Virtua Fighter. However, let's get off this sidetrack and back to the point: Despite all the hoopla made for the Ultra 64 Arcade Board, ONLY 2 games were made for it: Cruis'N USA and Killer Instinct. Besides those titles, Midway and Nintendo didn't use the arcade board for anything else, which shows to me a complete lack of confidence in the arcade board to promote the N64 system properly. No matter how much you may point to the sales threads about KI's popularity, the fact remains Nintendo hasn't given the arcades serious thought for a long time, and the GC Arcade Board won't be taken seriously unless Nintendo ponies up and gives it a title from EAD or something.</div>

[Gone to Shakers]

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Also, I doubt people looked at the publisher when playing Killer Instinct, they just saw the name Killer Instinct, and played. The game was popular because people enjoyed it.</div>

[Mr.Person]

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>The arcade market is no longer as profitable as it once was. I would applaud this move by Nintendo if they put some games out to kickstart the arcades, however by and large arcades are not as popular as they once were. Everywhere you go there are a lot less arcades than there used to be. Besides, cheap arcade boards have been in use for a while, yet profits are still declining, surely you have heard of the Naomi board, and the System 11 boards.</div>

[Mr.Person]

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>There might have been a demo of a Soul Calibur game running in Namco's internal offices, HOWEVER, no version of SC2 has been shown besides the System 246 version, and that's the one which will be released in the arcades. But, I am interested in this Gundam game, you got a link on more info about it, or is it insider/UG?</div>

[Zeus]

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Arcades have pretty much plateaued. They dropped big-time and now have been regulated mostly to big centres that focus on the machines with a few arcade stores and a few restaurants with a machine or two. Nintendo mainly wants to have first dibs on arcade translations to the home market, like the DC</div>

[Mr.Person]

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>I understand that part and that's part of what I'm trying to get at. It's definately no revolution what Nintendo is doing, and there is no way you can paint it that way, unless they decide to do something to make it revolutionary.</div>

[Zeus]

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Well, there is a way they can. They already tried it a bit with the N64 and NFL Blitz. But with the new SD Memory Cards (64 MB each), it's a whole new ball game..</div>