Breaking Stinger News - ASI Chicago saw the move by Global VR to shake off the confusion of the transition of executives, and move forward towards success with high-level presentations of a new catalogue of titles that will promote an innovative strategy growing within the company, now incorporating UltraCade Technologies.

GVR had previously established a strong cross-licensing relationship with the leading consumer game publisher, Electronic Arts. ASI marked the announcement of the fourth big licensing from the mega-game house with their NASCAR title. The multi-platinum selling consumer title was revealed to be under development to be turned into a network racing game, building off of the model developed by the Need For Speed Underground property. The game will support the ViP Tournament infrastructure used on the other three GVR arcade releases.

The National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), began in 1948, has over 74 million fans across its televised audience in 150 countries, as well as at the 20 sporting events staged each year - marking NASCAR as the premier American sport. The ramifications of a NASCAR amusement release were not fully comprehended by the industry observers. The Stinger has done a little more research into the issues that await the release of this property. For EA this is the second time they have been involved in an arcade release of their prominent sports property. In 2000 SEGA America and EA developed an oval racing game based directly on the EA PC title, ‘EA Sports NASCAR Racing’ (HIKARU) was released to very poor reaction due to limited playability.

But the NASCAR property is out in the amusement domain in a number of ways. The ‘DAYTONA USA’ venue is a 60,000-square-foot interactive motorsports attraction franchise. In addition, there are over ten ‘NASCAR Silicon Motor Speedway’ interactive eight car driving location-based entertainment facilities owned by the Interactive Motorsports and Entertainment Corporation, traded on the Canadian stock exchange (a wholly owned subsidiary of the Perfect Line apparel corporation). The Silicon Motor Speedway operation launched last year a reduced size (arcade deluxe) variant of their simulator used in their sites. The ‘NASCAR SMS Reactor’ (PC Hardware) was shown at IAAPA and claimed to have generated advance orders of over 18 systems.

It is unknown at this moment if Global VR has been extended a special license to exclusively represent the NASCAR sports brand, though GVR has focused on their relationship with EA first and the brand second - unknown if SEGA and the above mentioned franchises will have to alter their advertising to suit this position. The company’s new release will be going up against the SMS Reactor as well as a non-branded stock-car racing game from the Canadian developer Jesler Enterprises called ‘Thunder Challenge’ (PC Hardware), and so will have to defend its pitch.

Breaking Stinger News - The second shoe dropped from the reinvigorated GVR with the announcement of a major film license returning to the arcades. The ‘Aliens’ science fiction horror fest is to be turned into an arcade gun game based on the second film of the trilogy. Global VR and Twentieth Century Fox have signed an agreement to create the game tentatively named ‘Aliens: Extermination’ following a new storyline based on from the end of the original. This arcade gun game will use much of the familiar elements of the film, ranging from the action set on the planet LV-426, and the player shooting a replica of the 10mm Pulse Rife. The game under development jointly with Glen Ellyn, and Play Mechanix; the developer having just successfully launched ‘Big Buck Hunter Pro’ with Betson has its roots with Midway including work on the ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ arcade shooter classic.

The Aliens trilogy has proven a popular concept of amusement and consumer adaptation. Activision published in 1986 a consumer game based on the original Alien product, while in the amusement scene, Konami in 1989, and again in 1990, while SEGA and Capcom in 1993 and 1994 released arcade licenses. Capcom in 2004 released in Japan a medal game based on the Aliens property but not for international application. GVR had previously abandoned a shooting game based on an Activision property in early 2000, this new shooter is perceived to be totally original.

Breaking Stinger News - The third and final shoe (for now) was dropped with the announcement, revealed by the Stinger Report last year (Stinger #459), that Europe’s second largest consumer game publisher UbiSoft had signed an agreement with GVR to license their million selling ‘Far Cry Instincts’ first-person-shooter title. The game set on a tropical island pits the player against a hoard of terrorists, with over 50-missions. The players character an ex-special forces marine against global terrorists. It is expected that GVR will be working closely with the original developer and the publisher to create a fast pace game based on the license.

The importance of the Intellectual Property (IP), for the consumer sector was rammed home by what was not revealed by the GVR / UbiSoft announcement. The software developer closed negotiation with the Far Cry developers CryTech, to take full control of the IP and the development environment (CryENGINE) for future development. This came at a time as CryTech signed future negotiation projects with UbiSoft competitor Electronic Arts, and it is assumed that the agreement for third versions of the Far Cry range and the amusement development has forced UbiSoft to secure full control.

Returning to titles actually present at the show, and covered in our London Show coverage, ASI saw the production version of the last independent UltraCade Technologies project. The ‘UltraPin’ (PC Hardware) deluxe cabinet offered a smooth and impressive glimpse at a serious contender to the video pinball thrown. The game system was shown behind the curtain to selected operators running the Williams’ pin ‘Medieval Madness’. The top glass and full table display does a lovely job of recreating a pinball table. The competitive price proposed for the system means that this hardware could offer a serious competitive edge to Global VR in persuading some of the newer facilities to move beyond the mechanical issues of the conventional platform.

Stinger Report Observation - It was interesting that GVR/UltraCade chose to show Medieval Madness as their display UltraPin, as across the globe initial orders were being sought for the first production run of the new physical table manufacturer The Pinball Factory, remanufacturing Williams/Bally pinball table - as reported in previous Stinger coverage. It was not known if this was a definite attempt to remove the competition or just an interesting coincidence.

There was some comment that full of promise, actual substance was limited on the Global VR booth, the ASI show more familiar for being a show were people come to buy rather than hear about opportunities. It is hard to criticize GVR for attempting to build on their presence in the market and publicizing the facts. It will however place additional pressure on the company to perform.

Stinger sources coming away from the GVR booth had one last surprise to heap on what they had collected - well placed sources in the US operation revealed advance negotiation that would see the possibility of one of the few remaining European amusement developers working in unison… if not closer, with the American company. A clue to this new partner rumor was revealed by the appearance of ‘Gaelco Championship Tuning Race’ (Proprietary Hardware) flyers appearing on the GVR booth, and suggestions of momentous news round the corner of additional relationships for GVR in Europe as well as also in the USA - wait for more on this story soon.

Fighting the mechanical pinball battle at ASI was STERN Pinball, the company showing their latest product ‘World Poker Tour’ and making many converts to the possibility of pinball to still hold its own in a jaded market. The company also presented the fully operational Tournament Play element of their system allowing game connectivity within the site (and without the need for online support). Stern has been linked to an immense development program to support a growing order book, the adult entertainment scene seeing pinball as a must have product. The company presented a strong face in a changing sector arranging a trip for the AAMA to the Stern factory in Chicago.

The Stinger continues its in-depth coverage of the American show scene next.