For the seventh month running, the North American consumer game sales have fallen; during March falling by roughly 8 per cent to $499 million. Hardware sales of new console systems also fell by 31 per cent to $220 million. This information confirmed by the Reuters news agency showed that as with the cinema sector, consumer gaming is suffering from a month-on-month decline. The consumer trade quick to brush this news aside as an example of the transition from the older systems to the next-generation systems - initially launched by the Xbox360 and soon to be followed by Sony and Nintendo -- but some independent sources see a much more problematic decline that could continue even after the launch of the new PS3 and Revolution systems at the end of 2006.

(Note - Nintendo chose April to announce that having lived under the working title of Revolution, and revealed that the actual name of the system will be ‘Wii’ (pronounced We!), the company hoping that the name will be inclusive to the gaming and non-gaming audience, the similarity to WiFi hoping not to be lost on the new audience.)

Some actions being undertaken by the console scene seem desperate to try and capture as much territory as possible before the decline takes hold. One such move was linked to rumors from Microsoft sources thought to be attempting to cement sales of their new Xbox 360 home system.

Unsubstantiated sources at the Xbox Live! Arcade broadband game hub revealed they would be developing an arcade emulation software environment that would allow them to run classic arcade games thought their subscription online service; originally incorrectly leaked on the net as Microsoft would be buying the Multi Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME) freeware for their system.

The retro freeware has been very popular with fans. MAME has been a contentious system, making available ROM's from arcade machines able to be played originally on PC hardware. The Stinger was one of the first to report legal action by arcade manufactures to protect their Intellectual Property (Stinger #420); the freeware software skirting the letter of the law.

In creating their own environment borrowing from the work MAME has achieved, some sources see the move by Microsoft (supported by SEGA and Namco) as a means of the amusement manufacturers regaining control of their intellectual proprieties (IP).

The MAME fan community was thrown into confusion over the initial leak - first the doubters of a MAME link to Xb360 was replaced with the reality of manufacturer supporting their own emulators that could directly compete with the popularity of MAME, but also could directly attack their efforts. The freeware community has still been reeling over the news that VisualPinball (the Multiple Pinball Table PC Emulator) was acquired for amusement application by UltraCade Technologies.

This news was linked to revelation that SEGA and Namco Bandai Group Inc., (NBGI) - as well as SNK-P and Hudson - were signed up to provide classic titles for the Xbox service. It was not revealed what impact on the retro cabinet sales, including that from NBGI’s satellite operation in America would be? This comes just as Namco Amusement in America previewed a prototype of a tabletop version of their Ms. Pac-Man / Galaga cabinet at the recent International Billiards and Home & Home Recreation exhibition. Just as Namco continues to invest in retro system, this new tabletop building on the upright and cocktail releases will surely be impacted by the increase in availability from the consumer development.

The need to find additional content was seen as Microsoft’s attempt to distance themselves against claims by Nintendo that they would be making available on the launch of their new console (Revolution), classic console titles from a large number of 8-bit and 16-bit sources.

The aspect of looking towards amusement by the consumer scene was covered in our previous Stinger on the ‘Cross Over’ (Stinger #459), but there is some serious activity to try and establish the ground rules of the consumer sector as it looks to other revenue streams to baluster their changing fortunes, and suddenly The Stinger Report has received information on new policing of the application of console content in the pay-for-play sector.

The application of consumer games systems into the amusement sector is not a new idea - a well-trodden path with a dead end (and a large number of skeletal remains at its end). Most recently the Stinger feature on the consumer sector charted the influence of products such as the PlayChoice by Nintendo, the Amiga powered Arcadia system, and SEGA Master System. After ancient history we have seen sporadic appearances of consumer machines illegally converted to a 'timed' system to play in venues. In particular in China and Taiwan a number of manufactures flaunted the copyright of the PS2 and Xbox with JAMMA based game kits, while Nintendo has created an ultra secret project with a Korean developer to allow their GameCube to be used in a retail setting (see Stinger #216).

More recently TSR revealed a project that was launched at the 2005 ASI event; though treated with caution by the Stinger at the time. Coincepts, with machines supplied by Quasimoto Interactive proposed to release for amusement application the ‘TimeCade’ (Xbox). The 2 player upright cabinet had at its heart an Xbox console, the unit wired up to play Xbox titles for a prescribed time dependant on credits purchased. The original Quasimoto booth at ASI'05 had claimed much but only the Timecade machine had been developed.

Nintendo was one of the first amusement companies to use a pay-for-time credit model with their ‘Nintendo Super System’ arcade platform. This model is employed with the Timecade system buying time (remaining units displayed on the marquee). Other than software firmware, the cabinet included arcade sticks, with Xbox Memory Port to save games.

In the original Stinger coverage of ASI'05 (Stinger #383) questions regarding the 'not for public performance' clause of the user agreement of all the console machines was mentioned the booth representatives proved evasive.

This evasion came back to haunt Quasimoto and Coincepts, when the Stinger received news that the Timecade operation had been suspended. Publicly trade questions regarding the sudden suspension of the project were answered that this was due to warrantee issues with console hardware in the amusement sector, but privately Stinger sources suggested that Microsoft had struck with Cease and Desist representation from the giant software firm. No official word was available at the time of writing from ether parties.

The only Microsoft supported console arcade cabinet that TSR can find is that was developed by Canadian Jesler Enterprises. The ‘Xbox Inside’ (Xbox) cockpit system offered a specialist player interface inspired by the original Xbox joypad aiming at the retail and mixed-entertainment venue market. Never fully deployed the system proposed much but was never fully deployed - how much Microsoft had to do with this was unclear.

The future of consoles in arcade may still be transitional, but with growing interest by eager console game publishers - some of the elements of the concept may need to be re-visited. In the company weeks The Stinger Report will be covering the vast American E3 exhibition and charting a changing landscape for consumer gaming and the implications this brings to the Out-of-Home leisure entertainment sector.