30/7/06

“JAMMA Goes Wild: Part 1.” (#505)

Stinger REPORT Skinny!

(17/09/06) The biggest and busiest of the Japanese amusement shows was completed in Japan this month. The Stinger Report is able to bring readers a detailed two-part report on AM Show 2006, the leading brands and some of the surprises that tempted the greatest factories’ exhibits. This first issue covers SEGA, NBG and Banpresto – looking at a new strategy in Satellite Terminal games from NBG, and the first viewing of Initial D.

Main REPORT:

The gathering turbulence in the consumer sector was on show for the build-up to the Tokyo Game Show. In Japan, a three-way battle looms between the Nintendo (Wii), Sony (PS3) and Microsoft (XB360) –and this turmoil stands in total juxtaposition to the building interest in amusement in Asia. For the Japanese arcade market to warrant coverage in prominent consumer game magazines did cause some consternation in observers who have long suffered from near-continuous commentary (from the same journals) that previously asserted the global arcade industry was 'dead'!

So a larger than normal attendance greeted the Japanese Amusement Machine Manufacturers Association (JAMMA) 44th AM Show in Tokyo, Japan. For TSR this marked over the sixth year of coverage of the event by correspondents. The exhibition was split up as has become familiar into Zones (Arcade Zone, Family Zone, Prize Zone, Related Zone and Media Zone), with over forty exhibitors.

AM’44 continues to be a very important event not only for the Asian amusement trade, but also for world amusement. And there was the rub; Asian amusement seemed to be exiting its dark period... how long for the international scene?

SEGA

The largest exhibitor at the event was Sega-Sammy, but the Sammy name was totally removed from the amusement merger and big releases on display in favor of the Sega brand only. The latest version of the Manga classic that has spawned hundred of merchandising opportunities, SEGA revved up for the latest outing from the garage. ‘Initial D: Arcade Stage Version 4’ (LindBergh) making full use of the LindBergh Deluxe driver cabinet, now replacing its MCRD for full IC Card integration.

The international sleeper hit title caused a significant stir at the event, with a level of popularity to rival Virtua Fighter. The new version supported different graphics and performance, a smaller garage of vehicles and the adoption of the ALL.NET player environment. Full vehicle and player avatar customization was on show. Some visiting operators balked at the fact that this totally new game, unlike previous versions, will not be given a kit release. The game wowed the players at the event, and that saw the game on line, proving to be the big release of the SEGA stage and booth.

Continuing the investment by SEGA in ‘Big Box’ products the ‘OutRun 2: SP SDX’ (LindBergh) systems, recently launched at the Summer Private show season (Stinger #499), had its first international presentation at AM’44. The latest version of ‘Virtua Fighter 5 Version A’ (LindBergh) also received booth space. The game was voted best overall fighting game by IGN, best fighting game by a website called 1up.com, and best fighting game by GameTrailers consumer media, when shown at the E3 event this year. This acclaim caused the consumer media to sit-up and take amusement seriously, with a PS3 port proposed for 2007.

Beyond the big dedicated cabinets, SEGA showed a new concept. ‘SNC’ (LindBergh), which stands for SEGA Network Casino Club, offers a unique medal game that shows a gaming tendency prevalent in a number of Japanese games. The Gaming Board of Japan remains undecided in rating gaming content that Europe would recognize as Skill-With-Prizes (SWP) though medal games seem to be migrating towards forcing the issues. The SEGA Satellite Terminal game offers simple casino game style, supported with ALL.NET connectivity via the SNC.NET, and its IC Cards; this product offering possible international possibilities.

The SEGA booth was home to a number of the more conventional amusement pieces, and some interesting third party development. ‘Guilty Gear XX Accent Core’ (Naomi) marked a return to the arcade of the Arc Systems-developed brawler. On test in Japan, the Guilty Gear series has seen over six versions released for the arcade, the last being on the A-Wave (‘Guilty Gear Isuka’) in 2004. The game then reverted to consumer releases, but with GGXXC returns to the amusement market, and a return to the Naomi hardware, cementing the abandonment of the A-Wave as a viable delivery platform for amusement.

The Naomi platform – at the end of the A-Wave – continued with ‘Melty Blood Act Cadenza Ver. B’ (Naomi), developed by Type-Moon / Ecole. The Japan-oriented vertical brawler found much favor with the players at the show.

Along with the videos, SEGA showed the growth of their Card Gaming (Kid Vending) range, now supported by an extensive plush and merchandising supply. The MushiKing, DinosaurKing and Love and Berry range opening a completely new genre for wider appeal. The placement of the female-centric Love and Berry title in retail as well as amusement has seen a major increase in revenue. Imitation being the most sincere form of flattery – titles emulating the SEGA female player title were seen from other manufacturers at the show.

Supporting the merchandising for the kid vending SEGA showed their UFO Catch line of games. And next to this an appearance of a number of the company’s toy range was on show (such as SpinMaster). Not the only manufacturer to have toy properties on their booth, SEGA certainly demonstrated Japan’s growing desire to capture the younger video game player’s out-of-home leisure budget.

No Show

It was interesting to see the direction of SEGA’s marketing team for AM’44 – the no-shows were considerable with ‘The House of the Dead 4: Special’ (LindBergh) left on the bench. A big surprise was no appearance by ‘Afterburner Climax’ (LindBergh), especially the SimuLine simulator seat version that was seen in the UK before getting a Japanese appearance. Also ‘Let’s Go Jungle’ (LindBergh) did not get a showing.

‘SEGA World Club Champion Football European Club 2005-2006’ (Naomi 2) was also left off even having shown a new card and football players at the Private Show; the Stinger has been given exclusive access to Panini recently, the collector card developers in partnership with SEGA, and a special feature will go into the development of this new strategy will be on the wire soon.

Of the games that SEGA left behind, the big omission was the Suzuki-san developed ‘Psi-Phy’ (LindBergh). Sources claimed that the ALL.NET supported touch-screen game tested incredibly badly on-site-test and will be dropped as a released product by management. A major blow to the new development team headed up by the SEGA supremo, and possibly the impetus for changes within the R&D structure as AM development is increased.

Breaking Stinger News – The development of new technology such as the LindBergh and the consolidation of the Aurora system, the death knell of the A-Wave continued in the background. TSR sources revealed that November the 30th 2006 had been earmarked as the closure date for the AW-NET service (the All.Net derivative network service for the AtomisWave game system). The Smart Cards and online scoring portal will close at that point. The fact that just as America receives its version of the AW-NET (‘Extreme Hunting 2’ (PC Hardware)) the Asian sector losses its version! As covered in Stinger #407 the last nail has been hammered into the A-Wave coffin.

Namco Bandai Games (NBG)

The second largest exhibitor at AM’06, the new conjoined name… or was it? A number of the attending observers to the company booth pointed out the change in the signage. What actually greeted the visitors from the floating inflatable Pac-Man banner or illuminated front signage was a reversal of the two companies’ names – specifically, ‘Bandai Namco Games’! When questioned, those executives who would stop to chat quickly changed the subject!!

The development of Satellite Terminal games was also reflected on the NBG booth. ‘Minnade Zitaeru Zennou Training’ (System 10) offered a ST four terminal game, with simple memory and quick reaction based games based on a similar Nintendo DS game. Very reminiscent of the newly launched KDE game ‘KuruKuru,’ the game supports ALL.NET connectivity along with IC Card storage of player’s progression through the game. The product benefits from a major push from NBG in establishing a market following the success of ‘The idol M@ster’, which is also receiving a consumer port.

The Namco Satellite Terminal cabinet is the same used for ‘Dragons Chronicle’ and the popular ‘The idol M@ster’ games, the product able to be upgraded in a kit to the previous releases. An interesting factor in the Asian perspective of this new game is the use of ALL.NET tournament technology. Exactly how the SEGA developed network technology will be deployed in the coming months is yet to be revealed.

The big cabinet presentation from NBG at the show was ‘Mobile Suit GunDam Battlefield’ (System 246). The Bandai-developed game launched at last year’s event is now to be sold by NBG. The production model of the giant robot battle simulator along with its IC Card capability found much interest from visitors and marked a new trend for connected battle robot games – bring back memories of the success of Virtual World Entertainment’s ‘BattleTech’ LBE.

Continuing the evergreen popular music game - ‘Taiko no Tatsujin 9’ (System 246) appeared in its latest guise at the show. Along with ‘Time Crisis 4’ (Super System 258), another game that had already been released received valuable booth square footage was ‘Mario Kart Arcade GP’ (TriForce). It was a surprise to see this game on booth – though for NBG this was the only driver they chose to show, the game has had a strange product history. The reason why so few were built never adequately, and rumors of possible issues with manufacturer and availability of TriForce hardware as Nintendo proved slow to supply Bandai owned Namco their hardware.

Whatever the truth of the situation – MKAGP was on show again, with proposals for a new supply to complete unfulfilled orders. How this will affect the International demand for the game was not known. Some sources confirmed that the game would be at ATEI in London, and that the game was in fact ported to new architecture to address supply bottlenecks. Supporting other business, the company had a large number of their medal games on show, including the special pusher series so popular internationally.

No Show

NBG seemed to come to the show with a much smaller selection than previous years. Again sources speculated that the move from PS2 based architecture would be revealed with a large number of new games, but development had proven slower than expected to market. This said, TSR sources have not heard of any new titles on test from NBG other than their ST title ‘SuperStadium 2001’; though a large effort was going into supporting the GunDam simulator.

Banpresto

Banpresto was still able to exhibit separately from Bandai, which recently purchased Banpresto. The company showed a number of new market products with the third-largest exhibition space at the event covering the same amount of space as Taito. The company on their booth and stage had a strong selection of games - ‘Mobile Suit GunDam: Spirit of ZEON’ (TypeX) developed by Polygon Magix offered a unique use of the GunDam property. The big gun game set in the battling robot universe was one of the few new gun games at the show. The title marking the move by Banpresto from the PS2-based hardware to the Taito architecture.

Along with the big dedicated units, Banpresto showed ‘The Battle of Yuu Yuu Hakusho’ (System 258), their brawler based on the popular Manga comic series, using IC card support. Continuing the usage of popular licenses the company showed ‘Lupin The Third’, a touch screen satellite terminal Medal Game. Along with this, the large card gaming DATACARDASS range made an appearance with new designs and enhanced merchandising support.

Stinger will continue its coverage of JAMMA 2006 next issue.