Wii threatens Japanese arcade industry |
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After the 32-bit era was ushered in, arcade gaming took heavy hits across the planet. In Japan, though things have remained relatively good until recently.Reuters reports that the US$ 6.9 billion industry in Japan is caving in under heavy competition from current-gen consoles. The biggest raider happens to be Nintendo's Wii, which is selling like mad all over the planet.
Japanese gamers now find themselves at home, enjoying active gaming that once was offered only in special arcade machines. The motion-sensing advent has apparently taken away the one trump card that amusement centers had over consoles.
Jay Defibaugh, an analyst at Credit Suisse. explains the trend from a business standpoint. "A large element of the problem is innovation and in Japan, it's pretty clear that Nintendo has been the leader in innovation," he says.
Japanese children see it in a much simpler light. A 15-year old student described arcades as "noisy, expensive, and cigarette smoke-filled." He said he would rather go to a theme park or play at home.
Reuters further reports that numerous branches of major chains have started shutting down. With the way things are going, arcades could be facing major changes in design and structure soon if they are to survive.
Via Reuters
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Comments [refresh]
i think it's not just the wii drawing people away from arcades, it's the growing popularity of multiplayer too. one of the major appeals to playing in arcades was because you get to play with other people you can test your skills against. now that multiplayer is getting more popular, there's less reason to go to the arcade.
I never knew that. I've been living in Japan and I see less and less people in arcades. There are really bad people in arcades sometimes and try to take your money. I guess it is better to play inside than in an arcade. But I do like some of the car games and games like "Taiko no Tatsujin."
I live in Japan also, and it seems to be true that attendance in arcades has been dwindling. It's especially apparent in more rural areas.
It used to take months, or even years for an arcade game to show up on a home console. That time window is now gone. Even the argument for arcade games that use peripherals is disappearing. Games that use drums, guitars, dance pads, racing wheels, games that use special cards, etc. now all have home versions.
Full cabinet immersion games like Initial D, the full Gundam cabinet game, are still unlikely to have home versions, and people here still come to the arcades to play the claw machine games and go to the picture booths when they have free time.
(I still think the prices are ridiculous. Each play in the arcade cost about $1-$4. But maybe that's why the American arcade scene disappeared, just charging 25 cents.)
FYI arcade offically died few years ago in my town.
Arcades died out 4-5 years ago in ym town too. and last year the last arcade buss.. went out of buss. because no one wanted to play the drum game because they were jap. songs and Rock Band has real music for Americans they say. but like i was saying the Arcade thing lost its mark after PS3 and Wii came out oh yea and i forgot about the green thing that turns red.. the 360 lmao
You think the Wii has caused this?????? The Wii caters to 12 year olds and grandmothers, in other worlds "weekend gamers". And guess what????? This demographic of consumers DO NOT game at arcades!!!! Ps3 and 360 and the real culprits here. Oh yeah and the Wii is garbage....they should have called it the Garbage Machiine. No seriously. It would make more sence than the current name. Wii??? It means it is for everyone, and that everyone can play. Well, doesn't the Ps3 and 360 have the same features? Does the Ps3 or 360 fail to operate if a white/black/chinese/japanese person picks up the controller. No. They are for everyone just like the wii. Only difference is that the Wii looks like garbage, has garbage games, controls like garbage, has a garbage future, will have a garbage lifespan, caters to the garbage weekend/casual gamer (I mean wtf is that!? That isn't anyone of us on this site: If you'r on qj.net and you support the Wii, the Wii does not support you), heck it even smells like garbage
That was funny!
So, just to confirm, do you like the Wii or not!!!
Wow i find it funny how many times you said "garbage" (maybe you have a secret obession with it? )
There alot of uses on qj who own a Wii(including myslef) but also the other consoles. And many of us preffer one over the other or all of them.
In your rant you make little to no sense in what you say and 99.9% is bull' just like "Mister Nonsene" who need to grow up and stop acting like 12 year olds fighting over consoles in a playground.
PS: For the love of god please learn to type so you posts dont look like a 7 year old kid kept hitting the ? key everytime he typed a word.
Interesting, well you certainly seem to be full of facts. Tell us, since you obviously already know this information, the 360 is doing HORRIBLY in Japan. Seeing as how a console is sucking ass in a certain region how exactly is it responsible for the demise of "anything"?
Arcades in my area are booming. But then again these are cheep crap arcades either and most of them incorporate dinning and drinking. Not to mention arcades in theme parks and vacation spots continue to do well in the states.
and back to the topic, the arcades might get half raped, but I don't think it will do any major damage. Only part of the arcade that will lose customers would be the sit down rows of video games (dunno how else to say it and not sure if u understand). All the other set up are just different from in home play. Besides if game consoles would cause aracdes to die, it would have done so years ago. Ton of the games in arcade are from ps2 or ps1 with multiplayer, ps2 had alot of shooters with guncon(TC and HoD), ps2 also had drum mania with the exact same set up they have in the arcade, and ps2 even has steering wheel for racing games(ID). ps2 was pretty hot back then too. All wii really did was make more people stay at home and turn neet. btw i have the console, shooters are always off mark and the pretend steering wheel just plain sucks. I have wii and ps3, I still go the arcade like before, they even have mario kart now with a actually working steering wheel. btw lets not put so much credit on the wii just because its selling well, this is the effect of consoles, computers, and anything that makes people stay home. If your gonna make this an ad for the wii, I'll start giving the wii credit for causing high energy consumption in all homes and is the main reason we have a hole in the ozone killing off our environment as well as global warming.
I found your comment funny actually, your typing and attitude against the Wii just made it sound like you weren't being serious.
..and you pretty much went completely off topic.
Anyways, concerning arcades, I personally think they are dieing too. I remember back when I lived in Tennessee my dad used to take my sis and I to this big arcade area, now upon a recent visit it is closed, and other familiar arcade-containing places are dead too. Living in Florida, the only arcade-rich place is GameWorks, but anywhere else I've seen that have arcade areas don't have many people playing them. I miss those Sega dogfighting airplane games...