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Arcade games seem to be dying of old age, but they have not stopped the pace of innovation
Written/Meteor
Editor/Wei Xu
2021 has passed, and for the game market that has just handed over a less satisfactory test paper, 2022 is obviously more worth looking forward to, filled with a number of promising new games such as "Eldon's Law Ring" and "Angel Hunting Witch 3".
Soon after entering 2022, the veteran game manufacturer Sega took a new job, working with Intel, ASRock and several other hardware manufacturers to jointly create a "world's fastest" PC, configured as an Intel Core i9-12900K processor, ASRock Z690M-ITX / ax motherboard, RX 6900 XT 16GB graphics and 2000GB SSD.
This configuration wants to pretend to be "the fastest", and it is estimated that it will only be exchanged for a sentence of "Just this?" However, since this PC is Sega's "whole work", it will naturally not be so simple, in fact, although the configuration is not the top level, this PC does deserve the name of the "fastest" in a sense - because of this PC, it also carries four ruts.
Read no wrong, the Sega gaming PC that has just been introduced has been "stitched" onto the turf of a remote control car, and its top speed on the track can reach 100km/h, which is indeed the "fastest" that many game PCs can't reach.
While learning the truth, the eyes of the majority of players also focused on Sega, an old factory with some stories. In the past year, Sega has experienced major layoffs, changed hands in the arcade business for 55 years, and suffered a sharp decline in revenue and profit in the 2021 fiscal year... With so much negative news, one can't help but ask, Is Sega, the tragic warrior who has launched a repeatedly defeated challenge to Nintendo, is now okay?
Switching hands to arcades, Sony threw itself into the arms of "super games"
For the problem just mentioned, let's first say the conclusion: although Sega broke a lot of negative news last year, it has been unexpectedly alive recently.
Thanks to the growth of Sales by Pak Ching Ge, the gratifying sales performance of new and remakes of games such as "Death of Judgment: Memories of Annihilation", "Sonic: Colorful Colors", "Human" and other new games and remakes of old games, MMORPG "DreamStar Online 2" achieved good results in sales and number of users, and... Well, sega successfully turned a profit in its financial reports for the first half of fiscal 21-22 (April 1 to September 30, 2021) due to the recovery of resort business due to the improvement of the epidemic, with sales of 134.893 billion yen, an increase of 22.4% year-on-year.
Judging from the data in the financial report, Sega's decision to shift its focus to the video game business at the moment is undoubtedly quite correct, with the continuous launch of high-quality remake games and new games, Sega has accumulated a huge IP array in its hands, which not only consolidates its position in the game market, but also vaguely reveals the momentum of "comeback".
Sega's recent job with the "world's fastest" PC is also part of its video game business. According to Sega officially, the main purpose of making this unique game PC is to create momentum for the Steam Winter Sale. The PC platform is an important channel for Sega's current video game sales.
As players know, in recent years, Sega has gradually given up its IP games on the PS platform and turned to the PC platform with a huge user scale, and it turns out that this is indeed a good move, and the sales of game products represented by the "Like Dragon" series on the PC game platform Steam are very impressive, which makes Sega taste a lot of sweetness.
Sega's well-known series of games "Like a Dragon"
After seeing the huge user traffic on the Steam platform, Sega began to actively promote the activities on the Steam platform, and the discount promotion of its game products on the platform became more and more frequent, and it will also carry out free game activities every New Year's Festival, which has made more PC gamers in the circle, and has also made more PC players contact with their own game IP, and the sales reputation has been double-harvested.
Driven by the sales of games on the PC platform, the influence of Sega's game IP has been further enhanced, the sales growth momentum is strong, and it has gradually become the main revenue force of Sega Entertainment's content business.
In November 2021, Sega announced a new plan to invest up to 100 billion yen (about 5.63 billion yuan) in the development of "super games" and the acquisition of other companies in Japan or overseas.
The concept of "super games" may sound more intimidating than "metaverses", but it is actually not a very obscure concept, according to Sega, "super games" will be focused on "global", "online", "community" and "IP exploitation" game products, more like a MMO game like "Dreamstar Online 2", plus a lot of Sega's IP content.
It may sound reliable, but will Sega really go so smoothly if it wants to build a global MMO game or online online community based on its own IP? Not quite.
Nowadays, the MMO track has been relatively solidified, even Sega's relatively successful "Dream Star Online 2", compared to the current top on the market "FF14", "The Elder Scroll OL", "Destiny 2" and the former king of the former king "World of Warcraft" because of the developer Blizzard's downturn and continue to pull the crotch is still a small shrimp rice, and Sega's IP influence in recent years, although the expansion of influence is obvious, but compared with the IP of the three giants of Weisuo, there is still a gap. Overall, although Sega is a veteran game manufacturer, but because of the successive failures in the console arcade market, its territory in the game market continues to shrink, its current market value is less than 4 billion US dollars, with its current volume, it is difficult to cross the roadblocks faced by the "super game" by the hard conditions of product operation experience and IP influence.
However, in any case, it is always a good thing to have a goal, and Sega, which is eager to try its goal after the revenue turnaround, seems to have come out of the haze of various negative news during the epidemic. However, those things that Sega left in the haze seem to be less optimistic.
For example, the arcade market that Sega resolutely chose to abandon.
Once hollowed out the wallets of players around the world, now it has "fallen to the altar"
On November 4, 2020, Sega Sammy Holdings, Sega Sammy Holdings, the parent company of Sega, announced that it would sell 85.1% of its subsidiary, Sega Entertaiment, which operates arcade rental and arcade operations, to GENDA, a company that operates a gaming machine rental business.
After the end of this transaction, Sega Entertainment will break away from the Sega Group, and Sega will change owners in 199 arcade halls throughout Japan, although Sega has not said that it will stop the development of arcade games, but in the eyes of players, Sega's 55-year-old arcade business has come to an end.
"Arcade" is a very emotional word for the post-80s and post-90s generation of players. The dim and narrow arcade hall, the noisy tapping of keys, and the familiar game footage are the memories of youth shared by those two generations. Once upon a time, arcade games, which occupied an important position in the minds of post-80s and post-90s players, were also the most eye-catching existence in the game market. In the long history of human games, it is arcade games that have taken the lead in bringing new game methods presented on electronic screens to the world, and legendary game products such as "Space Invaders", "Pac-Man", "Street Fighter" and other legendary game products that can represent the four words of "video games" are also from the arcade game platform.
In the "Golden Age" of the late 70s and early 80s, arcade games defeated Hollywood and soap operas, beating chess and card halls, billiard halls, bowling alleys and dance halls, and it is no exaggeration to say that there was no form of entertainment that once human society could match. There was even a time when people attributed the shortage of 100 yen coins in Japan to the popularity of Space Invaders — and according to video Game Sales Wiki records, Space Invaders has surpassed $13.9 billion since its release in 1978, and even now it is still one of the most profitable games in the world.
Landmark game series Space Invaders
However, as gamers have seen, today's arcade games are dwarfed by other forms of entertainment, even if they are put together with "peer" console games, PC games, or mobile games.
According to the Japan Times, in 1986, there were more than 26,000 game halls in Japan, and by 2019, the number had dropped to more than 4,000. In Japan, where the arcade culture is more concentrated, this is still the case, and in the country where the regulatory environment for games is more stringent, the decline of arcade games is even more imaginable, and arcade halls that choose to turn to Internet cafes or close their doors after the gradual decline of the industry are everywhere, which also leaves an impression on the minds of the "post-80s" and "post-90s" generation of players.
In the view of Zhang Hao, a 27-year-old arcade enthusiast, the demise of arcade machines has left a clear and clear path.
"Compared with overseas, the 'golden age' of arcades in China is relatively backward and relatively short. Probably in the 1980s, arcade machines began to appear frequently in the streets and alleys of China, and the video games they represented were a kind of 'dimensionality reduction' entertainment method for young people in China at that time, and the freshness and stimulation experience it brought to people was something that other entertainment methods could not give. Zhang Hao recalled.
But soon, after entering the 21st century, computers quickly spread in China through the form of Internet cafes, and the online games that were popularized with them quickly swept the country, and many online games such as Stone Age, Legend, and Magic Baby defeated arcade games and became the new favorite of domestic players. At the same time, the personal computer has triggered a new trend, in their own home with a personal computer to play online games, in addition to saving the time and energy of the arcade hall, but also to not be disturbed, do not have to queue up the comfortable experience, personal safety can also be guaranteed, so many players began to through the Internet café or personal computer way to fight page games, end games and other game products, seriously shaken the status of arcade games, and then later on the stage of smart phones and mobile games, is to further accelerate the progress of arcade games "fall off the altar".
"After 2000, there are many arcade halls that have been closed down because of operational difficulties or because they do not meet regulatory requirements, which has led to the slow withdrawal of arcade games from the public eye, and under the influence of the atmosphere of PC games and mobile games in China, many post-95s or younger players are difficult to contact arcade games without the guidance of others, and without the attention of new players, arcade games are difficult to have further growth, and can only continue to lag behind other game segments, and finally be eliminated." Zhang Hao said.
PC games and mobile games "The back wave of the Yangtze River pushes the front wave" has made arcade games difficult to overcome, and the new crown epidemic in 2020 is a devastating blow to the global arcade industry. In fact, one of the important reasons for Sega's sale of the arcade business is the continuous loss of the arcade business due to the decline in passenger traffic caused by the epidemic.
In addition to Sega, there are many companies operating arcade business have been affected, such as the well-known game manufacturer SE 2020 first three quarters of the financial report showed that the net sales of the physical entertainment industry represented by the large arcade business was 24.314 billion yen, a year-on-year decrease of 27.8%; the operating income loss reached 1.116 billion yen, which is the only loss-making item in many departments. In China, Holley Technology, a game entertainment machine manufacturer upstream of arcade games, also disclosed in the company's prospectus that the sales amount of game amusement equipment in 2020 was 260 million yuan, down about 11.44% year-on-year.
At present, the end of the new crown epidemic is still far away, and under the pressure of the epidemic lockdown that may occur again at any time, the prospects for the arcade game of "carrying the weight forward" are obviously not optimistic.
From VR to mini arcades, how can you save the "king of yesteryear"?
According to hengzhou Primus in the "Global and China Arcade Game Industry Development Status Survey and Investment Prospect Analysis Report 2020" data show that in 2019, the total value of the global arcade game console market was 1.9 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of -5.7%.
Arcade games look bleak under the light of the overall game market that easily broke through the $150 billion (about 969.8 billion yuan) mark in the same year.
However, although it is no longer the protagonist of the game market stage, arcade games still occupy a place in the hearts of many players around the world. In the "Pixel Wars", "Ready Player One", "Out of Control Player" and many other film and television works with game themes in recent years, we can also see many elements of arcade games, which are full of emotions while also being shocked by the long-term love of players and creators for the arcade machine.
Perhaps inspired by this sentiment, despite the double whammy of powerful new challengers and external environmental pressures, the arcade industry has not stalled, and developers of arcade games and manufacturers of gaming equipment have been looking for ways to make arcades more fun and engaging in the new era.
In the beginning, many manufacturers chose to break through the arcade machine. Unlike game consoles, personal computers or mobile devices, which can play a variety of games on a single device, but also take into account functions other than games, arcade machines can only be used to play arcade games, and a machine often only corresponds to a limited number of games, and even many machines correspond to a game. Therefore, many manufacturers consider starting from the machine, through the design of innovative machines, so that the machine that is dedicated to serving a game has also become an important part of the player's playing experience.
For example, many shooting types of arcade machines will be equipped with other platform equipment rarely equipped with light guns, players in the handheld light gun against the large screen game, often produce a stronger sense of substitution and immersion than the keyboard and mouse or the handle; and many racing type of arcade games, will be the brake, clutch, throttle, gear shift handle and other accessories into the game's operating equipment, as far as possible on the stage to restore the real driving environment; and such as dancing machines and music games related to the arcade game design is more diverse, such as "Taiko Master" Taiko drums, LED stage for Dance Rush, piano for Nostalgia, and so on.
Racing Arcade "Head Text D8"
All in all, manufacturers have exhausted the spirit of craftsmanship on these machines, so that the playability of the game extends from the screen to the off-screen machine, so that the interaction between players and the machine becomes an important part of the game, so that the unique machine becomes the unique charm of arcade games.
In addition to working the machine, some manufacturers have also begun to try to introduce new technologies into arcade games, and the most prominent performance is VR games. The immersive gaming experience of VR games can also be described as unique in the entire game market, but the powerful PCVR is expensive and occupies a place, and there are only a few exclusive masterpieces worth playing, resulting in its popularity being far behind the game console.
This attracted the interest of arcade makers, because the arcade itself was also born from the bulky, expensive, and unpopular early computers. Similar experience, it is easy for arcade manufacturers to think of applying the operation experience of arcade machines to VR, using arcade halls as experience places to attract players who are interested in VR to come and try.
Since 2017, VR games have begun to appear in domestic arcade halls. Moreover, from the initial simple placement of VR equipment, to the design of VR games equipped with special machines, these VR game products integrated into the arcade industry have developed at a fairly fast speed, combined with the player's requirements for the continuous improvement of the game experience, the prospects of these products look quite optimistic.
In addition to starting from the technical aspects of machines and VR, IP is also a killer that arcade manufacturers have been attracting players, and the arcade game products authorized by ACGN IP are represented by "Head Text D", "Gundam" and "FGO", which have a strong attraction for IP audiences. Sega successfully turned a profit in 2016 through the arcade of "Fleet Collection" (the IP was originally used as a page game, adapted into an animation work in 2015, when it was very popular and had a lot of influence around the world), and even because the game was too hot, there was a delay in the delivery of Sega machines and insufficient printing capacity for game cards.
Of course, whether it is a machine, VR or IP, the means used by manufacturers to develop arcade machines have never been able to break through the characteristics or weaknesses of street and airport restrictions. After the outbreak of the epidemic, the arcade hall, which is a crowded place, has become one of the very few unlucky eggs in the 2020 game market who has not been able to eat the home isolation dividend. And as mentioned earlier, now that the epidemic is far away, arcades want to regain the glory of the former kings in the new era, they must take the epidemic lockdown as a key consideration into the future development plan.
In this regard, manufacturers are also constantly exploring solutions. For example, Sega, in December 2020, launched a mini arcade astro City Mini, the size is only 1/6 of its size, built-in 36 games, with HDMI HD video interface, can be connected to an external monitor to play, and the price of 12800 yen, about 835.8 yuan, much cheaper than the home game console - of course, as a mini arcade with only 36 games, the price is high or low, not well received.
After the product was announced, it immediately attracted the attention of many players, and there were not a few players who showed the willingness to buy. After all, in the past, those deeply buried in the memory, can only be experienced in the arcade hall arcade game works, now at home can be played at any time, and is still the "classic recipe" of the joystick button, more than playing on the PC or other platforms more than a sense of ceremony, besides, this mini arcade model is exquisite retro, even if it is not used to play games, it is also excellent to put it at home as an ornament.
According to producer Yuichi Aochi, The Astro City Mini was well received by players around the world after its release, and the follow-up product, Astro City Mini V, was also announced a year later.
It seems that mini arcades have carved out their own niche in the game market. However, there are also some arcade players who do not have much expectations for it.
"In order to attract players, mini arcade machines choose to enter a lot of game works in game consoles, but in this way, it is impossible to design machines in a targeted manner, which makes it lose a unique charm of arcade machines." And the mini version of the operation space is narrow, and there is still a gap with the traditional arcade experience. Most importantly, I think the positioning of mini arcades and home game consoles is somewhat in conflict, although the price is relatively low, but the home game console has newer and more fun game works, while the mini arcade is tied to the 'retro' setting, which makes its development space relatively limited. Zhang Hao commented.
In short, although arcade games seem to be dying of old age, but also has not stopped the pace of innovation, from the machine, VR, IP to mini arcade, arcade machine has been "upgrading" itself, in response to player expectations at the same time, but also the arcade this time-honored game form inherited to the upcoming new era.
Give the arcade some more time, will it present an unprecedented experience for the player? The answer may not yet be known, but the huge imagination it leaves for the market is still worth keeping a coin for.
END
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