Friday, May 23, 2008

Bye bye game arcades?

I was just reading the news from intergameonline:

"Japan's US$6.9bn arcade industry has been hit hard by new advances in home console gaming, particularly Nintendo's hugely popular Wii.

Unlike many countries where the rise of Sony's PlayStation during the 1990s wreaked havoc on the industry, Japan's arcades were more resilient, helped by a greater variety of machines and plentiful foot traffic in crowded cities. But now some of the biggest chains are shutting many of their outlets."

While visiting Japan and Korea I always enjoy checking out weird and funny arcade games such as Drummania or this wok-game for example. Certainly there is room for innovation in others areas (home game consoles, handhelds etc.) as well but still you can't beat the feeling of a game arcade full of gamers playing shooting, riding, cooking and ball-kicking games together with their friends :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I read about the demise of the arcade before. This is the same story from 10 years ago AND 20 years ago. It's about time to recirculate the news I guess.

Sonja Kangas said...

But the question is: is this finally the moment when Guitar Heros and Rock bands REALLY start challenging game arcades? Are people really willing to buy all types of plastic interfaces which can mainly be utilized in a particular game?