EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by Despatche »

Yes, this is for things like Round 1s and GGAs and such. The places that are already interested in arcade games as a concept are gonna be the ones interested in new arcade games.
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by GSK »

I specifically mentioned D&B because I remember someone namedropped it as a potential target and it struck me as particularly unrealistic.

That being said, it's not as if a more informed audience is necessarily going to be more accepting of mediocre games, especially ones that are obvious derivations from existing games, just because they're showing up on an arcade platform.
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by trap15 »

GSK wrote:I specifically mentioned D&B because I remember someone namedropped it as a potential target and it struck me as particularly unrealistic.
I can't elaborate, but there is a particular project in the works that blew my mind as the perfect target for that audience. So it's maybe not.
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by qmish »

:roll: yeah fighting (and other VERSUS) games are main dish in arcades now yeah? so its important to use it too
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by Despatche »

Maybe SNK could talk to these guys about a "UM" version of KOF11...
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by MrJBRPG »

I found another video that talks about Exa Arcadia and tis flagship game Aka and Blue

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/263402774?t=20m25s

It should be a good watch.
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by quash »

trap15 wrote:2 years late means it might as well have not happened tbh. KOF14 is doing shitty numbers iirc, and I can't imagine SF4 AC did great either.
KOFXIV is also one of few NESICA 2 games currently available, alongside the much more popular BBCF. The aesthetic certainly isn't doing it any favors, either.

USFIV is one of the biggest games in arcades still. SFIV as a series has done phenomenally well in arcades, actually, so I don't know where you got the idea that it hasn't.

If anything, the main obstacle for SFV making its way to arcades is Capcom themselves. The game failed to meet its sales target for its first year and they probably have reason to believe it wouldn't do so well in arcades, despite the continued success of Ultra.

It would be smart to get some fighting games on the EXA platform, but I would advise that the EXA team be selective about what games they decide to release. A large part of the reason I think NESICA became a de-facto Blazblue and SFIV machine is because most of the other games on the platform were simply ports of games that weren't that popular to begin with. Fighting EX Layer would be a good foot in the door as I do think it's going to do well among the older fighting game crowd (the type that wouldn't be caught dead near Blazblue), but past that I don't see much on the horizon that could actually have a fighting chance (pun intended). As much as I love Senko no Ronde 2, I can't in good conscience tell anyone that they could make any significant amount of money off of it. Arcsys is more than likely going to stick with Sega hardware for the foreseeable future and Namco is too busy raking in money from netplay in arcades. So you're not left with many options, unfortunately, unless you either snag a high profile developer somehow or find a small studio looking for their break.

In any case, I do wish the EXA team luck with their endeavor. Lord only knows the situation out here is increasingly grim as more arcades close every year, so any attempt to breathe some life back in to the industry at this point can only help.
Last edited by quash on Fri Jun 01, 2018 8:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by Shou »

quash wrote:
trap15 wrote:2 years late means it might as well have not happened tbh. KOF14 is doing shitty numbers iirc, and I can't imagine SF4 AC did great either.
KOFXIV is also one of few NESICA 2 games currently available, alongside the much more popular BBCF. The aesthetic certainly isn't doing it any favors, either.

USFIV is one of the biggest games in arcades still. SFIV as a series has done phenomenally well in arcades, actually, so I don't know where you got the idea that it hasn't.

If anything, the main obstacle for SFV making its way to arcades is Capcom themselves. The game failed to meet its sales target for its first year and they probably have reason to believe it wouldn't do so well in arcades, despite the continued success of Ultra.

It would be smart to get some fighting games on the EXA platform, but I would advise that the EXA team be selective about what games they decide to release. A large part of the reason I think NESICA became a de-facto Blazblue and SFIV machine is because most of the other games on the platform were simply ports of games that weren't that popular to begin with. Fighting Layer EX2 would be a good foot in the door as I do think it's going to do well among the older fighting game crowd (the type that wouldn't be caught dead near Blazblue), but past that I don't see much on the horizon that could actually have a fighting chance (pun intended). As much as I love Senko no Ronde 2, I can't in good conscience tell anyone that they could make any significant amount of money off of it. Arcsys is more than likely going to stick with Sega hardware for the foreseeable future and Namco is too busy raking in money from netplay in arcades. So you're not left with many options, unfortunately, unless you either snag a high profile developer somehow or find a small studio looking for their break.

In any case, I do wish the EXA team luck with their endeavor. Lord only knows the situation out here is increasingly grim as more arcades close every year, so any attempt to breathe some life back in to the industry at this point can only help.
USF4 is not one of the biggest arcades games. It never was since release to now. Operators had to buy a brand new platform (TypeX3) for a ludicrous price and pay revenue share on each coin when they didn't have to with SSF4/SF4. USF4 was also not made available outside of Japan unlike previous versions. Ops also only had a 3 month window before the console version came out. The most common complaint I heard from all of my operator friends in Tokyo is that plenty of people watch, very few play.

Nesica 1 wouldn't be a defacto SF4 machine since USF4 was only ported to the platform very late in the game's life when it didn't matter. I've never seen anyone play USF4 on Nesica 1 in Tokyo.

SFV isn't allowed on other platforms unless Sony approves it since they put up money.

Arc isn't married to Sega, the Guilty Gear IP rights battle pit Arc against Sega and one of the settlement pieces is that a Guilty Gear sequel would be on Sega hardware.

We already have high profile fighter IP, we just haven't announced anything yet.
Last edited by Shou on Tue May 29, 2018 6:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by quash »

I'm aware of the Type X3 fiasco, but the game seemed to do so well on launch that I struggle to see how most operators didn't at least get a return on their investment fairly quickly. I have to wonder which arcades in Tokyo you're specifically referring to, as well. Granted, while things have died down over the past two or so years across the board, I can't imagine that Ultra isn't one of the most played games in Akihabara or Shinjuku to this day. It's certainly held its own in Yokohama, where most nights it has more players than even Guilty Gear does anymore.

I can see how maybe the large crowds surrounding the game could give a false impression of bustling business, but at the same time, people don't watch attract modes, so someone has to still be playing. The only way I can see Ultra not turning a profit is if the costs of the new boards + cut of revenue were so astronomically high that even with the new game hype and the subsequent die hard fans they were still unable to break even. But then, there's still Ultra cabs everywhere three years after its release, whereas VF5FS was one foot out the door by year two and all but completely dead by year four.

I don't doubt that you have a scoop that most don't, it's just that in the case of Ultra I've observed quite the opposite phenomenon of what you've presented. It seems to me like one of the few games that still has any lasting presence, mostly on dedicated boards to boot.

Regarding SFV, Capcom did announce that they were planning on putting PCs in cabinets and allowing people to play the game in arcades that way, without an official arcade release. Of course, like so many things they've announced regarding that game it never came to fruition, but it does seem like they were at least trying to market the game to that audience. I've been to a Capcom arcade where they have the PS4 version readily available to play, so maybe that was how they pitched it to Sony.
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by Shou »

quash wrote:I'm aware of the Type X3 fiasco, but the game seemed to do so well on launch that I struggle to see how most operators didn't at least get a return on their investment fairly quickly. I have to wonder which arcades in Tokyo you're specifically referring to, as well. Granted, while things have died down over the past two or so years across the board, I can't imagine that Ultra isn't one of the most played games in Akihabara or Shinjuku to this day. It's certainly held its own in Yokohama, where most nights it has more players than even Guilty Gear does anymore.

I can see how maybe the large crowds surrounding the game could give a false impression of bustling business, but at the same time, people don't watch attract modes, so someone has to still be playing. The only way I can see Ultra not turning a profit is if the costs of the new boards + cut of revenue were so astronomically high that even with the new game hype and the subsequent die hard fans they were still unable to break even. But then, there's still Ultra cabs everywhere three years after its release, whereas VF5FS was one foot out the door by year two and all but completely dead by year four.

I don't doubt that you have a scoop that most don't, it's just that in the case of Ultra I've observed quite the opposite phenomenon of what you've presented. It seems to me like one of the few games that still has any lasting presence, mostly on dedicated boards to boot.
Income falls dramatically after a console release. Mikado is the #1 arcade nationwide for Guilty Gear right now and when console revs reach parity with arcade, their income tanks like 70% immediately. If the #1 arcade drops that much, think how bad average arcades do.

For USF4, imagine paying $10,000 for the upgrade and then 30% of all money put in the machine to Taito. Most didn't make their money back.

Here's the math:

1 match of USF4 on average is say 5 minutes
100 yen for a new challenger
1 hour - max revenue if the machine is always played is 12 plays or 840 yen after Taito takes their 30% cut from 1200 yen
12 hours - arcade is open for business so max they could make is 10,080 yen
30 days avg a month - if the machine is played everyday all of the time, they would make 302,400 yen

Most arcade games on a weekly basis can't even reach 10% usage across operating hours, the best games reach 30% usage so realisticalliy arcades are making 90,720 yen
3 months of exclusivity - 272,160 yen
post console release - 70% dip in revenue - 54,432 yen

1,000,000 yen - USF4 PCB
- 272,160 yen - 3 months exclusivity revenue
= 727,840 in the hole still

At 70% dip in revenue, it takes an additional 13+ months to recoup assuming constant performance which never happens with post console fighters.
SFV came out 16 months after USF4, operators had 3 months to make any kind of meaningful profit in a post console environment at the tail end of the game's life.
Sounds like a pretty shitty situation to me.

There are USF4s left because for the longest time, you couldn't convert it to anything else, now it can be a Nesica 2 if you pay for the conversion kit and additional networking hardware but given Nesica 2 performance, no one is really interested.

VF5FS was a free upgrade to an old game that came out in 2006 so year 5 of VF5 and the series as a whole was a flop for Sega & caused many independent arcades to go out of business in Japan.
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by pmp »

Thanks for the analysis Shou. The whole business model of a modern arcade seems rather insane.
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by Shou »

pmp wrote:Thanks for the analysis Shou. The whole business model of a modern arcade seems rather insane.
The manufacturers and how they are killing the industry and their own business is what's really insane.
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by Frenetic »

Hi everyone,

Posts were going a bit off topic from talking about EXA-ARCADIA to a broader discussion of arcade and console game versions, which is a valid discussion. It has been moved to its own thread Off Topic viewtopic.php?f=3&t=62628. There are some very good points being made, but please keep it civil.

Thanks,
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by MrJBRPG »

Before on topic: I like to thank the moderator for cleaning off excess junk off the topic since Exa Arcadia seems to fulfill a promising niche since I do not enjoy much flame wars..

On Topic:

With California Extreme coming up in a little less than 2 months for field testing at West Coast USA, I look forward to testing the games for Exa Arcadia. I do hope other fellows across the coast can come along to play-test its launch titles.


I was very fascinated from ShouTime's financial analysis on various arcade boards in Japan because it really sounds like it is literally the final frontier for arcades in the developed world from the manufacturers' insistence on getting every single piece of revenue possible. I am liking the idea of the platform with interchangeable carts like Neo Geo since it really cuts down the costs for the arcade operators rather than relying on spending ludicrous amounts for large cabinets containing a game that is DRM locked inside the PCB.


I wonder how other parts of the world would react to the Exa Arcadia Platform, like China, South Korea, and the rest of the developing world?
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by djsheep »

Looks like pre-orders for the EXA-A system with Strania are up:

http://exa.ac/0005_strania_ex.html

Hopefully there'll be somewhere here in Australia to play this system out in public.

Nearly all arcades Down Under these days are cashing in on metro retro's wanting to play Donkey Kong & Street Fighter 1... Massive respects to Shou for his efforts and all the hard work going into this!
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by Zaarock »

What kind of changes to expect in Strania EX over previous versions? From that trailer looks like Vower stage 4 boss missiles dont leave behind explosions. Maybe only small adjustments like that?
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by Shou »

Zaarock wrote:What kind of changes to expect in Strania EX over previous versions? From that trailer looks like Vower stage 4 boss missiles dont leave behind explosions. Maybe only small adjustments like that?
G.rev is working on it now so you'll have to wait a bit more for details.
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by MrJBRPG »

I also got a few questions in regards to the multiplayer aspect for Exa Platforms.

So far, I noticed that the pictures have the 1 player setup for location test purposes from the twitter. However, is it possible for multiplayer to happen depending on the number of player controls on the cabinet in addition to console link-up (like LAN connected to multiple cabinet machines)?

Assuming that the EXA Arcadia launches, still allows for cart changing, and custom local multiplayer is implemented, do you plan to allow developers to design custom cabinets to support any number of maximum players (4 players, 8 players, etc.) per cabinet?

I am sure that Exa Arcadia has potential to be an excellent social platform in its own special niche.
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by Shou »

MrJBRPG wrote:I also got a few questions in regards to the multiplayer aspect for Exa Platforms.

So far, I noticed that the pictures have the 1 player setup for location test purposes from the twitter. However, is it possible for multiplayer to happen depending on the number of player controls on the cabinet in addition to console link-up (like LAN connected to multiple cabinet machines)?

Assuming that the EXA Arcadia launches, still allows for cart changing, and custom local multiplayer is implemented, do you plan to allow developers to design custom cabinets to support any number of maximum players (4 players, 8 players, etc.) per cabinet?

I am sure that Exa Arcadia has potential to be an excellent social platform in its own special niche.
The JVS protocol is fully supported which means you could daisy chain 4 IO boards for 8 players but there could be inherent lag with such a setup.
I am only aware of 3 games that chain JVS IO boards for 4 players or more: Beach Spikers, Virtua Tennis 4 and Pengo.

The other way to go about this is via LAN but that would need to be fully implemented by the developer.

If a developer wants to fund making their own cab design and production, we would be open to it but it's not a cheap endeavor.
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by DoomsDave »

I feel like Downwell would be absolutely perfect for this. Not a shmup but looks awesome in TATE and could easily be adapted for arcade.
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by NeoStrayCat »

Well, like Zaarock said, I'm mostly intrested in the Strania Ex changes, but yeah, the only thing changed that was viewable on the trailer was the Vower St.4 Boss. and those missiles were BS, lol.

But yeah, Shou did say to wait on G.Rev for the changes they did to it, if I can only test and see how much the game changed, lol. (But not willing to spend for the board when I already have the X360/X1 and Steam versions, lol.)
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by lilmanjs »

Saw that Stunfest interview that recently got posted up on the STGWeekly youtube (finally!) and am quite excited for this once again. Good to see G.Rev on board and hope everything they're making is a hit and that this is a hit period. Arcades need not die out and I hope lag issues have been or are nearly fixed at this point. Strania Ex has a fantastic soundtrack, so I hope that arrange soundtrack will be just as good.
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by MrJBRPG »

I know that you aim for the platform to have as close to no input lag as possible, but I wonder if the default setup has joysticks as analogue or digital? If analogue, then the games can possibly have more precise movement for 3d games in addition to having digital signal movement for 2d games or ones with simple movement. However, if digital, then gameplay dictates in constant movement like on-off signals.

I asked this because various gamepads have "analog" thumb sticks that allow precise movement to select games as well as having sensitivity options when dealing with constant movement.

[Edit]
P.S. I look forward to seeing Exa Arcadia for play test at California Extreme!
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by Shou »

MrJBRPG wrote:I know that you aim for the platform to have as close to no input lag as possible, but I wonder if the default setup has joysticks as analogue or digital? If analogue, then the games can possibly have more precise movement for 3d games in addition to having digital signal movement for 2d games or ones with simple movement. However, if digital, then gameplay dictates in constant movement like on-off signals.

I asked this because various gamepads have "analog" thumb sticks that allow precise movement to select games as well as having sensitivity options when dealing with constant movement.

[Edit]
P.S. I look forward to seeing Exa Arcadia for play test at California Extreme!

Analog joysticks are not standard for normal arcade usage.
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by OmegaFlareX »

I find it pretty much impossible to play any 2D shmup with analog sticks. The precision just isn't there.
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Post by gameoverDude »

OmegaFlareX wrote:I find it pretty much impossible to play any 2D shmup with analog sticks. The precision just isn't there.
I've never bothered using a Mission Stick or Nights Pad on Saturn Soukyugurentai, which is the only shmup I can think of with analog support. That just doesn't sound like it'd work well.
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by MrJBRPG »

Tomorrow, 2 weeks left until California Extreme for Play Testing Exa Arcadia Machines!

I look forward to going there and hopefully getting more new information on the platform itself.

If anyone else is coming to California Extreme for EXA games, that's awesome.
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by Durandal »

Will Strania EX feature the arranged tracks from Yonao's The Force Signals album, or feature new arranged tracks entirely?
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by Shou »

Durandal wrote:Will Strania EX feature the arranged tracks from Yonao's The Force Signals album, or feature new arranged tracks entirely?
Both
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Re: EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

Post by RecklessRave »

Are there still plans to have EXA-ARCADIA at ReplayFX? I noticed it's the same weekend as California Extreme so I'm getting a little worried.
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