Upcoming Shmups for consoles?

[shariar07]

I definitely think

Raiden III for PS2 Port

Shkigami 3 for DC or PS2

Though i only care for Ibara for PS2 port or maybe Muishisame or Homura, well we all can dream

[icepick]

Well, if you want to speculate...

Shikigami no Shiro III is probably going to be on PS2, XB and Windows. I would hope that SNS2 would be a fair indication of how SNS3 would go (to everything!), but it will depend on the viability at the time, as well as the hardware demand of the finished game. It's expected in arcades by the end of this year, though? I can hardly wait...

(Really, I'm very interested, and that seems so far off!)

Homura is probably going to be picked up by Success, for ports to at least PS2 and XB. I can really see it on both of those, and maybe one more system.

If I recall correctly, Psyvariar 2 was announced for DC a month after release into arcades. Giga Wing Generations (PS2) was announced two months after, Chaos Field (DC, GCN) was announced three months after, and Trizeal was announced... five months after. So, there is somewhat unfortunately a broad range from which home ports could be announced. Regardless; I wish Alfa System, Cave, MileStone, Moss and Skonec the best of success in the arcades, the games' true home.

I unfortunately have no idea about re-releases of Konami deluxe packs. There doesn't seem to be much of any indication, anywhere.

[Zhon]

Valgar:

Well let me explain why a port would make financial sense:
Arcade games (just like console games) sell good when they are fresh and new. Eventually the arcade board sales will drop (as arcade operators need to make room for new games, and then there is only a certain amount of arcade operators in the first place). When the sales slowed down then it will no longer be profitable to continue manuafacturing the arcadeboard (as the second hand market drives down the prices).

At this point Cave is no longer making any money, they have sold their boards (the arcade operators are now the ones making money). And gamers who want to keep on playing Mushi will eventually discover that the game gets replaced with something new.

This is where the window of opportunity comes for Cave or a porthouse to make more money on the game. People that don't have access to an arcade or can't find the game at their local arcade anymore will be happy to buy a port. Then a lot of people just would like a port out of convenience too and to train on (not everyone bothers with superguns or cabs at home).

Basically there is a good reason we see Arcade games like Tekken and Virtua Fighter ported for consoles, it is because there is more money to make not just because they want to do it as a service.


Sure mushi may be harder to port than their previous games, but still porting is cheap compared to making a game from scratch. 2D shooters are not really the most complicated tasks to port either. Just look at for example the simple series for PS2 and PS1, the games are sold dirt cheap and still they make profit on them (even though they have lots of weird titles made in very low numbers)..

Releasing a port of mushi right now would probably be a bad idea business wise, as the game is still selling good for the arcades. But waiting maybe a halfyear or so then go for it! :) I think now it would make perfect sense if Cave ported their older games like ESP Ra. De., Dangun Feveron etc..

One thing you haven't considered. If people are expecting a port, then they will play the arcade version less, then arcade operators will make less money, and buy less boards. While sure, when the boards are sold, the money is made - but what money goes into the boards affects how the next game will sell - which is something you guys seem to overlook. So uncertainty about ports, or even not porting every game, can entice a higher arcade take, which is absolutely essential, unless they can replace every single arcade board sale with perhaps 100 of a console version (arcade board margins are way better than home ports - where there's manufacturer royalty, retailer markup, etc.).

Even though porting is cheaper than coding a SIMILAR GAME from scratch, that's not to say it's cheap, or that even a low amount of sales will justify it. This is especially true if the arcade version maximizes RAM use (and who wouldn't, give that it's there), where home hardware has only half as much. And that's not including the menus, memory card, yoko mode, and whatever extras that have been packed in.

[visuatrox]

Sure some people maybe would play the arcade version slightly less if they knew a port was coming in a couple of months. But when it comes to waiting maybe a year, I think most gamers if they have could would play the arcade version.. Sega, Namco, SNK and Sammy often announce the console ports very early, and I don't think it has hurt their business much at all.

There is always going to be purists who want to play the real thing anyway. Playing on a console is not exactly the same kind of experience. Just like with movies, even if you have home cinema equipment it just does not feel the same. Then there is also a lot of people who can't play the arcade games even if they wanted to.