I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

[Carmen]

Interesting that System11 is too difficult to acheive but System22 seems to be completely fine. The added slap in the face for PS4 is that System11 was made in order to make conversions to PS1 easier (at least from what I've read), with PS1 discs being able to be read on every PS console... until the PS4

But listening to Hamada-san speak it looks like we won't have to worry about PS4/Switch being cut out of the loop non-AA2 releases for a while, which is definetely good news!

[hamfighterx]

Guys, time for new hardware. PS4 is 13 years old. It's had a good run. It's not a sad day that a small company is moving on to current hardware, and you know they wouldn't if the sales were in it for them. They're not being paid by Sony or Nintendo to move on. The players have moved on.

Counterpoint: PS4 and Switch 1 software runs just fine on the current gen machines, so why not just release Arcade Archives games on the lowest common denominator systems? I'm not really that into giving consumers less choice just because they can. And as a business matter, surely there ARE still a significant amount of customers buying Switch/PS4 software who haven't moved to Switch 2/PS5. What's Hamster's real incentive to just throw that potential customer pool away? It's not as if they don't have their development and release processes on auto-pilot at this point, and I'd be shocked if they aren't covering the incremental cost of additional submissions to the platform holders.

Hamster does not appear to need the power of the current gen systems for Arcade Archives. Even on Switch 1, the system is more than capable of high quality emulation of more powerful arcade hardware. See Capcom doing lots of Naomi-based collections (not to mention CPS2 and earlier), M2's work with Model 2 on Sega Ages or all sorts of Taito hardware (Ray'z collection, G Darius, etc.), all the City Connection ports, etc...

If there are features that actually need the power, like the VRR support on Arcade Archives 2, OK cool leave that as an AA2-exclusive feature. And even if there is certain arcade hardware where the Switch or PS4 aren't up to the task for Hamster's emulation, OK fine skip the releases on those platforms for games from that hardware too. But most of the Arcade Archives lineup for the foreseeable future SHOULD run just fine on Switch 1 or PS4, so what is even the point of just refusing to release there?

Personally, I still prefer Switch 1 for Arcade Archives and I probably will until the releases come to a total stop. The portability matters to me and a Switch Lite is a hell of a lot more portable than a Switch 2. And when I'm at home, I can play on the big screen if I want. Or if striving for maximum accuracy, I'm often just going to something like MiSTer, an actual Neo Geo, etc.

While I'd agree with all that (as a PS4 botherer), it sounds like there are technical considerations behind the decision to drop the ACA1 version of Tekken specifically: they don't think System 11 emulation can be achieved with the required accuracy on last-gen hardware.

That's sort of crazy to me, seeing what other devs have managed to emulate on Switch at high quality, but may indeed be the case. PS4 even more so, it's hard to believe emulating PS1-level hardware with near flawless results should be beyond that machine's capability.

But yeah, it does seem more likely that there's some sort of technical reason, and that we will continue getting PS4/Switch Arcade Archives for quite a while more.

[SavagePencil]

I'd guess it's a business decision. Submission to each store is still its own thing, per-platform, and costs a bunch to QA each one--for both Hamster AND Sony/Nintendo. My suspicion would be that the cost/benefit balance stopped making sense for the revenue they're getting.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I'd guess it's a business decision. Submission to each store is still its own thing, per-platform, and costs a bunch to QA each one--for both Hamster AND Sony/Nintendo. My suspicion would be that the cost/benefit balance stopped making sense for the revenue they're getting.

Makes me wonder just how much profit Hamster was getting per sale on both the Switch 1 & PS4 gaming platforms (per the low tier $7.99 and higher tiered $14.99 ACA1 releases)? Hamster has to take into consideration both it's own domestic gaming market and the international gaming market as well.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~