How many PCB's do Cave produce?

[lawnspic]

Just wondered how many they produce of a particular game, and how long does a run last.

[Cers]

1x DDP Campaign

[emphatic]

I don't have a very good answer, but PCB's that they can't sell often get converted into a Black Label or a whole new game, unless they move on to a different hardware platform.

[lgb]

actually, there were a few copies of DDP Blue iirc, like 4 or something; we only know of 1 or 2 though

don't quote me on this, it's just something I remembered

[lawnspic]

Lets say when they produce Death Smiles, how many units did they produce? I wanted to get an idea of rarity, are there that many arcades in Jp?. How do they survive financially on that alone unless they are also catering to hobbyists.

[emphatic]

Lets say when they produce Death Smiles, how many units did they produce? I wanted to get an idea of rarity, are there that many arcades in Jp?. How do they survive financially on that alone unless they are also catering to hobbyists.

CAVE used the same hardware for DeathSmiles as Ibara, Mushihimesama, Mushihimesama Futari, ESPGALUDA II, Mushi Mushi Pork etc. The PCB's that wasn't sold as DeathSmiles was converted into DeathSmiles MBL with a production range of ALL PCB's of that hardware I reckon. I wouldn't be surprised if we'd see one more game on that Hardware, as DeathSmiles 2 is considered such a failure, software AND hardware wise.

[Dave_K.]

actually, there were a few copies of DDP Blue iirc, like 4 or something; we only know of 1 or 2 though

don't quote me on this, it's just something I remembered

Sure, they had a couple boards made for Matsui events, but only 1 board has ever been released in public.

[bcass]

How do they survive financially on that alone

With difficulty I would guess. Which might explain why they're embracing the home market much more these days.

[Ex-Cyber]

How do they survive financially on that alone unless they are also catering to hobbyists.

Well, for one thing they clearly don't survive on that alone. They're involved in other markets (MMO, mobile phone, etc.). That said, the arcade games (at least pre-DS2) probably did bring in a pretty penny via huge per-unit margins. Obviously it's impossible to get an exact number, but I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the SH-3 boards were selling for 20x their production cost at release.

[Strider77]

Joined: 24 Jun 2005
Posts: 704
Location: NY
Just wondered how many they produce of a particular game

enough to form Voltron

[undamned]

How do they survive financially on that alone unless they are also catering to hobbyists.

Well, for one thing they clearly don't survive on that alone. They're involved in other markets (MMO, mobile phone, etc.). That said, the arcade games (at least pre-DS2) probably did bring in a pretty penny via huge per-unit margins. Obviously it's impossible to get an exact number, but I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the SH-3 boards were selling for 20x their production cost at release.

By "production cost," do you mean the manufacturing cost of the PCB's? I don't think they are making as much money as you think off of, for example, an SH-3 game. First off, the PCB design is probably farmed out to some other hardware dev., which can't be cheap the first go. Then after that, you've got the actual game design/testing man-hours to create something which will run on said product. All the while you are paying rent/utilities/etc. to have an office. Add all those costs together plus advertising/packaging, subtract that from kit sales and you'll have an accurate profit margin.
-ud

[Ex-Cyber]

Yes, I mean the manufacturing cost of the PCBs. Obviously there was some risk involved in the decision to do it initially, and to get a clearer picture it would be necessary to look at amortized unit cost with all of the NRE and so on, but I doubt that they were bleeding money on it overall.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

This OP's topic thread also brings up another related question of what a production run was like for the classic PGM-based Cave PCB titles like Donpachi, DoDonpachi, ESP.Ra.De, Dangun Feveron/Fever SOS and Guwange. Surely some old timer Cave employees would know those particular numbers easily.

Granted that it was Atlus USA who did manage to handle the distribution of the USA region Donpachi PCB kit Stateside (complete with full sized USA marquee header), they did not do so with the International version of DDP. It would be interesting to learn if the actual sales numbers of the actual USA region DP PCB kits lead Cave to determine as to not to distriubute DDP PCB kits in the USA. Of course, Altus USA would've been more than happy do so with DDP getting a broader exposure/appearance in the USA-based arcade market. Or could it be that Atlus USA thought that DDP would be "too hard" for American arcade gamers and thus decided not to distribute it anyways? Intruging questions indeed.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~