The Last Arcade Crusade

1up conducted an interview with Hiroshi Kataoka, President of Sega’s arcade amusement departments and talked to him about the arcade atmosphere versus home console gaming as well as the future of Sega-AM2. Arcades are still a hit in Japan; people of all ages can head on over to their local plaza drop in some Yen, but sadly this luxury is fading away here in America. Arcades are becoming less popular as home consoles are offering a new generation of gaming, but luckily that hasn’t stopped the people at Sega-AM2 from quitting the arcade scene. Creators of the famed Virtua Fighter series, Kataoka talked about the differences between the two distinct types of gaming.

Arcade games are all about fast paced gaming without any wait, while there are plenty of PC gamers out there who just loathe loading times. When arcade titles do make it to consoles, a lot of adjustments need to be made to make the title worthwhile. For instance, when VF4 came to the PS2 developers included a bunch of new game modes to offer long-term enjoyment, while the arcade version doesn’t offer the same amount of depth. Although we’ll probably never see Virtua Fighter be a console exclusive title, he did mention the possibility of releasing some titles on next generation consoles. Hardware limitations have often constrained games from reaching their full potential, but the Revolution’s controller could change that. Before people would have to worry about screen resolution and refresh rates for games that used a gun add-on, but the Revolution controller could open the way for some arcade style games. The arcade scene is already pretty shaky in the States, and when it costs about a dollar to play one game gamers on a tighter budget can tend towards consoles. Since titles like Dead or Alive and Soul Calibur have become console exclusive, it’s comforting to see developers staying close to their arcade roots.
1up conducted an interview with Hiroshi Kataoka, President of Sega’s arcade amusement departments and talked to him about the arcade atmosphere versus home console gaming as well as the future of Sega-AM2. Arcades are still a hit in Japan; people of all ages can head on over to their local plaza drop in some Yen, but sadly this luxury is fading away here in America. Arcades are becoming less popular as home consoles are offering a new generation of gaming, but luckily that hasn’t stopped the people at Sega-AM2 from quitting the arcade scene. Creators of the famed Virtua Fighter series, Kataoka talked about the differences between the two distinct types of gaming.

Arcade games are all about fast paced gaming without any wait, while there are plenty of PC gamers out there who just loathe loading times. When arcade titles do make it to consoles, a lot of adjustments need to be made to make the title worthwhile. For instance, when VF4 came to the PS2 developers included a bunch of new game modes to offer long-term enjoyment, while the arcade version doesn’t offer the same amount of depth. Although we’ll probably never see Virtua Fighter be a console exclusive title, he did mention the possibility of releasing some titles on next generation consoles. Hardware limitations have often constrained games from reaching their full potential, but the Revolution’s controller could change that. Before people would have to worry about screen resolution and refresh rates for games that used a gun add-on, but the Revolution controller could open the way for some arcade style games. The arcade scene is already pretty shaky in the States, and when it costs about a dollar to play one game gamers on a tighter budget can tend towards consoles. Since titles like Dead or Alive and Soul Calibur have become console exclusive, it’s comforting to see developers staying close to their arcade roots.