Newsweek On Japanese Arcade Action
It's always interesting to see mainstream coverage on on video game-related matters, of course, and over at Newsweek, Brad Stone has a new article called 'Inside Japan's Addictive Arcades', which explains why Japanese arcades live on, still.
Stone notes: "There are 9,500 arcades in the country with more than 445,000 game machines made by Japanese companies like Namco and Capcom, says Masumi Akagi, publisher of Japan's Game Publisher magazine. In the U.S. of course, the story is much different—arcades are a rapidly dying breed with only about 3,000 in operation down from 10,000 a decade ago."
He concludes, after referencing a game of Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection he played: "So this is what we are missing in America, with our arcades abandoned by the big entertainment and game companies and converted into Baby Gaps. Japan's "quarter kids" have grown up and are still having fun... Yet there's evidence that the country is ambivalent about its arcades. Japan is facing a looming demographic nightmare." Lots of messages, here, a little confusing, but overall excellently written. [Via Jean Snow.]
Comments
The most exotic machines you find at most US arcades are light gun or DDR machines. If you look at japanese arcades they have an amazing variety of games, from the well tread series to the bizarre. DDR has been a huge hit here, yet many small arcades are still gunshy about introducing new, unique games. I know machines are far from cheap, but that old Tekken Tag won't be bringing in the masses. Until that mentality changes the US arcade scene won't improve.
Posted by: d | August 6, 2006 11:23 PM
lol... i love how the author is trying to blame arcades for the unemployment problem. Yeah, i'm sure ALL THE YOUTH in japan are going to the arcades and not working... personally i seriously doubt if the two are connected... perhaps its just an excuse for the journalist to enjoy some arcade time.
He also didn't research it well, Derbies Owner CLub has done extremely well in the US, and he played Tekken a game that is probably more succesful than out here.
And to say that there was only one tetris machine, you can barely find a tetris machine in dave and busters! Plus there are tons of other puzzle games out in jp...
and this talk about not knowing whats going on, just play the game and shaddup!
Posted by: 60Hz | August 8, 2006 11:19 AM