Big News?

According to Spong.com, Sammy/Sega and Namco will ally to create a network for arcade games in N. American/Europe after initial launch in Japan. All.Net would feature VF 4 FT and Tekken 5 amongst others.

It's news article 7052, I'm not linking to it, cause it might be illegal.

I was shocked to read this because we've all been wanting this for the arcades, but who knew it would take Namco and the more popular Tekken series to help it happen.

 

Yeah the word is that Tekken 5/Tekken.net will use Sega's VF.net networks.

 

christ that would be awesome if it was true. VF-NET in the West! /versus/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
however it is probably bollocks seeing as it's Spong.

 

man,Spong is the worst place to go for game related news. you should stay far away from it.

 

I would really really really doubt that Sega and Namco would team up for something like that. Considering they're competing for the same market, and that Namco has a much larger share of the US market than Sega, I don't really see Sega going in as partners with Namco in this. (puts ketchup on foot - munch munch munch) In addition, I don't really see many arcades forking over the bucks to pay for an internet connection in the US (a shortsighted viewpoint, but the US is all about the short term viewpoint). Japan is one thing - the population concentration is insane, and it's probably the most 'cutting edge' country as far as common citizen technological and consumer manufacturing implementations. The US is enormous, and the population is extremely spread out. At best, I'd hope for Philly->New York metroplex and heavily populated parts of Cali to be linked up. Your average arcade in the US is a much much er... ?grimier? place than in Japan. Japanese arcades generally make much much more money than US arcades, because of games like pachinko which are great money sinks - the types of games which are strictly prohibited in the US by many many states' gambling laws. Machines are not as well taken care of overall, and trying to get Uncle Billy Bob to fork over $150 put something like this in at the Longhorn Arcade and Horseshoe Toss-O-Rama just isn't going to fly, IMO, especially when he has to pay another $150 on top of it for a more expensive game board, and another $15-$20 a month for I-net access.

Edit: Supposedly confirmed in an IGN article as well (according to a TZ thread). We'll see whether or not it flops horribly over here.

 

What's wrong with just putting a memory card slot in the machine? Surely a much cheaper easier alternative.

 

[ QUOTE ]
Shoju said:

What's wrong with just putting a memory card slot in the machine? Surely a much cheaper easier alternative.

[/ QUOTE ]
As should be known by now these companies do not use Normal logic /versus/images/graemlins/wink.gif
Plus it would mean creating a whole new system for the "inferior" european and U.S market.
Well anyways we'll see what the result of this is soon enough.... /versus/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

being as arcades within 60 miles of me are all but dead...its sad I can't get excited over this...

 

I'm not surprised Sega needs Namco to break the U.S. market...but Japan too? Even without VF.net, I have no doubt VF4 would've still trounced SC2 and T4, but there's no question the VF.net system is a big competitive advantage. I'm sure the combination of Sammy and Sega is enough to give them whatever scale they want in Japan. Sega is opening the window for Tekken in Japan...I hope they're getting fat royalties for this.

 

Sega needing Namco?
Here is a newsflash for you, Namco arcade games and boards are distributed by Sega worldwide, Sega took over Namco´s arcades in Japan that turned a loss and made them profiteable, Sega is THE force inj arcades these days, you either work with Sega or suffer the consequences(just about Namco and Taito are the only ones left who do their own shit, rest all goes trough Sega these days).
Namco NEEDS Sega, not the other way around.

 

This seems great. I hope Sega/Namco/etc do well in trying to revive some more intrest in the arcade scene in the US.

 

Well, it's been officially announced.

FUCKING GET IN!

 

Now all we need are U.S. arcades with Japanese cabinets. I hate U.S. joysticks. Please, please!

Anybody want to start a petition?

 

Blagghh, I have a feeling this is only going to apply to Tekken 5 here. But, we can still hope.