Bad News From The Arcade Front.

[Inky]

from snk-capcom.com

Post Date : 2004-31-03 01:40:52  Capcom Coin-Op, Inc. Closes it's Doors 

Like a cold bucket of ice poored on top of our heads, the chill that ran through our spine today, left us speechless.

 

The once "King of the Arcades," Capcom Coin-Op, Inc. will be officially closing it's doors as of March 31, 2004.

 

The official announcement was sent by Capcom Coin-Op, Inc. USA's President to all of it's distributors in this letter:

 

"Dear Customer,

 

Over the past years, Capcom Coin-Op, Inc. has enjoyed and appreciated your continued support. However, the business climate has not been supportive and it is with great sadness that Capcom Coin-Op has decided to close its doors.

 

As of March 10, 2004, our shareholders voted to begin to wind up the company's affairs and to dissolve effective March 31, 2004.

 

Capcom Coin-Op, Inc. will not be providing any services, accepting any order or doing any repair work after March 10, 2004. However, all orders received before March 10, 2004 will be honored (i.e. they will be completed as part of our winding down). We have International who will be providing the services Capcom Coin-Op had provided you in the past.

 

[Contact Info...etc.]

 

Thanks again for your many years of support and good luck in the future!

 

Hiroshi Tobisawa

President

Capcom Coin-Op, Inc."

 

Keep in mind that Capcom USA and Capcom Entertainment are still in business, but as many Capcom fans know, it's the arcade games Capcom has made throughout the late '80's and '90's that's brought us here and why we dedicated alot of our time and efforts for them.

 

This is a sad day for us. So what will this mean for their arcade games? Atomiswave....

 

S-C.com wants to give special thanks to Mr. T. Kubozono (Head Tech), C. Jelinek (former VP of Capcom), Holly Robinson (Consumer Sales) and the rest of the Capcom Coin-Op crew for helping us throughout the years.

 

this isn't good for capcom fans or arcade goers

[StriderSkorpion]

Well, that sucks. I heard that they had pretty bad sales last year, so it's not too terribly surprising. Arcades are pretty much dying out anymore since home consoles now offer the same power as arcades. Around, arcades have been dead or dying long before that, though. Any arcades left will probably take a turn for the worse. I hope Sammy publishes the Capcom game(s) they have the rights to, especially Sammy vs. Capcom.

[random guy]

It wasn't clear from that news: what exactly does capcom coin-op do apart from repair/install games? IE maybe capcom are gonna keep making arcade games (through Capcom USA/Capcom entertainment) and just stop selling them directly/ doing maintenance etc...

I guess we're gonna have to wait and find out.

[StriderSkorpion]

I guess I should've read the article more thoroughly. If all they do is repairs and such, no problem. I really hope this doesn't mean the end to Capcom arcade games as they're pretty much the backbone of the industry.

[Inky]

I'm not sure but the impression I get is that they manufacture & repair capcoms coin-op machines. hopefully they have nothing to do with development cuz if all capcoms arcade type games went away that would really suck.

[Fatal Rose]

I'm not sure but the impression I get is that they manufacture & repair capcoms coin-op machines. hopefully they have nothing to do with development cuz if all capcoms arcade type games went away that would really suck.

Yes it would.

[Wizard]

Well, that sucks.  I heard that they had pretty bad sales last year, so it's not too terribly surprising.  Arcades are pretty much dying out anymore since home consoles now offer the same power as arcades.  Around, arcades have been dead or dying long before that, though.  Any arcades left will probably take a turn for the worse.  I hope Sammy publishes the Capcom game(s) they have the rights to, especially Sammy vs. Capcom.

Capcom games will get developed @ Sammy and published under the Capcom banner.

 

Vice-versa for the VS. series

[StriderSkorpion]

Well, Sammy purchase the rights to create some of the games for Atomswave (sp?), but doesn't have a permanent publishing right. They did this with some of SNK-Playmore's series such as Metal Slug and King of Fighters. Hopefully, Capcom will still be able to publish its own games because if Sammy is allowed to do it from now on, gamers loyal to Capcom will stray (why do people hate Sammy so much anyways?).

[miskie]

Sadly capcom has been threatening to shut-down their entire coin-op division for about a year.

 

Capcom Coin-Op isnt just a repair/maintenance division, they are responsible for all the coin-op hardware. (at least in the USA) and this be the end of the Arcade Legacy, save for what Sammy decides to do.

 

Im sure they will produce a couple of "Capcomesque" titles that will run on SNK hardware.

[StriderSkorpion]

You mean Sammy hardware, right? I'm pretty sure (not positive, though) that the Atomiswave is Sammy's, which is based on Sega's Naomi/Dreamcast designs. If I remember correctly, Sammy is the one who will make/publish the new SNK-P games (mainly a new KoF and Metal Slug). I don't know how long they have the license, though.

[miskie]

Hopefully, Capcom will still be able to publish its own games because if Sammy is allowed to do it from now on, gamers loyal to Capcom will stray (why do people hate Sammy so much anyways?).

 

there is no place for them to stray to..

 

Atari/Infogrames Shut down its arcade division

Midway Shut down its arcade division.

SNK-Playmore = Sammy

Capcom = Sammy

 

Although the Sega Arcade arm still exists, the company never produced much in the way of quality 2D Beat-em-ups.. Sega has always been more interested in Racing/Sports/Simulation type games.

 

People Hate Sammy, IMO because they have always been regarded as a second-Rate Pachinko Game producer, And, Much to the surprise of Japanese consumers has turned into a Dark Horse Company, picking over the bones of its former, larger rivals. The Japanese are VERY Brand/company loyal and seening this happened has made them like Sammy even less. this sentiment spilled over into the rest of the world.

 

 

IMO, SNK and Capcom beat each other into oblivion by getting stuck in the 2D beat-em-up Genre and seemed either unwilling or incapable of straying much from that. Sure they both had other games but neither put anywhere near the R&D into them that they dumped into their fighting Games.

 

'If one stops moving for long enough, one might be mistaken for dead' -- Sadly this happens all the time to former giants of industry all over the world. Case and Point, Kodak -- responsible for the camera and AT&T, responsible for the Telephone have just been delisted from the Dow Jones Industrial Average. -- Two giants who have been sleeping for too long. and have been declared DOA.