Apocalypse Tribe HQ > The future of Sega

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AC9breaker

Jul 1 2004, 02:03 PM

I'm sure that those of us here who keep up with videogame news are well aware of the fact that Sega will soon be merging with the Lesser know Sammy company. For those of you unaware, Sammy was behind the super cool fighting game "Guilty Gears." The are also a very popular in japan. Well anyway, I was searching the internet for information for sega and found 2 interesting articles over at gamespot.

One discussed the future of sega and and sammys production and how they would cooperate and who would be the main shareeholder of the two. Fortunatly, the article did say that the two titles will continue to make games using their respective titles. Meaning games we have come to know and luve such as Panzer Dragoon, Virtual Fighter, PSO will still be good ol' Sega. Same goes for Sammy and their line of products. But they will make games a combined effort, so maybe we will get more quality service and games then we have been accustmed to from sega.

The next article truely intriuged me. It discussed fiber optics and internet play with arcade machines. I think it would be better and faster for you guys to read it. So, Ill just post the link.

The future of Sega

The future of games

Here is the arcade article:

QUOTE

TOKYO--Sega, Sammy, and Namco announced today that they will be working in conjunction to adopt and promote a network system board for arcade machines in Japan named "ALL.net" (Amusement Linkage Live Network). ALL.net will run on high-speed fiber-optic technology, making it a versatile and expandable system board that can be applied to many different products and uses in the arcade.

Sega, Sammy, and Namco explain that unifying the online system board for arcades will benefit all three of the companies in terms of development costs and market expansion. Many recent arcade games use an online connection for head-to-head play or Internet ranking. A unified network system also helps out arcade operators since they won't have to install different systems for each company’s products.

Games that are set to use the ALL.net system are:

Sega

Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution
Sega Four Players Mahjong MJ Network version
Sega Network Taisen Mahjong MJ 2
Virtua Fighter 4: Final Tuned (July 2004)
Quest of D (summer 2004)
Virtua Striker 4 (fall 2004)
Sega Golf Pro Network Tour (fall 2004)

Sammy

To be announced

Namco

Tekken 5 (fall 2004)

The three companies are also planning to adopt the Edy electronic payment system, allowing gamers to charge an electronic account before heading to the arcades. Players will pay with a card or mobile phone at the machine rather than inserting coins.

Ripped from Gamespot

HC82

Jul 1 2004, 08:28 PM

Arcades = people = communal gaming.

It's good to see they are taking the aspect of communal gaming on a broader level. Sammy is know for those damn ball machine thingies that are so popular in Japan(Pachinko?), so they are arcade focused and probably had ideas about how to evolve the current mundane atmosphere of arcades(they were super hot for awhile, thanks to companies like Sega/Namco/Capcom/Konami, but slowed down as home consoles become more powerful, arcade games became more expensive due to a number of reasons, and online gaming became increasingly popular on consoles).

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