AM Press: Isuka at AMOA 2003

October 1, 2003 issue
Last updated on September 27, 2003

Special news

At the US AMOA Expo 03, US TV game manufacturers continued to perform poorly, but there were still quite a few new releases.

Nintendo will begin full-scale rollout of home video game consoles for mainland China starting in October.

Overseas

In the United States, "Samurai Shodown Zero" will be sold by Apple Industries, Inc. as Yuki's agent.

The claims of IT Company, which is suing GVR of the US, are becoming doubtful.

Domestic

Namco will open an AM complex called “Namco City” next spring in the OS Building in Umeda, Osaka.

Four companies, including Capcom, announced the second installment of the Gundam Project.

News digest of October 1, 2003 issue

The photo is from AMOA Expo 2003. Above is the Namco America booth (from left) President Kevin Hayes and Vice President of Sales Frank Cosentino (AAMA Chairman). Below is GVR's “Need for Speed,” a cockpit-style version of EA's home software, which was popular at the venue.

Main news from 10 years ago

It has been confirmed that Capcom will open a flipper manufacturing base in Chicago, USA. Namco has partnered with Magic Edge Inc. in the US for a simulator. Bromley Corporation of the United States has opened a large-scale gaming hall called “Funland” in Chicago. It has been confirmed that gaming machines will not be allowed to be exhibited at the US AMOA Expo. The amusement park “Dynaburn” on Rokko Island in Kobe has been completed, and “AOIA” has been completed. (October 1, 1993 issue).

Main news from 20 years ago

The entire manufacturing division of Sega Gremlin, a subsidiary of the American Sega Corporation, was purchased by the American Bally Corporation. Toyo Entertainment Machinery has begun exporting its somersault coaster “Astro Comet” to the United States. Location testing of “TX-1” developed by Tatsumi Electronics has begun. Jackson, known for its copy circuit boards, went bankrupt. Due to poor business performance, Stern Corporation of the United States has begun remodeling the game into a TV poker game. (October 1, 1983 issue).

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[News Digest]

1. At the US AMOA Expo 03 (September 17-19, Las Vegas), about 150 companies exhibited in 482 booths and 2,450 people registered to enter.Fan Expo 03, which was held at the same venue at the same time, had 153 companies exhibit in about 300 booths and over 1,500 people registered to enter. If you register at either venue, you can enter both exhibition halls, so in total, about 300 companies exhibited and about 3,950 people registered and entered. In addition, there was free admission to the gaming-related "G2E" held at a different venue around the same time. American manufacturers continue to be weak in the field of TV game consoles, but Betson exhibited “Rush 2049 Special Edition,” a continuation of Atari's products, Team Play, which digs up classic games, introduced the gun game “Crossfire,” and Global VR and Tsunami attracted attention by commercializing “Need for Speed” and “Star Wars,” based on PC games. ICE presented “Tax Racer” for children, and Jam Up Games presented “Jam Up Pool,” a TV pool table.

2. At the US AMOA Expo 03, Japanese products were of a very high standard. Namco America introduced new titles such as “Classic Football,” “Space Invaders/Quix,” and “Time Crisis 3,” which were exhibited at the AM Show. Among them, “Space Invaders/Quix” was planned by Namco America with the cooperation of Taito and is scheduled to be sold in North America. Sega Amusements USA introduced new titles such as “Outrun 2” and “F-Zero AX.” Sammy USA unveiled “AW” titles including “Guilty Gear Isuka.” American company Betson exhibited Taito's “Battle Gear 3” and Konami's “Warzaid” (World Combat). SNK Neo Geo USA has canceled its exhibition, but this is because the overseas sales route for the new product "Samurai Shodown X (Five)" (Samurai Shodown Zero) has been decided. Yuki Enterprises will be in charge of sales for Japan and North America, and SNK Playmore will be in charge of sales for other regions including Southeast Asia, Central and South America, and Europe. At AMOA, Yuki's US distributor, Apple Industries, exhibited it. In addition, new products from Korean manufacturers were introduced.

3. Nintendo announced on September 24th that it will be rolling out Shinyuuki, a home video game console developed for the Chinese mainland market, starting in mid-October. Flash memory cards were used as media to prevent unauthorized copying, which is common in China. Players take this card to a store and rewrite the game software. Game software data is sent to retailers via communication lines. This card can only be used with the game console that was installed at the time of purchase. In order to develop “Shinyu Machine,” Nintendo has already established “Shinyu Science and Technology Co., Ltd.” in Suzhou, and manufacturing will be based there. Sales will begin first in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, and Chengdu, Sichuan Province, and the company plans to expand nationwide next spring. The price is approximately 7,500 yen in Japanese yen for a set of the main unit and a blank card, and the writing of game software is approximately 720 yen per title, with about 10 titles planned for the time being, including “Super Mario Bros.” President Satoshi Iwata said, “There were a lot of pirated copies in China, but by paying taxes, Nintendo can help crack down on pirated copies.”

4. Namco announced on September 24th that it will open a new type of AM complex called “Namco City” next spring on the 1st to 3rd floors of the OS Building in Umeda, Osaka. This will be Namco's most important store in the western Japan area, and will feature the game venue "Namco Land" on the 1st and 2nd floors (1,665 square meters) of the OS Building, which is in a prime location, and the food theme park "Naniwa Gyoza Stadium" on the 3rd floor (1,178 square meters). As for food theme parks, we plan to incorporate the results of the Ikebukuro Gyoza Stadium and Nagoya's Namco Engicho 1-chome. The investment amount is 1.5 billion yen. It is expected that 3 million people will visit each year and annual sales will be 2.5 billion yen. The company also announced on the 25th that it will open a food theme park called “Jiyugaoka Sweets Forest” on the 1st to 3rd floors of “La Cour Jiyugaoka” in Jiyugaoka, Tokyo, on November 21st. Western confectionery artisans who won prizes in an international competition will gather in 12 stores, and it will be a joint project with developer Okada Real Estate. It is expected to have 1 million users and 1 billion yen in sales in the first year.

5. Incredible Technologies (IT, headquartered in the suburbs of Chicago, President: Elaine Ditton) of the United States sued Global VR (GVR, headquartered in San Jose, President: Milind Balbhakar), a division of Virtual Tenologies, for copyright infringement in February 2003 over the TV golf game.The temporary restraining order filed by IT was dismissed in February, and the preliminary restraining order was also dismissed on September 26. IT filed a lawsuit in a federal district court in Chicago, claiming that GVR's “EA Sports PGA Tour Golf” looks exactly like IT's “Golden Tee Four”, but it is not a product of what IT calls “trade dress” (a service that is slightly different from the trademark). Judge Mathieu Kennelly rejected IT's arguments, at least regarding the application for a restraining order, because there was no concrete proof of the case, despite intensive hearings in August regarding infringement (such as smark) and copyright infringement. Although the main lawsuit itself will continue, IT Company's claims have become quite dubious.

6. On September 18th, four companies including Capcom announced “Mobile Suit Z Gundam AEG vs. Titans,” which has already been shown for commercial use at AM shows and other shows, as the second installment of the “Four Companies Joint Gundam Project.” This is a sequel to “Mobile Suit Gundam: Federation vs. Zeon.” Based on Bandai's Gundam characters, Capcom will develop an arcade TV game machine based on the “246” system board, which will go on sale from late September.For home use, Capcom will develop it for the “PS2,” and Bandai will release it in early December. For home use, it is compatible with “Multi-Matching BB,” a high-speed network battle-type network service provided by KDDI. The previous home version shipped 920,000 copies, a new record for Gundam game software since December 2001. Noritaka Funamizu, Managing Executive Officer of Capcom's Development Division 1, said, “This is Capcom's first commercial game in a while, but we are proud that we have created something that will live up to the expectations of our fans.”

7. Sega is proceeding with the reorganization of its development subsidiaries, and announced on September 24th that the official names of the two companies, which had been tentatively announced on July 30th, have been decided. The joint company between Wow Entertainment and Overworks, tentatively known as Wowworks, will become Segawaw (President: Rikiya Nakagawa), and the new company, tentatively called Cinematic Online Games, will become Digital Rex (President: Yutaka Suzuki).

◎ Since 1974, the industry magazine "Game Machine" has been reporting industry news on commercial amusement machines, including TV game machines, amusement facilities, etc. twice a month, but the print publication was discontinued at the end of June 2002.