exA-Arcadia

[Jan]

Razor blade business, the idea to sell your hardware at cost to generate a large user base and make the profit with the games.

[Mantrox]

Why lower the price further if it is already way better than the competition?
If 95% of the market is going to be arcade operators, the logic Shou presented makes perfect sense.

It sucks that almost nobody outside of Japan is going to be able to play them, but that's the reality of the business as it stands.

I am more curious as to what the response from other competitors is going to be, as it seems they are already keeping tabs on whats going on. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the big guys started to bully operators to not buy Exa, or include a line in the contract where their games can't be on the same floor as an Exa title for just enough time to put them out of business.

[nem]

What about a consumer oriented version of the EXA platform, à la NeoGeo AES and CPS Changer? Same product, priced to a consumer audience, with consumer features and not coin operated?

Many western arcades are not pay to play, but pay to enter. So customer pays an admission fee to the arcade and the games are set to free play. Both Galloping Ghost and Arcade Club are like this. Which version do you think they would buy?

[SuperPang]

Shady arcades used to put AES consoles in cabs.

It's a completely different gaming landscape. With Neo Geo, people were paying for the better-than-console graphics, and at a time when a big portion of console releases were arcade ports.

It's a nice thought though.

[MrJBRPG]

I am completely okay with Exa being "Arcade Only" because we already have multiple consoles (Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch), mobile devices (iOS and Android), and PCs (Windows, Mac, Linux) that have common architecture and powers.

I do not plan to buy the machine because it is out of my reach. However, I did speak to various businesses with arcade machines to spread awareness of the Exa Arcadia as new arcade platform with exclusive content, and I know various operators are vying for exclusive content that is affordable and modular. That is what avid arcade fans do to help other arcades stay afloat and beyond.

I tend to enjoy any posts made by Shou as he knows how the arcade ecosystem very well along with revealing the process on enhancing the games to be arcade friendly. Field tests for arcades are analogous to various alpha / beta / early access tests of modern times. The big difference for field test is that field tests have to take input from not only the players, but also operators as well. Therefore, with games being made for Exa Arcadia, more investment into exclusive content / arrange creation is necessary and required. That explains why some games releasing for Exa Arcadia are definitive editions with more content compared to the home version, such as Infinos Exa with 3 ship types and Exa Mode, Vritra Hexa with 2 player simultaneous and all 6 colors available to choose instead of 2 presets and single player, and Lightning Knights with selectable characters with distinct traits. By the time Exa Arcadia hits worldwide and we see success, we will better understand the arcade ecosystem as another stable, yet distinct pillar to video games.

We can all wish great success for Exa Arcadia.


Forgot one more thing:

Why lower the price further if it is already way better than the competition?
If 95% of the market is going to be arcade operators, the logic Shou presented makes perfect sense.

It sucks that almost nobody outside of Japan is going to be able to play them, but that's the reality of the business as it stands.

I am more curious as to what the response from other competitors is going to be, as it seems they are already keeping tabs on whats going on. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the big guys started to bully operators to not buy Exa, or include a line in the contract where their games can't be on the same floor as an Exa title for just enough time to put them out of business.

Nobody outside of Japan, with exception of Round 1 USA and other foreign subsidiaries -> Nessica and AllNet; both online arcade platforms with forced revenue share
Global (Japan + the World) -> Exa Arcadia with operator keeping all income and control after direct purchase

[Mantrox]

Forgot one more thing:

Nobody outside of Japan, with exception of Round 1 USA and other foreign subsidiaries
-> Nessica and AllNet; both online arcade platforms with forced revenue share
Global (Japan + the World) -> Exa Arcadia with operator keeping all income and control after direct purchase

Huh... what?
Oh, you mean Exa not having revenue share as another incentive for them not to lower the price; i see.

[Nomax]

Thanks Shou for these explanations regarding prices.

I perfectly understand your point.

IMHO, I think that your strategy is valid for the Japanese market but isn't adapted to the overseas arcade reality.
Location tests were conducted at Mikado which is an hardcore gamer location and not representative of Western arcades so the measured earning numbers can't be used as a base for international pricing.

As you don't do profit sharing, you have to make all your profits on sales.
What is important to operators is return on investment. The problem is that while driving and lightgun shooting games still earn here, joystick games just don't earn. So you need an aggressive price to get local operators interested. Most of them won't bother to even try if they feel they can't get a ROI in a reasonable amount of time.

As a collector, I was planning to buy all ExA games. Given the price, I'll have to focus on a few titles only.

As an operator, my Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Unlimited Noir cabinet is making €100 / month (€1/credit) while my old Daytona USA 2 twin is earning €1100 / month at a tourist location (€1/credit). I do 50/50 profit sharing with the location owner so I get only half of that amount. Admitting that an exA game will earn as much as Tekken, it would take me 70 months to get my money back on the system with the first game ($3500 bundle) and then 30 months for every extra game ($1500). That's too much. For that price, I could purchase an old used racer and get a ROI in 7 months. This is the reality of the arcade market in Europe.

When it was announced that the motherboard would support 4 cartridges, I was dreaming of placing Noir cabinets at various locations across the country with 4 games each like the Neo-Geo back in the days. That would repopulate public locations with arcade games like it was in the beginning of the '90s. It's my ultimate dream. But new Neo-Geo games were sold €700, not €1500 and arcade games were earning a lot more than today. I would be happy to pay €700 for a bare bone software kit (cartridge + instruction strip).

The question is, if you lower the price from $1500 to $700 per game, would you sell more than the double of them?
I'm pretty sure you would do, because you would attract more collectors and operators and you would extend exA-Arcadia's diffusion and awareness.
Now it's a business choice...

This said, I remain devoted to support exA-Arcadia no matter what but an inadequate pricing policy could really harm the initiative.

[LEGENOARYNINLIA]

A business choice kind of like setting credit prices to €1 per game instead of €0.50...

[Nomax]

A business choice kind of like setting credit prices to €1 per game instead of €0.50...

Exactly.

If it was my arcade, I would set joystick games to €0.50. But I only get half of the revenue. At that location, Terminator Salvation is priced at €2 and it earns very well at that price so I'll have a hard time telling the location owner to lower the price of plays for the already least earning machine. It's a tourist location, not a gamer's location, there's only a small percentage of returning customer. But I might try. Will setting the price to 0.50€ instead of €1 double the number of plays? Same challenge as for exA-Arcadia game prices. In my case, I doubt it would work but in exA's case, I'm pretty sure it's the thing to do to guarantee its success outside of Japan.

[waiwainl]

Go go go Shou - let's hope this triggers a positive vibe through the arcade world

And I see no reason why, for example, Arcade Club would not buy one of these - they have other fairly new machines as well. Which can easily cost >$3500.

[geosnow]

any news?

[arcnl]

Go go go Shou - let's hope this triggers a positive vibe through the arcade world

And I see no reason why, for example, Arcade Club would not buy one of these - they have other fairly new machines as well. Which can easily cost >$3500.

You would still need a >3500 machine to put the 3500 exa in though.

[MrJBRPG]

any news?

Nothing yet...

But I did discover WIP changes to anticipate US EU preorders coming soon. Strange that the contact on the nav top is missing.
I decided to check out the Exa Arcadia website out of boredom until several changes were noticeable.

[nem]

Strange that the contact on the nav top is missing.

It's showing up for me?

Maybe they blocked it on your end? Did you send them a lot of emails?

[MrJBRPG]

Strange that the contact on the nav top is missing.

It's showing up for me?


exa_ac_website.jpg


Maybe they blocked it on your end? Did you send them a lot of emails?

The contact page is always available even at the bottom page, but the contact tab is not. I used Mac OSX with Google Chrome, and I even tried with Safari, still contact is replaced with Cart. The changes can only be made by the makers of the website. Has nothing to do with emails.

Anyways, it seems that they are getting a little closer to having the orders page ready when the announcement becomes official.

[zak]

@Shou, please can you convince CAVE to bring Deathsmiles 2 to EXA?

[Jan]

AK Red Mode......

[SuperPang]

@Shou, please can you convince CAVE to bring Deathsmiles 2 to EXA?

I dunno now. Most people seem to want to play the original arcade version but on reliable hardware and Exa titles need to offer something exclusive. Fingers crossed for the new port. Deathsmiles is a popular IP though so I think we'll see something Deathsmiles at some point, if all goes to plan.

AK Red Mode......

But they promised

I'd love to see them start with SDOJ Exa and eventually fund a Ketsui sequel.

[Jan]

i`d take a SDOJ Exa with proper Sound

[zak]

Will that shipping box be shipped in another shipping box?