exA-Arcadia

[Shou]

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.

A certain company has been trying to prevent games from coming to exA by doing something like this but we have circumvented in most cases.

[Shou]

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.

We appreciate your feedback. Europe is the most difficult mature market for arcade operators that I have seen.

As I explained earlier, pricing down the games has several consequences:
1. None of the popular franchise games that people want would be available (ROI is too low for these companies like Capcom, Konami, etc). Why would namco or Tecmo even bother at that $700 price point when they can get so many more customers buying multiple $50-100 DLC packs for Tekken or DOA on console and Steam?

2. Some form of region locking would be in place to prevent reverse importing like what happened with Neo Geo back in the day (ie new KOF is $2000 in Japan, it is $700 in Mexico so Japanese arcades bought from Mexico) - this isn't fair to distributors and you would have game releases in say Europe missing languages (no Japanese text or voices etc) and other features (high score ranking or net functionality) like you see in recent games such as HOTD CD

3. Format is going to die early as ROI is too low for developers to continue production of titles especially new games for arcade (Something like the production of Aka & Blue Type-R would not happen)

For more challenging markets, we are exploring lower cost options but don't expect that you would get modern generation hardware specs and games like the newest stuff from Arc, SNK, etc.

[Shou]

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

I'd like to hear why people would want a Deathsmiles 2 BL or something like that.
It's one of the poorest performing Cave titles in their history.

Ports of the game are all flawed because of how the hardware does the fake slowdown as you can even see in the bootlegs that are running on TypeX multi loaders out there.

[rancor]

I'd like to hear why people would want a Deathsmiles 2 BL or something like that.

Because the original PC hardware is complete garbage and routinely breaks even with extra gentle handling.

[Shou]

I'd like to hear why people would want a Deathsmiles 2 BL or something like that.

Because the original PC hardware is complete garbage and routinely breaks even with extra gentle handling.

I mean as a game. Doubt very many people (200+) would buy this game just for a solid replacement.
My hardware broke too and had to send to Cave for a fix ages ago.

[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.

Razer is a $1.5 billion USD company. They can afford to attempt those kind of loss leader projects.
Pass a few million my way and we can run a money losing business too.
Your hardware will also up end with only a handful games too before it dies out just like many formats in the past: ex-board, SKOPRO, Crystal System, PGM2/3, etc

[aerobert]

Forget old games like Deathsmiles on Exa. I want to see new games! I want developers to see potential and I want them to get creative and create new IP's.

One can hope and dream...

[markedkiller78]

Whatever it is, I hope the exclusives come to steam later down the line, even a slightly different version to the exA

[phillv85]

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

I'd like to hear why people would want a Deathsmiles 2 BL or something like that.
It's one of the poorest performing Cave titles in their history.

Ports of the game are all flawed because of how the hardware does the fake slowdown as you can even see in the bootlegs that are running on TypeX multi loaders out there.

Please don't push for a DS 2 remake. It's no surprise it was the worst performing game in arcades. It's their worst shooter except for Ibara

[cools]

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

I'd like to hear why people would want a Deathsmiles 2 BL or something like that.
It's one of the poorest performing Cave titles in their history.

Ports of the game are all flawed because of how the hardware does the fake slowdown as you can even see in the bootlegs that are running on TypeX multi loaders out there.

I'm not much of a fan of the original game, but the Xbox 360 version is a joy to play.

[zak]

I'd like to hear why people would want a Deathsmiles 2 BL or something like that.

Because

Ports of the game are all flawed

of this And the CAVE PC is a POS.

[SuperPang]

To be fair it doesn't really make sense for Cave to try and perfectly port a game they've already released that bombed does it.

[zak]

To be fair it doesn't really make sense for Cave to try and perfectly port a game they've already released that bombed does it.

Realistically, no I thought it might be fairly straightforward given the PC based nature of the oiginal release.

I thought it bombed because it was mostly rental only? If it was retail, maybe everyone was put off by the shoddy Hardware? I don't know.

Maybe the 3D was jarring for everyone used to their 2D output. Will keep dreaming.

[Shou]

Preorders are available to North America and Europe on our site.

Note that prices are in SGD not USD. Use the flag toggle on the right to go between an approximate USD price and SGD price.

[SuperPang]

Done! Thanks Shou!

Singapore dollars rang some alarm bells at Natwest but I got there in the end

[zak]

Preorders are available to North America and Europe on our site.

Note that prices are in SGD not USD. Use the flag toggle on the right to go between an approximate USD price and SGD price.

Thanks Shou!

Is AKA & Blue identical to the Japanese version? (any changes? same art etc?)

[Ikaru]

Any chance for buy an exa with games when I will come directly in Japan please? Thx
I calculated the customs fees .....a little too much with the 20 pour-cent more

[SuperPang]

Any chance for buy an exa with games when I will come directly in Japan please? Thx
I calculated the customs fees .....a little too much with the 20 pour-cent more

Shou has already said Japanese prices are almost 50% higher.

[Jan]

EMS shipping on a 3300€ Kit ?

thank god the Price is higher than expected, so i don`t have to worry about that.

[Shou]

Preorders are available to North America and Europe on our site.

Note that prices are in SGD not USD. Use the flag toggle on the right to go between an approximate USD price and SGD price.

Thanks Shou!

Is AKA & Blue identical to the Japanese version? (any changes? same art etc?)

Completely the same, in fact, no English manual if you do not want it.