The new SNKP head seems to want to put the game division back in order, but I think the damage has been done. These are the possibilities I imagine:
1.) SNKP tries to rebuild their game division, but doesn't have the revenue for an A-list arcade/console game anymore, nor the draw (what video game developer would want to go to SNKP when they may end up making a bunch of pachislots?) and KOF XIII ends up as their final 'true' game (don't count cellphone games as proper video games. They're in a similar category to those Tiger Electronics devices)
2.) SNKP partners with another developer to make a new game. Most of SNKP's involvement is limited to input and direction while the bulk is done by the other company.
3.) Maybe, emphasis on maybe, they can actually make a KOF XIV, but it will take years and they might not have even begun, having to rebuild their game division. Can they even have KOF XIV ready for the 20th anniversary?
I'm not so sure SNKP can get out of the pachinko parlors and garbage scow of gaming (cellphone games). Some of this seems to be fallout from tying themselves so closely with the arcade scene. Over the 2000s, it crumbled in Japan, was all but dead in NA & Europe, not so sure about China and elsewhere around Asia. They ended up so out of step with the consoles (having not made the transition like so many other notable companies did) that they couldn't successfully play catch-up.
This topic kind of fits with the questions I wanted to ask:
- What do people think of SNK Playmore since 2000/01? Like, do they feel the resurrection as Playmore/SNK Playmore was ultimately worth it?
- Do they think the final dozen Neo Geo games were a worthwhile addition to the Neo Geo library? (that would include games outsourced before SNK formally closed, like Sengoku 3, Metal Slug 4, and KOF 2001 even though 2 of those came out after they dissolved)
- What do they think about the Atomiswave's batch of (SNKP) games overall?
- How about everything post-Atomiswave and the overall withering of their game division and focusing everything on pachislots?
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I think their resurrection was definately worthwhile. They kept their coveted IP in their own hands and they did the seemingly impossible, reviving after something that would sink most companies, and they managed to put out games through great adversity (Aruze shutting down their dev teams and the seeds of Playmore having little capital to work with at first, forcing outsourcing and using small Japanese companies, having to rebuild themselves through lawsuits and releases for a 12-14 year old arcade console that was heavily pirated by then). Neo Geo releases barely skipped a beat and ironically, when it did skip was when SNK was still around but in Aruze's claws (all that was allowed to get finished was Metal Slug 3 & KOF 2000). It was an amazing comeback, even if as SNKP their motto effectively was "The future was then". I think that the games were even the quality they were is a heck of a feat. Usually such adversity leads to games being cancelled in development or games that are total garbage.
I wonder how well the pachislots are doing. Even with that revenue, it doesn't seem to be enough to support a lot of new game development. Back in 2004, SNKP said they intended to use pachislots to help fund game development and while that seemed true for the Atomiswave years, since then, their output of new games has been paltry. Maybe lackluster sales and a failed transition to 3D (Metal Slug 3D, KOF: Maximum Impact) forced them to shrink their game division. They don't seem to be able to put out as many different games as they did from 2004-06 or so.
BTW, has anyone noticed it looks like the feds in the US are actually going after Aruze's president (the guy who headed Aruze since at least the SNK years)? Something having to do with bribing a Philippines gaming regulator.
