SNK Playmore possibly shutting down pachinko slot division

badmind36

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http://dreamcancel.com/2015/10/09/snk-playmore-possibly-shutting-down-pachinko-slot-division/

According to a report by Pachinko industry site Pachislot Village, SNK Playmore will be shutting down their Pachinko Slot business. They reported that SNK Playmore currently has no new Pachinko Slot machines on file for approval in the new couple months.

Separately, a report on Yugi-Nippon reported that the SNK Playmore will close their Tokyo office at the end of this month. The Tokyo office handles most of the of SNK Playmoreç—´ Pachinko Slot business. The Tokyo staff will be given the option to transfer to the games division at the Osaka main office.

The Pachinko Slot business has been in decline in recent years. Four other companies have left the Pachinko Slot industry due to various reasons. One of the main reasons to the decline is the possibility of gambling legalization in Japan. Pachinko makers are set to face immense competition against foreign multinationals and face addition gambling taxes should the gambling legalization bill were to pass next year.

SNK Playmore痴 decision to shut down their Pachinko Slot division is a sharp turn from the remarks that president Koichi Sotyama made earlier this summer 套 The Pachislot market is currently suffering from a massive decline of users in their 20痴, and it is important that we develop new machines targeted towards the younger range audience. We are a Pachislot maker as well as a Videogame maker. We will do our best to make Pachislot fans out of videogame fans."
 

shadowkn55

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And here I thought the pachislot division was the only thing keeping them above water.
 

Kid Panda

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Fuck Pachislot.
Kinda surprised Cave never made a Donpachislot.
 

JohnnyFever

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This is great news, but then again it isn't. This will probably give the more time and resources to apply to app games instead of focusing on the next KoF.
 

HeavyMachineGoob

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Doesn't this mean SNKP will disappear completely since they let their arcade/home division atrophy into nothing?
 

Ip Man

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Doesn't this mean SNKP will disappear completely since they let their arcade/home division atrophy into nothing?

my thoughts exactly.this does sound like the end of snkp but then again i'm surprised they maid it this far. snkp really lasted for a company that hasn't really bean relative for the past ten years.
 

Liquid Snake

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I like Konami's Castlevanislot.................cool CG
Still don't understand why Konami has power to generate CG scenes for Pachinslot but not use to create new console game.....................
 

RabbitTroop

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You know how, like in the game of Monopoly, you land on your friend's Vermont Avenue, and he's got three houses already on that fucker, and you know you've got to mortgage the shit out of stuff. You start flipping over cards, "This will save me, I can get the cash I need to get out of this mess and then I'll be back on the road."

But, now, you're scared as shit that you'll land on any other property you don't own. You're praying to pass Boardwalk, and collect that $200. Every Community Chest is a small relief or ruination. You're scrambling, saying things like, "Well, I can sit in jail a few turns... It's better than going broke."

Maybe you get a few properties out of mortgage, you start feeling better. Your buddy's become a God-damn hotel mogul well you were in the slammer, mostly thanks to you, and you're looking down on your handful of properties with their couple of houses thinking, "Just one hit. Roll a six and we're in business again."

The six never comes. You circle the board, narrowly escaping the nicer part of town, and your buddy's chuckling as you slide your thimble past Go, stash the $200 in your pile, and rest in your slum-lord Baltic Avenue high rise.

Then it happens... You roll, and there's your six... You look at the Connecticut Avenue hotel, knowing you can't pay the stay. You count your cash, and tally your properties. You sell your houses and count your cash again... Then you mumble something obscene just under earshot and throw your thimble off into the center the board.

"Fuck this game, and fuck you, you smug asshole."

That's... That's about how this is playing out for SNK Playmore right now.
 
Last edited:

Samuray

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Huh?
This was unexpected.

But I concur.... After an initial spurt of happiness I don't think this bodes well for SNKP at all. What do we have to lose, most of you will say, and you're right. But still....I never gave up hope we would see a couple of games from them again, and now it seems that KOF14 may very well be the swan song. And what an ugly swan it is (at least for now). :(
 

Elder

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This is interesting when you consider that Konami is heading into that market. If SNK Playmore leaves the Pachinko market, I can see them having a dramatic increase in the mobile market. Do we know how much money they're earning from their mobile games?
 

Mokkori

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Maybe we'll have a pachinko mini game in the upcoming KOF XIV (urgh..)
 

mehguy

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Quite odd. Especially out SNK since they've been pushing out pachinko machine like crazy. Possibly a refocus on there video game division?
 

Wachenroder

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Quite odd. Especially out SNK since they've been pushing out pachinko machine like crazy. Possibly a refocus on there video game division?

God thats what i'm hoping but some how I doubt it. I mean, they've been pulling out of mobile as well so IDK. Might be a bad sign for them all together.
 

TikTekTak

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Ok now you can call me surprised.

I rahter would have believed the tagline "SNK Playmore closes down game division!"....
 

Heinz

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I really wish SNKP would just sell off their IP's to the likes of Dimps or Sammy or whomever has the interest in developing them. At this stage I could care less how any new titles come out as I care more about them being made in the first place. We're looking at the IP's falling into an ever deeper obscurity and eventually forgotten altogether.
 

evil wasabi

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You know how, like in the game of Monopoly, you land on your friend's Vermont Avenue, and he's got three houses already on that fucker, and you know you've got to mortgage the shit out of stuff. You start flipping over cards, "This will save me, I can get the cash I need to get out of this mess and then I'll be back on the road."

But, now, you're scared as shit that you'll land on any other property you don't own. You're praying to pass Boardwalk, and collect that $200. Every Community Chest is a small relief or ruination. You're scrambling, saying things like, "Well, I can sit in jail a few turns... It's better than going broke."

Maybe you get a few properties out of mortgage, you start feeling better. Your buddy's become a God-damn hotel mogul well you were in the slammer, mostly thanks to you, and you're looking down on your handful of properties with their couple of houses thinking, "Just one hit. Roll a six and we're in business again."

The six never comes. You circle the board, narrowly escaping the nicer part of town, and your buddy's chuckling as you slide your thimble past Go, stash the $200 in your pile, and rest in your slum-lord Baltic Avenue high rise.

Then it happens... You roll, and there's your six... You look at the Connecticut Avenue hotel, knowing you can't pay the stay. You count your cash, and tally your properties. You sell your houses and count your cash again... Then you mumble something obscene just under earshot and throw your thimble off into the center the board.

"Fuck this game, and fuck you, you smug asshole."

That's... That's about how this is playing out for SNK Playmore right now.

As good a story as that is, the closer reality is that SNK made fighting games and people don't care about fighting games as much as they used to, and no to the degree needed to create games for the current market under the old model.
 
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I really wish SNKP would just sell off their IP's to the likes of Dimps or Sammy or whomever has the interest in developing them. At this stage I could care less how any new titles come out as I care more about them being made in the first place. We're looking at the IP's falling into an ever deeper obscurity and eventually forgotten altogether.

Lest you forget, more than 80% of SNK Playmore's stock is now owned by a Chinese joint venture called Leyou Millenium. It might be too late for SNKP to consider outsourcing their IPs to other Japanese developers, but I don't think Leyou Millenium will simply let the KOF franchise sink into oblivion. (The other IPs, on the other hand, I'm not so sure of...)

If this rumor is true, it'll be interesting to see if their focus will rest solely upon smartphone games/ports, or if this is the start of a gradual shutdown and migration to China.
 

Mr Bakaboy

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As good a story as that is, the closer reality is that SNK made fighting games and people don't care about fighting games as much as they used to, and no to the degree needed to create games for the current market under the old model.

^^^ This. In all honesty as much as I want games like what SNK makes the market for it is small. They have more then fighting games. Baseball Stars 3 done right would be great. They have shooters, beat em ups, and other sports games, but when it comes down to it is it worth making for them?

A conversation with a friend of recent came up with an idea. I wonder if it would be a better idea to go back to the original graphics you would see on the neo geo or maybe slightly better and just sell it as a budget title? Obviously the older companies can't compete with the newer graphics. Hell Capcom had to have Sony partially fund Street Fighter V to get it off the ground and the graphics aren't far off from Street Fighter IV.
 

Heinz

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Lest you forget, more than 80% of SNK Playmore's stock is now owned by a Chinese joint venture called Leyou Millenium. It might be too late for SNKP to consider outsourcing their IPs to other Japanese developers, but I don't think Leyou Millenium will simply let the KOF franchise sink into oblivion. (The other IPs, on the other hand, I'm not so sure of...)

If this rumor is true, it'll be interesting to see if their focus will rest solely upon smartphone games/ports, or if this is the start of a gradual shutdown and migration to China.

Interesting, perhaps something will come of it.
 

xsq

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I wonder if it would be a better idea to go back to the original graphics you would see on the neo geo or maybe slightly better and just sell it as a budget title?
pixel stuff is a lot of work...so it might be more costly, especially if 3D graphics are easier to code (tools, education).
 

Mr Bakaboy

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I know it can be more time consuming, but something old school should be less costly then setting up a setup of "competient" 3d game studio. Considering a game like Skullgirls can be independently made, for the most part or Them Fighting Herds (know it was crowd funded).
Maybe I'm wrong, but old school 2d sprite work is easier money manageable then trying to make decent 3d fighting games. If not then why are there so few and companies have gone bankrupt (Midway) immediately after even when it was a success.
 
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