Rumor: SNK Playmore acquired by Chinese Company

If noise factory had the money that would have been a great company to carry on the banner, at least as a development studio to keep working on the IPs. Sengoku 3 and Matrimeele were both excellent games, top favorites for me and lots of other people.

Arc Sys also a great company but a little to faggerriffic, you know, as much as I love Guilty Gear (First one is the best!) they just turned that series into a bunch of queers zero. Great depth in gameplay though, I'm just talking about art direction.

Square seems to swallow other banners well and treat them proper (Enix) so why not have them give it a shot. Concentrate on key IPs, KOF, MSlug, Samsho, Fatal Fury.

Namco, well I think their out of touch but they seem to have the financial stability (Bandai)

Konami, way out of touch, they can barely keep their flagship IPs afloat.

Capcom, lol. Anyone but Capcom, they'd destroy the legacy. They're too much like the EA of japan with their lesser IPs and I can see them treating SNK's IPs like this as well.

you liked Missing Link better than X? I played the hell out of both (not the heaven, mind you).

Yes I do. GGX looks better and has more characters but the amount of speed, juggles, all out war diminished greatly. I still love GGX just not as much as GG.

BRIEF-Wuhu Shunrong Sanqi's partly owned firm to acquire stake in Japan's SNK Playmore

Aug 6 Wuhu Shunrong Sanqi Interactive Entertainment Network Technology Co Ltd

* Says partially owned firm signs deal to acquire 81.25 percent stake in Japan's SNK Playmore Corp for $63.5 million

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/06/idUSL3N10H48N20150806
Chinese Source: http://www.cninfo.com.cn/finalpage/2015-08-07/1201402863.PDF

fernandeath said:

Aug 6 Wuhu Shunrong Sanqi Interactive Entertainment Network Technology Co Ltd

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I had to Google them:
http://www.google.com/finance?cid=2086202

Wuhu Shunrong Sanqi Interactive Entertainment Network Technology Co., Ltd., formerly Wuhu Shunrong Auto Parts Co., Ltd., is principally engaged in the manufacturing and distribution of automobile parts and components. The Company is mainly involved in the research, development, production and distribution of automobile plastic fuel tanks. The Company's automobile plastic fuel tanks are integrations of fuel tank bodies, oil filling pipes, oil pipe joints, fuel tank covers, breather pipe joints and other auxiliary attachments, used for fuel storage, fuel oil output, steam management and oil level output, among others. The Company also provides injection molding interior fittings and other products. The Company distributes products in domestic market.

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So... they are going to build King of Fighters cars? I guess that's an improvement over pachinko. Anything's an improvement over pachinko.

Well, if Coleco (Connecticut Leather Company) can change their business to produce video game hardware and Cabbage Patch kids, then they can change from auto parts to video game software.

Fygee said:

Well, if Coleco (Connecticut Leather Company) can change their business to produce video game hardware and Cabbage Patch kids, then they can change from auto parts to video game software.

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They should go back into the computer business...

Giltygear said:

They should go back into the computer business...

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Enjoy your SNK branded mobile phone shovelware games.

At this point, what difference does it make. Its not like SNK has even released a real game in almost 5 years.

Hard to believe KOF 13 came out 5 years ago.

For what its worth, Metal Slug Defense and Beast Busters DX were solid mobile games. Still, pretty slim pickings for games in a five year span.

k'_127 said:

"Chinese Company Plans To Turn SNK Playmore's Games Into Anime, Movies, Television Shows"

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KOF: The Movie?

Fygee said:

Hard to believe KOF 13 came out 5 years ago.

For what its worth, Metal Slug Defense and Beast Busters DX were solid mobile games. Still, pretty slim pickings for games in a five year span.

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Yeah I actually like MSD (The micro transactions tho) and Beast Buster seems ok based on the little i've played but still...

I like hearing the fact that they want the multiple IP's Playmore has. Not just KOF. So pretty much they want to turn Playmore into Capcom. I'm cool with that compared to what it is now.

I have a feeling that the future of SNK Playmore will become worse......

Mr Bakaboy said:

I like hearing the fact that they want the multiple IP's Playmore has. Not just KOF. So pretty much they want to turn Playmore into Capcom. I'm cool with that compared to what it is now.

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The SNK IPs will probably get whored out, and I'm ambivalent as to whether that's gonna be better or worse than the dormancy that is SNKP now.

The fact that someone still wants to buy them at all is a little encouraging (and a little scary).

The Future Is Now... With A Chinese Joint Venture

celeritas said:

The SNK IPs will probably get whored out, and I'm ambivalent as to whether that's gonna be better or worse than the dormancy that is SNKP now.

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At this point, ambivalence is probably the best position to take on this development. Only time will tell what becomes of SNKP's future. On one hand, it's good to hear that Dongfang Xinghui's CEO plans on taking the "Marvel" approach to SNKP's IPs. On the other hand, SNK Playmore's acquisition reminds me of what happened to the original SNK back in late 2001, when it was bought by Playmore and had a pair of their flagship franchises developed by two Korean game developers in their first year (see KOF 2001, Metal Slug 4 and KOF 2002- translation: the transition period was rough then, and I'm doubting it'll be any better this time around).

I'm well aware that SNKP hasn't come up with a new console game in nearly four years, not to mention that years of inability to capitalize on KOF XIII's success, combined with a dependence on pachislot machines and smartphone games, has lead to them getting (mostly) bought out by a (prior to this article) unknown Chinese company. Thus, I'm cautiously optimistic that the wheels of creativity will start spinning once again for SNKP. However, what worries me is this quote from Dongfang Xingui CEO, Zheng Jianhui:

"He is also looking forward to collaborations with other Chinese companies to develop games, anime, manga, television, and movies in order to fully develop SNKP's intellectual property."

Not only does that statement seem like the company's biting off more than it can chew, it also worries me that collaborating with other Chinese companies could lead to Japanese developers being left out in the cold (not to mention other developers outside China getting blocked off). I have no idea if this will actually happen, or if many (any?) of these games or other multimedia spin-offs will see release outside of China, but given Chinamation's track record (not good in the least), I would be lying if I said SNKP's acquisition doesn't have me feeling apprehensive.

They say the first step's the hardest; whether it's a first step forwards or backwards will be seen in the months ahead...

celeritas said:

The SNK IPs will probably get whored out, and I'm ambivalent as to whether that's gonna be better or worse than the dormancy that is SNKP now.

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Compared to the horrific pachinslot games we see now whoring out to different media outlets or 3rd party game companies is probably an improvment. However it's definately a wait and see kind of situation.

SNKP can't get a whole lot worse than it has been after KOF XIII's release. So many Japanese publishers have gone down the mobile/pachinko drain lately.(Konami, Sega, Capcom to an extent) There aren't many ways to go but up from here, unless it's another SNK-Playmore-SNKP transition scenario.

SNK: The Future is No More

Mr Bakaboy said:

Compared to the horrific pachinslot games we see now whoring out to different media outlets or 3rd party game companies is probably an improvment. However it's definately a wait and see kind of situation.

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well...there might be some benefits to King of Fighters: Extreme Volleyball...just saying...

At least it's not Aruze.

SNK is dead. Its all mobile from here. I wouldnt be surprised if that new 3D kof game is gonna get cancelled due to the buy out.

mehguy said:

SNK is dead. Its all mobile from here. I wouldnt be surprised if that new 3D kof game is gonna get cancelled due to the buy out.

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You used to be more optimistic