Namco Bandai blames Wii for arcade closures

by Scott Jon Siegel on Feb 7th 2008 7:55PM

Though the arcade scene in America has been dead for quite some time, Japan has still been a home to many popular arcades. At least, it has up until now. Arcade firm Namco Bandai has announced plans to close between 50 and 60 of its arcade locations across the country, citing the expanding home console market as a big part of the problem.

Specifically, company spokesman Yuji Machida blames the Nintendo Wii, stating that strong holiday sales for the console mean a lot of kids have spent their time at home playing, and spent their money on more Wii software and hardware, such as the popular Wii Fit package.

Of course, home consoles certainly aren't the only cause. Machida also cites rising gas prices as a concern, as families become less willing to travel back and forth from shopping malls, where arcades are normally located. The 50-60 arcades closing account for one-fifth of Namco Bandai's arcades in Japan. A big loss, to be sure.

[Via Wii Fanboy]

Source

Tags: japan, namco-bandai, nintendo, Wii

Reader Comments (55)

stop trying to compare Japanese arcades with what you saw in the US. Its not the same thing, many of the arcades there have a hight turn over rate and swap out their machines for new games regularly vs the dump in the mall that kept pacman or golden axe 1 for 10+ years.

that and if you read the source article theyre not really blaming ust stating statistics.

there are way less arcades in japan than I expected... just frickin pachinko parlors everywhere!!

I think the whole DDR/beamania trend was all that kept arcades going so long over here.. and thats long over now. ( :-( )

On the Wii mote rant, tis a fair control system but one needs button mapping and sensitivity control over it,without control over the control its just a gimmick...and the same can be said about the PS2/3 and the Xbox/360 there is no button mapping there is no subtle control options, in fact options have fallen over the years.

Arrogant devs thinking everyone plays the same or uses the same buttons/play style...put in button mapping and full KB/mouse support already....

I miss arcades. It wasn't the "omg, 1337 graphix!!" what made me go there, it was the people that went there.

Playing time after time against the best player in the area just to be beaten senseless every single time, winning a quick tourney with your friends.

That's what I miss from arcades.