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Pac-Man Battle Royale now shipping to US arcades

by JC Fletcher on Jan 13th 2011 1:30PM

Great news for people who live anywhere near an arcade in the US: Distributor BMI Gaming is now shipping the wonderful Pac-Man Battle Royale to American arcade operators. When we played Battle Royale at E3, our sheer delight was tainted by sadness, as we figured that many of you would never get to experience this game if it only saw a limited Japanese release. While this isn't the home version we so dearly want, even the slightest possibility of being able to play this four-player Pac-vs.-Pac game is enough to put a smile on our faces.

Arcade Heroes reports that the $4275 price tag for the cocktail-style cabinet is low relative to other new-release arcade games, meaning that arcade operators will have an incentive to choose Battle Royale over other games. And that's good for everyone except the first three Pac-Men we meet in our local arcade.

Via: Arcade Heroes
Source: BMI Gaming

Tags: arcade, bmi-gaming, namco-bandai, pac-man, pac-man-battle-royale, pacman-battle-royale

Reader Comments (29)

"Great news for people who live anywhere near an arcade in the US."

Yeah, but what are the chances those few dozen people read Joystiq?

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

This game should've just been on XBLA it would've made much more bank...

@PlatinumSkeet
bank?

@supersonic124

Green?
Money?

@Faenix WONGA!

@supersonic124

coin, dough, cheddar, loot

@KyGuyTC7

http://www.esurance.com/welcome/landing/commercials/images/frank_bottom_image_b.jpg

Simoleoooon.

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze - I live near two arcades...

One retro (one of the last few in existance, they have a small selection of modern games, but it's mostly classics and pins), one Dave & Busters.

This looks hella tight but my arcade only has room for stand-ups. Back to getting my ass kicked at 3rd Strike, I guess.

Man I remember back in the 90's when arcades were awesome now you don't even see any anymore :~/ unless you go to a mall or something Nothing beats getting out the house and playing on a Cabinet and letting people watch your awesomeness.

Our bowling alleys don't even have arcade games anymore in Birmingham. I miss the old Diamond Jims we had back in the 90s.

NullPointerException: What arcades?

Dereferencing DoubleIndirection: Xbox 360

There are American arcade operators?

I still want an XBLA version of Pac-Man VS. Include that plus this Battle Royale mode and I'd happily pay $10 or $15.

@Mcmax3000

TRUTH. this shouldnt have seen an arcade release. that just delays a XBLA or PSN release.

@panama chief - Better yet it could've been included as multiplayer in Pac-Man CE DX.

Wow i've not seen an arcade in years.. im surprised they still exist xD

Alot of people don't know how expensive arcade games are.

Alot of them are thousands of dollars. Killer Instinct, back in 1994, was $7000. That sit-down of Hydro Thunder? Easily $13,000. That full cockpit, full of blinky lights, hydraulically-operated shooter? Can be $30,000.

Then you get the greedy bastards, who sold the rerelease of Ms. Pac Man and Galaga in one cabinet a few years ago for $8000. That was completely unncessary.

$4275 isn't bad, but there's the problem of actually finding an arcade, and one that stocks recent games.

@Drakkenfyre I agree that 4275 is cheap for an arcade game, but really shouldn't that be pretty pricey?

I mean what's most arcade cabinets made of? A cabinet, custom controls, a weak computer, and a large TV screen. That SHOULD be a 2 grand cost, sold for 3 grand. Then maybe arcades can go back to using quarters and people will actually play again.

I don't know about everyone else, but $1+ for an arcade game is ridiculous. When I worked for Gameworks years ago, I'd watch people go through 25bucks of games in 15 minutes.

When you go to a theater, the movie you watch can cost the theater $1000. And what is it made of? Celluloid, and some metal for the spool, if it's an old fashioned reel. If it's digital, then a hard drive.

They are going to make a ton of money off of it, so the distributer and manufacturer are going to make a ton selling it.

The monitor in an arcade game can vary. It's rarely just a large TV. Usually it's a monitor more closely related to a CRT computer monitor, but not always. It could be a large projection screen, or a (extremely rare, not even sure they are still made today) vector monitors which absolutely cannot be replaced by raster monitors for vector games.

Some other arcade games have specialized hardware. Killer Instinct 1 and 2 used a hard drive. Some games are nothing more than pc's inside the arcade cabinet. One particular game, Gobbly Ghosts, used an actual physical mansion playfield with moving doors and props, with a projection layer laid ontop for the graphics of the game.

Where the prices do get ridiculous is in the "Class of '82" Ms. Pac Man/Galaga rerelease. It was a rerelease of 25 year old hardware, and they charged $8000 for it. That's absolute highway robbery.

The $1 a play thing is up to the arcade operator. You aren't going to find anyone who is going to have 25 cent a play going on when they know kids are used to spending $1 a play. Altho I have seen some arcades where older games were set to 25 cent.

I hope my arcade picks these up. Even if not, it is a given that Dave and Busters will get these at some point, also. It is a pac-man machine. It is going to make more than $4275.

$4275 plus... let's say $500 shipping costs? Not as expensive as I'd though... hmmm...

"US arcades"! Oh man. You Joystiq writers crack me up.

I see this beeing a bigger hit at bars, with a bunch of drunk gamers who are old enough to appreciate it.

Most bars I go to have those Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga/Pac-Man cocktail cabinets, anyway. This would make an excellent replacement, were it not so expensive. But the price will drop about $500 after about 9 months.

Sweet! I can't wait to run down to the local shopping mall and push my way through throngs of skee ball chuckers in order to pay $0.75 per game of Pac-Man Battle Royale! Woo!

Screw arcades, send this to the local bars and keep the beers coming!

This game is super fun. I hope there's a PSN/XBLA/WiiWare version at some point. It would be a perfect download.

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