The (re)death of SNK?

[wip3outguy7]

The (re)death of SNK?

Yeah, pretty much.

I doubted we would see a port of KoF XIII anyway. XII was such a failure (console and arcade development were parallel), the only way we would see XIII on home consoles is if it were a runaway hit similar to Street Fighter IV. The only way we may see a port now is through a third party. Remember Takara in the 90s? And that's only if the 3rd party is willing to pay the undoubtedly astronomical amount for the relatively new license.

Capcom picking up SNK is a nice pipe dream, but that's all it is. At the risk of being wrong, I'm going to state a theory here. I have a feeling Capcom higher ups view this recent fighting game wave as a fluke (and it may be). As soon as things break even or turn a lower profit than projected, they're pulling the plug. Capcom's fighting games division is living on borrowed time. People can argue this all they want, but Ono has been very vocal about the behind the scenes struggle with management. With that in mind, why would Capcom want to buy up the rights to yet more fighting game related properties? The only way they would do this is if it would guarantee at least one sure fire hit.

At this point it seems like the SNK CEO has made up his mind. Maybe in a few years, former SNK employees will get together and resurrect these intellectual properties (again).


edit: Yeah I'm kind of ranting an raving here. I just wanted to get the "C4pc0mz should buy SNKz!" response out of the way.

[EvilRyu2099]

The (re)death of SNK?

I have a feeling Capcom higher ups view this recent fighting game wave as a fluke (and it may be). As soon as things break even or turn a lower profit than projected, they're pulling the plug. Capcom's fighting games division is living on borrowed time. People can argue this all they want, but Ono has been very vocal about the behind the scenes struggle with management. .

See I disagree with this... SFIV and SSFIV are 2 of Capcom's most successful games this generation.. MvC 3 is probably going to sell around 2 to 3 million WW which is a huge success.. They know that their bread and butter atm is fighting games.. Even Blazblue did moderately well.. I think the Fighting game genre is still viable and once the FPS craze dies out, it could be a major hit again..

[hashiriya1]

It would be cool to see some SNK IP on Pachinko machines. That would be rad.

It's already happened. Between the time SNK went under and was reborn as Playmore, a company called Aruze manufactured KOF and Metal Slug Pachinko machines.

I have played the KOF one, I am talking things like KOTM, Pulsar, etc. That would be rad, but it is unrealistic.

[wip3outguy7]

I think the Fighting game genre is still viable and once the FPS craze dies out, it could be a major hit again..

That would be nice.

[the7k]

FPS craze dying? Are you serious?

FPSs on consoles have been going strong since Goldeneye 007 on N64. FPSs on PCs have been going strong since... well, since they could play FPSs. The FPS craze will simply never die off.

Also, I'm totally against Capcom buying SNK's properties. If anything, Capcom needs to sell some of their fighting game properties off to smaller, talented studios. At this rate, we'll never see a new Darkstalkers - and we sure as shoot ain't gonna see a new Rival Schools, Power Stone, CyberBots or anything else. While a new Darkstalkers or Rival Schools to Capcom would be a liability, it would be a rainmaker for a small-but-capable developer.

Anyway, we don't need Capcom to buy up KOF, SamSho, Last Blade, etc., so that they can ignore those properties too.

[Rurouni_Fencer]

Anyway, we don't need Capcom to buy up KOF, SamSho, Last Blade, etc., so that they can ignore those properties too.

Good points, but it doesn't sound like SNK/Playmore is planning much of a future for them either.. At least with Capcom, there's the hope of a new Capcom vs SNK fighter..

[EvilRyu2099]

FPS craze dying? Are you serious?

FPSs on consoles have been going strong since Goldeneye 007 on N64. FPSs on PCs have been going strong since... well, since they could play FPSs. The FPS craze will simply never die off.

Also, I'm totally against Capcom buying SNK's properties. If anything, Capcom needs to sell some of their fighting game properties off to smaller, talented studios. At this rate, we'll never see a new Darkstalkers - and we sure as shoot ain't gonna see a new Rival Schools, Power Stone, CyberBots or anything else. While a new Darkstalkers or Rival Schools to Capcom would be a liability, it would be a rainmaker for a small-but-capable developer.

Anyway, we don't need Capcom to buy up KOF, SamSho, Last Blade, etc., so that they can ignore those properties too.

FPS was not that big in the 90s.. You had Doom(mostly shareware), Duke Nukem 3D(more of a cult hit) Goldeneye(which was on a console that didn't sell that well) and the Quakes and UT99.. Sorry but while those games were world's better than the games of today, they weren't super popular either.. You certainly didn't see them on the top sellers list like you saw various fighting games like Tekken 3 and Soul Calibur.. I kind of agree that Capcom shouldn't buy SNK, but who else is going to? Arc? I seriously doubt that.. Maybe they merge with Capcom and keep the programming base intact? Who knows.. Better to have someone than nothing AT ALL..

[BurningDoom]

FPS craze dying? Are you serious?

FPSs on consoles have been going strong since Goldeneye 007 on N64. FPSs on PCs have been going strong since... well, since they could play FPSs. The FPS craze will simply never die off.

Also, I'm totally against Capcom buying SNK's properties. If anything, Capcom needs to sell some of their fighting game properties off to smaller, talented studios. At this rate, we'll never see a new Darkstalkers - and we sure as shoot ain't gonna see a new Rival Schools, Power Stone, CyberBots or anything else. While a new Darkstalkers or Rival Schools to Capcom would be a liability, it would be a rainmaker for a small-but-capable developer.

Anyway, we don't need Capcom to buy up KOF, SamSho, Last Blade, etc., so that they can ignore those properties too.

FPS was not that big in the 90s.. You had Doom(mostly shareware), Duke Nukem 3D(more of a cult hit) Goldeneye(which was on a console that didn't sell that well) and the Quakes and UT99.. Sorry but while those games were world's better than the games of today, they weren't super popular either.. You certainly didn't see them on the top sellers list like you saw various fighting games like Tekken 3 and Soul Calibur.. I kind of agree that Capcom shouldn't buy SNK, but who else is going to? Arc? I seriously doubt that.. Maybe they merge with Capcom and keep the programming base intact? Who knows.. Better to have someone than nothing AT ALL..

I respectfully disagree. Everyone I knew was playing Goldeneye, even if they didn't own it themselves they were playing it at a friend's house. And almost anyone that had a computer and was a gamer in the 90s had Doom, and then it was ported to like EVERY game console in existence at the time. And Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament were two of the top selling games on Dreamcast.

[EvilRyu2099]

I respectfully disagree. Everyone I knew was playing Goldeneye, even if they didn't own it themselves they were playing it at a friend's house. And almost anyone that had a computer and was a gamer in the 90s had Doom, and then it was ported to like EVERY game console in existence at the time. And Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament were two of the top selling games on Dreamcast.

And Doom never sold well on any of those consoles.. Goldeneye was popular but on a not so popular console.. I'm not so sure Unreal Tournament and Quake III were the top selling Dreamcast games at all, that belongs to the 2k Series of sports titles and sonic Adventure..

[EvilRyu2099]

BTW... Did any FPS top the charts like CoD series? Tell me... I also think Soul Calibur outsold Unreal Championship and Quake III arena on the DC...