Did XBox 360 Online Hurt Sega Arcade Business?

Initially there was lots of discussion whether adding online for
VF would cost Sega money in the arcades. Whatever happened with that?

Was Sega worried about nothing? Did online for VF hurt or help
Sega's arcade business. Or was there no effect?

Do consoles in general impact Sega's Arcade business? Anybody
know?

 

Well for a while (years) the argument was that it was not possible to legitimately do VF online because of lag or the effect of quality game play. The rumor was that was just a cover story to mask Sega's fear that online play would somehow hurt the arcade business.

Then the theory was since as you stated Xbox is not big in Japan, that Sega could release it on Xbox without feeling the pain at the arcades. Since the PS3 is big in Japan the online option would
not be included for the sake of arcade business. (At least that was one of the theories).

And note, to this day there is no online option for PS3. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/crazy.gif

The other theory was that Microsoft funded the online for Xbox, so Sega took the money and ran. Otherwise there would have been no 360 online either.

The plot thickens /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif

 

the 360 port of vf5 only sold ~30k copies in japan. somehow i doubt it had any kind of impact on vf's arcade scene.

 

Afaik VF5 didn't have online on the PS3 because Sony asked SEGA to do a rushed port, since the PS3 game library was pretty dry back then. Masterpo's theory does make some sense though.

And the PSN hosts the games just like XBL what are you talking about Marly? Oh and the fights are P2P

 

I'm pretty sure this is wrong, PS3 it's either up to the developer/publisher to provide the servers, or it's done p2p wheras Microsoft have their own dedicated servers. Nothing to do with the developer/publisher.

 

XBOX LIVE is P2P. Is rare you see dedicated servers(Besides EA)On the 360. On the PSN, there are more games on dedicated servers compared to XBOXLIVE, but still have the option to use P2P or the servers. Like Unreal, MGO, Warhawk, Socom, Killzone2 and COD to name a few. You don't have that option on LIVE.

 

In my opinion, no; adding online to the 360 did not hurt Sega's arcade business because Sega have a policy of never releasing a title in the home console market that would interfere with their profits in the arcade.

The trend with VF has been that as soon as a console port was released another upgrade to the arcade would be released or announced not soon after. For example: PS3 gets Ver.B and the superior Ver.C pops up, the 360 gets Ver.C while additional items are released exclusively in the arcade version on top of the custom intro feature etc.

Now we have VF5R which makes both home versions just as obsolete as each other. I believe that trend will repeat itself and we'll eventually receive VF5R, whether that's Rev.1/2 or Ver.C/D is anyone's guess, however I'd put money on the announcement of a superior version or even VF6 being made not soon after.

Home console owners will never get the definitive version, with all the bells and whistles until the arcade market dies out completely. As cruel as Sega's policy seems, it makes good business sense to me.

 

Maybe that might be Sega's plan but look at the difference between SFIV and Blazblue in the arcade and on consoles.

Their console counterparts have many exclusive extras. Sega just can't figure out how to release VF outside of Japan on consoles.

 

Sega didn't receive from Sony the online code needed to even update the PS3 version with a patch.

 

Last game to have Dedicated servers was Halo 2 from microsoft.

Sega is just stingy period. They want a demand for this game much like The Wii.

 

Re: Did XBox 360 Online Hurt Sega Arcade Business

This makes a lot of sense...

So, since the arcades in Japan would always have the newest most definitive version of VF, then the players in Japan would be taking a step backwards to play either 360 online or PS3 online (when it comes) because the consoles always have an older(obsolete release) /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/confused.gif

Since arcades with VF are not a factor outside of Japan then there is no real way for online 360 to negatively impact Sega's
business /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/confused.gif

So I guess the real question is do all Japanese players prefer to play the latest greatest release of VF at the arcades or do
some prefer to save money a play the console version (online or not). Maybe in this global meltdown, even the Japanese players
might want to pay for the game once on a console instead of paying to play every match /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cry.gif