Pachinko
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Apple orders season two of historical drama ‘Pachinko’
Apple is moving forward with a second season of its critically-acclaimed adaption of Min Jin Lee’s best-selling novel Pachinko.
Fatal Frame is coming back, but as a pachinko machine
It's been seven years since the last game in the survival horror series, but someone thought a slot machine was the way to revive it.
Apple develops series based on hit historical novel 'Pachinko'
Apple's ever-expanding show library may scratch the itch if you're the literary sort. Deadline and Variety have learned that Apple has landed the rights to a series based on Min Jin Lee's bestselling 2017 novel Pachinko. The historical epic details the story of four generations of a Korean immigrant family as it makes its way from its homeland to Japan and the US. Min Jin Lee will serve as an executive producer alongside Soo Hugh (producer for The Terror and Under the Dome), who's also writing the potential show.
SNK ditches slot machines to focus more on video games
Call SNK the anti-Konami. Rather than back away from video games, the legendary Japanese studio has announced that it's dropping its pachinko slot machine business to concentrate its efforts on both conventional video games (like the upcoming King of Fighters XIV, above) and mobile titles. There just isn't as much money in those machines as there is consoles and smartphones, SNK says. To that end, it's hiring more staff and planning more titles.
Castlevania's last 'Rebirth' -- as a pachinko machine
You may never have watched six minutes of promotional footage for a pachinko machine before, but that's about to change.
Planet Pachinko dropping into WiiWare this Monday
Developer Allied Kingdoms has announced that their game Planet Pachinko will be out on WiiWare this Monday. Wait, come back -- it's not a pachinko game. Yes, we thought it was a pachinko game too, as will everyone else browsing through WiiWare games. It's actually a clever-looking platform/shooting game that takes place inside a pachinko machine! Basically, it involves shooting enemies while also staving off falling pachinko balls.The combination of small, enclosed spaces and shmup-like patterns of hundreds of projectiles gives Planet Pachinko a sort of Bangai-O vibe, though that doesn't necessarily mean it'll be as wonderful as Treasure's series. For 500 points, though, it might be worth trying. Now, who else doesn't believe this will actually come out when the developers think it will? Because Nintendo doesn't really go in for that whole "people knowing when they'll be able to buy things from the Wii Shop" business.
Games that shouldn't be MMOs
Here's a corollary post to an earlier story. Our cousin site, Cinematical, has brought teh funneh with a post about which board games would make awful movies. In that spirit, we now present to you a list of games that would make terrible MMOs, in no particular order.Please note that these are merely our particular opinions, and we're not saying that a cleverer-than-thou developer couldn't make a great MMO out of these games ... but for reasons we'll state here, it's highly unlikely. Then again, sometimes the best-sounding ideas turn out some awful games themselves (*cough* Fury *cough*), so it all evens out. Excelsior!
Sega Sammy losses bring layoffs, arcade closings
Life comes at you fast if you're Sega Sammy. Just a couple of years after increased profits had the company rolling in money, the company today announced that it plans to lose a whopping 26 billion yen (approx. $230 million) this fiscal year. Compared to the previous projection of a billion yen profit for the year, the turnaround comes as a bit of a shock.The main culprit behind the downturn seems to be the pachinko side of the business, which saw a predicted 85 percent fall in profits, and arcade sales, which switched from a slight profit last year to a 11.4 billion yen loss this year (damn that popular Wii).To staunch the bleeding, the company will be offering early retirement to 400 employees and closing 110 unprofitable amusement parks and arcades around Japan. Hard to believe the previous incarnation of this company once held the lion's share of the home video game market.
Peggle falling into the DS
PopCap's Peggle is a ridiculously popular pachinko-esque puzzle game about bouncing balls around on pegs. It's so well-regarded that it made Joystiq's Top 10 of 2007. A version was also included in The Orange Box for PC, which makes it "okay" for professed hardcore gamers to enjoy it. PopCap's John Vechey told Pocket Gamer that after the game's Xbox Live Arcade port is released, a DS version would be on the way. He didn't give any details about the release other than that there would be one, and we don't know when or for what region it's coming out. [Via GoNintendo]
Another weird direction for Evangelion
The last Evangelion game to be announced for the DS was a cute minigame collection based on an SD comedy spinoff of the series, taking the characters out of the world-saving storyline and putting all the characters together in an elementary school. The next game using the license, then, must be the real one, some kind of robot-filled RPG that retells the epic storyline of the anime and manga, right? Or, like, a big robot fighting game?Nope! It's pachinko. A PS2 pachinko port, to be precise. Hisshou Pachinko/Pachislot Series 1: Shinseiki Evangelion - Magokoro wo, Kimi ni debuted as a pachislot machine, then was released by D3 as a PS2 game in September. It may seem like a miss to people who want substantial Eva games, but this is probably going to sell.
Pachinko is really exciting!
Dude, we had no idea pachinko was so cool! We knew Japan was all into it, but we always thought it was some boring gambling thing. Turns out it's all a bunch of big people with huge chest muscles beating the crap out of each other in a post-apocalyptic wasteland! Man, when that guy punched the other guy like a hundred times really fast, that was some awesome pachinko! And then the other guy like exploded into a beam of yellow light! And the cool pachinko music was playing, and it totally got us pumped about pachinko!We know the graphics aren't totally next-gen (look at the cardboard hair), but it must be super tough to render realistic pachinko visuals! We are going to buy Jissen Pachinko/Pachislot Hisshouhou! Sammy's Collection Hokuto no Ken Wii RIGHT. NOW. We're totally ready for some pachinko mayhem! Watch the totally cool pachinko video after the break, and you'll feel the same way! PACHINKOOOOOO![Via Siliconera]
Fist of the North Star Pachinko uses Miis
We brought you the story that an EA producer was not given access to Mii code for My Sims, and that according to him, no third parties were. The situation seems to have changed, because Sega Sammy is using the little guys and gals in its Jissen Pachinko/Pachislot Hisshouhou! Sammy's Collection Hokuto no Ken Wii. It's not the most exciting implementation of Miis, with no Fist of the North Star-style makeovers or actual in-game avatars-- in fact, it consists mainly of a Mii portrait tied to a character profile.The game uses Nintendo Wi-fi as well, but for online rankings, which hardly counts as online play. We aren't ready to call that an implementation of third-party online play yet.Coming from a licensed pachinko game, proof that it is possible for third parties to use Miis. Sega does what E ... Ain't?
Wii Warm Up: Imports
Recently, a technique was discovered to allow Wii owners to play import Gamecube games. However, a method of playing imported Wii games still eludes us, outside of buying a Wii from another region. We're sure someone will come up with something, but for right now, we're stuck in our own territory. We want to know-- how important is this to you? Are you ready to open up your system as soon as a solution comes along, just so you can play the new Naruto? Will you be the first to place an order for a swap disc, if one comes along? Or are you completely uninterested in, for example, pachinko?(Image is of the train simulator Densha de GO!, specifically the Beginning Densha de GO! Set, which includes a special controller.)
Finally, a pachinko game for the Wii
We might sound sarcastic, but we're happy to see different kinds of games come to the Wii. This latest title from Sega Sammy is a collection of pachinko and pachislot (pachinko plus slot machine) simulations, called (deep breath!) Jissen Pachinko/Pachislot Hisshouhou! Sammy's Collection Hokuto no Ken Wii (Fighting Pachinko/Pachislot Victory Way! Sammy's Collection Fist of the North Star Wii). It's based on the same popular Sega Sammy pachinko games that have been released on the DS, PS2, and PSP, and contains a bundle of pachinko and pachislot boards. And, of course, it carries the license of the classic, brutal Fist of the North Star manga and anime series.This one is interesting for the same reason a lot of Wii games are: Wiimote controls. Apparently, you can use the Wiimote steering-wheel style to control the speed of the dropping balls. We admire the novel Wiimote use! It also has online ranking, in case competition motivates your pachinko-playing.Jissen Pachinko/Pachislot Hisshouhou! Sammy's Collection Hokuto no Ken Wii (Fighting Pachinko/Pachislot Victory Way! Sammy's Collection Fist of the North Star Wii) comes out on May 24th in Japan, and probably never anywhere else. Any pachinko fans here? Do any of you import these kinds of things?
Sega Sammy profits slide 23 percent
The Sega Sammy group has experienced a 23 percent drop in profits within the first nine months of the financial year, reports Gamesindustry.biz. Net income (stay with us here) went down from $526 million (¥63.49 billion) to $409 million (¥49.38 billion), with sales dropping by 4 percent to $3.35 billion (¥404.29 billion). The current financial state of the company isn't nearly as interesting as the reason given for a drop in profits -- pachinko machines proving less than popular. Pachinko machines are, of course, a notable aspect of Japanese gaming that Sammy brought along when it romantically joined hands with Sega. Though the company's net profit forecast remains unchanged for the full year, it's easy to observe the parallels between Sammy dragging profits down and Sammy dragging Sega down as a developer. The Ono-like arrival of the Pachinko maker is considered by many to be the turning point for what was once a brilliant and innovative developer. Then again, what good are brilliance and innovation when you can't pay the bills?
Sega Sammy to adopt Hello Kitty
Sega Sammy and Hello Kitty toymaker Sanrio have agreed to form a "strategic alliance" that will likely re-introduce the anthropomorphized feline to video game platforms. To date, Sanrio has worked with a mess of game publishers -- ranging from Namco and THQ to lesser-known companies like ValuSoft and Typhoon -- to release a haphazard catalogue of Hello Kitty titles. The partnership with Sega Sammy will likely spur a more aggressive and consistent campaign that could also include a line of pachinko machines. While Hello Kitty remains a globally recognizable brand, its popularity has no doubt diminished since the late 90s. With an uninspired history in the games medium, Sega Sammy's gonna have to spend some solid hours submerged in the think tank before attempting a jump-start.
