Because they sell like nothing. There are not enough paying shooter fans in the world. This is the one genre on earth that is “buy this one so you get the next one.”
On the other hand we are getting 2 different ports of Layer Section, Akai Katana, Deathsmiles, all the Qute games, many different Toaplan, the GG Aleste, Gleylancer, Wings of Wor, Psikyo collections all in the last 2 years. Sorry it hasn’t been the exact one you’ve wanted but for paying for a copy of old arcade games has been extremely prolific recently.
We also got Platinum making a new Cresta game.
And this isn’t counting the pile of new shooters we have also gotten. Radiant Silvergun got ported to switch because there are a billion switch players.
Even small ports costing $50k-$150k are going to struggle. $150k in costs is more than 25k units at $10 each, hard to hit if you can’t mobilize the fanbase.
Just tied for 16th on Arcade Archives Dig Dug PS4’s Hi Score mode leaderboard. = o Highest non-Japanese score, even. ; ) And I’m not any good at Dig Dug.
Hamster do seem to have at least one other income stream from those, though: they’ve been able to get some publishers to use their emulation in publisher-branded compilations.
yeah i actually got the impression pretty early on that there was quite a bit of weird and complex stuff happening with all the different pickups and boxes and stuff. I’ll definitely give it another go and also see if i can get a copy of zanac neo running.
Not sure what it’s like tracking down and running the PSP/PS3 “PS1 Classics” version these days but if that’s feasible it might be worth a shot, if for some reason the ps1 iso won’t emulate.
… Then, why all the stuff following what you said?
It’s great we’re getting all that too, glad for all of it, but I am definitely confused why some of these are happening before more prestigious games get modern releases, which presumably would sell better. Also asking why a game was stuck to a physical release only rather than also having a digital one points to an oddity as well. If you wanna sell more and make more profit, digital is a great way to do that. Just damn odd.
The hardest thing for a game this small is getting awareness. Releasing these games on a digital store is just a pebble in a river. Sales strategies like trying to tap into the clawing collectors market might limit their potential audience but at the benefit of a guaranteed audience that might secure a big chunk of their budget. They’re not looking for a breakout hit because they don’t believe it will happen, but something that can give them a more secure future.
Now, I don’t think that’s the right strategy, but the mindset places like these usually have is trying to avoid as many commercial demands on the game as possible and sell it the way it always was. Which leaves them trying to catch up through side-channel stores.
If you mean you can’t find it in the Japanese shop, I had a problem with that for a minute until I found out the katakana is アレスタ, which is not how I always said it.
but they don’t make any on the inflated sales of the physical version. It’s just resellers at this point. You say it’s a pebble, but I’m not convinced. Plus there are companies that make MONEY by picking a slow week and putting their game on for a DEEP Discount. There are ways.
I’m not going to praise the business sense of tiny conservative Japanese studios trying to cross both domestic and international markets, but these are the constraints they operate under.
If I was in their position, I’d try to work on the community-building angle. Get as much supplemental material – interviews, old photos, promo art, put it in the packages, release glossy coffee table books, make yourself an integral part of the surrounding community – conventions, streamers, the like. I think small niche companies can do ok if they have a tight community bond.
But, again – that means successfully doing this not just in Japan but worldwide. It’s a lot easier to talk about a more successful strategy than to pull it off.
i’ll just say…as someone who unhealthily/obsessively trawls the eshop, there is no week in which like at least 70 different games arent doing that at a deeper discount than u can imagine. Some are definitely basically always on sale, but tons of them are not at all that, and are still basically ignored.
Also, on the other hand, check out this list of current switch stg sales somebody else made
There are 8 games at $2, 2 at $2.50, etc. so it does happen, although maybe not to ‘classics’ nearly as much.
Also, to be kind of harsh, I think a lot of people who play games don’t understand how to approach arcade games at home. Credit feeding is most ppls instinct and i think if thats all you know, it’s even harder to understand the value of a lot of these games. So even on steep discount, to somebody who isn’t already engaged with a broader community or without that knowledge, it can feel like a rip-off.
This. These games are difficult to sell to western audiences outside of arcades. For years there were no shmups on Steam because too many customers would credit feed to the end then get a refund.
TBF I am part of the problem, I remember dipping my toe into Dangun Feveron back in my early MAME days and begging for an actual release of it. Now someone actually put up a loving port and remix of that game onto the Playstation store (and probably others) and I’m here going “Pfft, asking $35 for an old game and never ever putting it on sale.”
That said I would definitely buy a port of Radiant Silvergun day one (I love Ikaruga) and am still perturbed that it is seemingly stuck on the Switch, which I ain’t got and would rather not play said game on if I ever did acquire one.
Beautiful response. Well, put and yes, clearly you are 100% on the money.
As far as the arcade bit, I do think people credit feed, but I also think a growing audience appreciates a clean leadboard and enjoy working up the ladder. While I know the Psyiko ports have mixed reception, having a single clean mode where it’s you, the game, and a final leaderboard, no credits, just gotta take your shot, is a GREAT way to build this idea in people.
I don’t like blaming the fans, when clearly this hurdle is a key development issue. I don’t think the Pysiko answer I pointed to is the most elegant but it’s a huge step in the right direction.
To this, I get it. Eventually, I just bit on all of them. But I get where you’re coming from.
The price of Shmups feels hard to thread. They take a lot to develop but they don’t feel like anything but ‘budget releases’ This was the big topic when Sol Cresta came out, in part due to the idea that ‘i can beat this game in a sitting’.
Whereas I put down Sol because doing a run just took too long. I couldn’t plug a nearly two hour run into a daily routine, also some of the mechanics were interesting but not implemented cleanly enough to do in a snap during later levels, while trying to juggle the dam powerups and keep the decoder ring in your mind for which you needed. Which felt like the more ‘in’ take on the game about a month and a half after release.
I know these games are nitche, but they also have been growing in popularity, and I think clean persistent leaderboards, and non-arcade modes are a big reason why.
these are like 30 year old games that had like 6 people developing them… imagine if every time they wanted to release loveless on a new streaming platform they had to like idk, remake the entire album or something from scratch. theres not actually huge audiences for a lot of cult appreciation 90s pop culture stuff in general. luckily there is always emulation :~)
