Following a brief tease yesterday, Capcom has just unveiled it’s upcoming Capcom Home Arcade! This plug-and-play “home arcade” comes pre-loaded with 16 classic Capcom arcade games, including the first official re-release of Capcom’s classic arcade version of Alien vs. Predator from 1994!
The Capcom Home Arcade is slated for release on the 25th of October and is currently available for pre-order for €230.00. The Home Arcade will also feature Online Leaderboards so you can see how you match-up against fellow Predators or cyborg versions of D. Schaefer!
Capcom’s take on Alien vs. Predator has been receiving a bit of love lately in the form of NECA’s arcade inspired line of special figures that are in stores now!
Make sure you stick with Alien vs. Predator Galaxy for the latest on Alien and Predator! You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube to get the latest on your social media walls. You can also join in with fellow Alien and Predator fans on our forums!
So if CAPCOM are using a glorified emulator as an operating system, they can't condemn people who use Final Burn Emulator (for free) and a couple of USB Playstation, control pads for £10 from Amazon or Ebay?
The dearth of games is disappointing, though, as is the horrible design.
The fact that they're using a version of Final Burn Alpha which has a non commercial license, though, might cause some legal issues for Capcom.
And from the specs of the device, it's really not that big of a difference compared to running an emulator and playing the game, they even said that it's FinalBurn Alpha emulator using the original ROMs. They could have used MAME for emulation instead it would have been the most accurate in terms of emulation.
The price at this point is very steep, at least to me. If they had included every single Capcom CPS-1, CPS-2, AND CPS-3 arcade games I would have no problem paying over 200 USD for it.
The other problem I have to bring up as a criticism is that many of those games support MORE THAN 2 players, even AvP had support for up to a maximum of 3 players at a time and this device only supports 2, so unless there's a way to link up with another one of those devices to enable and play 3 Players or 4 Players for those games, I feel that I (or we) would only be paying MORE for LESS.
I even got a giant ass poster for this, and some for a couple of other cool retro arcade games.
https://media.tenor.com/images/178670ff7706b1ab6bcb21ccaf187557/tenor.gif
Neca had been doing the AVP Arcade figures and so maybe a bundle with those could've given out a code for download, or came with a copy of the title. Launch a new figure, or bundle old ones people might've missed out on, and simultaneously get the source product into the hands of the consumers.
If a physical release was just going to end up in the bargain bin anyways, why not bundle it with something the collectors will be already looking for to ensure a sale?
Otherwise outside of Sony and Microsoft saying no, I can't see why this wouldn't get a digital release. It might be chasing the trend of the Nintendo classic products, but that's successful because outside of an original console and title, you have to go through Nintendo and the second-hand market which can have horribly inflated prices, but they are games people know and can't normally get a hold of.
If you have to google a classic title, it's lost for a reason. That's not to say that these titles are bad or that nothing about Street Fighter is big (I know better than to say that), but AVP Arcade is a title more people will recognize considering they are big Hollywood monsters. That's something the average public will know anything about and so if this isn't meant to capitalize on the average public giving a damn about titles native to arcades, then this is a niche of a niche of a niche of a niche product that is going to fail hard.
Well people have pined for AVP-CAPCOM (see what I did there?) to be released in a PlayStation 2 or PlayStation Live/Network re-release for years.
Of course such a title (in a physical copy) would have a limited shelf life to shift units before hitting the cardboard cut-out bargain shelf market. So the greedy license renewers decided on a proposed lucrative unit-price-option in a time of scarcity and tightened belts. A stupid move if you ask me in the time of open resource abundance (namely torrents and emulators).
A budget STEAM title with exclusive extras, would've been the better bet, but hey ho.
They seriously didn't think it was for the arcade controller did they? You can just get those and I'm pretty sure Capcom has a few licensed ones so I don't know why that would've been a large draw. What's more is that I was under the impression plug and play was dead. Who gives a shit about the box when emulators are out there and or you can find these titles on digital (save for arcade only titles). Isn't the point of the bundle to make it more lucrative to the consumer to inspire a purchase?
Fox would've had to sign off on a re-release, but this is also a re-release of a product they're pimping to the customer base that only so many can play. Partly because it's in Europe, but who is shelling out 260 dollars and more for a box when the next-gen consoles are right around the corner? The PS5 is expected for next year so outside of nostalgia who is going to be buying this? Your looking at a consumer base who is already limited geographically but also at a base who is old enough to have a disposable amount of cash for a handful of titles.
Now sure arcade's are largely a thing of the past but when the gaming space is expecting to continue transitioning into streaming and there is a want for physical releases, why lock it down on proprietary hardware? Say your box gets damaged or broken, you can't just get a new one outside of warranties so are they expecting repeat purchases specifically out of Europe? This whole thing is just odd and even if not region locked, 260 dollars otherwise is a hefty barrier at this point in the console generation.
I haven't seen those type of prices in videogames since NEO GEO.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/79/5c/18/795c182fb75aee6f28d1c8d0b9d6a86b.jpg
Or since buying an original CP-2 CAPCOM board "cartridge" the size of a yellow pages only to discover a workable home system would've been £230-£400 to play it on.
https://www.neostore.com/v/vspfiles/photos/1512-2.jpg
Maybe if I could get this game on some (emu) paradise website which could play this game for free?
PS- this product will bomb. Like David's (emu) paradise, maybe?
These games should've been in a new compilation release for PC and Consoles.
Maybe they could release it as a Jamma compatible so it can be used in existing cabinets?
After all, it is one of their most popular beat em ups from the arcade era.
On the other hand, it looks like it's a Europe release only, and 230 euros (or whatever the US equivalent is) sucks.
I guess I'll stick to that online multiplayer arcade emulator (who's name eludes me at the moment).
And i'm not exactly what you call a fan of Mortal Kombat. Frankly, it's terrible.
They're different games.
I doubt I'll bother with this. Too many pennies just for AvP for me.
Look, I get the appeal of arcade cabinet controls..., but this is 2019 and your plug and play device is for some reason the logo with some buttons on it which I'd assume is big enough for two people. That's going to be awkward putting in a lap or require a desk for it. And while I'm sure that's interesting to some, that novelty wears off real fast when you've completed the package and have this big ass controller thing you've got to put somewhere.
Isn't it just easier to release this online or on disk? Or dare I say make a smaller controller/device?
And with that being said, I'm not sure I'm willing to spend 200+ dollars on this for just AVP arcade. Sure I don't know where to play it otherwise but say I need to get it imported and that's even more money I'm spending on a massive piece of plastic. I get there's other games involved and that it's worth it for people who want to relive their nintendo backlog, but I'm not sure that's worth it.
https://store.capcom-europe.com/capcom-home-arcade/1804/capcom-home-arcade
October 25th release. Can't see an RRP.