46th AM Show Floor Layout revealed

Even though the 46th AM Show is still a couple of months away, a little bit of news has been slowly trickling out courtesy of Am-net.

The latest update posted earlier today showcased the show floor lay out and booth listing for the event. There aren't any surprises from the booth listing (there hardly ever is), but it does confirm the line up of attendees planning to have a display to show off their latest wares. Sega looks like they will be hosting the largest booth this year, with Namco Bandai and Taito right behind them. Based on a quick cursory glance, there does look like there will be more companies holding booths this year, but I'm trying to find a copy of last year's floor lay out to confirm this.

Though it's still a bit hard to say what we will see this year at the event, expectations are already building that there are a few surprises in store. I know that out of everything, I'm hoping King of Fighters XII will finally be shown off to the public. After the canceled location test and relative silence from SNK Playmore Japan, Taito's booth at the event would be the next 'obvious' choice for where the game will be seen, but SNK Playmore has surprised me before so I'm not sure if that's something I'd bank on yet.

I'm going to go ahead and start tracking all of the updates on the event under the Trade show links to the right, so if you are interest in the early news and rumors, feel free to bookmark the link.

House of the Dead EX and other Sega Summer Show news

As part of their Summer Show, Sega has revealed the first look at the latest game in the '...of the Dead' franchise with House of the Dead EX. Featuring a new stylistic look as well as a Time Crisis-esque pedal, the bright colors, neon cabinet, and pop cultured-themed stages/mini games may be a bit much for some of the more hardcore fans of the series. It is different of course, but I haven't decided if that's a good thing or a bad thing yet. It is growing on me though. Something about Zombie Bowling excites me. And plus Shaun of the Dead worked as a Romantic Zombie Comedy (and this game is tapping right into that vein), so...

AM-net's blog has also posted a few additional pictures of the event. Included with the images are several flyers and cabinet shots of upcoming games (including R-tuned, AM2's new street racer-themed arcade game). Melty Blood Actress Again was playable from the looks of things, which is great considering that the game has suffered from several delays over the last few months and the number of times it has been playable can really be counted on one hand now... The game's official website still is a bit bare (found here), but we have been assured the game is still going to be released this year (crossing fingers).

Though the images provided on the blog are a bit hard to make out, usually both Dengeki online and Famitsu post a small write up on the Summer show a few days after the event. When those articles go up, I'll be sure to post any additional information that comes out of the event (with some cleaner shots from the two sites).

[Thanks to Arcade Heroes for the heads up to the AM Net Blog post]

[Update - a couple of other articles have been posted with some additional shots of the Summer show. The articles over at iTMedia and Famitsu share some of the same gameplay screens, but differ with a few shots of the games being played. From what we can tell from the articles, House of the Dead EX is pruportedly all about two zombies and the power of love. I smell a sitcom...

In addition to the news articles being posted, Sega has also opened up the teaser site for House of the Dead EX. Nothing exciting yet (and no word about which studio is developing it), but hopefull we'll see some more information direct from Sega soon.]

AOU 2008 final attendance numbers

While a few early preliminary reports in regards to estimated AOU 2008 attendance numbers have been positive, it wasn't until day that we learned how positive they really were. AM-net and the official AOU expo website posted the final attendance figures for the show and included the year to year numbers showing a dramatic increase in attendees at this year's AOU expo. These numbers follow a similar trend of increase that was seen with the 45th AM Show back in September.

I'm eager to see if these numbers begin to reflect a stronger 2008 for the amusement industry since while 2007 wasn't necessarily a bad year, some negative press in the Q3 financial reporting for several companies has skewed most of the attention away from the early gains that were made. With as strong of line up as we are seeing for 2008, including a handful of games that should really drive up demand in the arcade amusement industry, this may be a sign of even more positive things to come.

The final numbers for AOU 2008 are below (the number in parenthesis is the amount gained over the 2007 show):
2/15 (Friday) - 21,249 (+4,519 visitors)
2/16(Saturday) - 17,193 (+6,010 visitors)
Total - 38,442 (+10,529 visitors)

[Discuss on Forums]

AOU 2008 Image Gallery from AM-net's blog

AM-net is among the first group I've seen to the punch with images circulating from the show floor this morning. There is a small gallery currently viewable over at the AM-net website. There are currently 22 images featured in a short walk through of the show floor prior to the event's official opening. There are some quick pictures of the Arcana Heart 2 exhibit, the new Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu exhibit, and the Square Enix display for Lord of Vermilion which looks like it has set itself up as an imposing black monolith near Taito's display area. An interesting note - on the Blazblue exhibit, there is a banner flying overhead that features 4 characters with six silhouetted fighters. I don't know if its been stated before, but it looks like Blazblue will be featuring a cast of ten characters (excluding any hidden fighters that may make an appearance). The designs from what I can tell from the silhouettes at least seem rather varied... For all the images, I recommend checking out the full gallery over on AM-net.

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AM-Net's most anticipated arcade games of 2008 (final results)

A couple of weeks ago, I first mentioned Am-net's poll that was asking the public what was the game they were most eager to play in 2008. Early this past week, the polls closed and the final results were tallied. Out of the 998 votes cast, Derby Owner's Club 2008 Feel the Rush took the top spot away from Tekken 6 with a slim margin (7 votes) separating the two. The final results are below with their genres so you can see the breakdown.






1. Derby Owner's Club 2008 (Horse-sim)
2. Tekken 6 (Fighting)
3. The Eternal Wheel (Card RPG)
4. Lord of Vermilion (Card RPG)
5. Street Fighter IV (Fighting)
6. Arcana Heart 2 (Fighting)
7. Quiz Magic Academy 5 (Quiz)
8. Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Gundam (Fighting)
9. D1GP Arcade (Racing)
10. Akatsuki Denkou Senki (Fighting)

11. WCCF International Clubs 2006-2007 (Sports/Card)
12. Initial D4 (Racing)
13. Beatmania IIDX DJ Troopers (Rhythm)
14. Melty Blood Actress Again (Fighting)
15. Taiko Drum Master 11 (Rhythm)
16. Virtua Fighter 5 ver. D (Fighting)
17. Fate Unlimited Codes (Fighting)
18. Pop n' Music 16 (Rhythm)
19. Sangokushi taisen 3 (Card/Strategy)
20. Sengoku Basara X (Fighting)

21. Mamonoro (Shooting)
22. King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match (Fighting)
23. Sega Race TV (Racing)
24. Baseball Heroes 3 (Card/Sports)
25. Winning Eleven 2008 (Card/Sports)
26. Senko no Ronde 2 (Fighting/Shooting)
27. MJ4 (Mah-jongg)
28. Jubeat (Rhythm)
29. Oriental Legend 2 (Beat-'em up/Action)
30. Criminal Action (Action)

31. Dino King 3 (Card)
32. Illmatic Envelope/Illvelo (Shooting)

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AM-Net's most anticipated arcade games of 2008

AM-Net has posted a public poll asking what your most anticipated arcade game is for 2008. Currently, Namco's Tekken 6 leads the voting with just under a quarter of the votes being cast for the latest entry in the company's ever popular Tekken series. Considering the success of Dark Resurrection in arcades over this past year in Japan, this shouldn't be a surprise that most gamers most anticipated arcade release just so happens to be the follow up in the franchise.

The top 10 is rounded out by Derby Owners Club 2008: Feel the Rush, BeatmaniaIIDX DJ Troopers, Street Fighter 4, Gundam vs. Gundam, Eternal Wheel, Lord of Vermilion, Horseriders, Quiz Magic Academy 5, and Arcana Heart 2.

Voting remains open until the 14th of January, so head over to AM-net if you want to cast a vote for a game you look forward to playing this year. If anything can be said about these polls, they definitely showcase the diversity of the Japanese arcade industry.