Re: Sega-Sammy keeps important licenses in amusement-centers for long time
Because profits for doing so >>>>> profits of worldwide console release even if it's only Japan's ACs.
We're talking about a near half-decade-old game that has a national, per-AC-location-based network, that still has national tournaments today.
Simple math:
How much was earned from sold copies of VF4 worldwide in the last 7 days?
How much was earned from $ going into VF4 in Japan's ACs in the last 7 days?
More simple math:
New VF released on console. Sales go strong for half a year.
New VF released in AC. Earns $ in month 1. Earns $ in month 2. ... Earns $ in month 12. Earns $ in month 13... Earns $ in month 24.... Earns $ in month N...
The simple point is this:
Profit in Japan AC alone >>>>> worldwide console release, and Sega-Sammy has the commonsense not to mess up their revenue stream. For VF, a console release is just 'pocket-money revenue'.
And this is still a narrow view. Because Japanese AC != arcade. A customer that enters an AC is a customer for the other dozens of games, amusement facilities, the cafe, the specialty shop, etc... It's not a matter of VF alone, but the matter of the entire AC.
And Sega-Sammy has been doing very very well thus far in their non-console related ventures. Just yesterday, it was announced that the 'SEGA Link' service which started in June, has already hit 100K registration. This service provides online games(the simple kinds), streaming movies and music, personal homepages, fortune-telling, online-chat, avatar-creation tools and more.