Arcade fighting games - where did they go?

[Cloudy147]

Used to go to the arcades and there were loads of fighting games. Mortal Kombat, virtua Fighter, Soul Edge, Tekken, Marvel vs Capcom, Street Fighter 2, Super street fighter 2, super dooper street fighter 2, mega super street fighter 2, street fighter 2 turbo etc.

Plus all the SNK games like King of Fighters.

All great money spinners.

There were loads, but go into a modern arcade and you will find ZERO fighting games.

Why?

[John Henry]

Are there modern arcade games? Where?

[InitialDave]

Can play effectively the same thing at home.

They've even thinned out quite a lot in Japan.

[Cloudy147]

John Henry said:

Are there modern arcade games? Where?

Yep. We’ve got three modern (not retro) arcades near us but they are everywhere along the Yorkshire east coast. The games are mostly two player types, racing games, shooting games or more active games like basketball or ring-toss games.

Which makes the lack of fighting games more notable as they are the essence of quick-money two player type games.

[CT05 Nose Cone]

It used to be that arcades were more powerful than home systems, so you had to go there to get the true experience. Plus there was no online gaming, so it was the only way to play socially with a wider group of people. Fighting games are now pretty niche as well, beyond Street Fighter they aren't big sellers.

[Wadeski]

They are still released, just not really in arcades anymore.

In about a month we will see Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves released on PS and Xbox, which is pretty big news if you are into SNK games.

If you havent picked up a console joypad in a while there is Street Fighter 6, a relatively recent Samurai Showdown, Tekken 8, a new Mortal Kombat, etc.

A new Virtua Fighter is well into development.

and the compilation re-releases are at all time quality high, with Marvel vs Capcom collection and SNK vs Capcom collection....

[Terminator X]

Cloudy147 said:

John Henry said:

Are there modern arcade games? Where?

Yep. We’ve got three modern (not retro) arcades near us but they are everywhere along the Yorkshire east coast. The games are mostly two player types, racing games, shooting games or more active games like basketball or ring-toss games.

Which makes the lack of fighting games more notable as they are the essence of quick-money two player type games.

Arcades have gone up-market though as in sit on bikes and rally cars that move around etc. As others have said the XBox etc fighting games are as good as the arcades if not better.

TX.