The arcade scene is all but dead here in the USA, and most analysts’ would say it was all but inevitable. The arcade industry was just incapable of competing with the cheaper alternative that the advancing home videogame consoles offered. However, the situation is far different across the pond, and Japanese arcade goers are going to find a new cabinet waiting for them to eat their coins.
As seen in a Japanese arcade release document, the hyped 2D fighter, Skullgirls, will be making its debut in arcades across the island nation this year. Since early 2013, Lab Zero Games’ 2D fighter has been turning heads lately, with the franchise successfully raising a large amount of money through fan support, as a means to pay for the development of future downloadable characters.
Lead developer, Peter Bartholow, confirmed the Japanese arcade version on NeoGAF today.
“We are stupidly excited for this just because I can’t think of a single other non-Japanese dev that can say they have a game out in Japanese arcades,” Bartholow also wrote. “We see this more as a marketing opportunity for the property and other versions than something we intend to make a lot of money on.”
Further down, Bartholow says the arcade cabinet will come out as soon as possible; it will receive the new characters that haven’t been released yet, through network updates.
However, Lab Zero Games is not doing the heavy labor, as Bartholow mentioned that his company was not creating the arcade port, but rather an undisclosed Japanese developer team.
Skullgirls can be bought right now on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network (with a PC version coming out soon as well).
