COVER STORY

Capcom's Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom video on display "sneak preview-style" at the GEN CON Game Fair in Milwaukee August 19.

Namco and Sega into more extensive operations in the USA as well.

"Capcom is looking at many different sites for operating high-end family entertainment centers or minitheme parks in the U.S.," acknowledged Joe Morici. "That type of business looks pretty viable. As technology gets better and cheaper, people will want to see more than the traditional arcade - be it virtual reality centers or other highly-involved simulation experiences. By the turn of the century, I think you'll see a great, exciting leap iin the quality of the payfor-play experience. Right now we're just at the beginning of the transformation, and nobody knows where it's all going. We do know the industry will become much more sophisticated, interactive and realistic. And once the public realizes we're capable of providing that type of entertainment, they will demand it from us."

Beyond possible arcade operations, Capcom has experimented with a new type of relationship with certain street operators. Last year and this, Capcom has been more frank than many of its competitors about its ventures into "revenue sharing" and transnational operating. Meantime, Capcom is pleased to see more and more elements of the industry - including leading operators - acknowledge that maybe some sort of joint sharing of the financial burden is needed.

As industry guru Nolan Bushnell

has said for years, as sales of "typical" vidgames decrease, manufacturers will have to offer more and more hiend, expensive product to compete with the home market ... and this will require new financial arrangements with retailers, somewhat like the movie business.

At the same time, Capcom doesn't have any solid plans to expand this type of activity. "Revenue sharing hasn't quite proved itself yet," mused Joe Morici. "We've had limited success, but not outstanding. We do operate games with certain parties on a revenue sharing basis, and we entertain doing that type of arrangement with anybody if it makes sense. If it means we can get more exposure for our product, that's worth a lot to us on its own merit. We can see that

revenue sharing could become viable several years down the line as equipment becomes very, very sophisticated and its costs reflect that sophistication."

In all, Capcom USA has solidly established itself as one of the leading forces in the amusement game industry. The former "quiet giant" is now a very loud giant indeed ... one that makes the ground tremble around the world, every time it takes a step.

"Like I said, we're ready to set the world on fire," smiled Joe Morici. "We invite our operator and distributor customers to come and get it while it's hot!"

Capcom USA, Inc., is located at 3303 Scott Blvd., Santa Clara, CA 95054. Phone is 408/727-0400. Fax is 708-496-5720.

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RePlay Magazine

October 1993

Page 193