by Vinh Trieu (Administrator)

Does the title of a game determine how successful the game is? Absolutely!

Throughout the years, I've been heavily involved within the gaming industry. With the arcade industry softening up in the past number of years, titles released by each company must be chosen more carefully, as any trips or falls can be exponentially detrimental financially to any gaming producer, especially during these times.

With that being said, I've always believed that if a new game was made incredibly well with superb graphics, gameplay and music, but the title was either not recognizable or catchy, the game would either receive little recognition or simply just fail. There are obviously always exceptions, but personally I believe if two games were identical in every way, except for it's title, the one with the more familiar title will always succeed.

Let's take one of the most popular game for the Neo, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, for example. Now, I've been following Neo games off and on since it's establishment, but at times, I've fallen out of the scene.

So one day, I visit my local arcade and I see an MVS cab with Garou: Mark of the Wolves glowing from it's large marquee. I think "uh, SNK is trying to make another fighting game?" Not knowing that this title is within the Fatal Fury storyline, I neglected to even give it a try. To a pure gamer, the title wouldn't matter one bit, but for someone like myself, who is interested in it's history and storyline, the title itself would persuade me mentally to drop my quarters to cure my curiosities. Does this sound ridiculous? Sure to some, but think of it this way, if you visit a foreign country and see a normal burger joint, you may not want to visit it, simply because you have no association or familiarity with it's background. Now if you're a fan of McDonald's and you see it's icon, the Arches, you would probably not hesitate to dine there, unless it's during the Mad Cow disease seasons (I'm kidding). The same goes for video games.

I strongly believe that SNK/Playmore would have a better chance at moving games that would hold a better title and the same would hold for Capcom. Up to this point, Capcom has done the opposite of SNK, but too much of one title can be overwhelming as well. I need not say which franchise title Capcom abuses, but it has the initials, S.F.

Think about it. Let's review some of Playmore's most recent titles. Rage of the Dragons. A fabulous game, in my opinion, but a semi-sequel to what some of us know as Double Dragon. Now if we called it "Double Dragon II: The Next Generation" or something like that, personally I believe collectors, gamers and vendors alike would show more interest. Again, picture the same game, Rage of the Dragons on a marquee vs. Double Dragon II. Which would you play?

My best example of this theory is when I recently emailed one of my mods, Dan Elektro. Now many of you know Dan is a big daddy at Gamepro Magazine. He's the main Editor and a damn good one at that. Given his years of experience with hundreds of games, I emailed him something like this "Hey Dan, Matrimelee is coming out soon. This game rocks!!"

His response,"Uh, what's that?" LOL. "It's the new Power Instinct game Dan, where've you been?," I reply. "Oh yeah, I know Power Instinct," Dan says in relief. =) I'm just teasing Mr. Elektro, so you get the picture.

Now it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that when using a Franchise name, licensing fees kick in, hence SNK/Playmore has recently chosen to take a chance on the in game features, more than the name. But as we also know, a unrecognizable name will not carry the game as far, whether it's in the home or arcade market. Another great example is Metal Slug 4. SNK knows, I know, Playmore knows that Metal Slug 3 was their best, but what happened to 4? Well, it wasn't programmed by the original Slug 3 crew, as the rights to this game was sold to Megaking. As mediocre as Slug 4 was, it still is selling well across the globe. Why? Well, if you've read this far, it's all in the name baby.

Casual gamers make up more of the revenue for most arcades across the country than dedicated gamers do overall. So if the gamer is casual, he/she will most likely become less familiar if a game's name is changed over time, even if it's within the same storyline.

So if Playmore and Capcom stick their new games to the good ol' names, the success of their games in the arcades will continue. Simple as that.

Samurai V, here we come!!!! MOTW2 anyone?