ATEI 2005 Confirms Arcades Will Stay Dead

Another nail in the coffin of the arcade industry.

There's a dark presence emanating from the Earls Court exhibition centre in west London this week. The coin-op industry is there for the Amusement Trades Exhibitions International (ATEI) 2005 trade show - and the news is not good.

While there are pockets of resistance in cities such as London and Tokyo, the glittering arcades many grew up with are dead. Of the hundreds of exhibitors that turned up for the ATEI show this year, only a handful are directly involved in making arcade games.

The newly amalgamated Sega Sammy proved the highpoint of the event, with excellent titles, including OutRun 2 SP, attracting longing gazes almost as easily as the bikini-clad women promoting them.

Ghost Squad turned in a good performance in the light-gun category, but Virtua Striker 4 again fell short of the absorbing arcade football game it could have been by sporting soggy controls.

Other vendors at the show included Taito, Konami and Namco, though there was little there that wowed everyone.

Konami did show off its new light-gun game Akuma, which replaces traditional terrorist baddies with more ghostly fiends. The game uses a variable-power gun that injects a bit more strategy into an increasingly stagnant genre.

Namco brought along Tekken 5, the latest in the long-running 3D fighting game series. Tekken 5 has already been confirmed for home consoles, but that didn't stop attendees from queuing to give the game a bash.

But outside of the multitude of light-gun and driving games, ATEI 2005 had little to foster hope in those unwilling to just let arcades die.

The show will undoubtedly return to London again in 2006, but whether arcade game fans will find anything of interest is anybody's guess. In the meantime, here are some pictures from the ATEI 2005 show floor.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games