The Return of the Neo Geo
President Ben Herman talks Wii, Neo Geo, and the future of SNK.
by Bozon
April 17, 2007 - Virtual Console sales are on the rise, and with it comes a new system to add to your all-in-one Wii package. The launch of the Neo Geo console over Wii's Shop Channel is imminent, and while no final date has been released it's a landmark event that gamers are looking forward to worldwide. So to get the latest in VC goodness, we decided to get the news directly from the source. Nintendo may be housing the system, but SNK still calls the shots when it comes to Neo Geo, so we tracked down Ben Herman, president of SNK Playmore USA, to give us the 411 on all things retro and the future of SNK Playmore as we head into the next generation of gaming.
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IGN: Over the years SNK has been a supporter of everything from arcades, pachinko machines, home consoles, and software. What are your plans for the future of the company overall?
Herman: Well, internationally it includes pachinko and arcade products in Japan, but what we're doing here in America focuses specifically on developing software for the popular home systems, and then internationally we'll continue to make arcade games. We won't have our own hardware as we did with the Neo Geo hardware.
IGN: You chose to bring the SNK product, specifically the Neo Geo library, over to the Wii VC. How was the choice made, and why go with Nintendo over something like Xbox Live Arcade?
Herman: It's really up to the hardware manufacturer to come and accept us. Even if we knock on their door they need to want us as well. We will have content on Xbox Live Arcade as well, and we are talking with Sony about getting some of our properties onto their new Home network. Nintendo basically came to us and wanted to include the Neo Geo on the Virtual Console which of course is very exciting for us. When they first announced that they'd have Genesis as well as TurboGrafx on Wii we were thinking "Boy, wouldn't it be great if we could get the Neo Geo on there," and the fact that it's happening is going to be great for both companies. It's great that the public and the real fans will be benefiting the most from it.
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Buy them all in Metal Slug Anthology, or download your favorites for $8 - $10 a pop. It's the choice of a new generation.
IGN: Along those same lines, we saw Metal Slug Anthology on Wii first. Is Wii going to be SNK's primary console from here on out, or was it just the right game at the right time?
Herman: Well, initially we were trying to get all three platforms with a same-day launch. The Wii console came first, with that moment of time centering around the console's launch, as we certainly wanted to be as close to the launch date as possible. The fact that the others were going to be delayed didn't hold us up for the Wii launch. We wanted to take full advantage of the fourth quarter of last year, and it turned out to be very successful for us.
IGN: Getting into more on the virtual console - since that's the good stuff - what are SNK's overall goals for Wii VC support? Do you have a set amount or type of games you want to release a quarter, or how are you breaking down support?
Herman: It's not about us wanting to put everything out there at once, of course. The way it will work between what Nintendo will allow and what we want to do ourselves is that we're planning for a limited number of games each month over the course of a year. We don't want it to be sporadic with one game here, and two or three over the next few months. We really want to have a flow where there are a couple of games available each month, and we'll keep adding to the library that way.
IGN: As far as having specific franchises, will we be seeing every King of Fighters game or Metal Slug game, or will you be picking "the right" games out of the Neo Geo library?
Herman: Well let's assume that you can have two games a month. We wouldn't do two King of Fighters games at the same time, right? We're going to go through the entire library finding games that consumers want and that we feel have enough support, but mainly it's going to be an assortment.
IGN: A huge one on everyone's mind is price per download. What do you think of current prices, and where will we see Neo Geo games fitting in? Are they going to top the price of N64 titles, or be about on par?
Herman: With NES at essentially $5 and Super NES at $8, we'll be putting our games at just a little above the Super NES point.
IGN: When will we see Neo Geo games hit the VC, and what regions are going to be getting them first?
Herman: We're aiming for a worldwide release, so that it's available for all regions at once. As far as the date, we're looking to start releasing games around mid-summer of this year.
IGN: For fans that may not be experts on the Neo Geo library, what are some of the titles you're hoping to bring out for VC? Is it going to kick off with games like Metal Slug, or are you going a different route?
Herman: As far as the early releases go, we're not saying exactly what the games are going to be, but I don't feel that it's going to be a Metal Slug game. People have the opportunity to get games like Anthology by different means, so we're looking for games that haven't been available to be more attractive to users when we first launch. If we had a chance to bring out two games for our first month I wouldn't want it to be King of Fighters '94 and Metal Slug 1. That wouldn't be the plan. We have 120 different Neo Geo titles… there's plenty to select from.
IGN: Is more of SNK's future going to rely on digital distribution? Do you think things like Virtual Console or Xbox Live Arcade are going to cannibalize shelf software such as Metal Slug Anthology?
Herman: The digital marketplace is growing. There are some exciting things going on - things that we'll be involved in that people are approaching us for, and just like other third parties and hardware manufacturers that give us an opportunity we'll certainly explore that and be a part of it. Nobody is saying that it's the only way to go in the future - right now it's an added value opportunity - so we'll continue being a packaged goods, console supported third party publisher and developer. We have things right now that we're developing for the arcade that are in full high-def. Obviously that opens the possibility of bringing HD to the appropriate next-generation systems as well.
IGN: When the time comes, will SNK be developing original content for the Virtual Console, or sticking to the retro scene?
Herman: I think for now we'll be sticking purely with the retro scene. There's plenty to do across a number of different categories, so for right now the Neo Geo is retro, and that's where we'll be involved with them at this point.
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Nintendo fans, welcome to the wide world of SNK.
IGN: As far as fighters go, when and where are we going to get the next Fatal Fury, King of Fighters, or Capcom vs SNK? Most of SNK's arcade support has dwindled, so the franchises need a new home now right?
Herman: There are a couple of factors there. If you want to bring any fighters to PS3 and Xbox 360 you have the requirements of high definition, with 720p and beyond. The original Neo Geo graphics were of course not in that resolution, so you'd have to re-draw every single older game if you wanted to make those games work for those two systems. What's going to happen is there'll be new development which will be done in HD, which can then be brought to those platforms as those hardware manufacturers require. They wouldn't allow a retro game as-is to those platforms (unless it was downloadable content). For Nintendo Wii it's a different situation because of the graphics though.
But we have some new things being developed and games like the Metal Slug Anthology did very well, so while I can't say exactly what we'll be doing obviously that's a very good thing. At this point we're about to launch for PS2 The Art of Fighting Collection, which will have a street date of around April 30 or a bit beyond. Then in June we're bringing Fatal Fury: Battle Archives which is four Fatal Fury games in one compilation for the PS2. So we're definitely looking at all the platforms, as we've even got our DS game coming out which is SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters around the week of the 24th.
We felt that Wii would do very well early on for a number of reasons - obviously the price point - but the controllers have really made that the darling of the industry. I can't tell you how many friends I have that know what I do and talk constantly about bowling and tennis. It's fun. I grew up in gaming, and it used to be about bringing the arcade home. Now it's about what you can do next, and I think Nintendo has done a great job with Wii in doing that.
IGN: As far as Wii's online goes, will SNK be working on any online titles in the near future, or is that an avenue you plan on going down at all?
Herman: Right now we're analyzing the projects we've got on the way for Wii, trying to figure out which will work for us in online, as there's a cost involved to add that into a Wii game, but as we go forward there's no question that we'll take advantage of that as other third parties are. In a previous interview before Wii released I commented that I wanted to see Nintendo really move forward with online, as that's something we couldn't get with GameCube, and now that it's here we're definitely going to support it.
IGN: Now with the possibility of bringing the SNK compilations over to Wii from PS2 (if that is indeed the route you'll take), will they support the classic controller? We missed it in Metal Slug Anthology.
Herman: Yes, yes, yes. What happened there is that the development team didn't have the instructions on how to implement it. I think Nintendo initially intended for that controller to be used primarily for the Virtual Console only. Now that it's available for developers though, no if ands or buts about it. We did a GameCube configuration for Metal Slug, so it will absolutely be included in anything we do moving forward.
IGN: Finally - if we can end on a bit of a quirky note - when are you going to offer lessons to Sony and Nintendo on how to make analog sticks for portables? The Neo Pocket Color has the best stick out there.
Herman: (laughs) Yeah I'll tell ya, that stick was really great.
