SNK president talks about Neo-Geo and online games [Update 1]

by JC Fletcher { Mar 3rd 2007 at 1:00PM }

Ben Herman, who runs SNK Playmore USA, is almost as excited about Neo-Geo games on the Virtual Console as we are. In a recent interview, he discussed SNK's VC plans and Nintendo's operation of the system in general.

According to Herman, who, of course, can't give details, SNK expects to release "a certain limited number of titles per month," which is enough to have us cheering, because that's a lot more than the N64 is getting. It's also a much brisker release schedule than the Neo-Geo ever had. The best news, in our opinion? Herman is interested in the Virtual Console as a means of releasing lesser-known and niche games.

SNK isn't sure yet whether the Neo-Geo games on the VC will be the AES home versions or the MVS arcade cartridges. We had no idea there was a difference!

Of course, there has to be bad news, and it's kind of big: Herman says that Nintendo is not letting publishers add online functionality to games, VC or retail, and probably will continue this restriction throughout 2007.

Herman goes on to talk about Nintendo's console library, saying that Nintendo has all of the code for third-party NES and SNES games and needs only permission to release them. Which means Konami officially has no excuse for the fact that we haven't played Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse on the Wii yet. Konami, you're on notice!

[Update: added the sad, sad news about online games.]

Tags: aes, castlevania, console, geo, mvs, n64, neo, neo-geo, neogeo, nes, nintendo, nintendo wii, NintendoWii, playmore, snes, snk, vc, virtual, virtual-console, virtualconsole, wii

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

John @ Mar 3rd 2007 1:31PM

Sad, SAD news if it is true regarding online play. This coupled with the news regarding Miis being unavailable to other developers... yeesh..

I would hope development wise, the Wii could do better than the DS. DS wise, 95% of the decent titles are produced by Nintendo, and there seems to be a large pile of bad ones available otherwise.

It doesn't look like there is any slow down of the Wii demand at the moment, but Nintendo should do what's right for gaming development, and give the developers tools to make some really great games.

I'm in disbelief that there likely won't be any online play till at least late 2008.

Peter S. @ Mar 3rd 2007 1:36PM

HOLD ON PEOPLE. Maybe all hope isn't lost.

Though online play may be out of the cards now, it does NOT mean that it CANNOT be added in later!! (VC Update, remember?)

While it is total bullocks that we won't get it this year, there is at least hope for 2008. A long time, yes I know, but not forevor. I guess that as a Nintendo fan, I'm used to delays..

adam @ Mar 3rd 2007 1:48PM

Shame on Konami!
Yay for SNK games.
Boo for no online play.

Ranma Mao @ Mar 3rd 2007 1:59PM

There actually isn't a difference between the AES and the MVS versions, the code is exactly the same, but they have to tell the code which menus and features to access, sooo... Yea, kind of hope it's the MVS version, because they didn't get censored as much (blood and death animations).

Charles @ Mar 3rd 2007 2:00PM

MAN these Nintendo people nowadays deserve to be killed or put under a separate company called Nintendorks! Look at them, they treat 3rd parties like bullocks dipped in crap! I love Nintendo's approach to gaming with the DS and Wii and find that they have fun the fun back in games, but this is too much! What happened to the days where SNES and NES only had 3rd parties, what happened to the days where the GBA 3rd parties were allowed to use the networking functionality and more, what happened to that Nintendumb?! I really appreciate you approach, I really do, but 3rd parties don't like being treated like this! Sure you might like to have your games come out with online first but that doesn't mean that only your games are allowed to have online for the whole of the first year of the Wii's launch! Seriously! Even DS didn't wait that long before it got online. Not only did it get online but one of the first 4 DS games with online was a 3rd party game, namely Tony Hawks American Sk8Land. You even let totally crap games like Open Season and Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Spirit Caller get online, but now, for your greatest success of all time, you want let super-awesome 3rd parties use online in their games?! Thats ridiculous!
I have yet to buy a Wii, and will probably buy one this year regardless of this because the other systems are way of my league in terms of fun, but seriously, everytime I hear things like this, my "Uncertainty Gauge" fills up a little...Please, Nintendo please crush this Nintendumb strategy you're taking against third parties and shine you bright Red and White light at the 3rd parties again, and let us see some awesome games and online from them, theres nothing wrong with your games, but they are not enough...I don't want to see what you have done for the DS and GCN and hand over awesome first party game like Wario and Kirby to 3rd parties just because you are having a hard time keep up with developing first parties, make those games as good as they used to be and take your time and let that empty game library of yours fill up with 3rd party glory!

Capt. Castellanos @ Mar 3rd 2007 2:03PM

i second adam's three lines of wisdom!

Mr Khan @ Mar 3rd 2007 4:00PM

uhh, Wii will have online play for first party titles at least by spring (Pokemon Battle Revolution), but i think Nintendo's "restrictions" on Online play might be indicative (!) of a new Wii Online Network different from Nintendo WiFi Connection, because there would be no reason otherwise, and Online-enabled SDKs have been released (why release Online into your SDKs if you bar devs from using it?)

The only reason Nintendo would bar developers from doing this would be due to a new Network on their end

stephen @ Mar 3rd 2007 4:12PM

^^ now thats something i can sink my teeth into :)

Zan @ Mar 3rd 2007 4:36PM

So you are saying we're not getting online-play on third-party games? WHY ARE NINTENDO SO FREAKING STUPID?

accidental @ Mar 4th 2007 1:01AM

Blazing Angels by Ubisoft due at the end of this month has online Wi-Fi multuplayer. 3rd party. Online. Real soon.

AzaMcWazza @ Mar 4th 2007 8:19PM

I'll bet my left nut that this is wrong, and we'll see 3rd parties with online play within 6 months - max.

Air Guitar @ Mar 4th 2007 9:54PM

guys, just so u know, this is sourced to spong. follow the source train and u will come upon it. so yeah, this story is BS

Almadi @ Mar 5th 2007 2:13AM

Wow, every time I post about the NEOGEO on the Wii, some news comes up a couple of days later...I hope they speed up the process

My latest comic is about SNK fighting games on the Wii:

http://madiart.blogspot.com/

There is also a concept NEOGEO controller module for the Wii a few posts down.

Sonic @ Mar 5th 2007 2:28PM

If this is true, and by all means its not yet, remember Virtua Fighter 5 doesnt have online either and Sony has dealt with an online infrastructure already. It may be that the Nintendo needs to try out how its own online games work before giving it to other developers, like they did with the DS. Nintendo will piss off ALOT of people if this is true, but its hard not to see that they are holding it off because they are not ready themselves or they want to make sure it is the best possible online they can think up.

Perhaps they are listening to all the complaining people do about the Friend codes and had to go back and fix that which could have caused a bit of slowdown in its development. All I know is that once online games do come out for first and third party they are gonna be ridiculous.

Also, Battalion Wars 2 is 99% assured to be online but the developer is a 3rd party. If it comes out this year, wouldn’t that completely cancel out SNK’ claim.

Sonic_13 @ Mar 5th 2007 3:26PM

Battalion Wars II is a first-party title and it will have online play (as will Mario Strikers Charged).

A game is only a "3rd party" game if it is 100% developed by a non Nintendo-owned developer. Games, such as Battalion Wars II and Mario Strikers Charged are 1st party titles, even though they are being developed by a non-Nintendo owned developer, because they are franchises owned by Nintendo.

Mr Khan @ Mar 5th 2007 4:30PM

@ Sonic 13

I'd classify BWii as a 2nd Party title

Its devved by Kuju Entertainment, an independent company

I'd call anything that's not made by Nintendo all by themselves (anything by Retro Studios, HAL, NST, Intelligent Systems, even though they're all owned by Nintendo) 2nd party games

Sonic_13 @ Mar 5th 2007 4:59PM

@ Mr Khan

Battalion Wars would technically be a 2nd party title as it is being developed by a company under contract by Nintendo. However, that would not affect its online game plans.

Any games made by companies wholly owned by Nintendo would be first party games, so games from Retro, NST, and Intelligent Systems would be first party titles.

Second party games are games made by a company either partially owned by Nintendo (as Rare once was) or under contract to only develop a game / games for Nintendo consoles.

Sonic_13 @ Mar 5th 2007 6:28PM

To quote Ed Boon (lead developer of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon):

"The online components of the Wii were not ready for us when we would have needed them in the development cycle."

Now this quote can easily be interpreted in many ways, just as the SNK guy's quote, but to me this sounds like the Wii Online kits have already been sent out to third parties.
In the case of MK:A, they were just not received in time for the developer to add this functionality. Even Nintendo's own Wi-Fi games (with the exception of Pokemon) won't be ready until the summer at the earliest.

We really need to wait for confirmation of some sort from Nintendo before we start jumping to conclusions.

http://www.gamespot.com/wii/action/mortalkombatarmageddon/news.html?sid=6164527