1UP: SNK Enters Pachinko Market

In a rather ironic turn, SNK Playmore today announced plans to expand into the pachinko market in Japan, Softbank Games reports today. The company will add development of the popular pinball-styled gambling machines to its existing portfolio of arcade and console game projects, with its first pachinko creation bearing the license of the popular Metal Slug arcade shooter series.

The move is ironic because SNK originally went out of business as the subsidiary of a major pachinko company. Aruze, Japan's largest manufacturer of the machines, purchased the original incarnation of SNK and later allowed it to slip into bankruptcy in 2001.

At a press conference announcing the move and debuting the company's first machine, SNK Playmore director Soichi Kotoyama even went so far as to say that the pachinko/slot machine business will now become the company's core business, displacing game development. Like Konami, which has developed a successful side business manufacturing gambling machines for export, he said he hopes to use the company's slot machine development to create a foothold overseas.

Operating this new enterprise on its own, SNK plans to have 5 different machines on the market by July 2004, 12 by July 2005, and a total of 15 available by July 2006, including machines based on other SNK fighting and action game franchises. Kotoyama also noted that SNK plans to leverage its game licenses on many other non-traditional game platforms, especially in the growing mobile gaming market.