SNK Playmore is abandoning pachinko machines entirely

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Popularity of the machines is waning

Pachinko. The word brings terror to any person’s heart after Konami did well… Konami things… and made it seem like it was the best thing to happen to any Japanese publisher since video games. Don’t worry though, as SNK Playmore has given us reason to believe they might not be as popular as Konami thinks.

In a recent press statement, King of Fighters’ SNK Playmore announced it would be refocusing away from pachinko machines and back onto video games. According to Dream Cancel and my own very dodgy Google translating skills, it is abandoning the pachinko industry altogether.

The statement explains that recently changed regulations regarding the machines in Japan, as well as a declining pachinko player base, has made the future of that industry uncertain. This is all despite saying in August that it wanted to turn video game players into pachinko fans too. That’s a pretty quick turnaround.

Last month, Sega Sammy cut 200 jobs from its pachinko division, blaming the change on itsBayonetta and Fist of the North Star machines being a flop.

I tried to think of some sort of “SNK Playmore video games but not pachinko” joke, but nothing was quite slotting into place.

SNK PlayMore officially withdraws from pachislot business [Dream Cancel]