After days of rumours a new Daytona game has been officially announced, with Sega calling the coin-op ‘a game changer’.
Sega is getting back into the hardware business… not consoles but high end arcade machines.
Like most Japanese publishers they never entirely stopped making new coin-ops, but for the last several years they’ve only been very minor releases for the Japanese market.
But now Sega has confirmed that the rumours are real and that there’s going to be a new Daytona racing game, called Daytona 3 Championship USA.
There are no screenshots or videos yet, but it’ll feature a remake of the Daytona International Speedway from the 1993 original and three brand new tracks.
It will support up to eight players at once and have a Live TV feature where passers-by can watch the race as it happens.
‘This is a game changer’, said Sega Amusement’s Patrick Michael. ‘This is a premium game that delivers on quality, player experience, and operator features that sets a very high bar for arcade video racing games. Importantly we have based it on the original game engine that gave us the amazing ‘AI’ and ‘catch up’ feeling that we all grew to love.’
The irony here is that the original Daytona USA was essentially the death knell for the traditional arcade business. Alongside Ridge Racer, it was one of the last high profile examples of an arcade game that looked significantly better than anything available on a home console.
Within just a couple of years arcades across the world had all but disappeared, made obsolete by the PlayStation era of gaming.
We’re sure Sega isn’t expecting Daytona 3 to change any of that, but it is going to be interesting to see how it compares to modern racing games. If it’s a success will it lead to more original new arcade titles? And will any of them be released on consoles?
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