Highway Games Cancels Involvement in T2 Arcade Station
This article comes from Highwaygames.com
Recent developments and non disclosure of information has lead to Highway Games ceasing all involvement in Quasimoto's T2 Arcade Station, the XBOX 360 coinop arcade machine which is using consumer software for coinop play.The T2 Arcade Station was supposed to be a bright light for coinop operators allowing the use of consumer games for arcade and street operation. The idea initially was that operators would buy the licensed cabinet and allow the operator to use lower cost consumer games such as Call of Duty 4 and Halo. Once income drops the owner can change the game CD and instantly have a fresh game for the location. Further, there was talk that Microsoft was planning an XBOX Live "Arcade Section" specifically for coinop. And most recently, introducing guitar, driving and shooting games through the T2 Arcade Station.
The CEO from Quasimoto, Christopher Gerding, wrote;
"Our company, Quasimoto Interactive, has been hard at work to bring this product from concept to reality. The biggest challenge has been getting the appropriate parties to authorize operators and locations to use the equipment. Though the project has taken longer than expected, we have made great progress with the licensing and branding details to legally bring our commercial products to market.
As many of you may have heard, a company known as Fragisle was pushing a similar product concept. Fragisle did not get authorization from the various publishers (including Microsoft) before bringing the product to market, and were quickly shut down for intellectual property infringement. Quasimoto has been working for over two years to optimize the product, but more importantly to secure the necessary authorization to build and market such a device. Quasimoto has been working directly with Microsoft to build a proprietary system that offers features simply not possible without their support. Microsoft is very careful when it comes to representing their brand in public, and the process with the Microsoft branding department is quite thorough and takes time to complete. Quasimoto is also working with Microsoft through their technical departments for compatibility testing, to ensure that the product will live up to everyone's expectations."
This machine was scheduled for production last month with the first sample to be displayed by Highway Games Japanese partner at the upcoming Jamma Show in Tokyo. However, after the recent press release and announcement through highwaygames.com, we have received a number of calls from insiders to mention that all licensing of the machine has not taken place. Specifically, that whilst Microsoft was involved initially in the development of the controller board, no final authorisation or licensing was signed by Microsoft. Special thanks to The Stinger Report, for exposing flaws in the licensing agreements and further thanks to our industry friends for providing detailed information.
Sources mention a Japanese gaming company still has some agreements in place with Microsoft which does not allow Microsoft to endorse or support coinop machines/projects for arcade industry use. As news spread of the project, further software houses have lodged complaints and reports are that Microsoft has completely withdrawn its support for this project.
Both Quasimoto and American Reload have not responded to a number of emails asking for clarification and confirmation of recent news. The withdrawal of T2 Arcade Station from American Reload's website and no mention from Quasimoto about T2 signals the end of this project. If it does continue, it will not be with the support from Microsoft.
Highway Games wishes to apologise to our loyal partners. At no time were we aware that licenses were not complete, having been informed since early this year that this project is fully endorsed by Microsoft. We are both upset and frustrated to dedicate so much time and effort in a flawed project and as such, Highway Games reserves the right to seek legal counsel.
We are waiting for Microsoft's written response.
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