Wii kills video arcades

The Nintendo Wii is causing major upheaval for operators of game arcades, reports The Herald Tribune.

In an unexpected downward revision to its earnings outlook, Namco Bandai, a toy and amusement arcade company, said it would close 50 to 60, or about one-fifth, of its arcades, depressing its shares for a second consecutive session.

"A lot of the types of games that people played at an arcade can now be done at home," said a Namco spokesman Yuji Machida.

The Writers Guild of America intends to single out one game as worthy of a 2008 Writers Guild Award, says Hollywood Reporter.

The award is the brainchild of Micah Wright and Jay Lender, writing partners who have created numerous video games together, including "Shadow Ops: Red Mercury" for Atari and "Looney Tunes: Back in Action" for Warner Bros Interactive.

They believe that the attraction of quality graphics in games is on the wane and that character, dialogue, and plot are widely expected to be the next "killer feature" in games.

Dream Arcades, which Michael Ware co-owns with his wife, Michelle, manufactures and sells big, bulky arcade games, primarily those crammed with the hottest games of two decades ago, says modbee.com.

"The games play exactly like the original," says Ware. "The nostalgia, that's what we're looking for. It's timeless, these games."

The company's target audience are 30 and 40-somethings nostalgic for youthful after-school hours spent glued to the controls of the now-classic games from Atari, Capcom, Midway and Namco.