Final Fantasy VII

The enormous R&D costs had to be recouped by selling a massive number of arcade cabinets.

A cabinet equipped with the latest board cost as much as a secondhand Ford sedan.

And yet the speed of payment collection was nowhere near that of SNK's low-cost, easy-to-distribute MVS Board.

The shifting winds of the era only worsened this predicament.

North America, the world's largest game market.

Its cities were planned around cars, with vast land and sparse populations.

Travel depended heavily on automobiles.

Under such a social structure, arcades, which needed specific physical spaces for people to gather and relied on foot traffic, showed even clearer signs of decline, while densely populated Japan itself was still a golden market for arcades.

Car culture and the site-selection logic of arcades were naturally at odds.

The California arcades once packed with high school students after classes were now so empty that birds could be snared at the door.

Young people were more willing to curl up in their own living rooms or garages and play games on the television.

In sharp contrast to this was the headlong surge of home consoles.

Under Tom Kalinske's management, Sega North America Branch had spared no effort over the past few years in placing its products in films and television.

In Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters, the protagonist was playing games with a Sega controller; in front of the living-room sofa in popular sitcoms sat a Sega console; on the GG boards of nationally broadcast sports events was printed Sega's blue logo.

This imperceptible export of pop culture completely changed the entertainment habits of North American families.

Video game consoles were no longer niche geek toys, but had replaced traditional board games and videotapes to become the default entertainment center in North American family living rooms.

Players no longer