Daily Archives: Friday, February 15th, 2002

Okay.

Developers:

Who Megaking is to SNK:

They’ve only been around for a few years. They made a name for themselves by being the sole distributor for SNK’s games in Korea for a while. They converted many of SNK’s MVS games to the PC in 2000. Now they’re designing Metal Slug 4.

They also have had partnerships with Tecmo and CSK (the parent company of SEGA and ASCII and ISAO) in the past, just to mention.

Who Eolith is:

One of the “bright rising stars” of Korean game development. They’ve also only been around for a few years. What they have to do with SNK besides development of KoF 2001 and 2002, I’m not sure.

Who UNOTac is:

I have no idea. King of Fighters Online seems to be their first and only project, so far.

This is an interesting quote, however, from Madman’s Cafe:

The company’s human resources have a long-term relationship with SNK: Fatal Fury’s “Kim Kap-Hwan” was originally named after the father of UnoTac’s current president from his contribution to the growth of NeoGeo in Asia. Unotac’s current president- the son of Kim Kap-Hwan, is named Kim Jae-Hoon.

Perhaps that explains why an adult Jae Hoon Kim is one of the main characters of KoF Online. Hrm.

Who Brezzasoft is:

… I think this is the company formed by much of SNK’s staff once they left or were eventually fired. I’m not certain, though.

Anyway, they’re now the main SNK developer. Eolith and Megaking seem to be perhaps designing their respective games, and pulling together and managing the appropriate resources, while Brezzasoft appear to be doing the bulk of the actual development. This might not be completely accurate, but that’s how it seems right now.

Management:

Who Playmore is:

Um… I really don’t know. I can’t find much information about them, aside from the fact that they’re now the owners of all of SNK’s properties and that they ultimately are in charge of the whole new operation. The company might be one formed from ex-SNK staff members, but this is just speculation. They’re a mystery entity, at present.

They have a logo, though!

UPDATE: Oh, duh. They’re another pachinko company. I knew this; I just forgot it entirely. I’m not sure why SNK holds such interest for pachinko corporations…

Who Sun Amusement is:

Oddly, once again I can’t seem to dig up much of any data on these guys. Toward the end of SNK’s life, Sun took up the job of distributing their final few games. Now they seem to be continuing that deal as SNK’s official distributor. They also manage SNK’s Neo-Geo Land arcade chain and help with testing.

But as for who they really are, beyond this, I have no leads.

Who SNK NeoGeo (Korea/HongKong) are (and aren’t):

These companies appear to have been jointly created by Playmore and MegaKing, in order to manage this mess. I’m not too sure about the HK branch, but it makes sense that the main branch is in Korea given that this is where most of the development teams (UNOTac, MegaKing, Eolith) are.

SNK NeoGeo isn’t a developer, and I’m not sure how much power they have. It seems like they were created mostly to act as a hub for everyone else, and to keep SNK alive as an overall name for this business.

My question, now: Does all of this add up to one entity? Are MegaKing, Eolith, Sun Amusement, Playmore, Brezzasoft, and UNOTac now all committed to being limbs of SNK, or do any of them have other agendas? How is all of this organized? The fact that two branches of SNK NeoGeo were formed to manage this mess, is a positive sign. Sun does at least seem pretty deeply involved with SNK affairs for now. Both Eolith and MegaKing seem to be very enthusiastic about their new games — but are they now SNK subsidiaries, or are they just using the licenses for the moment?

I’m not too sure what to make about UNOTac. The whole concept of KoF Online is dodgy to begin with, and its execution looks… strange. I hope some tight reigns are kept on them, and Playmore didn’t just fling out the rights because they were offered enough money for licensing.

I guess that’s my biggest concern. Does all of this add up to something bigger? If so, it could be very promising. Or is this all just a fragile web of contracts and licensing? If so, I’m a little nervous.

I hope everyone is committed to actually making games rather than milking the properties. And I hope everyone is intending to cooperate.

We’ll see what happens, though.