Microsoft Windows XP Embedded Customer Solution Case Study Taito Cuts Game Development Time and Costs Significantly with PC-Based Game Board Overview “Our challenge was to develop a new arcade board Country or Region: Japan that allows anyone with a personal computer to Industry: Media and entertainment produce arcade game software. This is why we Customer Profile were the first in the Japanese arcade game Taito Corporation, which employs 1132 employees, is a leading Japanese industry to choose the Windows XP Embedded amusement company. It operates game operating system.” arcades, develops and markets arcade game machines and game console Takashi Naito, Senior General Manager, AM Business Division software. It also provides content for mobile phones and online shopping. Taito Corporation, a leading amusement company in Japan, created the Space Invaders Game in 1978 and turned arcade Business Situation To revitalize the sluggish game market in games into a huge international business. However, by Japan, Taito wanted to develop an September 2003, with a sluggish game market, Taito decided on industry-standard arcade board to enable anyone to develop a game. a new strategy to develop an innovative arcade board that could become an industry standard. The company executives believed Solution Taito chose Windows® XP Embedded as that such a board would revitalize the game market and open the operating system for the TAITO Type the door to new game development. Focusing on that goal, in X arcade board, reducing game development time, improving graphics June 2004, the company announced its first new arcade board capability, and providing a reliable game named TAITO Type X, which runs on the Windows® XP development environment. Embedded operating system. Unlike other existing arcade Benefits boards, this new board allowed developers—whether individuals Needs no costly exclusive hardware. Supports wide range of CPU, memory, or organizations—to create a new game using only a personal and video cards. computer and widely used game development tools. As a Eliminates the need for UPS power. Provides excellent reliability and result, development time and costs have been cut significantly. support. Cuts development time and costs. Situation To revitalize the arcade game market, Taito Taito Corporation, a Japanese amusement Corporation believed it was essential to company known for its highly popular game create an environment that enabled anyone Space Invaders, develops and markets —whether individuals or organizations--to arcade game machines and game create a new game. Takashi Naito, Senior consoles, among its other pursuits. But by General Manager, AM Business Division, 1997, the Japanese game market had Taito Corporation, says: “We wanted to reached a peak. develop a new arcade board that could become the de facto standard. We believed According to a 2004 survey published by this strategy would make us the number the Japan Amusement Machinery one player in the industry. Our challenge Manufacturers Association, in 1999, the was to develop a board that allowed sales of arcade game machines totaled anyone with a personal computer to 187 billion yen (U.S. $1.65 billion), but produce arcade game software.” sales had dropped sharply to 140 billion yen (U.S.$1.24 billion) in 2001. Like other game companies, Taito was concerned Solution about this trend. Along with others in the industry, Taito anticipated the trend away from proprietary One of the major factors for the decline in hardware in arcade game development the market was the high cost of game toward systems enabling the creation of development. The majority of arcade games on PCs. Taito had been closely boards are made by major game tracking the Windows® XP Embedded manufacturers, which build the boards for operating system (OS) and its associated their own architecture. Because of this hardware and development tools to make approach, developers had to prepare certain the OS would work on its board. expensive and specialized facilities and employ full-time engineers to create new “In 2003, we saw there had been games. improvements in the performance of consumer video cards and decided to go As a result, game development costs were ahead in developing a new arcade board skyrocketing. In addition, the reality of the on a Windows platform,” says Naito. “The business was that only heavily marketed or Taito AM Business Division manufactures well-known games were commercially and markets arcade game machines for successful. This challenge made game both internal and external customers. developers reluctant to invest the time and However, until 2003, we did not money required to develop a new game, manufacture arcade boards, even though and consequently only major companies they are the heart of the game machine. were surviving in the arcade game market. Instead we purchased them from other companies. This situation was beneficial to Arcade Board with Easy Access to us because we could plan the board Development development with no production restriction. In addition, Unidux, our development partner, actively helped us by providing the of game software companies who have latest information about Windows.” decided to adopt TAITO Type X. Therefore, sales are expected to continue growing Industry Standard Board with smoothly.” World Standard Software The AM Business Division recognized that The TAITO Type X board, based on the Windows XP Embedded is a worldwide Windows XP Embedded, delivers several standard OS and chose it for its reliability advantages: and usability. The leaders of the division also appreciated the fact that Windows XP Requires No Initial Investment in Embedded was similar to Microsoft® Exclusive Hardware Windows, a leading game development Unlike traditional game boards, the TAITO environment. The similarities between the Type X board requires no initial investment two operating systems would help with in exclusive hardware and facilities. development, which was another factor. Windows XP Embedded also offers an excellent range of game development The extensive support in Windows XP tools, including the Microsoft DirectX® 9.0c Embedded for a range of hardware application programming interface. The components was another key criterion for tools are designed to make game Taito, because it enabled the company to development more efficient, allowing game offer a choice of configurations to developers to cut their development costs. customers. Among other options, customers can use the board with Intel Offers a Wide Range of Hardware Celeron or Pentium 4 processors with Choices between 256MB and 2GB of memory, as Due to the high degree of expandability of well as the complete ATI Radeon range of the board, the most appropriate hardware, video cards. such as the central processing unit (CPU), memory, and video cards, can be chosen It took the company only one year to plan, according to the required game develop, and mass produce the board, and performance the company announced its release in June 2004. Needs No Uninterruptible Power Supply Among the benefits provided by the OS, Benefits the TAITO Type X board does not need an Many game developers have shown uninterruptible power supply (UPS) when interest in the development of TAITO Type there is a loss of power because of the X. “It has been two years since our launch, Enhanced Write Filter (EWF) in Windows and we still enjoy an excellent reputation XP Embedded. for the quality and reliability of our product,” says Naito. “Sales have reached 30,000 Provides Excellent Reliability and units, exceeding our original target of Support 20,000. There is an increase in the number "We“Our mustcompetitors keep have Many existing boards require specialized because Microsoft Visual Studio® is engineers to develop them, but the TAITO available as an integrated development evolving,since reduced or we’ll their lose Type X board does not, because of the environment at a low cost--or even free for ourprices. leading However, position, our reliability and hardware support that the Visual Studio Express edition--even Windows operating systems provide. individual developers can quickly develop a butcustomers we are stillhelped choose in game. thisTAITO by thebecause rise of they more “When we launched the board, we were able to offer about a 10 to 15 percent cost In terms of tools, using a traditional arcade andvalue more our game savings compared to other boards. Our board as a development unit would cost developerscomprehensive who are competitors have since reduced their prices about 1 million yen (U.S.$8,850). For and now sell their boards at more or less example, a fighting game usually needs experiencedservices and inthe game the same price. However, our customers around 30 development units, which would developmentreliability and insupport a still choose TAITO Type X because they cost more than 30 million yen (U.S. value our comprehensive services and the $265,500). This is a very expensive initial Windowsof Windows XP reliability and support of Windows XP investment, a risk which developers take environment.”Embedded.” Embedded. This is proven by the increase on. With TAITO Type X, however, they can in the number of sales for our own game save the initial investment costs because Takashi Naito, Senior General Manager, machines and through original equipment they can develop a game using personal AM Business Division manufacturers (OEMs),” says Naito. computers. Cuts Both Time and Costs Delivers Cost Savings for Arcade Significantly