SNK USA: Only two more Neo-CDs for American market

...The USA division of SNK has announced that there will only be two more Neo-CD releases before they close the book on the niche console. The last two titles will be King of Fighters '97 and Pulstar 2 which are both slated for release before the end of this year. SNK Japan will continue to produce new Neo-Geo cartridge and CD titles though sales in Japan have slowed in recent months. It might only be a matter of time before SNK moves all of their development work exclusively to the Saturn and Playstation consoles. In recent months, Saturn and Playstation owners have been able to enjoy the popular library of SNK games through conversions that have been very well received.

Our experience with the USA division of SNK has been fairly frustrating. In recent months, SNK tried a new marketing system where they portioned regions of the country off to 'sales agents' who handled their direct sales for the particular area. For example, our sales agent for the North East was Herman Marketing which is based in New Jersey. When we had to place a purchase order with SNK, we had to go through Herman Marketing who then contacted SNK to ship the goods to us. A large number of key people in SNK also left the company in recent months, leaving a void. The inability to contact SNK directly for questions and shipment status contributed to a reluctance to do business with them. Most of our Neo-CD sourcing is now done exclusively with Japan. With the current turn of events, it looks like we have no alternative in the USA for Neo stuff anyway.