Rebirth of the U.S. Arcade?

Gamasutra has an article up looking at Sega's plan to reinvigorate the arcade market through its recently purchased GameWorks chain. From the article: "I think what GameWorks has done has recognized where our opportunities are, and through our relationship with Sega — hopefully we're starting to see innovations back on the arcade side that bring a new and different environment and experience that people can't get at home. If you're familiar with House of the Dead 4 and the graphics that are a part of that, it's now starting to be back to having an appeal, starting to see some of that impact back on the arcade-side where you can't play in front of a 52-inch screen and have all of the very vibrant color and animation that's part of it — you can't just do that at home."

I sure hope so...

[__aaclcg7560]

The arcade games at the local movie theater is at least ten years old. Would be nice to have some new arcade games or even (gasp!) pinball machines. I just wish the damn five-years-old stop beating at every game I try.

Hardware is the Key

[spykemail]

Hardware is the key. I honestly do not believe that an arcade is going to come up with software that is going to take all of my quarters away from my new Apple prodcut piggy bank. Arcades need to concentrate on games that simply aren't nearly as fun or can't be played on a mouse, keyboard, or regular controller. They also need to cost quarters to play, not dollars *O.o.

Re:I sure hope so...

[MBGMorden]

The problem I see with these is that they're too darned expensive to play anymore. It's not uncommon for me to see games with a play cost a $1 per play or occasionally even higher. Half of these same games can be purchased and played infinitely for less than $20 now. $0.25 per play was expensive way back "in the day", but at that time home consoles hadn't caught on quite as much as they have now. Drop the price per play down to $0.25 again, or even $0.10, and I'd probaby blow a lot of spare change in the things just waiting on a movie to start, or just killing some time on an afternoon (well, I don't live close enough to a city to really spend it at an arcade, but maybe if I was already at the mall or something).

As it is for $1 per play I just leave them sitting there, and from the looks of it so do most other people.

Cost killed the arcade. It's dead, Jim.

[drinkypoo]

The only plan to revitalize the arcade would be to reduce what it costs to play a game. The only way to do that is to make arcade games substantially more durable, because they are expensive to maintain. It would also help to make them cheaper. Unfortunately, making them more reliable would make them more expensive. So, obviously I don't have THE ANSWER(tm).

Regardless, it costs maybe $200 to get a decent used console with a couple peripherals, and $20 per used game, so let's say $300 to play give games as much as you want. Since new release games cost one dollar and up per play that's maybe 300 games, which will take between 30 seconds and what, five minutes? Ten if you're a super-pimp? By the time you've learned the combos on a new fighting game, you could have bought the last version and taken it home.

Speaking for myself, it would require that all games were fifty cents or less per play before I would go back to spending a lot of time in arcades.

There are a handful of arcades that run on nickels, if it's normally a dollar game it's a twenty cent game. They tend to have prize systems and snack bars, though, as well as other merchandise. They also tend to be COMPLETELY PACKED.

I'll go back to the arcade

[casualsax3]

The day I can play a game for 25 cents. Seriously - I'd end up spending a dollar anyway - it's absurd that companies expect you to shell out $1.00 for 2 minutes of gameplay.

Re:Poor maintenence killed the arcade

[DorkusMasterus]

Not to mention that prices for games have skyrocketed!

Olden days: $0.25=1 game
Now: up to $2.00 for ONE FREAKING GAME, depending on how huge or "immersive" the game case is.

Until they (the retailers, not the game companies, because the arcades themselves set the price), realize that I'll gladly pay over $2 in a game that I could play for even $0.50 a pop, than one that I would not play more than once at $2, or not at all, then they won't get customers. People don't have that kind of disposable income, at least not the kids that they want/need to revitalize the arcade.
Best of luck, because it's an awesome ideal. I loved the arcade. But I think people are greedy in terms of not fixing coin slots, but moreso in the pricing scheme of the games. Who wouldn't play the next rocking racing game for $.25 a pop, multiple times over and over... I would. More than you'd get out of me, by playing for $.75 or $1 at a time, that's for sure.

Re:Arcades did not evolve properly!

[Alexandra Erenhart]

Some sort of Smash Brothers for arcade would be great.. why only 2 people? Let's make it 4! or more! all connected! or 8 for car racing. That would be fun. I'd go with all my friends to the arcade games if there were more games like that

Didn't Sega already try this?

[spyrochaete]

I don't know how widespread these places were, but in Toronto Sega opened several huge arcade centres called "Playdium". They had all the latest arcade cabinets in their hugest and coolest forms, plus tried n' true titles and retro areas. Plus they featured batting cages, rock climbing, go karts, motion simulators, Skee-ball and other ticket games, and I don't even know what else because I could never make it all the way around those places.

For some reason most of these places flopped. I believe they had 3 locations including an all-hours store in the entertainment district downtown. Strangely, that was the location to close first. Now the only one left is the first store in Mississauga which is a good 40KM from downtown.

They sound great in theory but in the end they're annoying. You have to stand in huge lines to play anything good and there's no "code of honour" to keep people from continuing their games indefinitely. Games are all priced differently and you pay via arbitrary "credits" on paycards that invariably leave you with 4.7 unusable and non-refundable doodads. Many card sliders are broken and either prevent you from playing, steal your credits, or require multiple swipes which take longer than a continue countdown timer.

These places are great for tourists but, aside from the odd $20 allnighter, are too expensive and too much of a drive for residents to call a regular hangout.

I, for one, would much sooner play PC on my 19" monitor or PS2 on my 31" TV than get jostled around by tittering tweens 45 minutes from my house.

Daytona USA 2

[rsilvergun]

was mentioned in the article, and it's 7 bloody years old. I mean, really, what's needed are cabinets with interchangable hardware so it's not so expensive to add new games. Jamma was a good idea, but as soon as 3D hit big, it was thrown by the wayside in favor of custom hardware. And Clint's assertion that people don't have 52" screens with vibrant color and animation is just silly. The last couple House of the Dead games ran on x86/Nvidia hardware, and I know plenty of people with 52" tvs. Bolting a sports bar on isn't going to help much either. OTOH, tournaments are good. Might give people a reason to go to the arcade again.

Re:As someone who builds arcade machines...

[assassinator42]

That's a horrible idea. Playing an arcade game is already too expensive. Maybe if it was 10 cents on tuesday morning and 25 cents on friday afternoon. I suppose pricing based on time works for the movies. Although, I refuse to pay the full evening rate.

Re:I sure hope so...

[Anonymous Coward]

The cost of the machines is too high to only charge 25 cents to play.

The cost is the same if the machine is sitting there not being played because nobody wants to spend a buck on it.

Misunderstood

[vonsneerderhooten]

I think people are misconstruing the way Gameworks works. The one i went to in ybor city, fl was basically like an arcade + bar. $20 buys you unlimited plays on all but the ticket spitting machines. Our party spent several hours there and we were all playing the whole time. Between the rounds and the games, I must've dropped like $80 there. And i had fun doing it. I just wish there were one here in the northeast.