The arcade industry as it existed is dead, but that doesn't mean someone won't reinvent it.
Take for example the current obsession with '80s nostalgia. People are already buying up used Atari VCSs and 2600s by the boatload, and classic gaming exhibitions are becoming more popular. Someday, perhaps some enterprising corporation will start a chain of vintage arcades. There's a great bar near my house with a couple vintage tabletop arcade machines.
People are still interested in the old arcade games, it's just that no one has figured out an economical way to resell them to the public. Two possible venues that might lead to an arcade rebirth of sorts are Ultracade and those bartop game machines. The former is a great, affordable way to stock a bunch of classic games that people like to play; the latter is an even cheaper way to bring games into bars and other places where people hang out. Nolan Bushnell currently runs a company that specializes in these bartop machines. What if someone were to combine these ideas? Vintage gaming in a bartop machine? Suddenly, the old style of gaming would reenter the mainstream and possibly take off from there.
Online game machines are another possibility. The Golden Tee machines are already popular; what if this idea was extended to other games? That guy from Midway that Game Informer interviewed in their current issue spoke of attempts to make online machines popular. Maybe they'll take off, who knows.
Bottom line: the arcade industry is dead, but it might return in a different form.
The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is always right. -Learned Hand
"Jesus christ you are still THE WORST." -FirstBlood
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