Could Arcades Return One Day?

[Zerodash]

Arcades have typically been a Boom-Bust industry. Right now, they are facing total extinction. There are many reasons ranging from high-tech game consoles to safety concerns to increasing costs (who would pay $2.00 for a game of Tekken?) to online gaming.

I believe that arcades will one day rise again- when it becomes a novelty again. Ten years down the road, gamers will be accustomed to playing games at home with others, alone, or with strangers online.

The idea of going out to play games in an arcade atmosphere will then seem like a cool "new" thing to do. It will be a social affair that gamers had never experienced before- playing games in a room full of other gamers. Call it a "backlash" against online gaming, if you will...






Opinions?

[EightBit]

I'll go into detail later, but I totally believe it can make a comeback. It just has to be done right. I don't think its headed in the direction of regaining it's former glory at the moment. Hopefully some people that are passionate about arcading will get involved somehow down the road. It's an experience that truely cannot be emulated anywhere else, in any way, shape, or form. After all, you can't "disconnect" when you are losing in an arcade.

Z-roe

[xS]

They need games that cant be played at home.like silent scope , otherwise there will be no reason for gamers to goto arcades when you can play the same games at home.

[Zerodash]

I had always thought that DDR would save the arcades Street Fighter II style. Too bad the home versions were so good...

[EightBit]

DDR is killing the arcades IMO. I like it and all, but when you see the entire arcade population at the DDR machine, save for a few at Tekken 4 or MvsC2, you start to see that soon all there wil be is those types of games with a few here and there skimming the outskirts.

Arcades right now are just show room floors, allowing you to demo games a few months before they hit home.

Z-roe

[Golgo13]

When the console industry dies/crashes it'll happen. Of course who knows if games will go the way of the penny arcade (not the comic strip, idiot).

[dog$]

Originally posted by Z-roe
DDR is killing the arcades IMO.

Sl1p made some excellent points regarding this a few weeks ago in an arcade thread, which I would only manage to half-assed reiterate now, but as far as I'm concerned:

Anyone who thinks a game that generates profit is initiating business failure needs to pull their head from their asscheeks before they suffocate.

PS: Want a game series to blindly label as the "cause of the death of arcades"? Try Ultima Online.

[EightBit]

What? Im sorry, I was listening to my own farts echo in my cavernous ass.

Yeah, ok, I gotcha. Im re-reading my post now, and glory be! It doesn't say anything about buisness failure. How nifty is that? I'll go a little more in depth for those that didn't follow. Games such as DDR and the like will generate great profit, Im sure. However, it will become the focus, and sole sustainer(is that even a word?) of arcades, effectivly killing what I consider to be an arcade. No, not just what I consider an arcade to be, but what an arcade once was. Fighting games may have been the mainstay for a while, but there was plenty of room for other types. Like I said, every arcade I go into now has all its people on DDR, and maybe a few on a recent fighting game or two. No other games get any attention at all. Thats fun!

Trying not to be an ass, while residing in one~
Z-roe

[dog$]

That being said, I have no idea if you're right since I have no memory of being in a "real arcade" before they were all saved from extinction by the permanent invasion of Skee Ball.

And I'm pretty sure you could see how claiming a game series as "killing arcades" would equate to being read as "unprofitable", since lack of profits is probably the cause of death for 95%+ of the arcades that have died until today.

It's also hard to have new games when nobody's willing to import all the new cabinets that are being made in Japan (a high majority of which have nothing to do with MYOOZAK), and Midway not being around to provide filler US content.

Then there's the issues of arcade operators actually possessing machines that work and a staff that actually can repair broken crap...

[EightBit]

It could be an area specific thing, but even during the heyday of fighters I would still have random people join me in a game of Raiden 2, or some such thing. Now I can't even get opponants in Soul Calibur 2. Soul fricken Calibur 2! I would expect a ton of people since Soul Calibur was a pretty big draw around here not too long ago.

I understand where the misunderstanding could happen in regards to my post. Sorry.

Like I said, I am gonna go into detail later... probably tomorrow. I think its a matter of a few specific reasons. I love DDR BTW, even though I suck. I just wish it would exsist in harmony, instead of chocking the light from the sky, stopping other gamelings from growing to mighty oak game trees.

Z-roe