Could Arcades Return One Day?

[NeoZeedeater]

I have come to the conclusion that I no longer care if the arcades die. I would rather have all the best games at home. Yes, I have nostalgia for the '80's arcade atmosphere but I know that era is long dead.

[Prince Planet]

Originally posted by NeoZeedeater
I have come to the conclusion that I no longer care if the arcades die. I would rather have all the best games at home. Yes, I have nostalgia for the '80's arcade atmosphere but I know that era is long dead.

Ding! Correct answer! It's dead, buried, and won't be repeated for the very obvious reasons that some of you have already mentioned. However, as was also mentioned, arcades could become popular when they offer some revolutionary technology that simply can't be duplicated at home. Of course, I don't know when that would occur since just about every technological aspect of the arcades IS being faithfully duplicated at home (e.g., fancy peripherals, high quality monitors/TVs, network play, etc.). Not to mention that game developers have a much bigger market (yes, this means more $$$) if gaming can take place at at home as compared to a some arades scattered about.

Again, I think it will take something pretty revolutionary to make arcades a big draw again, at least in the U.S.

[Werewolf]

I think they can, the biggest draw back in the arcade glory days was the chance to play something you couldn't play at home or something that was much better then what you could play at home... but today there is much better games at home so arcades have been on the decline.

Arcades still have a chance but to do so they need to provide gaming experiences that can't be duplicated at home like VR or nice sitdown driving units, stuff you won't have in your living room

[Cheebs]

The draw of the arcades in the 80's and early 90's was that the games looked leauges better than the home equivalent. You went to the arcade because it was better than what you had at home. Now, home games look the same or better. Why has arcade hardware fallen behind?

[xS]

Yep , GnG , Phelios , and mercs looked alot better in the arcades than they did on the genny.

[Error]

It's all about the holodecks folks. People dont care about arcades because they get a better value for the same game at home, often mere months after the game is released in the arcades. What arcades need is something so far beyond what home technology can do that people will be forced to goto arcades to get it, and also the games have to be worth the money the gamer spends on it. So I say arcades are dead until somebody invents the holosuite.

[Josh]

There was an arcade I used to go to in Philly that didn't have many, if any new games. All their shit was 2D, and the place was always packed.

I have a feeling that arcade will be around longer than I will.

[sleeve]

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.

[CypherUppercut]

The way I see it, arcades need to have something more going for them other than just video games. Anyone can play video games at home nowadays so they aren't about to leave their house to go and play a video game.

In my city the only arcades that are thriving offer something more than videogames or are near another establishment that can offer something to go with the video games in the arcade. Examples of this are the arcades that are right next door to a movie theater or the local Miniature Golf Centers that offer a large arcade, go-karts, batting cages, etc. People go to these arcades to watch a movie or play Mini-golf, but they also end up playing a video game or two cause its close by. Then you have the Dave & Busters establishments which are basically a video arcades that serve alchohol. Instead of just going to a bar to drink and socialize, one can go to a D&B to drink while playing games and socializing. People go to these arcades mostly to do something else that's entertaining other than play video games, but they stick around to play video games before or after they do what they came there to do.

Video games can't draw people out by themselves anymore, but they can compliment another form of entertainment very well.

[Ranji]

Originally posted by CypherUppercut
Video games can't draw people out by themselves anymore, but they can compliment another form of entertainment very well.

Yeah, like a mall. That's how it used to work, anyway...