Arcades: The Decline

[negitoro]

Here's a question...do any of you think that it's still possible to run a successful arcade without a DDR machine?...

And, if you can pick any 15 games to build your own arcade...which ones would you choose?

Yes. But to replace it, you'd better have a huge ass money maker in it's place. My choice of the present : Initial D Arcade Stage Version 2

So my 15 games :

Initial D Arcade Stage Version 2 (dual unit)
Beatmania IIDX 9th Style
Pump It Up Premiere 3
DDR Extreme
Pop N' Music 10

Capcom Vs SNK 2
Guilty Gear XX
Marvel Vs Capcom 2
KOF 2002
Soul Calibur 2

LoveGety Station
Air Hockey table
UFO Catcher
Touchmaster
Super Shot Basketball

Yeah, but the ironic thing is that now that arcades are dead, arcade machines are actually much cheaper and affordable now. You can buy a nice cabinet for $400 and PCB's are $100-$400. That means theoretically speaking you can start up a sizable arcade business with 15 cabinets for less than a $10,000 investment.

Still that's not all there is to opening up an arcade.

Say you rent at a typical storefront in a decent strip mall is $2500 a month. Including expenses, utilities, maintenance, staff salaries, advertising, renovation of storefront etc. Even with only $10k tied up in cabs, you'd have a significant expenditure to get started... Add to that enough profit to make a living (~$25-30k/yr) and you have to break $100-120k in revenue in the first year to be fully sustainable.

That's a tough sell if all you have is an arcade of older games at a quarter or two a game.

[Gutsman]

Well, if you put it that way, how the heck did the arcades back in the 80's ever survive? And cabinets cost a lot more back then.

Were there that many people lining up to play Dig Dug or Golden Axe?

[negitoro]

Lower rent, lower costs of business, higher value of the quarter, higher demand for the games...