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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Revive arcades?

Are withering away? i thought that happened 20yrs ago.

Did i wake up in the 90s or something?



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There is none anywhere close to I live besides like. there's one in pizza ranch lol with a street fighter (suprisingly) some racing game and some shooting game. all though it would be cool to see them sorta return I think that it's not gonna happen, we are past that era.



Intrinsic said:
Are withering away? i thought that happened 20yrs ago.

Did i wake up in the 90s or something?

Yeah, it's been going on for a while now. Especially considering that the sixth generation provided arcade perfect graphics making the need to go to arcades eliminated.



Here in Edmonton there is a 10 million dollar project to build a huge recreational arcade center on the southside by Cineplex Odeon. It will be a large 2 story building filled with arcades, food and beverages, bowling, Racing simulators and some top secret VR space they won't talk about.

I'm very excited for the grand opening this fall and I plan to go myself!
http://www.therecroom.com/

Personally I think that VR will be the key to restart the arcade industry should it ever happen. The amount of unique experiences that can be tailored and made for certain environments is pretty vast.




It will be hard to do since they aren't as profitable as they once were, though there are places that still have arcades and such



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Hiku said:
Even in Japan more and more arcades are closing. I think that's sad as they are a fun place to hang out and play games with other people, or while other people are around, watching others play.

I have no idea what they can do to incentivize more people to spend their money there though. Most people just play their free to play games on mobile.

Yeah I had an arcade near my home in Tokyo, open everyday, I just stopped there from time to time for years. Once I passed near, and it was closed, forever. It broke my heart, really. For a long time they managed with UFO catcher, also old games that cost them nothing, but then mobile happened, the electricity cost increased a lot after Fukushima. A few opened in Paris, driven by nostalgy and SF IV, but nothing like a massive trend. Anyway, I think it's gone, the arcade for a long time was about having the most impressive and advanced games on the best hardware, and that will probably not come back.



It seems kids are accustomed to online friend play rather than local nowadays even if they're neighbors.

I'm not sure how arcades could ever bring that type of play back because it seems foreign to them. Just what I observe from my child and their friends.

They grew up on Live and I grew up on arcades and local gameplay.  It just seems so fundamentally different now.

edit: When I was younger my parents would go to the mall to shop and I'd hang out at that malls arcade.  Now kids play online MP whilst parents shop on Amazon in their underwear.



l <---- Do you mean this glitch Gribble?  If not, I'll keep looking.  

 

 

 

 

I am on the other side of my sig....am I warm or cold?  

Marco....

The only way they can revive arcades is by offering experiences that aren't viable in most peoples homes. Why would someone go to an arcade when they can play it at home? So basically it would have to offer an experience that most people can't afford to have in their own homes...



Arcades were superior tech-wise and offered games that weren't possible on consoles, handhelds, PC visually and gameplay-wise. Yes, you had the lightgun shooter on your NES to Dreamcast as well but it wasn't the same.
Arcades lived from that and probably the fact that people wanted to spend time there.
With games everywhere and great tech at home if mobile isn't satisfying, arcades are just overpriced clouds that you can't access from anywhere. They would have to offer superior tech, interesting new ideas and beat prices of Steam and mobile apps which isn't happening. Nobody needs a special place to meet anymore, just a messenger and the scattered place to eat/drink for meet-ups.
Of course, if you'd really want to, you could push a running arcade and keep it popular with proper marketing, events and things that make it special. But only few arcades will do that because it's hard work and doesn't look very promising.



My solution?
VR Arcades. With proper room tracking and reallife/VR intermixture.
The tech is too expensive for the average consumer too afford and it doesn't really shine in a living room setting. But in a warehouse sized VR arcade with specific environments build for the games. I could see that being a smash hit, until VR becomes more consumer affordable, and even then it has the edge over the living room experience, because of the added immersion of custom build VR sets.