I find the VR and graphics thoughts interesting in here.

I could see VR bringing something back but I think once it's consumer price friendly it will die out because kids will get that VR headset for Christmas and hide locked in their room VRing with the neighbor kid online.

The graphics part I find interesting also because as a kid (80's) I never went to arcades because they had better graphics than my commodore 64/vic 20/intellivision/or cousins atari.

I went for the "hangout" factor. Friends, strangers, beating high scores, multiplayer fun and interaction, because my parents were shopping in the mall for 2 hours and so on are why I was there.

Kids today have all the reasons I used to hit arcades right in their bedrooom. I think it's more because of the shift that started with Live and now PSN and maybe something from Nintendo (although they seem to resist it).

Want to play with friends? Online
Want to hang out and chat? Online party chat
Want to play together? Online coop
Want to challenge others? Online leaderboards or MP
Want that arcade junk food? There is an app for that, you don't have to move.
Parents need to go shopping at mall? What's a mall.....Do you mean Amazon?

its pretty easy = Make an arcade cabinet that runs at an overclocked core i7 with 8 cores and 3 latest Titans from Nvidia and then develop an exclsuive for this hardware comnfiguration.

That would be the equillant what people experienced actually with each new arcade game being released until the PS came along. Its really no rocket science.

I don't see it ever coming back. Convenience and laziness usually overwrites people from doing things like this now. The only way I see it happening. Is team up with the most popular games out there. And make an exclusive something. That you can only get there. Catch Mew, gotta go to this chain of arcades. Can't get it anywhere else etc. Unlock Megaman Legends 3 game at your local arcade. Things of this nature. But of course, everyone will yell.

Arcades have been dying since the mid-to-late 90's. But thanks for heading down to the lab and busting this case wide open..............................................................I kid, but seriously, you are just noticing this? They have been effectively dead for several years. My city had 100,000+ fewer people in it during the arcade heydays, at which point there were 6 of them. Now, with over 100,000  more people, there is one, and it's a shell of what a true arcade used to be. A revival is not happening.

Aren't esports bars pretty much the new arcade ?

Well, one thing that would definitely need to be changed in arcades are the crane games. They actually need worthwhile prizes. The ones here are always dumb generic stuffed toys. That's not going to get people to play. Japan has a good system set up for theirs, with cool relevant prizes that are possible to win. I used to play with the UFO catches all the time, getting prices. And if you do poor enough, the workers there will actually help win them.

That would be good start. Maybe more rhythm based games would help as well. The taiko drum game as well as Mai-mai were popular while I was in Japan. Gun shooting games may help as well? It would be good if they didn't have awful games around, like... mobile style games made into arcades.

Revive arcades? Not thinking big enough. I think VR could revelutionoze the porn industry!!!!! 

My friends the arcades died 15 years ago. There are fewer arcades now but they have a stable audience.

I used to enjoy them. Key word being "used". The reality is, video games are more accessible and cheaper than ever, and with that, arcades need to get a heck of a lot cheaper before I'd consider using them again.

Ever go to a Dave and Busters? or an hipster arcade bar?  Arcades are shit now.   They're either just iPad games on a big screen  

Or some place with $10+ drinks and games that only work like 1 day a week.