In anticipation of waiting for Street Fighter 4 to come out on 360/PS3 in Feb, I caught this tidbit last week http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/16/street-fighter-iv-not-coming-to-u-s-arcades/ after reading the bold print, it made realize that the arcade isn't what it was before. Growing up in the late 80's/early 90's I remember the days I went to Tilt at San Jacinto Mall back when I used to live in the North Shore area where I'd spend $10 playing at the arcade while my mom and sisters went shopping. I started realizing, not counting Dave/Busters and Chuckie Cheeses, there are not many arcades out there at all. You have your usual old school games u see at the movie theaters, most of them are games that were released a decade ago. Most malls do not have arcades at all with few exceptions, Galleria, Katy Mills come to mind. Honestly, the newest arcade game I've probably played was Tekken 5 or 6 over at the Galleria about a year ago. Reason for the decline? My guess, the popularity of online gaming with MMORPG games, online services of XBox Live and PSNetwork. Also, the increase of games almost being a $1 a game doesn't help either. What do you think the reason of the decline popularity of video game arcades?
Well....used to be that the arcade would give you tip-top quality. IOW, if you wanted to play the best, you went to the arcade because consoles didn't offer the same quality. Tech advanced. That's what killed arcades as we once knew them. I used to LOVE the arcade. It'll take something pretty drastic for them to come back....give us something we can't get at home on a console or PC.
I definitely don't follow the arcade industry all that well, so this might be wrong but... I think (US?) arcades have been dying off for more like ~15 years rather than 8, ever since the popularity of powerful home console systems like the original PlayStation in the mid-90s. I'm sure some recent things have helped to further hurt the industry, but it has been in a sharp decline since the early-to-mid 90s AFAIK. Additionally, arcades in Japan, until maybe very recently I think, have still been really popular, so it would be strange that MMOs, XBL/PSN, rising costs to play, etc., didn't really kill off the industry there. They might be an anomaly though...not sure if many other countries are like that. On the other hand, most arcade manufacturers these days are Japanese (Sega, Namco, Capcom, etc), so they're probably better suited at making games popular in Japan rather than the US (or wherever). edit: A little dated (2004) and the formatting seems busted, but there seems to be a nice article about the US arcade industry at 1UP: http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3119030
nice article there RC one thing that surprised me that it could've taken the arcade scene by storm, would've been Guitar Hero/Rock Band with the popularity of having multiple players playing at one time. I know Konami's version of GuitarFreaks and DrumMania were popular in Japan, wonder why that genre never was popular here until it hit the gaming consoles.
there's no personality anymore, people hide behind the internet. back in the day, you had to face your opponent in the arcade playing street fighter. too bad kids today never had that experience, a bunch of people watching you, having quarters up on the machine. the 'oooo and ahhhs' of the battles. now they don't play games, they sit there and watch cinemas of stupid anime characters and get wowed by how many polygons are on the screen. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3jiV432VXGU&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3jiV432VXGU&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Meh, I'd rather chill on my couch with controller in hand............. Arcades can't give me Gears of War...........
Tilt, ah yes. Before that it was called Yesterdays. It was 1/4 the size it is now, cramped and DARK. How an arcade should be. Arcades started dying off longer than 8 years ago, like RC Cola said. There was an big arcade in town that closed down a looooong time ago before the 90's hit. Always wondered why it up and went, but thinking back it was right when Nintendo ES and Sega Master System rose to popularity. I think some of its also the length and complexity of games on the home consoles. People are gonna put a lot of time into finding the little secrets in Zelda, Mario Brothers, & Metroid. They're gonna make sure Master Chief and Solid Snake are stocked up with all the firepower they can get for the next 15 levels. Just really can't do that in an arcade setting. Plus your parents after buying you a $65 game arent gonna be too quick to give you another $15 to blow on that icky gorey Mortal Kombat crap.
all i played in arcades was the air hockey machine, my cousin and i used to blow 20 bucks on saturday nights on that thing
i think arcades havent died out.... it transcended into gaming tournaments the whole point of an arcade is to go and compete with other folks.. especially when the whole marvel vs capcom thing took off, or should i say skyrocketed... now if you're unfamiliar with the hardcore gamers, there are leagues such as MLG, WXG, CPL just to name a few that compete in some of the most popular games around(counterstrike, halo, warcraft, starcraft, etc), the industry has grown tremendously, there are sponsors that fly teams from europe/korea/s.america/n.america to all around the world to compete in these tournaments, prizes range from tens of thousands to 6-7 figure payouts to the top teams
the graphics in the game console killed the arcade. In related news, the sequel to return to castle wolfenstein will be released!!!!!!
The arcade cabinet industry started dying off when the cabs started disappearing from corner stores like 7-11 and Stop-n-Go. I used to spend hours upon hours playing SF2 and MK at these places. I would still do so if I found a SF game somewhere.
I grew up in a small town and the closest we had to and arcade was Pac-Man and Galaga at the Local Dairy Queen. I always wanted to eat there when it was my turn to pick the restaurant. The crappy thing is I was only allowed 4 quarters, I became real good real quick, and learned how to down a Country Basket in under 3 minutes.
Man, my favorite games at arcades were the X-Men arcade game, the Simpsons arcade game, and Ninja Turtles. I loved those side scrolling brawlers. I used to play them at Pistol Pete's Pizza, Fame City, and Celebration Station. Someday I'm gonna own all three of them and have them in my house. EDIT: There was also this arcade I went to all the time at Westheimer and Old Westheimer. The lot where the Phonecia store is. There used to be a dollar cinema there and next to it was this arcade where my dad would take me and my brother too all of the time.
If I'm gonna go out, I'm not going to go out to play video games, I can play video games at home. Big differences. I don't have to insert coins or wait my turn. I can also smoke a blunt while I'm playing in the comfort of my own home. I can't smoke blunts at the arcade.
