It’s been a slow couple of days for arcade news but amongst the slowdown there are a few articles worth noting that deal with the “arcades are dead” consensus. As you know I personally reject this notion, especially as I have seen a big uptick in earnings by simply moving my location. It’s already at the point where Saturdays and Sundays are packed at my new place almost around the clock so just that right there shows me that locally there is no lack of interest in arcade gaming – the other thing I like to point to is the number of games that we are seeing released these days, which is steadily increasing since the middle part of this decade. But to be honest it is getting tiresome having to deal with this all of the time so I wonder if it’s really worth the effort to post about it in the first place.
The first link is rather pessimistic and it comes from Gameroom Magazine’s website. I understand the point behind the diminished influence that arcades hold in the culture at large but have a little more optimism guys! This is dealing with an article that was run in regards to the Game Galaxy Arcade in Nashville where some industry data is discussed in comparing 2007 to 1982. Granted, when you look at that data it can be a downer but that doesn’t mean that arcades are on the brink of total extinction. Have we mentioned that there are a couple of big arcade industry trade shows happening in the next few months where a lot of new products are making their debut? It’s not like all of these games are going to bars.
The next column is on a slightly different subject although the headline makes it sound like arcades have been dead and buried for a while and will never see the light of day again in the form of coin-op. The article is by Susan Arendt at The Escapist Magazine where she looks at the uptick of classic arcade ports coming to services like Xbox Live Arcade and in particular the iPhone App Store. Now the article doesn’t really touch on this uptick benefiting actual arcades since the premise is that there aren’t any around anymore – it is more about an increase in “arcade style” games. Of course I would love to see more “arcade style” games in the actual arcade where something new can be tried that doesn’t need a light-gun or a wheel to accomplish such things and we are seeing a few examples of that, like with Get Outta My Face! and a few other games coming along.
