Arcades aren't dead YET!

I hear it every other day: "Arcades are dead. Arcades are dead. Gee it's too bad arcades are dead. Home consoles killed arcades." yadda yadda yadda. While I agree that arcades are dying, they certainly aren't dead yet. They're in bad shape, though. I myself used to go to arcades pretty often, and even I don't feel any kind of attraction to those places anymore. I'm obviously not alone, because I remember having to wait in line to play certain games when I was younger, and the last time I went into an arcade (a couple months ago), the place was empty. I can only talk for the Montreal region, but I've heard people on message boards from various places in the world saying that arcades are dying in their area too.

It's easy to see how home consoles took away from the appeal arcades once had. When the 3D revolution began, there was a period where home consoles simply couldn't compete with the visual quality of games found in arcades. Now they've caught up and are taking money out of arcade-owners' pockets. It doesn't have to be this way. What do you do when your main source of competition catches up with you in certain respects? You focus on the things you can do that your competition still can't.

I know that, in theory, consoles can do everything that arcade machines can, but in practice, MOST arcades will have things that MOST console owners can't do at home. As a fan of fighting games, I can certainly appreciate the "random stranger" factor that arcades provide. Playing against your friends and family help you get better at beating your friends and family. There's very little adapting to do since, after a while, you get to know your competition's habits. The only way to force you to keep adapting significantly is to add more players. This is a somewhat shaky marketing tactic since most people don't care enough. In fact, it's pretty safe to say that "stick and button" games have been killed by their console cousins. It was easy for me to wait for the console release of Tekken 5 before getting into the game, and I LIKE Tekken. And I LIKE playing against random strangers. Imagine how easy it was for the REALLY casual gamers.

What arcades need to start doing if they want to survive is focus on games that aren't stick and button games. Racing games in general are an easy example. Shooting games, Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Freaks and Percussion Freaks are all valid examples too. Sure you can play these games at home, but most gamers will get a shallow experience compared to the arcade versions. I know alot of console owners, and only one of them has a pair of DDR dance mats. He also has a pair of fake guitars he can plug into his PS2. Besides that, no one I know owns a racing wheel, or a gun for consoles. Even among console owners who DO own steering wheels or guns, I'm sure very few of them have any type of force feedback.

Another potential benefit is that music games appeal to women more than other types of games that are usually found in arcades, so you can double your potential market just by pushing those games. The inclusion of women in gaming has been a recurrent theme recently in Game Developer Magazine, so that might be why that came to mind. The moral of the story is that arcades everywhere are battered, dazed and backed up against the ropes. That doesn't mean they're dead. If you're gonna go out, go out swinging!