Video game Arcades were a big hit in the 1970’s 80’s and even 90’s they used to be like the cinema where you would go to see the latest games.
Unlike Cinema video games did not have time to set up a Silicon Valley version of Hollywood. The technology moved too fast with companies rising and falling within years (e.g. Atari, Moores Law).
What if video games had adopted the Hollywood Cinema option, where the only place (for at least a few months) where you can play the latest games is in the Arcades. Then they are released onto platforms globally.
What impact would this have had on the industry and types of games we would be making and playing?
This approach is used… or has been used to an extent in japan, for certain fighitng games (Guilty Gear?, also IIRC Street Fighter/Tekken)
We had this discussion a while ago. Arcade format is not suitable for many game genres. (How many quarters would it take to finish Witcher 3: arcade edition?).
For arcades to actually work, the arcade should offer something people can’t experience at comfort (?) of their own home. For example:
Arcades simply moved into the home when home hardware became more cost effective and could match arcade visuals. They’re called consoles.
If you feel like correlating, look at the spikes in console sales along with reduction in arcade games released by well known manufacturer/developers in the west. The east does not count because by large, arcades are still going strong over there due to cultural differences, but also were impacted by console sales. So this observation that there’s this major decline is (mostly) western specific.
8 bit computers weren’t able to impact arcade sales. They did try with various grand claims of “arcade perfect” but fell way short of the market. We needed 16 bit to start driving nails into the arcade coffin.
The Snes and Megadrive hit arcades hard because the killer app of the time was Street Fighter 2, and this came pretty close for those humble machines at home. Close enough to stop pumping quarters.
The consoles that made major shifts were the Nes, Snes, Megadrive (genesis), Playstation. After Playstation it was pretty much the final nail in the coffin. You didn’t need to go to the arcades for ridge racer and friends.
Cinema business model:
There is a similar correlation for cinema, but cinema fought back. It can fight back because it has 3D, it has a time limit on when the film can be released for home viewing, and there are of course the food sales. These practises allow cinema to remain viable for profits.
Mostly though, it’s the time difference. If you could buy the film at home on cinema release day, cinema would die overnight. No question. It’s been proven with trials. Netflix also does limited releases on the cinema but that’s so they can qualify for awards. They do not make any money with theatrical releases.
Does the cinema business model work for TV? Would soap opera’s (literally named for the items they advertise) work on the silver screen?
There is as much of a difference between TV and cinema as there is console and arcade (not to mention mobile). What works on one platform might not work at all on another.
Fixed that for you. You can purchase the equipment necessary for at home viewing of 3D movies but between the cost of the 3D DLP projector (average of $600), cost of the 3D supporting Blu-ray player (up to $150), cost of the projector screen ($60), cost of the active shutter glasses supporting 3D DLP projectors (about $25 each) it’s not exactly cheap.
If you can afford the cost of the equipment though the movies themselves sell for the same prices as normal movies and come in both 2D and 3D form in the same package just in case you don’t want to play it in 3D.
Arcades are still plausible for experiences to expensive to get at home. For example there plenty of VR arcades around my area.
The internet/gaming cafe is also still pretty popular. It’s a cost effective way for young people to play the latest games.
I’m not sure the Hollywood ‘new release only’ model would work for games. Very few top tier games these days can be properly played and enjoyed in 1-2 hours. So releasing them in an arcade format wouldn’t work. And second rate games wouldn’t have the draw power to bring people in.
Ed Logg created Atari’s arcade classics Asteroids, Centipede, Gauntlet, and others and he has a good discussion of the arcade industry business model in the first 5 minutes of the GDC Guantlet talk. See the video here for reference.
With regards to Cinema I thought they already tried that in some degree with laser disc games. Sega’s Astron Belt, and Atari’s FireFox come to mind (which were in the 1983-1984 time period).
Arcades were the central hub of the latest greatest custom hardware and games. Once games spread and became much more available on better and better hardware, particularly PC, it just wasn’t necessary to go to the arcade anymore. Their entire centralized model of being cutting edge and trendy was replaced with commonplace, affordable hardware at home. There is no going back unless the arcade would suddenly have fantastically powerful hardware again and absolutely extraordinary games the likes of which you cannot play anywhere else.
That said I always thought it would be cool to go to like a gaming lounge or something which has big screens and high-end hardware to play cool games and eat food as a group/family or whatever.
The key “business feature” about arcades was to give short burst of expensive intense gameplay. Very short learning curves, instant audiovisual rewards.
For it to work again, I think it’s theoretically possible, but not by keeping traditional tech. It needs, much like before, to possess unmatched graphics, sound, and game controllers.
You can’t compete with people’s big screen tvs and PCs with just a screen and basically PC wrapped in wood that works with coins … you’ll need a monster rig, a screen that almost surrounds the player, maybe something with short throw projectors, 7.1 dolby, and a well built infrastructure, something you can’t have at home. Arcades used to be something hard to access, uncommon technology, so only something hard to access can perpetuate the business.
Get a hold of this chair:
And never forget arcade multiplayer … as often it’s a chance for people to do something when they get together, for many people it’s unlikely to plan an online match, so casually play an arcade together is a new experience.
In any case, arcade multiplayer is different than “multiplayer from home” experience.
Arcade still has the magic, it’s just a market got overwhelmed and replaced too fast to adapt.
Arcades wouldn’t work with the same business model as cinemas. Largely due to the fact that most arcade games are designed to be experienced with only 1-4 players at a time. A film is shown to hundreds of consumers at a time. Charging for an arcade similar to how you charge for a film wouldn’t be financially efficient.
