Wii wouldnt like to play at the arcade?

[rocket]

In a suprising article namco announced it will be closing 1/5 (50 to 60 arcades) of its arcades in japan. the biggest issue sited was the fact that kids were staying home playing Wii that has a lot of the similar physical games that the arcades have. hardware sitings were ""Wii Fit", which features a pressure sensing board that players can use to simulate ski jumps or surfing" and the motion detecting controllers.  on the commedity side gas prices were sited stating familys were not making as many trips to the malls.

In a similar note sega sammy plans to close 100 of its arcades.

[NightWolve]

This reminded me of an arcade I sometimes went to in Chicago called "Diversions." It was kind of popular I think and I believe it hosted Mortal Kombat tournaments way back. Well, I hadn't been there in years, so I decided to stop by a couple of months ago (a very rare occurrence), only to find it was closed down and replaced by an Asian/Thai restaurant...

Given how advanced home video game console machines have become, it wasn't very hard to predict the decline of arcades. PCs are cheaper nowadays too, so you have less and less reasons to show up at an arcade. Oh well.

[rocket]

Yeah, the arcades died in the US a long time ago with exception of the bar arcades that pop up here and there.  It is more of a surprise to see that it is just now hitting Japan in the fashion that happened here back in the 80s/90s...

[macroidtoe]

I remember going to the arcades all the time back when I was a kid... before I got the NES even.  I've always wondered if they could have been saved if they changed things up a bit: instead of making customers pump quarters into machines, you pay for some kind of card with X number of minutes on it, and then you can hang around and play whatever you want for an hour or something.  I was in China last summer, and this is pretty much how the Internet cafes were run, and a lot of the computers had some arcade-ish games installed on them.

[X-Calibar]

I loved visiting the arcades now and then growing up.  But, the cost to play much is unbearable last I checked; especially when one can go home and play something multiplayer as advanced as what is featured in the arcades.

What arcades need to revive; would be to showcase the newer expensive technologies; like 3d monitors and other unusual technologies at an affordable price...

[macroidtoe]

Yeah, that's the other thing that I think killed the arcades.  Way back, everything was a quarter, and that was that.  (Actually, I vaguely remember seeing a few that cost a dime.)  But then one day $.50 machines started to creep in, then $1.00... and even higher sometimes.

I mean seriously, they probably thought they were increasing their profits by increasing their prices, but that only works so long as you don't cross the threshold beyond which people decide to just not play the game at all.

[Jest]

Yeah, we didn't have an arcade in my small town growing up, but we had some games at the local bowling alley. Namely the ever awesome Street Fighter 2! I remember my friend and I were determined to beat it for the first time and we had a $10 roll of quarters to accomplish this task. It was kinda funny because he wasn't anywhere near as good at it as I was. We'd switch off rounds playing a Ryu, I'd win the first, he'd lose the second, and I'd win the third. This happened throughout the game till Bison. He somehow pulled out a win and finished it for the first time. Cost us like $6.

He then went on to play something else and I decided to play again. Finished it in a quarter this time. Anyways, I kinda lost interest in the arcades when they became workout centers. I remember one of the Penny Arcade's made this point, but it seems like you have to be a member of the gym to play arcade game's anymore.

[X-Calibar]

You know... it would be neat to be able to go to an arcade that had a Wii or other system in it.  Pay to play wouldn't be bad, [low price], maybe using a pay for time method, if there would be a way to have all games that are out or many games available to select from without ever having to physically change the disc to the system.
I mean renting games from a store is one thing, but being able to play it on demand; at an enviroment like an arcade would be something else.  Maybe places like Gamestop or something should open up arcade/retail chain stores lol.  Wouldn't that be a fun idea?
I mean these days I just shop online mostly.  I used to love going into EBGames etc, but at this point; shopping online is just a better idea for me.  But, if there were more to those stores... 

Well something like that anyways..

[rocket]

You know... it would be neat to be able to go to an arcade that had a Wii or other system in it.  Pay to play wouldn't be bad, [low price], maybe using a pay for time method, if there would be a way to have all games that are out or many games available to select from without ever having to physically change the disc to the system.

wow this almost smells like a flashback of  the VS. system and playchoice 10. There was an snes version but it was such a bomb...  funny been working on restoring a VS system cocktail.  It brings back memories of dual nintendos on 1 board sharing a piece of ram to link the 2 nintendos together.  anyway that is neither here or there.

[Waverider]

Rather than think about the past glory of arcades, people should build their own arcade like this guy.

http://tinyurl.com/29vn64

[rocket]

Rather than think about the past glory of arcades, people should build their own arcade like this guy.

http://tinyurl.com/29vn64

Ya that is quite a rigg. very impressive. Just wish we could all do that one.