I’d would definitely go to this arcade on a regular basis, especially if it’s in Clairemont where I live.
I wish you the best if you do go through with this endeavor. Besides reasonable pricing my only real demand is proper air ventilation, especially if it’s going to be a tight and small space.
However, I do wonder what would be a better setup for the cabinets: side by side or head to head? I would probably prefer head to head myself if only so I can get out of that mindset of being able to watch and listen to my opponent’s inputs.
I’m not in SD anymore, but was there for a good 7 years (2002-2009). I saw the old standbys rise andsadlyfall (RIP Golden Token). And while Nickel City (which used to be a hot spot) is still around, it’s only b/c of corporate backing, and a strong emphasis on casual/family gaming. So I’m with Unprotected on this one.
The scene is just not big/concentrated enough to warrant a 'cade focused on our community. For a city that structured so solidly on travel by car (I’m from the Bay), the people there sure don’t like to drive. A lotta North county folk wouldn’t DREAM of driving 30+ min to Chula, and vice versa. So like the others said, the best location would be the Clairemont/Mesa area, which is central to everyone. But knowing the areas, renting a property around there would be mad $$$. And of course, maintenance for competitive gaming is much more expensive/troublesome than for family fun.
Don’t get me wrong: I super support what you’re trying to do. One of the main reasons (seriously) I decided to go to school in SD is cuz it had a vibrant marvel scene back in the day: Nickel held regular tournies, and each weekend the top players would routinely carpool to SHGL (RIP… IMO this place’s death is what killed SD’s sceneand put the rest of SoCal’s scene in a coma for a lil bit). But times change, and while SD still does have a really good scene compared to the rest of the US, all of SD’s hardcore gaming is done during casuals at people’s houses. Ironically, by that time I was too busy with school most of the time to head out to the casuals often enough to be apart of the new, console-based scene.
TLDR; Echoing what others much more knowledgeable than I have said: Make a business plan first. But I can tell you right now, our scene doesn’t have the ability to keep you afloat. I wish you the best of luck.
The company I work for has done that before (they run a hundred or so net cafe branches in the Philippines). Made a good amount of money on lounge style setups with couches facing a plasma TV, even had a few private rooms (with karaoke setups too). Charged a per hour rate for each lounge setup and offered food on the side (popcorn, sandwiches and even beer).
Off course, the reason we made money was that console penetration in this part of the world isn’t to big. Also, in the end, it was the maintenance of those that shut them down (we had 6 branches but ended up closing all but 3, 2 of which survived due to the investment of franchisees). Depreciation cost on hardware alone is a bitch and once you need to upgrade, you can’t rely on selling your old stuff (in our case, old XBoxes and PS2, not to mention older TVs that couldn’t handle true HD ) to help cover for the new equipment. Another problem we had was that we kept losing controllers because people would keep bringing them out, either they forgot to return or outright theft, this became an even bigger problem when we got Wiis. In the end, we’re now making more money on the net cafe setup than the consoles.
i was also in the sd area for about 5 years (2001-2006) playing mostly music games and a bit of 3rd strike\initial d so i’m familiar with a lot of the arcades that are (or were) in the area and I’d echo some of what the ppl before have said. the arcades that have survived are basically family oriented or have corporate backing. the others like golden token and mudd club tried to survive by catering to people’s wants, but the gaming community in general isn’t strong enough to support it and you really need casual costumers and not just hardcore gamers.
the only exception to this i can think of was ray’s (which i believe closed down anyway) which survived much longer than the other arcades by basically charging super high prices and being located right next to a movie theater. his game selection sucked and he catered mostly to music game players although that consisted of just getting the most recent ddr machine mixes and a drummania machine. aside from air hockey, there was really nothing worth playing at his arcade.
still, he stuck to his guns and survived by feeding off the theatre crowd rather than getting the 3rd strike, cvs2, or initial d people kept asking him to get. i’ll credit him for keeping all his machines in tip top shape, but really he had a pretty poor arcade from a hardcore gamer’s perspective.
point being, other people have tried doing this in SD and haven’t done too well. the most successful one (in my opinion) was from the old dude that charged a ton of money to the theatre crowd. still, like the others above, i wish you the best of luck as well and hope you do better than the others before you.
Sounds like a great place. The key here would be to get the local community to support it. Once they start hanging out, they’re bound to start buying from you as well. With this in mind, it might best if you try to get some rare stuff on your shelves. Heck, if you can afford it, be the first shop in town whenever Hori brings out a new stick, or similar.
Retail goods have to have a higher ratio of income vs square footage, otherwise arcades wouldn’t have died.
To me, the questions this brings up are: Can you afford to sacrifice retail space for arcade cabs? How much retail space do you need to prop up the less profitable arcade part of the business? Since you’ll be relying on the retail side of the business to keep things solvent, what can you offer the casual market that would make them want to shop with you instead of EB?
If you had a few test displays with each type of arcade stick, american (happ, IL), japanese (sanwa, semitsu), and Korean, brands that would be quite cool. Many of us could finally compare each kind side by side and see what kind we want without having to buy one of each to test for ourselves.
If you do sell stick parts, you can’t be too much higher than lizlick though, or people would just use you to find what parts they want and then go buy online.
There are a few stick builders locally that could help get you first sticks built if you don’t have the skills for it. (myself included)
You could even have a new showcase stick every few weeks/once a month from one of the more renowned stick builders that are all across the globe.
Heck, if you have soldering skills, you could do stick repairs, or mods right there in the store.
Startech Computers in El Cajon has a hybrid store/repair/LAN center that has been going for quite a few years now. That is a place to check out if this is the business model your going to pursue.
I also would have a multipurpose room, for tournaments, karaoke, etc.
If you want kids to be able to go there, don’t have alcohol though.
For console games the quasimoto products or some similar product are about as easy as it can get for arcade style console gaming. Of course you’d need to make sure the whole set-up (monitor, signal and input processing boards) they are using is lag-free. http://www.quasimoto.com/arcade-station
