Poonage, that was really… REALLY good stuff, thanks!
I have the dream of made my own Arcade center on my country (Chile) because Arcades here are still getting a lot of profit just because of KOF and DDR/PIU and also because Arcade centers are still a route of escape after work… the problem is, that there are just 2 o 3 Arcade centers who are “decent”, and all the others are really ghetto stuff… so i still dream that i can do it in the near future!
I also think that Arcana Heart, Taiko no Tatsujin and the upcoming Hatsune Miku Project Diva game for Arcade can make tons of profit, the “otaku” crew in Chile is extremely big, likes to go to Arcades and are big consumers of everything who have animu things on it… here in Chile there is only one Arcade who has Blazblue and 70% of players are Otaku guys who doesnt know a shit about how to play the game but they love it anyway… damn, even Mushihime-sama can make some profit because of that!
Yeah, Lord of Vermillion is pretty awesome, the problem if that you NEED to know Japanese for play it… i also find Quiz Magic Academy a very profitable game everywhere if a English version exist…
Gundam games are too expensive… and, to my surprise, every Tetris: The Grand Master are impossible to buy, i will never recover my money back after buying a $2000 Tetris, even if TGM is the best Tetris ever.
Hmm, my post would make a great personal arcade but for an actual, in the black business I’d probably need a lot more Hydro Thunder and redemption shit :suicide:
Now that’s odd that in Austin Marvel is dead. In So Cal I believe that Marvel is the main money maker. It’s always being played. And in some places it pays like crack. It’s a regional thing I guess. Just like how CVS2 is still popular in Nor Cal.
Arcade Tekken 6 is so dead here. You would think that with the console release and So Cal’s arcade culture that people would be playing it religiously in the arcade. That’s not the case. The two places that have it, no one plays it. A place like AI would be the best place to put it but for some reason throughout it’s history it never got one Tekken game.
God I freaking hope that Super IV will have an arcade version. If it does come out, it would be one of the greatest things to happen to the arcade scene. If an arcade version of Super Street Fighter IV came out I think it would give that arcade an extra good two years to be in business.
I’d like to go to Arcade UFO one day. I hear it’s one of the great arcades left in America. Another good reason to visit Texas.
Thanks Hayama, I hope you can follow your dream in Chile one day. I scribbled down a few more notes from your comments, hope you don’t mind:
I’ll note that Project Diva looks pretty sweet and will definitely be a big hit in Japan. Here, though, it will just be another music game that isn’t as good as DDR, Pop’N or DJ Max. They might surprise us, but this game will probably not be very deep (to appeal to that Otaku crowd in Japan) and thus would ultimately not be worth the risk.
The card games like Lord of Vermilion -might- be successful here except for the fact that the hardcore card gamers are probably all playing Magic already. Then again, Magic is big in Japan, too, so this would be impossible for me to predict.
Quiz Magic Academy would without a doubt be very successful with an English version.
Taiko no Tatsujin was one of the most profitable series in Japan ever; you could usually see it near the entrance of game centers in its heyday. The series isn’t getting much love anymore, but I think it would do OK in a Western arcade. One important thing to note is that every Japanese kid or young adult knows what a taiko drum is, this is ingrained in their culture.
Arcana Heart does decent here, but 2.5 brought the popularity down quite a bit since a lot of characters got nerfed, and Akane was overpowered. I’m really looking forward to AH3 (to play for myself)!
Regarding TGM, it doesn’t really matter which version you have–we just have TGM1 which is a less than $300 PCB, so it has definitely earned its keep. I looked all over for a TGM3 out of personal interest but couldn’t find one. We will definitely pick up TGM4 when it releases. I think even at $2000, TGM3 is a worthy investment (that’s why you can’t find it!).
Yeah, there are only like 3 MVC2 players in the whole city. Regionally for us, 3rd Strike is the game that was always popular in the arcade. Even the previous arcade (Einstein’s) tried MVC2 several times, and each time, they ended up having to get rid of it.
I think Tekken is just a console-player mentality game here. It should say something when everyone expects pad ports on the arcade version of a game! Japanese/Korean players would still scoff at the idea of playing seriously on a pad.
I don’t blame AI for not getting Tekkens . . . after Tag, the game has performed terribly in Western arcades. Tekken 4 and Tekken 5 both had console releases less than 6 months after the arcade release, and Tekken 4 was so awful that nobody played it after the first three weeks anyway. T5 arcade did have an insane surge before the console release, though. I remember from my card that I’d spent $200 on the game in the first two weeks–and I was happy to contribute!
Definitely feel you on Super SF4, it’s not our lifeblood but it is one of our best performers and it would hurt to lose that.
Hope you can visit one day. I plan on actually staying open, so take your time!
Guilty Gear Accent Core
BlazBlue
Tekken 6
Tekken Tag
Street Fighter 4
Street Fighter 3s
Capcom vs SNK 2
Marvel vs Capcom 2
King Of Fifghters 98um
King Of Fifghters 2002um
King Of Fifghters XII
Neo Geo Battle Colliseum
The Last Blade 2
Samurai Showdown VI
Samurai Showdown II
Garou Mark of the Wolves
Hokuto no Ken
MK3
Others
The House of Dead 4
Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3
Initial D
Time Crisis 2
DDR
Random Games like pinballs, table hockey, classics like pacman
you could import TGM ACE for the 360, IIRC that is basically a port of TGM3. Do some quick controller hacking to get it to work with arcade controls and you’d be set.
TGM did get a lot of play at MWC/Evo North last year, so yes definitely a fun game thats capable of making money. Especially once they get a taste of 20G mode lol
Windjammers… more like WINjammers. I would drive just to watch a Windjammers tourney.
Surprised no one has said D&D Shadows Over Mysteria, ProGear, Simpsons Arcade, Puzzle Bobble, Donkey Kong, or Akatsuki Blitzkampf. On that note would anyone be scared to put Blitzkampf in an arcade? Seems like it’s only a matter of time until someone would be offended.
You’re right–I’m being way too nice! Just trust me on this one. Ask some other operators if you don’t believe me. You need alcohol for this to work.
Shadows over Mystara, ProGear, Simpsons, and Donkey Kong all fall under the “classics” category. Great games, but not going to pay any bills.
Puzzle Bobble is OK and can work with a multi-slot Neo cab, don’t think it could work by itself.
Blitzkampf is the funniest suggestion . . . we got Melty Blood: Actress Again when it was brand new. It’s been over a year and I still don’t think it has paid itself off. How do you think Blitzkampf would do if Melty doesn’t even get drop? I think MBAA does ok at CF, but they must really have a huge scene compared to ours.
Nice article. The ‘Lord of Arcana’ trademark is interesting, but I really think we would have seen something by now if this were hitting the amusement sector, as the major trade shows this year have all passed. I’d be really surprised if this was anything besides another console port (a spin off of the series on console would be believable).
According to Wikipedia, you’re right–guess my memory is failing me there. I can definitely attest that T4 was not popular in Austin arcades at all after the first few weeks, though.
Nope, because the game wasn’t fun and didn’t feel like Tekken at all. It didn’t even reach “Jinfest” level. After years of Tag, the game just felt like a downgrade.
classics can work but only without the presence of current gen games.
found that out at the last tournament when I put in HF and people were playing it non stop for several hours. But at the time it was a tournament and there were no SF4 or HDR stations so if people wanted a SF fix they had to do it on HF. Which I then switched to A3 and then AE, then finaly to SF4 then back in EX2 lol
But people aren’t going to come out just to play ST, HF or Xmen 6player like they would for SF4 or Tekken 6. Those games are more like, if I have free time while I’m already at the arcade and not in the mood for the current competitive game then maybe I’ll put in a token or two.
I’d go full on British seaside amusement arcade style, crane games, slot machines, those things where you put your 10p in and you could potentially knock over a huge pile of 10ps, those horseracing machines, all that stuff.
