there are ways to minimize the risk and make money on arcades, you just have to do it right, most people don’t and the 'cade sinks.
now for answers:
- Where would a good spot to put one where players could go locally and the out of towners could go and it wouldnt cost them an arm and leg to get to.
first, a city area where there is a huge glut of people. if you want to open it somewhere, open a thread in the respective community discussion & matchmaking thread for input from those players. take a poll, and ask them to ask others in the area. take a small consensus if you can, it’s important. don’t guess the numbers, FIND OUT, there are ways, and those suggestions are a good start.
2nd, if you find a good place, make sure you get help from those people and ADVERTISE ADVERTISE ADVERTISE !!! you think commercials and advertising glut is is for fun or doesn’t work ? WRONG ! it works hella good, use your resources, advert at gaming stores such as EB gamestop, and the like, an family friendly places like wal-mart. do some sort of grand opening and kick off with a tournament, and let the current game community there, help you, if they want it as bad as you, they’l at least help out with this.
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Whats the average price for renting a building.
depends on the area, just not in the middle of nowhere, in a city area, make sure you can offset the initial business loss that all businesses face, arcades aren’t unique in initial net loss, t hapens to everyone. what is unique is how poorly the arcade is run. you have to trump, KEEP THE PLACE LIT PROPER ! you don’t want to scare non gamers away, they will be most likely, 20-30% of your daily earnings, if not more. also make the palce accessible for tournaments, so a tourney heavy area would be good, not only is it good advertising when you hold one, but it’s also great for the representative community. -
Whats the usual cost for buying cabinets, games, etc.
depends as well, eBay is one source, but you can also buy them from bankrupt arcades, which are…everywhere. BANRUPT ARCADES< look around for them, again they are everywhere. ask people to look around for oyu in their respective areas. if you do that the cost runs at about 1300 tops for the machine but that’s if its pristine, it depends on how the machine is kept, there are HIDDEN charges as well such as maintaining and repairing the machine. this is integral. -
Would anyone else be intrested in running it with me.
…depends on how well those previous steps were followed. What i said sounds easy, but it’s not. It’s not difficult work to do, but it is time consuming, and annoying to wait for, waiting is the hard part, getting those responses is the hard part. here’s an idea: try alphaISM radio, talk to ben, and get a spot on and talk about opening it and hear the listeners’ response to your idea and relative locations, when you get something conclusive with that, THEN start the thread in the discussion and matchmaking thread. ALSO try catering to mroe than just the fighting gamer, there are some DDR pplz who will oour money into your 'cade. this is a business, so the bottom line is your top priority, but don’t let that dilute the concept of this cade, shut DDRing down when there’s a Fighting game tourney, and hey, throw a DDR tourney for all thse DDR players, maintain ALL arcade scenes because there is more to an arcade than just the fighting game( but it’s the best part :D) so yeah, good luck, and I hope it all works out for you.