I’m just wondering about a few things that could be answered for me.
Bonus question.
How well are foreign operators with their cabs still holding up? (Applies to anyone operating overseas)
There was no arcade version of Super.
6 months
A set of 4 Vanilla cabinets costs ~$22000. Capcom refused to sell them in sets of anything less than 4, though importers would part them out to arcades in sets of two at a steep cost of $17k for two.
Super was never ported to arcade.
AE kits cost $25k, again for four cabinets.
AE hit arcades in December, then consoles in June the next year.
duh
Whatever happened to those rumors that there were going to be some cheaper AE cabs coming along at some point? I thought I remembered reading that somewhere.
That is an insane amount of money…Shit man why can’t they put these things on small CRT classic two stick cabinets like before? Sure would cut down on those prices.
The expensive part of the arcade cab isn’t the HD monitor. It’s the hard drive with the game assets. It doesn’t matter what kind of cab you put it in; the developers still want to make their money. The retarded high upfront cost is why we’re seeing new distribution methods/price structures coming up in the arcade market.
Also, I’m pretty sure AE has dropped in price pretty significantly, either that or Chinese arcade ops get a significant lower rate that whoever is doing the grey market exports to the US. If they were really ~25k USD per four cabs, they simply wouldn’t be in Chinese arcades, except for maybe HK.
theres no way arcade machines are actually worth that. i cant believe the arcade scene even exists anywhere at this point
Yeah that truly is a ripoff. I read this post where a guy was talking about the changes, then it turned into a rant on how much this has been unaffordable, plus the comments helped home in that point. I just think this market the way they are operating it is nothing short of mafia-ish and with no good reason.
Here’s that article if you want to read. http://arcadeheroes.com/2011/08/23/capcom-details-changes-being-made-to-ssfiv-ver-2012-as-it-tests-in-japanese-arcades/
Wasn’t there a cheap upgrade option for those with existing Vanilla cabs to simply upgrade their cabs to AE?
Yeah, ops didn’t have to buy all new cabs.
Even though it might cost $22,000 to buy a cabinet. (I am honestly surprised its not more)
The local arcade to me made there money back in less then 2 months at $2 a game.
After it came to the stage that it was all profit in the future for them they lowered the price to $1 a game.
The reason why they cost so much is because a LOT of money can be made from a good arcade game and its only fair that Capcom would want some f that pie.
Also far less copies are sold to arcades (I heard there is far less then 1000 worldwide) meaning that they need to sell at a higher price to cover costs in developing it.
If the home versions only had a market of similar size the price for console versions would be high to cover development costs as well.
My understanding is that it’s still pretty big in Japan. There’s a pretty big arcade in a huge shopping centre where i live too. Most of the holiday park type thing’s in the UK will have a small arcades as well as most bowling alley’s I’ve visited. A few airports within the UK have them too. When you think about it the scene is still alive, it’s just not as in your face as it was a few decades back.
My local arcade has a Taito Vewlix cab they got for around $2500, they just put a 360 in it with the game installed to the HD, and have a timer where it’s $1.00 for every 10 minutes of play.
my point was that, with the inflated prices of arcade cabinets, I cant fathom how an arcade owner could justify the cost of the machine
:eek:I wouldn’t let Capcom hear about that, that is actually highly illegal. Home versions are not licensed for public use.
Hence why most arcades are attached to other big money makers i guess. The big stand alone arcade near where i live is owned by namco so i guess they have the cash for it.
I miss the days when liquor stores and laundrymats had arcade machines in them 
At those prices, I can see why such a thing could never happen with cabs like these.
Yea that’s totally fucked up… I’m all for piracy for personal use, but never ever for any sort of commercial use.
Couple things:
arcade cabs themselves aren’t crazy expensive. The games are the expensive bit. Cabs are a reusable investment. Even then, you have to keep in mind the west gets raped pretty hard on the cost of games, often because they make it over through grey-market channels.
You forget that the parts of the world with still-thriving arcades have very different lifestyles and living standards than the west. Inviting eight people over for casuals is simply not practical for most Chinese. Meeting at the arcade is.
I definitely dont forget that arcades are only dead in the west, the point is, is that the price is majorly inflated and from a business perspective i could never justify it, for the same price, you could essentially start other businesses or expand into more profitable areas. for example, with sf4, the arcade game was like 21,802 at reseller value
Thats ridiculous. No game is worth that much.