As a resident of Japan I see a lot missing or under-emphasized from this analysis: 1. Japan had a huge pachinko culture and karaoke culture It's declining now but until quite recently pachinko was a ubiquitous working-class entertainment. Arcades and pachinko aren't the same thing, but having a common "adult" form of the arcade legitimized gaming arcades. The karaoke culture of singing publically (and poorly) with friends transferred to lots of goofy rhythm/team games as well, meaning that playing at arcades was always less about mastery and more about hanging out with friends. 2. Housing in Japan is really, really, small Kids don't have a lot of space at home to hang out with their friends without their parents or siblings in the immediate vicinity. North American kids might feel like that's true for them, but take a typical American house, cut off 2/3 of it, then get rid of the yard and now you're getting close to a Japanese home. Even though consoles were and continue to be popular, few homes have the kind of space for them to be in their own room (like a basement) or even in a bedroom (having a TV in the bedroom is less common here and far more kids share rooms). It's not easy to spend hours leveling up your Street Fighter skills when 1) mom is annoyed by the noise and 2) sees you spending an ungodly amount of time doing it. Better to "go to Shintaro's to do homework." 3. Japan is really, really urban Close to ninety percent of Japanese people live in a walkable-suburban or full on urban setting. It wasn't an "innovation" to locate the arcades in major urban areas: practically everywhere is a major urban area. That means kids could always walk or take public transportation and there were a lot of other attractions like karaoke or fast food in the same area. If you lived in the suburbs or countryside in the US getting to the arcade was a major hassle until you got your driver's license, and after you got your license you could go anywhere, so why go to the arcade? 4. Restaurants and bars don't have games Back to the space issue, non-arcade venues simply don't have space for games. When I was growing up in the states you could just go to the local pizza place. They might not have the latest game, but they'd have something to satisfy your itch. While that made games more prevalent generally, it leached revenue from the arcades themselves. Without that revenue they couldn't innovate. 5. Japanese arcades were expensive A 100 yen coin is about $1.00, compared to the 25 cents it cost when I was playing games in the states in the 70s and 80s. It might seem counter-intuitive, but that higher cost helped the arcades survive: more money meant better, cleaner facilities and a better gaming experience.
When I was a kid, I remember a few restaurants having arcades...Red Robins MIGHT be one of the last ones (if they still have it). I also use to roller skating every Saturday in Detroit as a teenager and we had arcades but they were converted it into a lazer tag then eventually blocked it off as attendance in roller skating dropped. It’s sad...I don’t know what these kids do for fun outside of the house nowadays
I think these arcades can exist because the immense population density of Tokyo and other Japanese cities. Basically an Arcade hall in Tokyo is supported by 32 million potential customers and is also easily accesible by public transportation. An Arcade hall in lets say Chicago doesn't have 1/6 of Tokyo's potential customers making it harder to survive.
Also smaller living spaces / apartments in Tokyo encouraging people to go out to shared spaces vs bigger homes in America where you are more likely to stay in and build an awesome going room.
VR arcades I feel is what would be best. Too expensive to have the same immersion as home VR. Or space for that matter. I'm talking about full suits and a pod type vr.
I love arcades! The problem is the ones that exist in my area are commonly filled with broken or outdated run down machines. It’s a bummer to see limited options already and half the arcade is broken. 💔
The claim that the NES killed arcades is massively premature. 1982 may have been the peak of arcade revenue, but while it did drop for a couple years, it went *UP* after the release of the NES, hitting its second peak in 1994, before starting a steady decline through about 2002 where it's been pretty steady since. As a kid in the '80s and early '90s, arcades were absolutely still a major force through the mid '90s.
Thank you! I was shocked that Cheddar decided to just ignore Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, TMNT, Simpsons, NeoGeo MVS games, Sega scaler games like Hang-On, Outrun & Afterburner, San Francisco Rush, Killer Instinct, Virtual On, Cruisin' USA, and Hydrothunder, JUST TO NAME A FEW. Arcades friggin' thrived after the market crash and well into the 90s. They didn't go into active decline until home systems began meeting and eventually outpacing the technological development of the arcades in the tail end of the 90s.
@@thewiirocks Saturn, Dreamcast, and Neo Geo killed them in the US also in the US we have a problem with helicopter parents that helicopter over the wrong things.
@@trunkskunT I forgot the Original XBOX to that list. All of those used slightly modified arcade hardware. The Original XBOX was running a Sega arcade board.
Not really. Arcades peaked at 1991 more or less (SF2 + all the other genres hitting a last hurrah). Fighting games ruled supreme over everything else after that (shoot em ups declining and other genres struggling to hit peaks except maybe racing games), but consoles were 1 of 5 factors to really knock down the appeal of Arcades. More hardcore and enthusiasts went to arcades, less common people did. Consoles did affect that. When consoles and the internet finally upgraded to bring the missing social game environment arcades died. So... mid-2000s even the bigger guys and long-running arcade developers started to suffer greatly. Rhythm games kept arcades afloat for their massively wide appeal since then. Most people here commenting about arcades not dying are not taking the context of how big they were before THEIR time. Also, numbers can be deceiving as more people knew of arcades and could potentially flood the few places that had them, but fewer people overall had arcades as priority entertainment anymore. My favorite arcade games are all from 1988-98 by the way.
Yeah. It is sad to say that last year was my first and last time to be in sega akihabara. They're might be other ones but not as good as the hamster trails one
@@kellineburton The Sega Game Center will continue to operate under the Sega brand after they are sold by Sega. So if all things goes well, the Sega game centers will still be there the next time you come to Akiba.
@@kellineburton The one you're probably referring to (Sega 2) unfortunately already closed before the announcement of the sale. But there are still 4 more there, Sega 5 opened just last year. The sale doesn't mean the operations will cease completely, but I wouldn't be surprised if less profitable locations will be closed. Akiba will almost certainly still have Sega arcades for the foreseeable future.
@@emmettturner9452 kawasaki warehouse was more of a fancy expensive indoor theme park with machines instead of rides tho, not surprised that one had to shut down
I'm Japanese. I want to point that some part of this video mixxed up "Game Center"(Arcade in Japanese) and "Pachinko"(Barely legal casino). Pachinko is a huge market and there several Pachinko-ya next to main stations and streets and making 190 billion dollars per year even though gambling is illegal in Japan. But real arcades are dying in Japan as well, and it's just 6 billion. Almost all of the footages of super shiny billboards in this video are Pachinko.
It was literally called Game Center. Kids those days called it “gei-sen”. And of course, my mother was terrified of them, so, of course , I’ve gone there.
Makes me think back to the good old days when I went to Diversions, Funzone, the Brickyard Mall, and other stores/places in Chicago to play arcades. Those were good times. I just wish people took pictures back then so I can feel like I was there waiting to play another game of Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, X-Men, and other awesome games. 😊
Those were my spots too! Fun Land at the Brickyard before all the gang stuff was my favorite place to play big screen SF2, but most of my top scores were set at Fun Zone during off-campus lunch. I used to (assistant) manage the Cyberstation at the HIP, I've got some old footage on my channel.
I'm sure this video has been in production for a long time, so it's rather unfortunate that it's being released right around when Sega are struggling and announcing that they're selling off their arcade division and closing some of their most famous arcades.
A big problem i see with arcades in the west is this mindset that arcades should be centered around toddlers and little kids. Arcades here in Argentina have been slowly but surely replacing their older simple cabinet games like Shoot-em-ups or fighting games with stuff like mechanical kiddy rides, or touchscreen arcade ports of mobile games. And apparently some US mall arcades also have this problem. The only stuff that didn't get swapped out was classic racers such as Cruisin' USA, Sega Rally, or Daytona. Of course people of all ages can enjoy arcade games, but this over-focus on the absolute youngest audiences has only made arcades seem lame to teens as well as adults who grew up when arcades were still big. Arcades could really use more engaging games for older audiences, even if it means bringing back old machines or importing japanese machines.
^ This is a huge problem that doesn't get brought up often. Japanese arcade machines still cater to everyone, but the western ones are either retro throwbacks or ticket redemption games it's embarrassing.
Actually the comment is not as strange as people in the west know. Most of the 100 billion dollar pachinko business is owned by 3 rd generation North Koreans who have special Japanese citizenship . That money is sent back to Orth Korea. All true
@@derrickclark5510 And movie theatres and gyms. A lot of places and businesses will unfortunately go under because of the draconian, ridiculous, and in most places, illegal laws set by governments.
@@sbojan83 I think they were going regardless. It was just barely holding on. There were and are a lot of issues plaguing businesses mainly from city and suburb layouts, car dependency, oil, money inflation etc.
@@HieronymousLex Not saying it's okay or not. I just think those that were unstable or financially on edge might have been pushed out by the shut down earlier than later. Particularly the industry and businesses that the OP was naming, arcades, theaters, gyms, it's pretty well known even before the pandemic that some of those were in decline. It may have been inevitable for them. It's not really that black and white and it doesn't mean we should close them or everything else out of spite but I don't think that ignoring the situation and acting like normal just to desperately save them is right either.
Pachinko and Pachinslot are not classified as arcade/game centers. They are thinly veiled casino operated by the mafia. One of the last remaining 'legitimate' business operated by the Yakuza, besides construction industry.
(Just came here to say this) I think arcades are really popular in the US too, they mostly focus on ticket-based games but the round1 US section of the chain has the same games from japanese arcades and I go there often
1.interesting games. japanese arcades are up to date while american ones still look like they are stuck in time 2. accessibility. japan has top notch transportation meaning you can easily access lots of arcades. meanwhile in america, it's nearly impossible to get around without a car
What really blows about our scene compared to jpn is how the cultural differences post Dreamcast really made it so people just didn't want to go out to play their games. Naomi ports were practically perfect, but also consume choice was a main factor in which titles we're allowed to shop for and pick up, where the arcade industry only continued to limit your choice based on factors around operators, distributors and overall local community. Pay to play or rather pay to continue also hit with an impact. Rounding the 00's I saw games were going $2 - $2.75 - $3 per play and instead of rewarding players with continued play time for doing so well, games were set in every variety of ways to ensure 5 minutes of entertainment before they're forced to either pay continued admission or "bugger off!" The majority of gamers who play from home chose to do so and shun arcades because it is a forced pay to play model and it's restrictive in contrast to what the home environment has to offer. If we had the same busy environment as japan, then things would have obviously been different.
I went to a Namco arcade that was astounding. It was like four stories tall, as well as incredibly bright and stimulating. I spent so much time winning one of those really fancy claw machines.
I wish that we could have arcades at universities, that would've been awesome. I would definitely hang out there and play against people during my breaks.
Having arcade games at home is great and all, though it's not the same as actually being at an arcade and playing with someone next (or across) from you at the same arcade game.
If I want to go to an arcade in America you have to get in a car and ride there. In Japan you can just walk to an arcade. Popularion density and zoning laws play a big role in my opinion. In America everything is far away from residential areas because of zoning laws so you need a car to go get groceries and stuff.
Also smaller living spaces / apartments in Tokyo encouraging people to go out to shared spaces vs bigger homes in America where you are more likely to stay in and build an awesome going room.
13,000 machines seems way too low. If each one was making $400 a week (you made it sound like this was at the upper end but whatever) that $20,800 per machine per year or $270,400,000 (270.4 million dollars) which is 44 times less than the amount you say the industry made in 1982. So either you got the revenue, number of machines or average takings wrong. I don’t think it would be that hard to believe there were over half a million arcade machines in America. DO THE MATHS CHEDDAR
In 1982 there were more than 13,000 arcades in the US: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_games#:~:text=Meanwhile%2C%20the%20number%20of%20arcades,10%2C000%20to%20just%20over%2025%2C000. The number of "arcade machines" was many, many multiples of that. Manufacturers like Atari produced more than 13,000 cabs of the most popular games like Asteroids (47,000), Centipede (46,000) and Tempest (25,000). And that's just the upright machines, not including cabaret models or cocktails. The number of Space Invaders and Ms. Pac Man machines (and many others) was likely much higher. The total number of machines produced in the golden age of arcades was almost certainly over half a million.
I am Japanese. I think the reason Japanese arcades have survived is because there are other gambling elements. Many Japanese arcade games since 2000 eject cards unlike other countries. And many strong cards are sparkling and cool. Strong cards are hard to come by Many children want more powerful cards in games, so they invest more money than in regular games. It is the same as gacha in social games.
Additionally, certain arcades in the United States (And possibly Canada and the U.K.) are sometimes "inceptionized" as part of a larger venue-which often contains other seemingly unrelated forms of entertainment.
I spent so much in the arcades when I went to Japan I want to go back so much and go to the one that has the indoor roller coaster now. I loved the whole levels thing. I spent maybe $50 alone taking pictures (this was in the mid 2000’s when the photo booths was super popular).
I wonder how many other markets declines due to America's historic hyperfixation on building every aspect of existence around private automobile usage and staunchly apposing public transportation that made markets inaccessible and thereby unprofitable.
The fog gaming concept is a pie in the sky. The more practical application discussed in the original Famitsu article is to use the idle network connected arcade machines, such as KanColle and FGO, for cloud computing lite. During periods of closure/inactivity, the network of arcade machines can be farmed out for computing cycles. Which can be used to off set the cost network bandwidth and cabinet rentals.
They must be using several year old data because arcades are now rapidly dying in Japan. Even before corona, they were hurting, but this year has seen a lot of very large amusement centers close permanently.
My all-time fav video games are: Revolution X, Carnevil, Spy Hunter, (Beer) Tapper, House of the Dead Series, Moon Patrol, and Super Skate Bros (a modded Super Mario Bros. board from the late 1980s) where you play as two skateboarders.
Here in America, more and more of what are known as "bar-cades" are cropping up; basically, you buy drinks and play a whole bunch of games, kinda like a Dave & Busters. But there more geared towards twenty-somethings.
Because they offer experiences that frankly will be prohibitively expensive at home. Look up Starwing Paradox as an example. That cabinet is very badass.
Anyone else who hasn't been to a "classic American 70s style arcade"? I also haven't been to a full on Japanese arcade, but it seems that we here in the Philippines did a middle ground. Since we weren't (and still aren't) as rich as Japan or America, we had to lower the scale. In some ways, that helped reduce any possible backlash since it wasn't that popular anyway. We also went with Japan and up til now have bright lights in most arcades (some white and tiled, others red and carpeted). One thing we do different is that instead of single buildings, most, if not all, Philippine arcades are within malls. Malls here are sort of an all around modern life experience with restaurants, shopping centers, grocery stores, arcades, cinemas, etc. Anyway, in the larger malls, arcades are closed within their own room, or in some cases are simply walled off on the sides but there's no front door, just open space. In smaller malls, however, arcades are on the top floor along with the cinema. These ones aren't enclosed at all. There's just a few arcade machines, horse/car rides, and claw machines out in the open. Sometimes you can just insert real coins, but in others you need to get tokens either in a booth or in an enclosed section where the prizes are as well. In the larger malls, the arcades also have things like mini basketball hoops you can shoot balls at, fighting games, and in some cases (since 2018/2019) VR headsets. There's also a few that have those dance floor things. Some even sell stuff other than the prizes from tickets earned from games.
Hey, Cheddar. My favorite arcade games I like are the following: Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Superheroes Arctic Thunder The Fast and the Furious: Super Bikes Galaga
@@DalerMehndisTurban I’m not sure if these Japanese arcades are offering food and alcohol. If they are then they definitely win but getting to drink is pretty nice lol
This is some awful timing to release this video. Sega just exited from the Game Center operation business last week, and down scaled arcade game development by shifting to home gaming. Asobox chain is out of business. Adores closed one of their Akiba store. Two arcades in Shinjuku is closing this month. The full damage of Covid-19 on Game Centers in Japan is not over yet, as GameCen businesses are still reporting massive loss.
"Revenue for the arcade industry peaked in 1982 at $12 million dollars, but just three years later profits plummeted to $100 million." Uh, what? And also, the number shown in that graphic was $12 billion...
If a lot of game developers made games exclusive to arcade, that would probably help arcades become popular again in America. Just don't make those games available anywhere else like console, PC, mobile, etc, because that would stop people from going to the arcades. Arcades offering a lot of experiences not available anywhere else would probably attract people and keep them coming back.
Foot traffic thanks to smart urban planning and avoiding what sunk the American game industry. The reason for less arcades now is thanks to mobile gaming, the pandemic, and the bubble popping.
I use to love going to the arcades, I use to love playing Street Fighter II, Champion Edition, Rianbow and Hyper Fight, I also loved playing Puzzle Bobble, Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, Marvel vs Capcom I and II, The King of Fighters 95 and 98, Tekken 2 and 3, Mortal Kombat I, II and III, Daytona, Raiden II, Run and Gun II and SoulCalibur, I was sad when the arcades were closed down, in Melbourne Australia the arcade industry was mainly killed by violence and the heroin trade, in the city of Melbourne and in many surrounding suburbs we had many arcade parlours, but one by one they were forced to close down because of their seedy nature, when the last arcade was closed down in the city, the heroin trade in that area came to a halt, but it was not shutdown, it just moved on from the city to the suburbs, around the same time mobile phones were becoming affordable, selling heroin on the streets moved to the suburbs and selling over mobile phones, the customers would now have to come to the dealers, unlike before when drug users would have to source their heroin from arcade parlours, now drugs are sold over mobile phones and through the internet, not even the Coronavirus and the closing of borders has had any effect on it, when borders close the only difference it makes is that the price goes up but it doesn't stop them getting in, I hope one day technology becomes advanced enough to stop the drug trade completely except for cannabis, hard drugs bring nothing but death, ruin and violence all over the world, I'm glad I live in Australia where hard drugs and violence are not so prevalent, it's the lucky country.
Not only that but it was getting expensive, American Arcade Owners were getting really greedy making it cost 2-4 dollars just to play 1 game for their new arcade machines. While in Japan it only cost 10 cents for one playthrough....
This vid says that at the peak of US arcade popularity, there was about 13,000 arcade machines across America. Do they mean 13,000 individual arcade cabinets across the whole country? That can't be right. There had to have been way more, right? Is that a mistake? Do they mean 13,000 arcades? (each filled with dozens of cabinets) Would that still seem low?
America Arcade(1980s-90s): oh yeah.. we're gonna kick some butts i'm gonna use my fatality on you.. Japanese Arcade(1980s-90s):... (fighting games racing and vertical shooters) America Arcade(2000s-present):.. oh my God.. look at those Tickets we made.. we're gonna exchange toys too.. Japanese Arcade(2000s-present):... (Upgrades more Rhythm games and simulator games)
The real problem is the weakening American economy and an ever degrading culture. In the U.S. arcades are seen as childish and nobody can justify spending money at an arcade when they can sit on their butt at home and play PS5. Despite the fact that all arcade titles these days are arcade exclusives and cannot be played at home..
As an American, my new favorite type of arcade cabinets are the ones jampacked full of emulated games. This one for example: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VAvelgeVfpk.html
I've lived in Japan for nearly 8 years, and although I agree with most of the things mentioned here, I think there are some other important factors. Most arcades have a lot more than just games. As well as medal games and crane games, most medium to large arcades have purikura (print club) machines, which are essentialy photo booths that allow you to add filters, special effects and clipart to your photos. They're marketed almost exclusively to women, and most places don't allow men near them unless they're with a women. I know some women who hate games but love doing purikura. Having an extra source of income from a completely different market probably helps. Another major change is that pretty much all modern games are more connected to the internet. As well as having multiplayer, this allows games to get regular updates. This is great for music games, add they're always getting new songs, but it also means that every single arcade has identical versions. I used to love playing DDR in the early 2000s, and I loved going to arcades in London and finding the latest version imported from Japan, or an older version imported from America. There's now only one current version of DDR in Japan, so I no longer get to be surprised like that.
You should mention that Sega has, in the last week or so, said that it's selling its arcade business and exiting the market entirely. Articles on this story repeatedly mention the "long slow death" of Japanese gaming arcades, accelerated by COVID-19. Things aren't looking good.
One unmentioned reason the game centers in Japan can sustain, or even thrive, is because many of the games are deep in progressional content. The progress are saved to your personal account on the Internet that's accessed with your IC card. So your game saves can be retrieved from any cabinet in any game centers. Recently, many new games also have a gacha/lootbox/gambling mechanism, that entice player to come back daily to roll for that rare drop with little or no actual game play (I am taking about you, FGO AC).
Why? Because it's Japan, that's why. 2:39 Ah Japanese trains, where passengers are given a certificate if a train is delayed. They're several leagues ahead of American railways
@@thebigpicture2032 GM bought them and the train companies sold them in favor of freight. Then Japan came around in the 1960s and made bullet trains. The US then proceeded to invest in airports. After which the Amtrak was relegated to serving rural neighborhoods, and has yet to make a profit despite being able to fill the too long for driving and too short for flying niche, i.e. over 4 hours by car and under 2 hours by plane.
@@bobsemple7660 One of the main reason the California HRS is so hard to get off the ground is because the freight companies are highjacking them at every turn sighting environmental reason.
