Sept. 11's effect on the coin-op industry
by Kyle Orland 
{ Feb 9th 2007 at 4:05PM }
Following up on yesterday's post on the decline of the American arcade, we stumbled across this little bit of soul-searching from Brad Brown, president of coin-op repair and sales shop Worldwide Video. Brown looks back at a rather gloomy 2002 Christmas letter in which he details how the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 have impacted the coin-op market.
According to Brown, the attacks made "a tremendous amount of people want to stay home and entertain themselves," going out only to places that "do not require traveling long distances." Coin-op users in 2002 tended to leave the house only for "very specific events or events that usually include a multitude of activities along with 'we just happen to be there' coin-op game entertainment," Brown said.
Years without an attack on American soil may have mitigated these effects, but these days Brown reflects that the "relative down cycle / blip upon our industry that has proven to last far longer and deeper than I would have anticipated." We don't doubt his first-hand experience, but we've also started noticing that those darn, impossible-to-beat Stacker machines are popping up all over the place, so maybe things are turning around. We'll put the question to you -- does the threat of terrorism make you less likely to seek out video game outside the comforts of your own home?
[Via Insert Credit]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
sheppy @ Feb 9th 2007 4:10PM
HAHAHAH! Terrorists killed the arcade scene now? This is actually more entertaining than when Nintendo blamed 9/11 for a poor Japanese debut of Gamecube....
jessica @ Feb 9th 2007 4:15PM
In general, I feel safer and more comfortable at home. I don't think that's a function of just 9/11. It's more that I am a single mom, mostly going places alone or with a 9 year old. I can't really get into a game without taking too much attention off him. Would be pretty stupid to take him out for an afternoon of fun and let him get kidnapped while I beat the next level.
Also, with my crap video game skillz, it's much cheaper to buy a 20 dollar game and spend a month playing it than to blow at least that much on snacks and games in a single afternoon.
I will leave the house for arcade basketball, mini golf, and air hockey, though.
Jesse Edgar @ Feb 9th 2007 4:16PM
Dood, It isn't terrorist attacks or anything that is killing the arcade business... It's the fact that there isn't anything to offer in the arcade business...
Back in the day, we would play arcade games because they look so much more realistic that Console games. Games used to be compared to their "Arcade counterpart" in the reviews. Now, when you go to somewhere to eat or something and you see an arcade game sitting there, you don't think anything of it. Hell, most of the time you say, "I have that game on Playstation 2"
Norm @ Feb 9th 2007 4:17PM
I love playing fighting games in arcades. luckily, we have a pretty good scene in my town. we even have tournies from time to time, and I practice for Evolution and other tournies exclusively at the arcade. so... yeah I don't have a problem, although it really is a totally different world from console gaming. they really are 2 seperate genres.
shanoboy @ Feb 9th 2007 4:25PM
Yeah, I would say pervs and predators have more to do with it than terrorists. Plus, arcades are just plain expensive. And now that home games offerer everything arcades used to offer (superior graphics, use of light guns or dance pads) who needs arcades unless you just go to socialize.
Johnny @ Feb 9th 2007 4:22PM
9/11 did a lot of things...
but the arcade scene died long before then.
Colin @ Feb 9th 2007 4:38PM
Puh-lease... the arcades were long dead by the time 9/11 rolled around. If anything, the quality of console games, peoples desires to play non-arcade style games (ie: RPG's, adventures...) have increased, and the fact that the new and good arcade games were so damn expensive to play, have killed the arcade scene.
Autocrawler @ Feb 9th 2007 4:26PM
"the threat of terrorism"
...LOL
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/january2007/050107peanutskill.htm
J.Goodwin @ Feb 9th 2007 4:36PM
The arcade scene died because the machines got too expensive for the arcades to buy, the arcades had to charge more, and probably not just a little bit because of the declines in traffic to arcades that happened when they became popular hangouts for gangs and drug-dealers.
Now, the arcades that are left are yuppie clubs where you will easily lay out fifty bucks in a single evening. Not exactly the kind of place we grew up on.
What I miss are the MVS machines in every local video shop and pizza place that have been replaced by soulless blockbuster videos or video poker machines. It sucks. Gambling and big corporations have killed video gaming.
SickNic @ Feb 9th 2007 4:31PM
Not really. I think I just find most of the new people I meet (videogamers especially) are douchebags. People nowadays certainly aren't as cool as they were when arcades were popular. Just look at all the kids on Xbox Live. Who wants to waste gas and spend money listening to that in arcades?
is @ Feb 9th 2007 4:29PM
The only relevent factor is price. £1 a go for most games in UK? Fuck that.
The DDR machines still have their fans tho.
Flit @ Feb 9th 2007 4:34PM
Know what kills the arcade Scene for me? "Insert 6 coins for a credit". Honestly... I have to pay a buck fifty to try out a game? I'd probably end up spending $1.50 in your damn machine if you only charged me $.25 for a credit, dumbasses. Look at nicklecade (I think those are nationwide). Those don't seem to have much trouble sticking around. I don't care if your game is the bees knees in graphics and sound design, I can get a hamburger for one credit.
Quit blaming everything on 9/11. Let it go.
FrankTheCrank @ Feb 9th 2007 4:42PM
TERRORISM??
What terrorism? Oh you mean the 20 guys who flew two planes into WTC?? Those guys are gone. Uhm...what else? I think you have a better chance of winning PowerBall than getting killed in a "terrorist attack".
If there were any decent arcade games, it would be a different story. The consoles have surpassed what the arcades could deliver in terms of graphics and gameplay. You can thank the Playstation and Playstation2. That was the beginning of the end for the arcades. Not "terrorist".
DeezNuts420 @ Feb 9th 2007 4:49PM
@ Jessica
A single Mother who plays Video Games. WOW!!!!
I nominate you for coolest mom of the year!!
Ryan Cravens @ Feb 9th 2007 4:50PM
I am in the arcade industry and I have been for over 15 years. I get excited whenever there is arcade news on sites like this. The industry is in flux and while arcades are going away, the games are popping up in other venues like Movie Theaters, Bowling Alleys, Bars, etc...
I have never heard the 9/11 theory and I think that you should not listen to one guy's theory. Raw Thrills is a company that started after 9/11 and they have had incredible success. My company (Betson and a partner with Raw Thrills) is being very bullish on the arcade industry and we see some titles coming down the pipe throughout '07 that will continue this upward trend.
It is sad to see stories like these getting spotlights.
Virtua Fanboy @ Feb 9th 2007 4:48PM
Are they fucking kidding? I don't go to the arcade because the closest arcade is about 60 miles away from where I live. Not because the idealistic, extremist, idiot boogeymen are gonna get me on the way.
There's a hundred and one arguements about why the arcade is gone and they're just about all right except for the newest terrorism theory. lol
Xeno @ Feb 9th 2007 4:49PM
I think the decline in Coin-Op Arcade gaming had much more to do with the fact that arcades go rid of all of their interesting games and replaced them with mediocre fighting and racing games.
Personally, as soon as my local arcade got rid of BeatMania, I didn't really have much of a reason to go... *sigh* Time Crisis is still awesome though...
loveberry @ Feb 9th 2007 4:58PM
DeezNuts420...
My kid would disagree, but only because he has to fight me for the games. ;)
Apreche @ Feb 9th 2007 5:03PM
I remember when arcades were hopping in the 90's because of games like Mortal Kombat 2 and Virtua Fighter 1. Why were the arcades hopping because of these fighting games? Quality multiplayer against people you didn't know. The arcade started dying when people started getting cable modems.
Also, in those days the arcade provided a better experience than the consoles at home. No SNES version of MK2 or NBA Jam could compare to the might of a real arcade machine. The N64 and the Playstation also killed the arcade.
And of course nowadays the XBox is killing PC gaming. People don't have time to play every game there is. The money goes to the best gaming experience. DDR and Time Crisis still get the money because home versions can't compete. Make more arcade games that are superior to home games, and you'll get more people. It's that simple.
Also the increased popularity of Paintball and Airsoft killed Laser Tag which hurt quite a few arcades out there.
Diskoboy @ Feb 9th 2007 5:18PM
Yeah - if you manage to find an arcade actually still open, look around when you are there.
How many games were fighting games, light gun games, and/or racing games? Practically all of them? Well there's your awnser.... There's no originality left in the arcade industry.
Wil Wheaton's article yesterday brought up an excellent point - when SF2 came out, everyone started to imitate it. No one tried to make anything different. Back in the first golden age, almost every game you played was different from the others.
IMO - the arcade biz peaked in 1984. It will never see the popularity it did in the early days.
Digi Smalls @ Feb 9th 2007 5:43PM
i'm waiting for the dubious link to Saddam Hussein.
.
fishamaphone @ Feb 9th 2007 6:13PM
I wonder what else happened in 2001 that might have had an effect on coin-op arcades...
Two home consoles didn't launch, did they? A third one launched the year before didn't see a drastic rise in demand, did it?
No, those don't directly compete on the same market, nosirree...
Larry @ Feb 9th 2007 6:44PM
Does this guy work for the Pentagon Office of Special Planning? Or maybe the Vice President's Office? Jeez, talk about specious reasoning.
I used to be an AVID arcade gamer. In fact, part of the reason my Parents kept buying me consoles like the NES and SNES was to keep me out of the Arcades.
The Arcade pretty much died to me when the Saturn and the original Playstation rolled out and featured games like Virtua Fighter and Tekken that looked more or less on par with the arcades.
After that arcades started to stagnate. Machines kind of lingered in the dark, the places got seedier, and when the arcade owners would get new games in they were all just knock offs of Street Fighter/Mortal Kombat or some light gun game.
Then towards the end of the Playstation One reign the graphics on most arcade games began to GET WORSE and there were games like Resident Evil that started to do things that the arcade gaming world couldn't fathom.
By the time I moved out on my own and bought my first XBOX arcades were a distant memory. I haven't even thought about going in an arcade in years and years. Even if I did there aren't any around to go to.
calthaer @ Feb 9th 2007 7:15PM
There is a "family fun center" not more than 1000 feet from my house. I could easily walk there.
I don't. Why? Because the only arcade game in there that I wanted to play - a Capcom multi-arcade cabinet that had LOAD of games and cost $.25 a play - they got rid of. Now there's just Deer Hunter and crap there.
To really pull me into the arcades and make me want to drop quarters on a regular basis, there would need to be either a) some CLASSIC arcade games, b) games like Gauntlet Legends where I could continue the adventure with friends, or c) arcade cabinets that could interact with games I have at home (i.e. - those F-Zero cabs in Japan I heard of where you could plug in a GameCube memory card and unlock some levels).
If they made some game cabinet that downloaded something like...I dunno - special promo Pokemon or something else that people would go nuts over having (or a special weapon for Final Fantasy or whatever famous game there is out there), and if it were only in arcades - people would travel for that.
hehehhehe @ Feb 10th 2007 2:41AM
Well, I live in NY and saw the towers go down, and yes, I'd have to say I did feel much safer at home for a long time. You should've seen some people I have worked with that were working right next to the WTC.
However, the reasons for the death of the arcade is not 9/11. People recover, and it can be seen in box office numbers and other entertainment venues which are still going strong. There just aren't enough games that make you want to go to the arcade anymore. The prices are also a bit off, considering the alternatives.
Ciaran Gallagher @ Feb 10th 2007 11:25AM
9/11 has nothing to do with the arcade scene. Arcades don't offer us much more than what we already have at home (eg. Nintendo Wii, light guns, Xbox 360, PS3, dance mat, eyetoy, vision camera etc.)
Anyway, a US news channel polled its viewers and found that one third were convinced that 9/11 was not done by middle eastern terrorists, but actually by the Bush administration/the American government.
So, why the heck isn't anybody doing anything about it? If that is the case, you've got a dictator WORSE than Hitler.
baby sea tuna @ Feb 12th 2007 12:07PM
Whew, 25 whole comments before someone made reference to Hitler. It was pretty much touch and go there for a second...but the Internet pulls through once again. Congratulations!