Japanese gaming arcades are on their last life
japantimes.co.jp
Japanese gaming arcades are on their last life
1–10 of 74 posts
Re: Japanese gaming arcades are on their last life
#2I certainly miss 90’s arcades but what made them special was limited access (my parents would only take me every now and then) and the gap between arcade and consumer hardware. There was a little bit of socializing but it was mostly with the friends that came along. I wish location-based VR experiences like The Void would become a modern substitute but the economics don’t seem to work.
Re: Japanese gaming arcades are on their last life
#3They were already less cool as of late. Gone were a lot of the “one game per machine” things and instead they just had a bunch of crane games and these “multi-title” machines with standardized controls. So, you could sit anywhere and play the same thing unless it had unique controls/displays or could still justify its own cabinet.
Re: Japanese gaming arcades are on their last life
#4Non-paywalled syndicate: https://newsonjapan.com/html/newsdesk/article/131076.php
Re: Japanese gaming arcades are on their last life
#5What does this mean for Round 1?
It seems to be making inroads in the US.
Re: Japanese gaming arcades are on their last life
#6I live in Detroit and within the past few years 3 arcade bars have opened within walking distance of my apartment and another is about to open. These are the places I tend to frequent (actually about to go to one to after writing this and went to another last night). The thing that separates them from console or PC games for me is pinball. I cannot justify buying a machine, but I’m loving the resurgence.
Re: Japanese gaming arcades are on their last life
#7They are already mostly gone except in a few places in tokyo and the obvious geek dens like Akihabara. And they are all smoking which means you get cigarette smell amd feel dirty after no time. No thanks.
Re: Japanese gaming arcades are on their last life
#8Its a shame, Tokyo of the 90s and 2000s felt like stepping into a new cyberpunk world with arcades, advanced cellphones, net cafes and karaoke booths, wild fashion music and subcultures etc. When Thomas Freidman came out with the World is Flat around then I thought it was kind of ridiculous, and it hasn’t played out in work but the world of consumer culture sadly is becoming much flatter. No market can resist the iPhone and Netflix forever.
Re: Japanese gaming arcades are on their last life
#9They are already mostly gone except in a few places in tokyo and the obvious geek dens like Akihabara. And they are all smoking which means you get cigarette smell amd feel dirty after no time. No thanks.
They exist just fine out of Tokyo. Fukuoka for instance is brimming with them if you know where to look - I don't recall any of them smoking.
Re: Japanese gaming arcades are on their last life
#10They are already mostly gone except in a few places in tokyo and the obvious geek dens like Akihabara. And they are all smoking which means you get cigarette smell amd feel dirty after no time. No thanks.
They exist just fine out of Tokyo. Fukuoka for instance is brimming with them if you know where to look - I don't recall any of them smoking.
The article notes that the number of arcades across the country had already collapsed by 80% from 26573 to 4000-odd in 2019, and that's before COVID.