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Japanese gaming arcades are on their last life

japantimes.co.jp

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Re: Japanese gaming arcades are on their last life

#41

Post by mmahemoff »

41209 wrote: post #26

I'm so sad I'll never get to experience this. I don't think with covid, arcades will ever be economically viable again. Even with a vaccine it's a high risk low reward activity to have so many people gathered around in such a small space. However there are tons of arcade bars in the US. Hopefully this will become a thing in Japan

"high risk low reward activity to have so many people gathered around in such a small space"

So is going to a restaurant or a pub. Once Covid is endemic and handled well by vaccines, other factors will have a bigger influence on the fate of Japanese arcades.

Re: Japanese gaming arcades are on their last life

#42

Post by [deleted] »

bane wrote: post #29

Visited Japan a few years ago and even then I found the arcade experience kind of bewildering. I was fully prepared to accept the crane games, rhythm games, and the genre sorted levels of the big arcades. What really threw me was the absolutely impenetrable MOBA style games that seemed to fill entire levels on their own. They looked like they were designed for lots of long term play and grinding, and needed some kind…

[deleted]

Re: Japanese gaming arcades are on their last life

#43

Post by distantaidenn »

Japan resident here. I grew up in the arcade scene in the US. It was the thing to do when we were kids. Sadly, it began to die just as I entered university age. I moved to Japan in my mid 20s and was thrilled to see arcades not only plentiful, but also decently packed.

Before online play was ubiquitous, there was always a line of people to challenge. I loved it! But yeah, the scene is rapidly approaching what I saw back in the US. Even before the pandemic, the scene was dying out. I suppose this is just the nail in the coffin.

On the other hand, I've also lived in South Korea and visit quite often (only a 2 hour flight). The arcade scene is HUGE. It reminds me of its heights back in the US. The places also offer offer a huge variety -- from your typical fighting, MOBA, and crane, to darts, basketball, and target shooting. And oh yeah, little 2 person karaoke booths. It even seems like a popular date spot for young couples. There is also a huge growth in VR arcades and retro arcade bars. The latter is pretty awesome. They'll typically have some retro console/emulators set up, and you pay a flat fee (and a drink minimum) for unlimited play. Can't wait to get back!

Re: Japanese gaming arcades are on their last life

#44

Post by trainsplanes »

tmm84 wrote: post #15

Having lived in Japan for the past decade I can say that game centers (arcades to those outside Japan) have changed. I remember playing rhythm based games (pop-n-music, taiko drum master, etc.) and some fighting/shooting games for a few years. But, within the last two years or so, the NFC card requirement for almost all games has come to fruition. Wanna play that racing game? Gonna need to "grind" a vehicle and save…

Yep. This and the fact that each arcade has maybe 5 flavor of the month games, none of them remotely appealing to me, with the rest being countless floors of crane games, makes it kind of hard to care.

Like, I get it, they’re going for the whales who’ll waste loads of cash on “games” that just swallow coins. But leave at least one floor with some variation and some games that average people will want to play.

Re: Japanese gaming arcades are on their last life

#45

Post by newfriend »

Waterluvian wrote: post #32
swimfar wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MOBA=Multiplayer online battle arena

Never realized until now that MOBA is a pretty terrible acronym unless you already know what it means.

There's an even worse alternative acronym for this genre, which shall not be named.

Re: Japanese gaming arcades are on their last life

#46

Post by toyg »

trainsplanes wrote: post #44
tmm84 wrote: post #15

Having lived in Japan for the past decade I can say that game centers (arcades to those outside Japan) have changed. I remember playing rhythm based games (pop-n-music, taiko drum master, etc.) and some fighting/shooting games for a few years. But, within the last two years or so, the NFC card requirement for almost all games has come to fruition. Wanna play that racing game? Gonna need to "grind" a vehicle and save…

Yep. This and the fact that each arcade has maybe 5 flavor of the month games, none of them remotely appealing to me, with the rest being countless floors of crane games, makes it kind of hard to care. Like, I get it, they’re going for the whales who’ll waste loads of cash on “games” that just swallow coins. But leave at least one floor with some variation and some games that average people will want to play.

> Like, I get it, they’re going for the whales who’ll waste loads of cash on “games” that just swallow coins

It's the "pachinkization" of videogames, which is ironic considering how pachinko machines try so hard to look like videogames.

Re: Japanese gaming arcades are on their last life

#47

Post by toyg »

distantaidenn wrote: post #43

Japan resident here. I grew up in the arcade scene in the US. It was the thing to do when we were kids. Sadly, it began to die just as I entered university age. I moved to Japan in my mid 20s and was thrilled to see arcades not only plentiful, but also decently packed. Before online play was ubiquitous, there was always a line of people to challenge. I loved it! But yeah, the scene is rapidly approaching what I saw b…

> I've also lived in South Korea and visit quite often (only a 2 hour flight). The arcade scene is HUGE.

I wonder what the difference is. Just a tax thing, or novelty...?

Re: Japanese gaming arcades are on their last life

#48

Post by raitom »

Sad story but a good side effect of that is you can now buy one of these arcade machine for a good price.

I bought a vewlix diamond a few months ago for $2k. Something I never thought possible a few years ago.

Game center are closing but if you are motivated, and not afraid to spend countless hours of research, cleaning, figuring out manual guide in japanese,… now is a good time to own one of those aracde machine before they completely disappear!

Check out https://www.arcade-projects.com/

Re: Japanese gaming arcades are on their last life

#49

Post by fxtentacle »

toyg wrote: post #47
distantaidenn wrote: post #43

Japan resident here. I grew up in the arcade scene in the US. It was the thing to do when we were kids. Sadly, it began to die just as I entered university age. I moved to Japan in my mid 20s and was thrilled to see arcades not only plentiful, but also decently packed. Before online play was ubiquitous, there was always a line of people to challenge. I loved it! But yeah, the scene is rapidly approaching what I saw b…

> I've also lived in South Korea and visit quite often (only a 2 hour flight). The arcade scene is HUGE. I wonder what the difference is. Just a tax thing, or novelty...?

I believe it's a culture thing. The more wealthy the average citizen becomes, the less they need to share with others. And once you're starting to get used to having everything to yourself on-demand, it becomes difficult to accept that in an arcade, you might have to wait for someone else to finish playing before it's your turn.
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