3 min read · Feb 17, 2020
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Barcades may be the future of arcade gaming
The video game arcade was wildly popular during its era in the 1980s and early 1990s, however, many people familiar with the industry has decided that arcades, if not entirely dead already, have begun dying off.
In the article “The death and resurgence of arcades in America” on ABC news, they postulated that the arcade began dying “because they stopped being profitable.” Many sources, including this article, also cited the prevalence of home gaming consoles in bringing about the death of the arcade. According to Play meter magazine’s state of the industry reports published in 2015 and 2016, only around 2,500 arcades exist in the United States today. Compare this to the “Golden Age” of arcades, which according to an article by The Verge reached 13,000 dedicated arcades across the United States. This definitely indicates that the arcade is an industry that has shrunk considerably.
However, this exclusive observation of traditional arcades is failing to see the bigger picture and future of arcades. It’s indeed true that home console gaming has overall absorbed the gaming audiences, but that doesn’t mean an establishment people can visit to play video games isn’t profitable. One such example is the bar arcade or “Barcade,” a bar or pub that also features arcade cabinets, either just free to play with purchase of alcohol, actual coin operation, or hourly “free play” deals where you pay a fee to play any of the games there. And they have been very successful! To bring it into a local context, Pinball Jones is an arcade bar operating in Old Town Fort Collins, and if you know anything about Fort Collins, you know there’s a lot of bars and therefore competition in the bar space. Despite this Pinball jones has been able to be in business since 2011, and has been able to operate two locations since 2017.
Some have discredited the barcade as a fad or novelty or saying they aren’t real arcades, and while they may definitely feel like a novelty, this is just the most economically feasible way for arcades and arcade culture to survive. In An article by Polygon about running arcades in modern times, they discuss the price of an arcade cabinet: “Prices for the cabinets can widely vary, on average costing around $1,000 a unit.” With such a high price just to invest in a cabinet, not even mentioning electricity and repair costs for cabinets, they become a large investment. And with the advent of the home gaming console, it becomes more and more difficult to justify having a business exclusively built off arcade cabinets. That’s why barcades are such an enticing prospect, they offer the same feeling and games of an arcade, but they can attract people to their establishment without the games being their only way to stay afloat. Not only that, but a majority of arcade cabinets that exist today are from the 80s and 90s, and the kids who grew up in those eras are adults now, so it’s a major draw to invoke that nostalgia.
Other different variations of the arcade have also popped up in recent years, with food arcade establishments (who also serve alcohol) like Dave and Busters appearing, but their success appears to also be taking root.
Overall, if arcades want to persist and stay in the mainstream, but be able to maintain their culture, they need to evolve, and barcades appear to be just the evolution they need.
