Anyone curious what the worst earning games at Game Galaxy are?

[DreamTR]

Anyone curious what the worst earning games at Game Galaxy are?

www.gamegalaxyarcade.com

For those of you that do not know, I have an arcade with about 125 games (that's all we can fit) and we try and rotate them from time to time with another 100 or so games we have in storage in the mall.

I'm going to list what the WORST games are average per week, and it's interesting to note the majority of the "worst" games are the classics...and when I say "way down" I mean in terms of earnings, all of these games work.

Defender-$1
Tempest-$1.50
Tapper-$1.00
Street Fighter EX 2 Plus-$1.25 (in big blue Q-SOund cabinet)
Violent Storm-$1.75 (this has gone down lately, it was running $5 a week for awhile)
Tekken Tag-$1.75 (also gone down lately)
VS. Tetris-$1 (even original Tetris did not do well for us)
VS Excitebike-$1 (down lately, usually $2 or so)
VS Pinball-$1
Satan's Hollow-$1 (pulled this once already, brought it back for Halloween)
Pac-Man PLus-$1.50 (way down, usually $5 or so)
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs-$1 (another one WAY down, usually $3-4 a week)
TRack and Field-$1.25
Toobin-$.50 (down as of late)
Food Fight-$0.25 (We're pulling this)
Dr. Mario-$1.50
VS Gradius-0 (LOL)
VS Goonies-0 (this one has made a total of $2 in 2 months)
R-Type-$1 (only the second week we have had it too)
Elevator Action-$1 (3rd week since we brought it back in)
Marble MAdness-$1 (probably going to pull this)
Arkanoid-$1.75

It's pretty obvious we don't have enough people to support the classics, LOL...we have many more classics that do well like Super Punch Out, Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, etc...

 

[LyonsArcade]

I worked for an op a while, we had some locations where certain games would only do a couple bucks a week.


There's something to be said for overkill on the games. I found when setting new locations, that you could put 10 games in, and make 400 a week, and if you put 15 games in, you'd still make 400 a week. So part of what you're going through isn't that the games are shitty, it's just that people dont' have the time to play marble madness when they can play centipede... or whatever. People only have so much time, and they'll use it playing their absolute favorite games. So centipede and marble madness might make 15 between them, and if you got rid of one, the other would still make 15... or whatever.

You get the point.

 

[Phetishboy]

www.gamegalaxyarcade.com

For those of you that do not know, I have an arcade with about 125 games (that's all we can fit) and we try and rotate them from time to time with another 100 or so games we have in storage in the mall.

I'm going to list what the WORST games are average per week, and it's interesting to note the majority of the "worst" games are the classics...and when I say "way down" I mean in terms of earnings, all of these games work.

Defender-$1
Tempest-$1.50
Tapper-$1.00
Street Fighter EX 2 Plus-$1.25 (in big blue Q-SOund cabinet)
Violent Storm-$1.75 (this has gone down lately, it was running $5 a week for awhile)
Tekken Tag-$1.75 (also gone down lately)
VS. Tetris-$1 (even original Tetris did not do well for us)
VS Excitebike-$1 (down lately, usually $2 or so)
VS Pinball-$1
Satan's Hollow-$1 (pulled this once already, brought it back for Halloween)
Pac-Man PLus-$1.50 (way down, usually $5 or so)
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs-$1 (another one WAY down, usually $3-4 a week)
TRack and Field-$1.25
Toobin-$.50 (down as of late)
Food Fight-$0.25 (We're pulling this)
Dr. Mario-$1.50
VS Gradius-0 (LOL)
VS Goonies-0 (this one has made a total of $2 in 2 months)
R-Type-$1 (only the second week we have had it too)
Elevator Action-$1 (3rd week since we brought it back in)
Marble MAdness-$1 (probably going to pull this)
Arkanoid-$1.75

It's pretty obvious we don't have enough people to support the classics, LOL...we have many more classics that do well like Super Punch Out, Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, etc...

That is sad, but seems to be the way it is these days. My most played games are Asteroids Deluxe, Pole Position, Centipede/Millipede and Galaxian. How do those 5 do for you guys?

 

[orion3311]

Can't imagine marble madness doing so badly. I wonder if placement of these games have anything to do with it as well? I'd be curious to take a game like Marble madness and move it closer to the door to see if that changes anything. Could be a fun experiment!

 

[gozer5454]

Sad to see that so many great games pull nothing for earnings.

Even though these games earn crap, makes me wonder if by having their very presence at the arcade brings in added interest to the games next to them. What I mean is, whenever I walk into an arcade I usually tour around and soak up the "energy" of the place. I'll see the games I remember from my youth and feel inclined to hang around and spend money without as much worry because the subconscious comfort of simply seeing the games exists.

Toobin for instance I love to see at an arcade. I usually won't play the game, but I love to see it running. And that gives me some sort of weird "security blanket" effect which keeps me there to pop quarters in the others.

Bottom line for a owner is always dollars. If they're not earning, then they're eating valuable square footage up. I just thought I'd put that perspective out there for all ya'll arcade owners. Might make you think twice before plucking certain games out.

 

[jj mann]

Very sad to see this

 

[snapJaw]

I would love to see that Vs your top earners.

Any chance you could post that?

 

[robxf]

Wow. Pretty low numbers. Begs the question though, what are your best earners?

 

[DreamTR]

That is sad, but seems to be the way it is these days. My most played games are Asteroids Deluxe, Pole Position, Centipede/Millipede and Galaxian. How do those 5 do for you guys?

We have an ASteroids, so that has to do $2-3 a week...Centipede is in here, but it's not mine.

Galaxian when we had it did $3 a week, but it looked like crap. I don't have a Pole Position. I don't think I could handle all the repair on it, LOL. I have another Galaxian I just got but we're out of room here.

ANother thing to note, yes, the earnings would be the same with 60-80 games as opposed to the 125 we have. We are well aware of that, but I look at it as free storage sometimes...

 

[Robotron Jon]

People stopped putting money in those games 25 years ago, so why would they start putting money in them now?

To today's kids those games are like the horse and buggy. The people who remember those games are now middle aged and most of them probably don't frequent arcades, ever.

If you had put in a 1960s EM pinball or shooting game in an arcade in 1982 do you think anyone would have put money in it then? Definitely not.

Every generation has it's own nostalgia.

 

[Phetishboy]

People stopped putting money in those games 25 years ago, so why would they start putting money in them now?

To today's kids those games are like the horse and buggy. The people who remember those games are now middle aged and most of them probably don't frequent arcades, ever.

If you had put in a 1960s EM pinball or shooting game in an arcade in 1982 do you think anyone would have put money in it then? Definitely not.

If you had a roomful of working Sea Wolfs we'd see what's what.

 

[Atlas100]

I don't find this surprising at all. It is just what people are used to now. Back in the day, there was a Pac man game at our YMCA. It was awesome because there was NOTHING ELSE LIKE IT. You would literally beg for quarters to play it from anybody you saw walking by.

The only other thing you might have to compare it to was an Atari 2600. Pac Man on my Atari 2600 was one of the biggest disappointments ever. The graphics, the gameplay, everything about it was crap compared to the original.

Now people have Xbox 360's and PlayStations. The arcade doesn't trump your home system that cost you $200. One game on a 19 inch monitor in a gigantic box doesn't translate well to today's youth.

Plus, those older games are hard. Unless you are a practiced veteran, you are going to die pretty fast at a lot of the games. And like I said, kids are used to playing Super Mario Galaxy ALL DAY LONG in their living room for 'free'. Popping a quarter into a Defender or Donkey Kong machine and getting killed in under 30 seconds doesn't lie well with the spoiled youth of today.

 

[p1899m]

you clearly need more arkanoids

 

[DreamTR]

Can't imagine marble madness doing so badly. I wonder if placement of these games have anything to do with it as well? I'd be curious to take a game like Marble madness and move it closer to the door to see if that changes anything. Could be a fun experiment!

LOL, I really think you are overestimating classic games =P

A lot of this depends on demographics. When we had our Rivergate Mall location (mostly Caucasian) classics did well there. This location is about 33/33/33 across the board but more Hispanic and Black customers than RIvergate.

We had Food Fight in front of the door and it did a whopping 50 cents a week.

 

[R3LL1K]

Have you considered giving one free play on the underperforming games? I think that if you had a sign on the games stating that one game was free on them it would motivate people who are unfamiliar with the game to try it out. This way they could try the game out like, it and then continue to put quarters in it. I think this strategy would work great with Tapper.

 

[DreamTR]

I would love to see that Vs your top earners.

Any chance you could post that?

Top earners avg per week:

Super Street Fighter IV VEWLIX Arcade-$90-110
Cruis'n World (2 machines)-$60-80 EACH
Dance Dance Revolution Extreme-$50-65
Tekken 6 Bloodline Rebellion-$45-55
Maximum Force-$40-45
San Francisco Rush Alcatraz(3 machines) -$30 each per week
Marvel VS Capcom 2-$30-35
House of the Dead 2-$25-35
Guns N Rose Pinball-$20-25


To give you an idea of location comparison, DDR used to make $120 a week at Rivergate. Guns N Roses made $75 a week. Heck, Black KNight 2000 made $45 a week there. DOnkey Kong Jr made $25 a week (yes, $25 a WEEK at Rivergate and less than $3 a week here)

 

[DreamTR]

Have you considered giving one free play on the underperforming games? I think that if you had a sign on the games stating that one game was free on them it would motivate people who are unfamiliar with the game to try it out. This way they could try the game out like, it and then continue to put quarters in it. I think this strategy would work great with Tapper.

Logistically that makes no sense. Most of our money here actually comes from console sales, so I can't have one of my guys walk over to a cabinet and give people a free game every few minutes...

We do have hi-score contests for cash from time to time (Beat XXXX score on this game posted on the machine win $20-30 cash at the end of the month) and that did pretty well with Mikie until the game broke, LOL

 

[Robotron Jon]

If you had a roomful of working Sea Wolfs we'd see what's what.

I loved that game back in the 70s. EM pinballs, shooting games and the early vids. It was a cool time, but it's never coming back.

I'm not an expert, but it seems to me that the games that do well these days are the shooters, drivers, and the dance games. And ticket redemption. I have owned a few shooters and every time I had people in the arcade those games got the most play of anything. And the people who were playing them were people who were of age during the classic era.

 

[DreamTR]

A few other things of note, console sales/trades make up 40-50% of our total earnings and we just have two shelving units. It's WAY easier to make $10 from a sale than someone spending $10 in quarters....the arcade mainly looks like a hobby at this point here.

Now, people DO play games if no one has them.

When we had Blazblue for the arcade and it was not out on the consoles for 6 months, the game made $200-500 a week for 5 months....

When we had Tekken 6 and the T6BR upgrade, the game made $350 a week AVERAGE with some weeks as high as $550.

We are getting the new Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Upgrade in December and I am certain no one within 6 states will have it, and it "should" do $200 a week if we have people traveling from out of state like we did for these other games...



The biggest thing is all the compliments we get ON the classic games and people always walk in and look around and want to talk but they don't really spend money or come back all the time to play. I love when we get "requests" to play a game and they spend $1 after we clean and bring a game into the place, then they never come back after we leave it here for 2 months (Time Pilot 84, Joe and Mac, etc)

 

[bottlejunkie]

i can remember when i was growing up in the early '80s we had an arcade that on friday nights you could pay a flat rate to get in and all the games were set to free play. my dad would drop me and my brothers off and we'd play for hour's (my brothers mostly hung out with there friends,i was the baby) but the place was packed. i know that was a diffrent time but say if you charged $10.00 for unlimited play for a day and issued wristbands (very cheap in bulk) you would still make more in a day than some of your machines are making in a week.