Cost of machines, and revenue made.

That seems a bit high, esp for a game that originally came out in 979. Granted, that's retail price, not what a distributor would have paid. And by 1982 the game was 4 years old and already being replaced by Ms. Pac-Man.

Bally Midway actually restarted Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man production after their initial runs and offered them at reduced prices. This pissed off owners because it killed their resale value.
 
I suspect trying to compute "how much money they made" would in fact have to consider the cost to run/repair them, as others have mentioned. But, additionally to that, I would also suspect that the full algorithm for net profit would also need to factor whether the game was the primary business (i.e. an arcade) or if it was ancillary to the primary business (store, restaurant, bar, etc.) then what non-game profits it attributed to (sodas, candy, food, beer, whatever). I can certainly attest that many stores, pizza parlors, etc., got additional $ from me because I was there to play the arcade game(s).
 
Bally Midway actually restarted Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man production after their initial runs and offered them at reduced prices. This pissed off owners because it killed their resale value.


That's right. And by 1982, I can't imagine Pac-Man was selling for the same price it was when it launched. If they did, then no wonder the market was flooded with pirate versions and knockoffs.

As for whether or not ops made any money on arcade games BITD, of course they did. Most of those in my area made a small fortune on them, and recall stories of collecting the really successful ones (like Asteroids and Pac-Man) 2 and 3 times a week. It's all the "dog" ones and expensive games like the color vector and laserdisc ones that they took a beating on.

The other games they made an even larger fortune on were the arrival of (illegal) video poker games. The early 80s were THE time to be an op :)
 
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