blossom wrote:Releasing on arcades is effectively region locking a game for no particular reason outside of nostalgia for an outdated type of publishing. I can't see a reason any game releasing on EXA should not instead be released on consoles and PC.
I think this is a shortsighted view, and silences anybody who has an interest in the arcade environment outside of nostalgia. I don't care about the nostalgic memories of Gen-Xers. I openly dislike nostalgia-based marketing and fervor, because I think it discredits the media or interest for its legitimate merits.
It is a failure of the west that arcades quickly became shitholes with poor maintenance and ergonomics from '80s wood cabinets with little improvement.
blossom wrote:A few quarters in a game that people will likely not play again or $15-$20 for a game someone can own forever?
People who try a game once or twice and then never play it again are a narrow slice of potential patrons, and that represents a kind of narrow view of the market. The income from the game goes to the arcade operator, not to the game creator. In profit-sharing arrangements, that's not the case (e.g.the majority of Sega and Konami machines) that's not the case, and the income to the operator is reduced.
Let's say a game is developed, and sold to operators for $1000 per cartridge. One hundred copies sold is $100,000. That's 1000 sales of a $10 steam game. I want to bring up this example to point out the power of a single sale. If a game fails to hook someone beyond being played once or twice, a good amount of that blame is distributed across the environment its played in (quality of the space, appeal, availability of social interaction/support), the game itself, and the cost to play it. Until the pandemic hit, Aka to Blue has been doing great on location. The developer profits more from operators gaining confidence in their product, instead of from direct customer interaction.
My personal interest in the project is from wanting to support the arcade as a social game space. People like to watch other people do things well, or to challenge a local champion in a versus title. None of these gameplay aspects are mutually exclusive to home, arcade, mobile, online, etc. but each environment and platform is
different. It is a space that, when cared for and well curated, provides a venue for competition, a space to meet people who like to play similar games, and a way to discover new games. These goals can not be achieved in an environment that has not been maintained and supported by stakeholders who care.