History of Arcades – Are they going away?

Sega fabricated the first electromechanical games in 1966. They launched a submarine simulator after this first success; other games came out. Some of those games include sports, flying simulators, shooting, etc. A few years later, electromechanical games were replaced by video games. After students at Stanford set up a coin-operated version of a video game, several video game companies attempted to mass-produce. In 1972 Atari Inc. launched Pong, the first successful video game. The first games only took a single quarter.

Space invaders was the first blockbuster in the video game industry, with its success the golden age of arcades began. Video game arcades in the mid-70s-80s took over malls, bars, corner stores, etc. By 1981 the video game arcade industry had a value of 8 billion dollars.

The gaming industry is worth $99.6 billion this year

The decline of arcade video games started in the late 1900s. In 2004 the total revenues were only $866 million. Game releases also decay. Most video game companies started releasing games specifically for their portable consoles. Video game arcades started merging with restaurants, bars, and other services.

Even though the gaming industry is worth $99.6 billion this year, most of the mobile and console gaming dominates the industry. China is experiencing outstanding growth in the gaming industry, along with some of its neighboring countries.

Even though the arcade business might be declining, Raspberry PI gaming machines might be an alternate option. Read this post to learn more: Video Game Industry: Raspberry PI as a New Player