For decades, several providers have offered online services that allow arcade operators to rotate game titles or purchase licenses online and then install them remotely, for example NESiCAxLive.
The market for new arcade games is a niche market, and it's not easy to break into. Most current arcade operators tend to focus on restoring older equipment and operate primarily through memberships, catering to people who want to relive the experience of visiting an arcade.
The target audience typically doesn't buy arcade machines with the expectation of playing new games. They usually purchase an arcade cabinet with a PC inside, or a system like a Pandora box, which typically comes pre-loaded with several thousand well-known games.
Based on my experience in arcade communities, I doubt that a new system, without a good selection of well-known games, would be of interest to this sector. And the idea of "rotating" or downloading games online isn't exactly a new concept. Whether it will work or not will depend on the games you can offer.
It probably would be better to just have a selection of games that gets added to, but from what I saw from your website, I can see the benefits of rotating games. (Not allowing someone to get unreasonably good at the game) I do have a question for you, though. Is the target audience of these machines arcades? Because if so, how is this not considered gambling? The people who go to arcades aren't gamblers, and I don't think the government wants kids who go to arcades to get gambling addictions.
Would there be a bet limit? Because if someone gets really good at the game, they can just bet a ton of money and make a dent in the arcades bank account. Also, it's worth noting that most arcades use a card system where you put some money on a card and spend it, so having to log into an account. It does seem like an interesting idea, though.
you're asking the wrong audience. you need to go and talk to people who run arcades and understand them and their clients. your clients are the people who purchase arcade games, their audience are people who put tokens into the arcades. so you'd need to have a good relationship with those people and fully understand what those people want. The people here on itch are mostly game developers, we aren't your audience, we're your peers, we aren't your clients and we can't help you understand your market here. Some of us might have experience with your clients but that's not the same as just going to talk to said clients and making that direct connection.
That’s fair. We’ve been talking to operators, merchants, and venue owners too, and it’s been pretty eye-opening. But we also wanted to hear from devs to get a sense of what the whole ecosystem thinks.
So if we gave you real players in real venues and made onboarding painless… would you consider putting a game on it?
We’re building arcade cabinets that go into real venues (like malls, cinemas, lounges, etc.) where real people walk up and play.
Now here’s what we’re offering to devs:
We're not asking you to throw your game into a black box. We're saying:
“We’ll bring the players. You bring the gameplay.”
I don't have a problem with developing for an arcade and would actually love to throw my hat into such a ring, but that leaves the question of how these rotations work, is it all over network? does that mean now there's always online DRM? I guess that's not as bad for a venue (but i'd still want it disclosed), but if there is facial scanning / biometric data collection, ads, or a lack of transparency in the pricing of the games, that would be an absolute no go for me. these are very real concerns in 2025.
