Good content. People at Firestone will land elsewhere and stay in the industry and continue to lend. And can confirm that Firestone was fine. Decision made by the bank that was not based on economics. Just a difference in direction as they have changed CEO's several times since they acquired Firestone in 2015.
Financing options can be overwhelming to research and pursue, Great topic! Great point about the “deluxe” cabs and VR games. Depending on foot traffic, unless you’re a R1 or D&B, return on investment on those machines is potentially not there. All of your videos are valuable parts to the overall picture of arcade operation. I appreciate the research you do and the simple explanations you give.
Man it's crazy how many things have acted against the gaming industry over the years in an attempt to kill it and this is like literally yanking the rug out from under everybody. Since you said this has more of an impact on smaller business, I think I may see a conspiracy the big chains have communicated and they're attempting to monopolize the industry to themselves. It's only a theory, but I'm throwing it out there in case there's a chance I may be right.
Who knows, but it certainly feels like it. When the pandemic permanently shut down a ton of small arcades and brings CEC to bankruptcy and D&B almost there, then the latter two come out of it stronger, particularly with D&B spending almost $1B to buy out a competitor, then it makes you wonder.
Shipping costs by themselves were enough to lift up prices. As for VR... I still hate it as a public arcade amusement machine but do we know if they work so well ? There would be so much potential if everyone would finally agree on a generic VR cabinet instead, like Japan in the 90s
When it comes to stock market, Dave and busters is climbing. It's doing really good. It seems like the entertainment business, at least in NYC its booming.
Yeah D&B, Chuck E Cheeses, Round1USA, they seem to be doing fine (that said, I've overheard several different groups complaining about how expensive these places are becoming, particularly R1 - some consumers are looking for alternatives). But that's where this sort of situation with a major lender saying no more cash for the little guys can continue to make it harder for us to compete/survive/thrive. :/ Of course it's difficult to compete with multi-million $$$ corps already, this just makes it even more of a challenge and it's frustrating - there are more bar/arcades and routes out there than places like D&Bs, yet the manufacturing side only focuses on D&Bs (I understand why, but it's still frustrating)
@@arcadeheroes_coinop hey look. I'm nowhere near your establishment and yet I now know of it. People all around the world that are generally into pinballs and arcades are finding you. Use that. As a Born and raised New Yorker and a millennial, we try to stay away from loans. No matter how much they insist that loans help businesses grow faster. I don't enjoy handing out free money to ppl that already has money. I been to your website. I think you should start a membership program. One where the whole world can pitch in some money. Perhaps every 6 month of membership, the members would earn a prize. Maybe you can try to meet up coming developers to develop a custom made internet game where members would have access playing via your site. I don't know man. You say you're a little guy but yet, you're communicating with ppl all around the world via RUclips. Use it.
@@jbalien20 Thanks - Funny or sadly enough, a lot of follows on the social media for my Arcade Galactic business are outside of Utah. The main issue with that is that promoting things like tournaments or specials gets little traction since the locals need to hear about it. A local business needs local support to ultimately thrive - yes I have reach through this particular channel but that still doesn't give me millions of dollars to import & localize the latest releases from Japan like R1 does or have developers create exclusive content for my place like D&Bs does. There's also often confusion between this blog channel and the business itself, although I suppose doing these videos on this channel isn't helping that any :P Beyond myself, the issue with loans as brought up on the video is that other small ops like myself find themselves staring down Goliath and they're removing our stones from the river to fight back with, so to speak. I don't want to be the only small guy left on the market - we need route operators and other smaller arcades for the industry to really thrive. :) I have thought about doing memberships here on YT, I just need to find the time to create some worthwhile member content to justify it. I'll figure something out but I like your suggestions and really do appreciate them. I'll see what can be done
Not sure what you mean. 1up only focused on home and not licensed for any kind of commercial use (can't imagine 1up in a bar would help much anyways). Exa is an option, if a bar wants to bother with new, although they often shun new unless it's pinball.
Keep up the good fight. I always root for the arcade scene, and businesses (such as yours) are a BIG reason as to why arcades are not fully dead.
Good content. People at Firestone will land elsewhere and stay in the industry and continue to lend. And can confirm that Firestone was fine. Decision made by the bank that was not based on economics. Just a difference in direction as they have changed CEO's several times since they acquired Firestone in 2015.
Interesting as always.
Financing options can be overwhelming to research and pursue, Great topic!
Great point about the “deluxe” cabs and VR games. Depending on foot traffic, unless you’re a R1 or D&B, return on investment on those machines is potentially not there.
All of your videos are valuable parts to the overall picture of arcade operation. I appreciate the research you do and the simple explanations you give.
Man it's crazy how many things have acted against the gaming industry over the years in an attempt to kill it and this is like literally yanking the rug out from under everybody.
Since you said this has more of an impact on smaller business, I think I may see a conspiracy the big chains have communicated and they're attempting to monopolize the industry to themselves. It's only a theory, but I'm throwing it out there in case there's a chance I may be right.
Who knows, but it certainly feels like it. When the pandemic permanently shut down a ton of small arcades and brings CEC to bankruptcy and D&B almost there, then the latter two come out of it stronger, particularly with D&B spending almost $1B to buy out a competitor, then it makes you wonder.
I'll never complain about an arcade cabinet selling for $2600 online again...
Shipping costs by themselves were enough to lift up prices.
As for VR... I still hate it as a public arcade amusement machine but do we know if they work so well ?
There would be so much potential if everyone would finally agree on a generic VR cabinet instead, like Japan in the 90s
When it comes to stock market, Dave and busters is climbing. It's doing really good. It seems like the entertainment business, at least in NYC its booming.
Yeah D&B, Chuck E Cheeses, Round1USA, they seem to be doing fine (that said, I've overheard several different groups complaining about how expensive these places are becoming, particularly R1 - some consumers are looking for alternatives).
But that's where this sort of situation with a major lender saying no more cash for the little guys can continue to make it harder for us to compete/survive/thrive. :/ Of course it's difficult to compete with multi-million $$$ corps already, this just makes it even more of a challenge and it's frustrating - there are more bar/arcades and routes out there than places like D&Bs, yet the manufacturing side only focuses on D&Bs (I understand why, but it's still frustrating)
@@arcadeheroes_coinop hey look. I'm nowhere near your establishment and yet I now know of it. People all around the world that are generally into pinballs and arcades are finding you. Use that. As a Born and raised New Yorker and a millennial, we try to stay away from loans. No matter how much they insist that loans help businesses grow faster. I don't enjoy handing out free money to ppl that already has money.
I been to your website. I think you should start a membership program. One where the whole world can pitch in some money. Perhaps every 6 month of membership, the members would earn a prize. Maybe you can try to meet up coming developers to develop a custom made internet game where members would have access playing via your site.
I don't know man. You say you're a little guy but yet, you're communicating with ppl all around the world via RUclips. Use it.
@@jbalien20 Thanks - Funny or sadly enough, a lot of follows on the social media for my Arcade Galactic business are outside of Utah. The main issue with that is that promoting things like tournaments or specials gets little traction since the locals need to hear about it.
A local business needs local support to ultimately thrive - yes I have reach through this particular channel but that still doesn't give me millions of dollars to import & localize the latest releases from Japan like R1 does or have developers create exclusive content for my place like D&Bs does. There's also often confusion between this blog channel and the business itself, although I suppose doing these videos on this channel isn't helping that any :P
Beyond myself, the issue with loans as brought up on the video is that other small ops like myself find themselves staring down Goliath and they're removing our stones from the river to fight back with, so to speak. I don't want to be the only small guy left on the market - we need route operators and other smaller arcades for the industry to really thrive. :)
I have thought about doing memberships here on YT, I just need to find the time to create some worthwhile member content to justify it. I'll figure something out but I like your suggestions and really do appreciate them. I'll see what can be done
So the amusement industry still doesn't have a direct competitor in the barcade sector? What the hell has 1up and EXA been doing??
Not sure what you mean. 1up only focused on home and not licensed for any kind of commercial use (can't imagine 1up in a bar would help much anyways). Exa is an option, if a bar wants to bother with new, although they often shun new unless it's pinball.