Why arcades never stood a chance

It's almost the end of another year, but instead of a melancholy look back at how great arcade games were and how it's a shame modern arcades are a shadow of their former selves, I'm going to talk about how the fall of arcade gaming was inevitable and necessary for gaming as a whole to evolve.

The beginning of the end

PlayStation 1 shared DNA with the Namco
System 11 and System 12 arcade units.

For years, home computers sought the holy grail of the arcade perfect conversion. They rarely, if ever achieved it. Then in 1994 the Sony PlayStation came along, just as arcades were venturing into 3D polygonal graphics, and everything changed. The gap between arcade and home gaming closed with the PlayStation; Namco even used the same hardware for the basis of their System 11 and System 12 arcade machines. Games like Tekken 3, Soul Blade, Ridge Racer, Point Blank and Xevious 3D/G on the PlayStation were virtually indistinguishable from the arcade originals. At this point there was still plenty of life in the arcade scene, but the PlayStation, more than any other home machine to date, was the thin end of the wedge. 

The rise of internet gaming

By the end of the 90s the PC had become the dominant force in home gaming. Games like Half-Life, the Quake series and StarCraft became the competitive games to play, at home, over the internet. Rather that 2 to 4 people facing off, PC gaming allowed dozens of players to go at it. This was a much bigger gaming experience than anything the arcade had to offer — and all from the comfort of your home.

Games like Quake III Arena took competitive gaming
to a whole new level.

However, PC gaming had a relatively high barrier to entry. Firstly, it was expensive. PC graphics cards could (and still can) cost as much as a console and if you want to be cutting edge you had to spent hundreds of pounds every year. But the along with PC gamers, the number of console gamers was growing thanks to the PlayStation 2, which not only had the support of all the people who owned an original PlayStation, but also the support of people who wanted an inexpensive DVD player.

These two groups, the PC gamers and the console gamers, came together in mid-2000s, when the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 brought high definition, internet gaming to the masses. One game above all set the scene on fire and that was Infinity Ward's seminal first person shooter, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Call of Duty 4 offered console gamers a taste of what
PC gamers had been enjoying for the past decade.

I remember a bunch of us at work watching the "All ghillied up" trailer during lunch and being utterly blown away. Then we saw the video showing the perks and how each player could tweak the game to suit their own play style. This was a deeper, more tactical game than the hordes of Quake games that came before it. Moreover, all you needed to take part was a few hundred quid for a console and a broadband connection, which by 2007, almost everyone had. Gamers played it in their millions and in comparison arcade games were basic and limited. 

However, by now console controllers had become multi-axis, multi-buttoned monstrosities that genuinely intimidated casual gamers, people who once upon a time might have played Pac-Man or Outrun.

Modern console controllers are just too
complicated for some people.

Accessible games for all

By now the arcade was all but dead, but it left a bit of a void in the form of casual, accessible games. Enter Nintendo and Apple with two completely different platforms, offering very similar experiences that appealed to those lost masses. I'm of course talking about the Wii and the iPhone.

Is there anyone left who's
not played Wii Sports?

The Nintendo Wii was a huge success with everyone, from kids to "cool" people who previously shunned gaming to old grannies who never worked out how to programme their VCR, let alone play games. In 2006 the Wii was selling out all over the world. The natural feel of motion gaming was epitomised by a game that was bundled with console, Wii Sports. Bowling, tennis, golf, boxing, all simulated to entertaining effect by swinging the Wii Remote in intuitive and instinctive sweeps of the arm. Playing Wii Sports with friends suddenly became a party activity, with groups of people unashamedly hurling themselves (often drunkenly) around their living rooms as they played. Such was the all encompassing and entertaining nature of Wii Sports that for many Wii owners it was the only game they needed. 

Cut the Rope, a brilliant little game
that costs less than a Mars Bar

On the less frenetic, but nonetheless popular end of the gaming spectrum, the iPhone's open market attracted literally thousands of small independent developers, making small, accessible games for less than a quid. It wasn't long before Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows Phone platforms attracted those same developers and suddenly everybody with a smartphone was playing games like Angry Birds, Words with Friends, Cut the Rope and Draw Something. Where the Wii got people playing games in public, smartphones got people playing games persistently. And like an arcade game, these were games you could spent a few minutes or a few hours playing, depending on what you wanted.

While there's plenty of duds on the iOS, Android and Windows Phone marketplaces, some of these mobile games look brilliant, play brilliantly and would not have been out of place in an arcade in years past. The experience these games offer and the cost to play them is as close to a modern version of the pocket money gaming of the arcade as you'll get.

The best price is free

If paying less than a quid for a game like Cut the Rope sounded cheap, in the last couple of years a new trend of free to play (or F2P) games has come along. These games are usually either ad supported or include weapons, armour, upgrades and power-ups that you can buy for just a few pence. Either way, the bulk of the experience costs nothing. And these aren't just simple little games. Massively multiplayer online games like League of Legends are free to play and many that did have a subscription, such as Lord of the Rings Online and even World of Warcraft, can be played for free.

League of Legends is incredibly popular and hooks its players by
virtue of its free to play model.

And the point is...?

Multiplayer arcade gaming, circa 1985

Individually, I don't believe any of these gaming trends betters the arcade experience, but as a whole they offer gaming that is deeper, more expansive, more accessible, more readily available and fresher than your typical arcade machine. As much as I miss those days, if I'm honest part of that is down to the period in my life that I experienced arcade gaming, those seminal pre and post adolescent years when so many things imprint on you for the rest of your life, from music and movies to school and friends. Over the last 10 years I've had some of my best gaming experiences ever on home platforms, specifically with games like World of Warcraft, Portal, Elder Scrolls and Mass Effect. And when I want something quick and simple to play, all I need is a browser and an internet connection or my smartphone and I can be playing some amazing shoot 'em up or puzzle game in seconds.

What's more, it's never been easier to find and play classic arcade games, with plenty available on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and Wii Virtual Console. So you can have the best of all worlds. Play the deep, challenging online multiplayer games; play the quick and accessible motion games on Wii, PlayStation Move and Kinect; play lots of cheap, fun little games where ever you want and finally, play those classic arcade games if you're feeling nostalgic. The gaming world is your oyster and there is no longer a place in it for fixed arcade cabinets that cost millions to produce and distribute, only to age faster than they can be realistically updated, without actually offering anything that improves on experiences you can have at home or on the move.

GW