Play Meter

UP FRONT/GUEST EDITORIAL
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Invest Profits to Create
Larger Coin-op Market
After taking a fast look through the November 1
issue of Play Meter, and seeing the news about the
arcade/ restaurant chains-some of the sheriff's
auctions of games distributors, including one in
Cincinnati wherein Pac-Man games went for an
average of $400-doesn't it make you wonder
whether the arcade game business is in about the
same mode that the bowling business was in 20 years
ago? Or, something closely like that?
There are two obvious concurrent factors coming
into play:
1. The avid game players are over-
playing to the extent that they are over-
satisfying their own desires because the
games are everywhere! You don't play
games on impulse in a few locations-
rather, you are impulsed into playing
them every place you go.
2. Instead of trying to develop a much
broader segment of the population to
become game players, the game manu-
facturers have been spending all their
money to increase the number of games
they can manufacture every month so
every location in America can have all
the games it wants.
This is ridiculous. Game owners or operators are
totally powerless to increase the number of game
players-this requires a continuing multimillion
dollar effort on the part of the game manufacturers
who have failed to invest in the growth of the industry
on a permanent basis. Instead they have taken avail-
able capital investment dollars and put them into
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facilities to create an oversupply of available equip-
ment!
In the coin-op business, or like any other busi-
ness, you only learn from hindsight. It 's time for the
total industry-particularly the manufacturers (in
much the same manner as the bowling industry relied
on AMF and Brunswick nearly 20 years ago) to create a
desire for a much broader segment of the population
to enjoy playing arcade games .
Today, the bowling industry is a very healthy
industry. Out of adversity came awareness, out of
adversity came strength of character and dedication
to recognize the problem , and in the process,
everybody in the industry pulled together to solve the
problem and create a much bigger and much health-
ier bowling industry .
I don't know whether we can do this today since
it is not an all-American industry in the coin-op
business, but I sure hope we can. This is a great busi-
ness on the threshold of becoming even greater, and
this industry will be ome greater. It's just a matter of
the profit takers of the la st two years plowing those
profits back into creating a larger market-a larger
universe in the population which enjoys the games . I
hope to see the industry pull together like th e
bowling industry did , and educate another 25 million
or 50 million people to enjoy the games.
J. C. Evans Sr.
Vice President
Gold Medal Products Co.
Cincinnati, Ohio
PLAY METER. December 31 . 1983