UP FRONT/GUEST EDITORIAL
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Pessimistic, Optimistic, or Realistic
By
John
Hawley
Philip Moss & Co., Denver, Colorado
In the past year, we have listened to and read many
explanations concerning the current state of the
industry.
The advent of video games brought much to all of
us : technical breakthroughs and new markets. Yet on
the bottom line, we find money-perhaps more than
any of us dreamed of before.
Sounds too good to be true doesn ' t it? It was .
Along with it came many problems.
Operators prospered and purchased more equip-
ment. Distributors sold record amounts of machines.
Manufacturers expanded their production facilities to
supply these machines.
The tidal wave was in motion ; we were all riding
the crest until ...
The unequivocal " Crash of 82 ."
Many operators have notes they are having
trouble paying or even finding it impossible to pay .
Distributors have huge amounts of money on these
notes.
Manufacturers have layed off many workers and
curtailed their production quotas .
We all ask why and look for the answers to the
problems. Yet we created the problems; therefore , we
know the answers.
It' s all right having hindsight, but perhaps more
foresight should have been used in the past years.
When riding the video game wave, who thought of
saturation of the market, liquidation of stock , or even
bankruptcy ? Who cared? We were making money;
everything was rosy .
I wouldn ' t be so naive to say that all operators,
distributors, or manufacturers didn't think ahead
becau se some businesses are quite healthy. Yet being
truthful , there were a lot that didn't consider the
future.
We can look for scapegoats for our position :
zoning laws, heavy taxes, gray area games, and the
video pirates. The list goes on.
Yet the main cause was our inability to look to the
future and plan accordingly.
Our industry has gone through depressions, reces-
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sions, and all manner of problems. When I say " our
industry," I don ' t just mean the video industry but
rather the coin-operated industry, for that 's what we
are .
The coin-operated industry has been here all of
this century and how many of your fathers and even
grandfathers were part of it?
Video games have been the icing on the cake , but
there is no doubt in my mind that the coin-op industry
will be with us at the end of this century.
Manufacturers, distributors, and operators need
one another to survive ; lose one and you lose the
others .
A greater understanding of the problems and
cooperation to their resolution is needed on every
level of our industry.
Enough tar and feathering has gone on . The witch
hunting of certain parts of the industry hasn ' t resolved
any problems .
Headlines concerning raids on pirate games look
good, but they do little to improve the national pro-
blems these games create.
More cooperation between the manufacturers is
needed to combat this problem. Hundreds of millions
of dollars are lost each year to copy games.
Can you blame an operator for paying $1 ,000 less
to buy a copy game over a legal one?
Can you blame a " fly-by-night" manufacturer for
making these games when there is little chance of him
being caught?
We can blame gray area video games for a lot of
our problems, but can ' t we remember that a lot of
manufacturers, distributors, and operators blossomed
during the heyday of one-armed bandits? Some even
got their start there .
All the answers to our industry's problems are
within our grasp because we created the problems .
We can be o ptimistic and say that everything will
work out fine.
We can be p ess imistic and say we are in dire straits.
Or we can be realistic and find the problems and
do something about them .
PLAY METER. June 1 5. 1983