August 1993
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STAR*TECH Journal
.,.-,, ADVANCING GAME COSTS
STAR*TECH Journal's
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Evan Wessel
Mercury Amusements
Havertown, Pennsylvania
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GAME COSTS
First off, I have to thank Bally/Williams/Midway for
the innovative and top quality games of the last few
years. Our problem on the street is advancing costs.
Although I mention their games for example, the com-
ments apply to other manufacturers, as well.
Designed for Coin-op Service Managers, Field
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VIDEO
Video games are made volatile by the absolute flood of
consumer games and this will not get better with the
Sega and Nintendo channels on cable. Mortal Kombat,
dedicated & kits, were priced at top dollar and is
already available for Sega home systems on CD-Rom.
We're talking arcade play here folks, not your old
Nintendo 8-bit junk. Advancing home technology is
~bsoleting our games too fast. Video depreciation is so
' ~igh, we can no longer pay $1700+ for kits and make a
reasonable profit. Make the big bucks on the home
market, but give us a break.
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PINBALL
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>v2.o
Pinball play and design has never been better. Costs
have never been this high either. The unfortunate
reality is that earnings have not advanced with the cost
of pinball games. Space Shuttle & Eight Ball Deluxe
performed about as well as Addams Family &
Funhouse at a lot less operator cost. Our profits were
much higher for the older, lower cost games than with
new games. Even with high resale value, depreciation
& service costs are still quite high today.
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Name: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Company: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Address: ____________ _
High pinball costs are making us very conservative. In
the past, we took chances with good games like Whirl-
wind, Police Force and Roller Games. At $2300, we
weren't going to get hurt. But guess what? We passed
on White Water, Dracula and Creature because we
could not justify buying good games at $2900+.
~OTIOM LINE
-It's unfortunate to see the "hits only" syndrome apply-
ing to pinball, but costs are getting out of hand. I think
everyone would be better off with more units sold at an
affordable cost. Economy of scale is the ticket.
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