Play Meter

manufacturing Seeburg Reports Earnings Up from Last Year Seeburg Industries, Inc. , Chicago, 111., has released its nine month financial report for the period ending September 30, 1976. The report indicates that the net income of the company in the third quarter of 1976 was $179,000, or 7 cents per share, which compares with a loss of $2,057,000 in the corresponding 1975 period . Revenues were $30, 152,000 up from the previous year's $26,373,000. Net income for the first nine months of 1976 was $1,548,000 or 60 cents per share, according to the report . This compares with a loss of $5,908,000 in 1975. Revenues for the respective nine-month periods were $99,336,000 for 1976 and $77,267,000 for 1975. Third quarter results were affected, wrote Louis J. Nicastro, Seeburg chairman of the board, in his letter to stockholders, "by an eight-day strike at the Williams Electronics, Inc. plant and problems encountered in the production of new coin-operated phonograph models by the Seeburg Products Division . Assembly line changes necessitated by the introduction of new models," the letter went on, "tardiness in delivery of satisfactory parts by a key supplier, and the division's inability to obtain certain essential materials on a timely basis due to credit restrictions imposed by certain suppliers, all contributed to serious production delays." Nicastro also saw a two-week October strike at the Seeburg Products Division in conjunction with these problems having an adverse affect on fourth quarter results, which quarter, he said in his letter, "is historically the weakest of the fisca l year." He noted, however, that other subsidiaries of the company, Choice Vend, King Musical Instruments, Qualitone and Williams Electronics were "achievi~g very brisk sales and operating profitably." Exidy's Paul Jacobs helps Death Race take yet another telephone interview. The machine has been the subject of more controversy than perhaps any other single amusement game in the industry's history. Jacobs has been on TV recently, on TODAY and Nbc's Weekend, to defend the game. For more on Death Race and the controversy, see Louis Boasberg's guest editorial on page 10 in this issue. Death Race on TV The Saturday night of Super Bowl Weekend , if any of you can remember that far back, NBC aired its monthly magazine show. The show, Weekend, which is similar in many respects to the perhaps better known 60 Minutes (on CBS), presents a series of reports on various subjects of human interest. And on this particular show, one of the subjects was coin-operated electronic games, and in particular Exidy's controversial Death Race. (Many of you may recall earlier reports of both good and bad press on Death Race. See Play Meter, Volume 2, Number 8.) The segment of the show perta ining to the amusement business was done in good taste without any apparent pre-conceived notion about the business itself. But the thrust of the segment concerned itself with Death Race itself. Before the cameras, Exidy executive Paul Jacobs presented himself both honestly and intelligently. The primary criticism raised against the game was that the running figures on the screen resembled too closely human figures. During the program, a psychiatrist came on and claimed that the players of the game were being subconsciously trained to respond to violent stimuli. The game presented a real danger, he thought. Jacobs countered that "the figures on the screen are merely gremlins; they were not meant to be taken as real people." And the players themselves expressed agreement. Before the cameras, one player after another denied that a meaningful parallel could be drawn between the game and life. " Running a ghost over on a video game isn't going to make me go out and run somebody down in the street," one player said. The segment seemed at times to be an attempt to put down the game but thanks to the coolness of Jacobs and the intelligent reasoning of the actual players, the attempt failed. If the NBC Weekend segment accomplished anything at all, it displayed the industry as it exists today to literally millions of Americans . In an attempt to cast doubt on the people who make and play coin-op games, the show succeeded only in making more people aware of this industry and the good clean form of entertainment that it offers.