Play Meter

Play Meter survey results:
Video still #1,
other types register gains
King Video, as expected,
strengthened its hold on the coin-
operated amusement industry in
1981 with a 37 percent increase in
weekly gross collections. But the
other major forms of coin-operated
amusement-pinballs, pool tables,
and phonographs-registered
modes- increases themselves, to
record levels in 1981.
Those modest increases, after last
year's declines for pinballs and
phonographs, may signal the end of
the cannibalism effect of 1980 when
video's gain came at the expense of
losses from other forms of coin-op
amusement. It may also signal a
more pronounced upward trend in
coming years for these competing
forms of entertainment.
Still, 1981, like 1980, belonged for
the most part to video as the playing
public continued its love affair with
the coin-op TV games. Average
weekly gross collections for upright
videos in 1981 climbed to $140. That
more than doubles video's average
weekly take of just two year's ago . It
also marks the second straight year
video has registered a $38 increase in
weekly gross collections.
To further signal the dominance of
the video game in the marketplace
today , cocktail videos-once looked
upon as not even belonging in the
same class with upright videos,
pinballs, pool tables, and phono-
graphs-surged past pinballs, pool
tables, and phonographs to claim the
second spot in weekly gross
collections, behind only their upright
counterparts.
Partly because of the willingness of
operators to buy hit videos in
whatever configuration they're
available, and partly because of the
lure the cocktail configuration has
for locations which never had coin-
op games before-the average
operator now has eight cocktail
videos - as opposed to 88 uprights.
Still, the marked difference indicates
8
Pinball: Market shares
of Play Meter's estimate
of 54,000 pinballs sold
Williams ... . ....... . .. 43%
Bally .. ............... 30%
Gottlieb . . ..... . . . .... 12%
Stern ... ......... .. .. . 11%
Others ............... 4%
Video: Market shares
of Play Meter's estimate
of 470,000 videos sold
(including upright and cocktail;
estimate of uprights: 414,000)
Atari ................. 30%
Midway ...... . ........ 26%
Williams .......... . ... 12%
Stern .. . .............. 8%
Centuri ... . ....... . ... 6%
Cinematronics . . . . . . . . 5%
Gremlin . ............. 4%
Exidy ......... . ....... 2%
Taito ......... .. .. . .. . 2%
Others (including Data
East, Nichibutsu, Nintendo,
Universal) . . . . . . . . . . . 5%
Pool: Market shares
of Play Meter's estimate
of 18,000 tables sold
Valley ................ 60%
Irving Kaye . ... . .. .... 14%
Dynamo .......... . ... 12%
U.S. Billiards . . . . . . . . . 5%
Others ... . .... . ...... 9%
that uprights continue to be
preferred by the average operator,
when they're available.
These were among the major
findings of Play Meter magazine's
annual "State of the Industry"
operator survey. The Play Meter
survey, which draws upon the
largest independent sampling of
operators nationwide, tracks
industry trends and buying habits.
This year the magazine's survey
registered a six -plus percent
response rate with a representative
sampling of U.S . operators- with
respondents' business ranging in
size from as small as one piece of
equipment to national operations
with several thousand pieces of
amusement equipment.
. To further analyze industry
trends, the survey responses were
sub-divided into three categories: (1)
those operations of 75 amusement
machines or less ; (2) those
operations with between 76-299
machines; and (3) those operations
with 300 or more amusement
machines.
This year's survey also sampled
operator opinion on current industry
issues and controversies, such as
video game and jukebox copyrights,
convertible games, gray area
operations , and governmental
restrictions. Some of those findings
were:
-A solid majority of operators favor
convertible game systems.
-Only one operator in ten
operates video gambling games,
otherwise known as "gray area"
games.
-Roughly fifteen percent of the
operators polled admit they had
bought or operated unauthorized
copies of popular video games in
1981.
-More than 60 percent of the
members of the operators' national
association, AMOA, and 80 percent
of the non-members feel that if the
industry is to continue the jukebox
copyright battle, it should move
immediately for a repeal of the per-
jukebox assessment, instead of
working within the framework of the
compromise agreement the AMOA
settled for .
-And nearly two out of every five
operators in the country are now
reporting that they are hampered by
PLAY METER, November 15, 1981