Reports Suggest Arcade1Up Has Been Purchased By Basic Fun

That’s really too bad. While novel (I definitely have no space for em, anyhoo), they played nicely. CAPCOM ones were fun for a quick go.

Not really surprised, once they basically stopped doing any new games or anything interesting with their line-ups, not to mention their extreme prices they made them in later years, which does suck since they were the reason a lot of older games were able to get re-released in so long, but I think companies are realizing that most people just want to play them on modern systems, along side Arcade1Up diminishing in quality and relavence, and yeah it's not surprising they might be closing.

That’s too bad, they really improved their product line over the years. I just wish that they had released a proper deluxe Ms Pac Man cabinet (i.e. one that looked like the original cabinet).

I'm curious how much was lack of demand vs other factors. The ones I've played over the years at various establishments were fine for what they were. Just couldn't justify owning one myself. If they had taken more of a multi system approach....buy one cab and then be able to swap out games / control surfaces / marquees that would have been more enticing for home use.

I haven’t bought anything from them in a number of years, but I still love the work that they do. This is a real shame.

From a consumer aspect, I think their biggest problem is that most customers only have room in their homes for one, maybe two arcade machines (not counting collectors). That kind of fits them in the large appliance space which means they need a constant influx of new customers, or planned obsolescence. Unfortunately, the home arcade space is a niche market so it’s unlikely they’d see a continuous flux of new customers, especially when the prime demographic is older millennials and above.

I think what would have helped them would be to sell various styled cabinets and the actual arcade game with control deck separately. Something of a hybrid between arcade cabinet and home console. Want to play a different game? You don’t need a whole new cabinet taking up more of your limited living space. Just undock the control deck and dock in the new one. Blam, new arcade. If you don’t like your cabinet design, you can always buy a different one and your existing control decks would still work (in theory).

They could even go the extra mile and give their detachable control decks an HDMI out so you can plug them in to a television like those ∞-in-1 consoles.

I hope this rumor isn't true, but I'm not surprised if it is. There's a finite limit to the different arcade machines that will sell enough to turn a profit, but at the same time you can't just keep selling Pac-Man and Galaga machines. Eventually most everyone who's interested in having one will and expanding that market gets very difficult.

@Xarathion I have a Legends Ultimate arcade machine from AtGames, and that's sort of, but not exactly, the approach they've taken.

A month ago, I decided we should use our Arcade1ups as a backdrop to our Christmas tree this year. I thought it was kinda neat.

https://imgur.com/a/yBp9w0E

Just sucks I might not get to do a bigger version of this in the future.

I heard Basic Fun was buying the company.

@jtotal "Content is not available in your region".

@Guru_Larry hmm that's odd. Does this work?

https://postimg.cc/0rFNCWzX

That’s a shame, if I had the room, I would buy them. Really wanted the Star Wars Arcade.

@jtotal That's got it, cheers!

That looks awesome!!!

I always wished for one with all the Mr. Do! games...

@Guru_Larry @jtotal Imgur pulled out of the UK about a month ago and now block all traffic from here… Was about age verifying accounts on setup and a fine or something. Think it predated the whole verify your age with an ID thing the current idiots in charge have implemented but was obviously tied to it in some way.

Just means I randomly need to enable my VPN a lot more when randomly browsing. Thanks for uploading the image to another source, saved me a few clicks.

As everyone said it's not surprising.. They had appeal when they first came out and were cheap but while I've heard quality improved people don't have space and people that do likely collect original machines with crts.

I haven’t even purchased one yet, I’m just going to have hunt for them and purchase the ones that I want

Had Arcade 1UP produced mini arcades similar to the Astro City and Egret 2 Minis, I would have bought a few.

@jtotal Imgur is blocked in the UK. I blame Keir Stalin

It seems like rather a shame. Whilst I felt like they were overly pricey for some nicely decorated IKEA flatpack furniture, a cheap screen and some cheap joysticks/buttons, to see really the ONLY mass maker of nearly-full-size cabinets intended for domestic use disappear is quite a shame for gamers as a whole.

I bought an old PacMan cab which someone had converted to a PC-based setup and I've got one of the PacMania machines to which I'll do the same. I have to say that the original hardware does seem overly laggy to the point of affecting gameplay which isn't so good, but as a starting point for a project they've been really enjoyable.

I don't think it was sustainable.

Not surprising honestly. It was never a particularly great business model. The cabinets weren't the proper size, so nostalgia seekers were never going to be happy with it, and they're the primary target market for something like this.

Nothing of value was lost.

I bought a Pac-Man countertop and then a “Class of ‘81” countertop from them as family Xmas gifts over the years, and they’re fun enough. I’d be sad to see them go. Hopefully they’re not closing doors and it’s just an acquisition. Although, working at an American manufacturer myself, it’s easy to imagine that deranged Don’s tariffs have had extremely negative impacts on their business.

If indeed they are shutting down, it will be interesting to see if it frees up any arcade game licenses - Namco could re-gain the rights to publish Ms. Pac-Man, for instance.

@OutRun22
Dude, I’ve seen you contribute meaningfully here in other articles, so I’ll resist the temptation to call you “another offended snowflake conservative.”

Some women do play arcade games (I and my daughters enjoy the arcade 1up machines we have at home, in fact) and perhaps there’d be more if not for men with creepy biases.

Also, including women and non-white actors in advertising isn’t necessarily “woke,” it’s marketing. That ad is both pitching to a broader demographic, AND influencing guys to “buy this Arcade 1up, since your gf or wife will enjoy it, too.”
Seems pretty obvious to me, having been subjected to American advertising my whole life, but maybe your Kiwi sensibilities are different?

@Teksette as a father of black girls, I can confirm they do indeed play games. Misogyny and sexism has no place here, and gamers will never get over the incel allegations when we have members of the community who choose to present themselves this way.

Surprised more hasn't been said about this. It's been covered in some blogs. John Diamonon was the former Senior Vice President of Licensing and Business Development. He was the guy that setup most of the key license deals. He left in 2023. That's why we haven't seen anything exciting from them in years. Without new exciting products, everyone just stopped caring. But, the other real truth is that you can only sell so many of these cabinets to the same market so many times. Unless you have a large unused space, most people don't have room for more than one or two of these things. How do you choose which one to take up precious living room space with?

Also, after awhile, you kinda get tired of playing the same game. A week, a month, a few months, we all eventually get bored with a game. Then you have the thing sitting there taking up floorspace. Most people can't keep buying new ones due to limited space.

I always thought they would have done better as an interchangeable platform. You invest in the cabinet and controls, which maybe the controls can be swapped out, and you buy or sub licenses for the games. I'm not sure how the business model would work so it doesn't suck for either side. Key point is that customers need rotating selection, and the business has to be able to make enough money per title to obtain new licenses. That business development would have to involve a combination of initial payment plus royalties. You'd need operating capital for that initial payment and structure to maintain the mess of royalties across multiple titles and publishers.

It's a shame if true, although the biggest problem they had is the machines became so expensive they were often the same price as buying a real arcade machine (which meant real machines started getting even more expensive 😫!)

I wonder if the RAM shortage had any impact on them suddenly closing down?

It was always so stupid to me that they didnt include bartop versions of their cabinets. And then take it further and do a bartop compilation with all the games you have licenses for, and make a bartop version of that multi game system too for a higher fee. So many missed opportunities with these guys.