Arcade auction

So The Coliseum arcade has been in terrible shape this year. Outside of the new stuff most of the classic stuff is not operational. I was at a pinball shop today and was told Cedar Point just auctioned off a bunch of the stuff. Are they just clearing out the classic stuff or are they making room for a long awaited dark ride? 43 games and pinballs gone forever!

Below is an arcade board I follow too for confirmation..

https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=435719

I highly doubt they would try to stuff a ride in there the ceilings are awfully low and it's full of support pillars. I'm sure they're making money off an arcade that size. I have trouble imagining an amusement park without an arcade.

I think they're trying to use game card machines like what Kings Island has. Those work really well down there for Kings Island and saves people from having to carry a bunch of cash around.

I don't know if the park still operates this way so take this for what its worth...

When I worked at the park all of the arcade machines were rented from an outside vendor. In April a semi would pull up and drop them off and the day following closing day a semi would pick them all up. The park did own their own machines too but they were mostly the older style games and the pinball machines. There was even a team of employees who took care of the games all summer (might have even been a fulltime guy overseeing them). So if the park still operates this way, I would imagine the games they are selling off are the old machines that they don't want to take care of anymore.

Time marches on... its time for the Arcade to go.
The primary age group has now grown up in the age of iPhone
It’s a waste of space in the same format, better for the park to utilize it in a new way.

Heartbroken I didn't find out about the auction when it was going on. Would have loved to bid on my favorite pinball machine. Would have been a dream come true to own the actual one from the park.

You can probably still buy them from the reseller that purchased them to refurb them.

Arcades are actually making a comeback in some areas. The one near my house recently moved into a larger space because they've been so successful. Their pinball machines operate as usual and the rest of the games are set on free play and you get a wrist band for either an hour of play or the entire day and they host birthday parties. My kids occasionally use the CP arcade and during our Kings Island trip my husband spent a lot of time in theirs while me and the boys waited in line for things he can't ride. I think if anything CP may be getting rid of some of their vintage machines that they haven't kept working for some time.

Shawn Meyer said:

I think they're trying to use game card machines like what Kings Island has. Those work really well down there for Kings Island and saves people from having to carry a bunch of cash around.

I suspect the primary reason for the cards is that they obfuscate (more than tokens) that you're spending actual money, leading to both increased revenue and a non-zero amount of unspent credits.

XS NightClub said:

Time marches on... its time for the Arcade to go.
The primary age group has now grown up in the age of iPhone
It’s a waste of space in the same format, better for the park to utilize it in a new way.

I disagree. Have you been to a Dave & Busters on a weekend afternoon?

I walked through the arcade this summer, and the biggest takeaway was the total number of "out of service" machines, which included every pinball machine against the back wall (that they are now selling). I think the arcade concept is still very viable, it just needs to be freshened up and the offerings have to be available. I would have loved to have killed an hour waiting for rides to reopen after some rain playing those pinball machines and would have gladly dropped $20 for the privilege.

Chains like these may provide a niche source of entertainment, but as noted the future is not on their side. Kids have a generation of iPhones they grew up with, they never knew a world without them.

Yahoo Finance : Source: Dave & Buster's.

The dirty details
Comparable store sales fell for the fourth quarter in a row, dropping 2.4%, though that did mark a sequential improvement over a 4.9% slide in the first quarter. That improvement may indicate that the worst of the dive in comparable sales is over, but it's worth remembering why comps are such a key metric for a restaurant chain like Dave & Buster's: The figure strips out the impact of new stores, meaning it represents the best measure of underlying demand for Dave & Buster's food and entertainment offerings. Also, growing sales at existing stores is much more profitable than opening new stores, as comparable sales growth comes without the capital and labor costs required to build new stores and hire and train staff. Finally, no restaurant chain can open new stores forever. Dave & Buster's has said before that it sees a capacity of 200 locations in North America. With 117 currently, the company still has several years of store growth ahead of it, but it will eventually need to drive comparable sales higher in order to grow its business.

As a gaming concept, D&B also doesn't have the opportunity that other restaurant chains have to grow through delivery and take-out. It can't use platforms like Grubhub, which have become increasingly popular among casual dining chains.

Dave & Buster's gross margins also compressed in the period, meaning it kept less of the money it made off of food and amusements; food costs rose 40 basis points, and amusement costs ticked up 30 basis points. Other restaurant-level costs rose, but profit growth benefited from the company's lapping a $2.6 million litigation charge from a year ago. Even aside from that, profits still would have grown due to new store openings -- but the business is becoming less profitable on a percentage basis.

We have a Dave & Buster's in Cleveland. In addition, two more venues opened recently that are just like Dave & Buster's, a Round 1 and another brand that I can't think of at the moment. There is certainly a market for arcades judging by the activity in Cleveland. However, the days of arcade video games and pinball games are mostly over. Redemption games are where it is at and I think Cedar Point is getting rid of the unpopular games and modernizing and expanding the redemption games.

The arcade is a lot of fun when it's raining. They just need to keep getting the new games in. I was at Dave and Buster's in Livonia, MI two Wednesdays ago. It was pretty busy. This 50 year old not a video game aficionado, but I could not put my card in fast enough to keep playing Halo for the complete game. On the right day with the right friends, I can see myself getting sucked into giving CP some extra cash if they have the right line up.

The one thing that changed at D&B that is really nice is that they let you buy food with the tickets you win so you don't get stuck buying some crappy stuffed thing.

XS NightClub said:

Chains like these may provide a niche source of entertainment, but as noted the future is not on their side. Kids have a generation of iPhones they grew up with, they never knew a world without them.

It's pretty disingenuous to selectively exclude the positive part of the Motley Fool analysis. Here's the part you left out that sort of undercuts your argument (which is presumably why you left if, as well as a link to the article, out):

Dave & Buster's (NASDAQ:PLAY) stock has been surging again since the company reported second-quarter earnings, marking the second straight post-earnings rally for a stock that was forgotten just a few months ago. Shares were up 7% on Friday, and the stock jumped a total of 63% since its bottom in May, a surprising run for a company that is still dealing with a number of challenges.

The eatertainment chain beat estimates on both and top and bottom lines and raised its guidance. Revenue in the quarter increased 13.7%, or 11.4% on a comparable-week basis to $319.2 million, which easily beat estimates at $311.9 million.

On the bottom line, earnings per share increased from $0.71 to $0.84, which breezed past expectations at $0.67. D&B also raised its full-year guidance, calling for full-year revenue of $1.23 to $1.255 billion, up from a previous forecast of $1.2 to $1.24 billion. It also now sees a low-single-digit decline in comparable sales, as opposed to a low-to-mid-single-digit decline, and it boosted net income guidance to $101-$111 million from $95-$110 million.

Based on those numbers, it's not surprising to see the stock moving higher -- but beyond the headline numbers there are some concerning signs.

They are putting a new Dave and Busters in at the Belden Village Mall in Canton near me. They are actually splitting up the Sears store to put it in.

MichaelB said:

Heartbroken I didn't find out about the auction when it was going on. Would have loved to bid on my favorite pinball machine. Would have been a dream come true to own the actual one from the park.

Agreed wasn't much notification. If you want a specific pin bad start watching Pinside.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market

Pete said:

There is certainly a market for arcades judging by the activity in Cleveland. However, the days of arcade video games and pinball games are mostly over. Redemption games are where it is at and I think Cedar Point is getting rid of the unpopular games and modernizing and expanding the redemption games.

In fairness it's hard for non operational and broken pinballs and classic arcades machines to be popular. If Cedar Point let all their redemption games sit broken they'd probably be pretty damn unpopular too. There is a thriving barcade scene out there.

Zoug68 said:

The arcade is a lot of fun when it's raining.

Dark Rides are a lot of fun when it's raining too.

KANGtheCONQUEROR said:

In fairness it's hard for non operational and broken pinballs and classic arcades machines to be popular.

This is a great point. For years it has frustrated me seeing so many classic machines powered on, yet being unplayable due to broken controls or jammed coin slots.

A couple years ago I made this post , specifically mentioning the condition of the Sega Turbo game (my all time favorite), which for over four years had completely jammed/broken coin slots...yet it was powered on every day during that time frame. It wasn't until this year that they finally installed new coin slots and got it into good working condition. I would have been a serious bidder on that machine had I known about the auction. If anyone is reselling it and reading this, please send me a PM.

KANGtheCONQUEROR said:

There is a thriving barcade scene out there.

I have noticed several barcades popping up, so there is still an interest in the old arcade games. In pop culture everything eventually comes full circle.