Even if it was localized, wouldn't matter since arcades are pretty much dead. The only arcade within 100 miles of me is at the local amusement park.

How disappointing to see it's just an arcade game.

All the more reason to visit Japan.

If I could afford to, I would catch a flight to Japan this morning. Anyone want to buy me a ticket? LOL

The arcade industry could and should be revived. It may be dead in the U.S., but obviously its thriving in Japan so whatever is being done in Japan needs to be done here as well.

Arcades do well in Japan because of population density.
Quick Wiki check puts Japan's PD at 873 People/Square Mile.
US's PD?  83.

We're gonna need to nuke a lot of land and relocate a lot of people to do what Japan does to have a thriving arcade industry.

I stopped being interested in arcades because they became too expensive.  Arcade games these days are mostly big gimmick machines with specialized controllers.  It makes sense that they're that way since it's hard to recreate that sort of thing with a console game.  The problem is that those games ain't a quarter and I don't see the point in paying a buck for maybe two minutes of gameplay.

What drew me to the arcade as a kid was that it was only a quarter so it was easier to get my parents to give me some change than it was to get them to buy me games.  Another part of it was that the games were on much more powerful hardware than consoles at the time.  In many cases it felt like the arcade version was the definitive version (not always, but as a kid I sure thought so).  Also games appeared in arcades a good while before getting a home console port.  I would compare the arcade to the movie theatre and the home version was like when a movie was released on video.  The timed exclusivity provided an incentive to play in the arcades to essentially preview the next round of console games.

The few arcades I've seen today don't have the same draws as arcades then.  I wonder if what works in Japan, not just related to the population destiny, just doesn't fly in America.  It isn't the same arcade of Pac-Man and Street Fighter II.

I can't say I'm an expert, but my guess is that arcade games have a lower cost per play in Japan - because there's more people to play them.

Here in the US, I've seen an arcade game in the wild run as much as $1.00/play, but I've seen the same title run as little as a quarter a play when in a high-traffic area (i.e.: Vegas hotel, shopping mall in super-large city, etc.).

If my game is going to be played 10 times a day vs. 50 times a day, then I'm going to have to charge more per play to make it worth the investment.