5 Minute Read

Given proper planning and installation, most game rooms today are designed with a selection of game machines optimized for maximum fun and profitability.

However, maintaining that selection is far beyond initial design and implementation. Updates are required for family entertainment centers with game rooms over a few years old to bring the mix of games more closely into line with recommended ratios of redemption to video games, etc. Industry experts suggest that even locations with brand new game rooms should replace 5-10% of their games each year to keep the space looking fresh and earnings strong. 

The problem, of course, is that none of this refreshing comes for free. How, with limited resources, can location owners keep their rooms on the cutting edge and prevent what’s fresh from becoming overfamiliar?

For most locations, the best solution to this problem is to trade in arcade games regularly. Indeed, distributors like Betson offer a variety of trade-in programs designed to help you upgrade your current games and to facilitate the purchase of new equipment that appeals to your clientele.

Here are some of the key benefits of adding a trade-in program to your business plan:

Keep Your Arcade Game Room Fresh

While there’s certainly a place for “retro” and classic
cabinets in any game room, the last thing you want is to feel stuck with a
collection of stale games that discourage repeat play (and repeated visits!)
from your patrons.

Trading in outdated arcade games is a simple way to avoid this problem.  When you bring in new state-of-the-art equipment, your game room will feel refreshed again. Regular customers will return more often and spend more money to try your latest games, and first-time customers will be drawn to the novelty of titles they haven’t seen before.

Adding new games also enables you to update your floor plan. Moving existing games around and featuring your state-of-the-art acquisitions helps present a more profitable impression of freshness and makes your updates and additions even more pronounced.

Maximize Game Room Revenue

If one thing defines the arcade game industry, it’s a commitment to constant innovation.  Arcade games are growing ever bigger and better. Their constant reinvention makes them some of the principal draws—and, almost inevitably, the biggest per-capita earners—in any well-designed family entertainment center.

But this same quality can cut the other way, too. Because
they depend so much on novelty to drive interest; some arcade games can carry a shorter maximum earnings life than more permanent workhorses like Skee-Ball
alleys and basketball games.

Savvy location owners, along with assistance from their partner distributors, will regularly evaluate the game reports generated by their card systems. When games earn less relative to their overall room earnings, trading them in for cutting-edge products can offer a reasonable way to maintain maximum revenue from your game room.

Generate Marketable Excitement

As the points above suggest, leveraging your older games to acquire the latest industry offerings can be a source of additional revenue in and of itself.

But when you trade in your existing arcade games for the biggest and newest pieces on the market, you don’t just get those new games alone. You also access the networks of marketing materials [link] that accompany the latest offerings from major manufacturers like Raw Thrills, Bay Tek, ICE, Stern, and beyond; when used in conjunction with your social media platforms, materials like these help to build excitement and provide incentives that bring people to your door.

Consumers want to know the latest games, where they can find them, and why they should leave their consoles and couches to spend money in your facility.  Trading up for the newest games—and capitalizing on marketing and social media tools that accompany them—is an excellent way to ensure a continuing flow of foot traffic into your game room.

Differentiate Your Game Room

We live in a golden age of family entertainment centers. Evermore varied and fascinating arcade offerings, developed by different manufacturers and spanning dozens of entirely different game categories, are constantly emerging to meet the demands of the burgeoning FEC marketplace.

An often-overlooked aspect of trade-in programs is the opportunity to individualize your game room: to depart in creative directions from the same assortment of games that a competing location may choose to feature. By trading up to innovative products that appeal directly to your particular type of customer, you can claim experiences that are all your own and differentiate yourself along the way from your competitors.

Reduce the Cost of New Equipment

Whether you are looking to create a uniquely creative gaming space, avail yourself of the marketing power that accompanies big-ticket arcade offerings, differentiate yourself from the competition, or maintain your revenue by keeping fresh arcade options at the center of your game room, the most significant benefit of trading in your arcade games is also the simplest: trade-in programs reduce your cost for new equipment.

Most of your arcade games, after all—even those that are generating lower income—carry plenty of value, and when you leverage that value against the cost of acquiring the latest equipment, you reduce your capital outlay and set yourself more affordably on the way to greater revenue. You can also take advantage of the great finance and leasing programs available, which will help keep your out-of-pocket spending minimal when working to refresh your room.

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