Arcades dead? Not yet.

I'd like to respond to this article, posted at Slashdot, that states that the arcade scene in the U.S. is dead. He justifies his claim by leading towards the notion that Dance Dance Revolution dumbed down the gamers at arcades.

If you actually think about it, arcades were already declining in attendance by the time that DDR came around. In fact, DDR probably re-energized the arcade scene for a good 5 years. It brought gamers back to the arcades. It gave them an experience that they could not find at home.

And that's just it. Arcades are a place for gamers to play games that they cannot play at home. Arcades have low attendance now because, quite frankly, home consoles can now offer arcade like experiences at home. For a while, DDR did just that.

When will the next re-energizing arcade game come out? Hard to say. Home entertainment systems and video game consoles are so powerful now, there's no technological peripheral that can make arcades stand out. The fact that all next generation consoles are going to have online gaming doesn't help arcades either.

But for now, Mario Kart Arcade GP is good enough to get me back into the arcades.