Hi all, I was thinking of maybe starting an online arcade. The arcadem pro arcade site seems pretty economical, and I dont believe my total costs would be that high to get started. Has anyone else made a good supplemental income by having an online arcade with one of these scripts? Or does anyone feel this online game market is already too saturated, and not worth the time. If you feel it is a viable option, what tips would you give a "newb" to this business? I've read through many of the other posts in this forums, but havent seen some of the following questions answered: 1) Is it better to reformat your game site to fulfill a niche (i.e., sports games only), or to show all of the games? 2) Are people more interested in playing other real humans through a networked play, and by having a "game room" to meet others and find opponents? Or are people typically playing single player games? 3) What are the pitfalls with an online arcade site that people aren't necessarily saying on these forums yet? I realize its not going to be easy money, and there are advertising issues to get players to your site, strategies to monetize, etc. Are there ever major copyright issues with the games? Also, most of these arcade site providers seem to be one man shops. Any concerns with their ability to support or to be around in a few years and continuing to provide updates? 4) Has anyone extended these arcades to be able to work in a facebook apps type of environment?
1.Having a niche is good but there is no market for single niche apply to arcade niche.You need to have as many as you can niche at your arcade . 2.Now is p2p era,so your site must be support p2p games such as my site viwawa.com 3.Agreed with you that a lot of arcade is one man manage it all.But i have a team of worker work for me under my arcade project.For the copyright matter,i'm not worry coz all the game is programmed by my coder. 4.Yes i do have that plan in mind.Now is in still in R&D progress.
1) i havent tried it 2) flash games are small and addictive poeple still play them.... arcadem has a challenge system as well 3) most likely you will not make much money the top ways to get traffic are arcade banner exchanges and 1:1 trade with other sites, i am now running my site automatically with a SE traffic, impression based banner exchange and 1:1 trade 4) i dont know, i havent If you do get arcadem you will want to modify the template (allot) you need to be unique (mine isnt really). Arcade sites do have potential i know chris of booty arcade makes 10k a month. Go to talkarcades (forum) chris has given some advice over there and it can get you a better feel for arcade websites.
Make an arcade site with different categories like "Action, Shooter, simulation, Sports, Stradegy, Puzzle, Etc." People are always looking to play new games and having multiple categories will appeal to everyone, not just a specific group.
Some guys make alot from online arcade sites, but I think the internet is to saturated with these types of sites, we need something new and creative to take the online arcade sites by storm.