First, you need:
* Workshop filled with Technicians.
* DevKits for Arcade (There is one per tech era).
* Ability to generate 90%+ Games.

Step 1: Using a genre/topic with 5 Stars of experience, make an Arcade Game.
NOTE: Some topics or genre consider Arcade Joystick a "bad" feature. You want to ONLY use topics for this which are either good or "not bad" (green or yellow) with Arcade Joystick and either Controller or Keyboard. I will get into this later, but for now we need to know that we intend to create a port, and we don't want our port to have a worse score for having a "bad" gameplay feature.

When creating Arcade Games, you ONLY want to create 5 stars in all areas.

Step 2: Release the game.
Update the game with a Free Update as quickly as possible. Your first 3 weeks will see a steady climb in sales. Week 4 will see a drop to Week 1 sales, and that's about where your sales will remain until they fall off. I like to release an update Week 1 (before it calculates) and Week 3.

Arcade Cabinets are produced in The Workshop, and will make tons of money.

Step 3: Port the game.
Release that port for the PC as quickly as possible. The sales of the port will help the sales of the arcade a bit, but also build IP value.

Now, every time you release a popular Console/Computer game, remember to port it to Arcade. I was making 1k+ machines per week that were raking in 15k-25k profit each machine.

So, if you make 3 workshops, you can sustain 3 arcade machines indefinitely and rake in unlimited money - using Arcades correctly is almost as good as using a trainer.

There are some things to consider about using Arcades:

1. Arcades, like consoles, start out expensive to produce, become cheaper after a while, then more expensive again.

2. You have to pay attention to your workshops. It's best to have 3 workshops and 5 Arcade Games out. As sales move downward, and you finish a project early, you can produce Arcade 4 and Arcade 5 with the remaining time.

3. Arcade game sequels can only be released as Arcade games. You cannot release sequels or spinoffs of a Port. You can release an Arcade sequel, then port it. Better yet, you can release on consoles, then port to Arcade. Then release a paid update for the original game.

4. I mentioned this above, and one more time: It is very important that any Genre you use on Arcades does not have a bad match for: Keyboard Support, Controller Support, Arcade Joystick Support. You need to have "Good Match" on every console you release it.

Corollary: When making a game and looking at the required gameplay features, ensure your "Controller Type" is NEVER red. If it is, you need a new genre, or you need to NOT release this genre on the machine which requires that feature.

I had 5 Arcade games out of 5 workshops earning me 15k/sale for 1000-2000 sales per week. It was so sweet, I was able to turn my Console Sales to -$100 and was very close to breaking even. My gains from the arcade padded my losses enough to let me have a few months during Santa to grab some market share before I was forced to raise prices again.


You will also have a LOT of techs working. Good news is, you can shuffle techs between workshops and console development as needed. Workshops will also build Technician skill fast, so you don't really even need to send them to the training room. Sick of your techs waiting for the next console? Put them on arcades. It will increase their skill and turn them into a financial engine that will pay for all your mistakes and bad choices - at least inside of this game.

Arcades are stupid good. Now, the drawback:

Arcade Machines are produced in Workshop. If you have a machine selling 1200 copies a week, and you can only process 800/wk in your workshop, you will get a backlog of orders and might need a second workshop to get through them. I

If you are selling 800/wk but able to produce 3k/wk, when you finish production on one arcade then you must switch to the next machine. This is why I say you want one active arcade console per workshop. Each workshop can work on one game. This means you have to pay a little bit of attention because you lose money if you let weeks pass while collecting backlog.

Arcades DO fade out when Mobile platforms are available. At this time, destroy all but one workshop, make console development rooms for the techs, and use the remaining workshop for contract work.