Why are arcade cabinets so expensive?

IMO its a specialty market now, the demand isnt there to make a streamlined business model for a large enough profit for the investment

As someone who sometimes buys these, the price, when on sale, is often cheaper than buying wood and hardware to build my own outer cabinet, control deck and screen.

There's trade-offs - the materials used aren't quite as nice as I would pick, but then the included, already applied, art is very nice. And there's the convenience of not having to plan out all the details like control layout, monitor, side art, top bezel.

To me, it's really a piece of furniture, rather an affordable way to play the included games.

The CPU cores also only last about 5 years, for me. Which isn't good, considering that a cheap modern computer will easily last 8-15 years.

I, personally, don't give a ton of consideration to the included games. I'm really just buying the outer shell and licensed artwork. That's what I'll be looking at when not playing.

I'll replace the innards with a Raspberry Pi when it dies, if not sooner. So I'll play whatever games I want that fit the control scheme.

I also replace all of the controls, about half the time. The included controls outlast the CPU core, but don't feel as nice to play on as a set that's reasonably easy to replace them with.

If a new video game console is $500, a full size piece of furniture with custom art and a video console inside it sounds like a bargain for $600.

It's a super luxury item with not just dedicated hardware but also carpentry and extra art

My internet tech came to setup a new ONT and had a bunch of time to kill so we talked about hobbies, I guess he builds arcade machines and was showing me pictures of all the wiring and woodwork he did plus programming to get it all functioning and the custom pc inside. It looked like a ton of work.

I gave him some spare 12th Gen i7 mobo combos for him to use in his builds as he said he was looking for more parts and usually puts in a 3080 video card in each

They can get really technical pretty fast

https://www.instagram.com/arcade_army/ His instagram that has some cool build photos

Don't look at the cost of Pinball machines.

The cabinet and it's own electronics.

I own a couple actual vintage arcade machines and paid less for them than this. If you shop around you can find deals.

I also have one of these 1up cabs and it is definitely not like vintage. Software may be the same but it is using a modern monitor not a CRT. I think I paid around 300 for it several years ago. Not full size.

First to answer your question. Gosh man...I feel like everything is insanely expensive now. Food entertainment, resources, everything. It's brutal. I went to a local used game shop and prices have not recovered since 2020. Some games are stupidly overpriced now.

Oh, I've seen this cabinet in person! It's much smaller than I expected and would be kind of awkward to actually use. I'm 6 foot, and I would have to look down at it to use it.

It's cool, though. The artwork is really neat.

I think if I was going to get a cabinet, there were only two ways I would want to go about it.

1. I would probably make my own and spend a heck of a lot of time and money on it. It would be a pain to do, but the end product would be something that fits my tastes and works perfectly. Those cabinets that are essentially just big emulators seem to make the most sense to build imo.

2. acquiring a DDR machine. I have no idea if you can even build those. I mean, I guess you could, but those would probably be expensive as heck.

I built a custom GBA a while back and I think when it was said and done I spent around $300+ CAD on it? It was more expensive than it needed to be, but it was a fun project to try. I taught myself how to solder too, which was fun.