The arcade game industry was a fast growing industry during the 70's and early 80's. The industry collapsed on Doomsday, but has been making a small comeback since the start of the 21st century. Before Doomsday, the arcade industry was centered in the United States and Japan. Today it is based in South America and the ANZC nations.
History
Most arcade games in the northern hemisphere were wiped out by waves of EMP on Doomsday. Despite there being no significant EMP damage in the southern hemisphere, most arcades there went out of business, at least in the short term, due to a lack of new games and replacement parts. Eventually, companies in South America and the ANZC were able to manufacture replacement parts for old games, and started producing new games of their own.
Producers
Brazil
Brazil is the center of the modern arcade game industry.
Clover Electronic Amusement is Brazil's biggest arcade game manufacturer. Before Doomsday, they were the Brazilian subsidiary of the Japanese Taito Corporation. Clover was originally founded to be a distributor of games. But it soon started making borderline bootleg games because Brazil had outlawed the importation of pinball and arcade games. Clover survived the aftermath of Doomsday by providing repair services for the few arcades that had managed to remain open. In 1995, they started producing pinball machines, and in 1998, Clover started the small scale production of their old games from before Doomsday. In 2001, they released their first original game, a Food Fight clone the they called Snack Attack. Clover has since started making new innovative games with names such as Bubbler, Police Chase, Super Spy, Dune Buggy, and Wrath of the Sintistrals. Since May 2015 there have been rumours circulating that Clover is teaming up with electronics giant CCE to create an Atari-style home gaming console.
Taito’s biggest rival is Playtronic. Their best known games are Monster Land, Boxer, Super Race - the world’s first two player racing game - and a series of games based on the popular Brazilian comic Monica's Gang.
Other Brazilian game companies include NovaFun, Gametech, Eltromatic, LTD and J Estaban.
ANZC
The gaming industry in the ANZC states is dominated by two firms.
The first is Time-zone. They made the hit games Race War, Block Rain, Special Delivery and the Turbo Wombat series. They are named for what had been the largest chain of arcades in Australia prior to Doomsday.
Their biggest rival is American Games, a subsidiary of American Entertainment. They are known for making games such as Pearl Harbor Attack, Olympics, Motorcycle Madness and several games based on the characters of American Comics (also a subsidiary of American Entertainment).
Both companies also make clones of games from before Doomsday.
United American Republic
The United American Republic has two major arcade game companies. The first is CyberJoy, the makers of Timaeus, Martial Arts Masters and Amazon. Their rival is Wonder Games. They are best known for making Urban Brawl, Star Herald, and Wizard’s Staff.
Japan
The gaming industry in Japan collapsed after Doomsday, with the loss of much of the population and modern life. Nintendo, one of the largest firms prior to the disaster, fell back on the card games that had been their business decades before, and managed to survive - but many others did not. They have recently announced plans for their reentry into the industry.
Others
Siberia, Singapore, Chile, Venezuela and Colombia also have small companies in operation, but they remain niche players even in their own markets.
Sales and Corporate Profits
Generally, the industry has had a long road to recovery, and still has a long way to go. Because of this interest has waned among vendors. Fewer entertainment venues have been built as public interest, in many areas, has returned to board games that need less maintenance.
This has not stopped the industry leaders from expenditures to attempt to get new players. Advertising eats up most of the profits in hopes of a renewed interest in more interesting and challenging games.