Revenue BUILDERS // Floor Plan
ANOTHER GAME BEFORE YOU BUY LOOK AT YOUR LAYOUT FIRST
By Eileen Schreiner
W hen a game starts underperforming, the easiest conclusion may be that it is time for something new. Before pulling it from the floor, though, walk your arcade like a guest. Can you see the game when you enter? Is there a clear path to it? Is a taller attraction blocking it? Does traffic naturally carry guests past it, or has the layout created an area people rarely visit? Sometimes the game isn’t the problem. The floor around it may be working against it. Game selection is only part of the equation. How guests experience the entire room matters, too. START WITH THE SIGHT LINES Arcade games continue to become larger and more visually impressive. Those cabinets can be powerful attractions, but their size makes placement especially important. One of the things we encourage operators to do is walk to different points around the facility and look across the game room. What can you see? A tall cabinet in the wrong location can obscure several smaller games behind it. Guests can’t become interested in something they never notice. Consider how the height and profile of each game affect the visibility of everything around it. The same thinking applies to traffic flow. One section shouldn’t feel packed while another feels empty. Guests need room to move comfortably, watch other players and decide where to go next. If space is available, use it, but don’t confuse maximizing the floor with simply filling every available square foot. GIVE GUESTS A DESTINATION A strong layout also gives guests reasons to move through the room. A colorful bank of cranes, for example, can create a visual destination. So can a large attraction guests can spot from across the arcade. These anchors help pull traffic deeper into the space, exposing guests to other games along the way. As you look at new games, the question isn’t only, “Where can we fit it?” Consider what job that game can perform on your floor. BUILD IN FLEXIBILITY One consideration that is much easier to address during construction than after opening is electricity availability.
Sufficient electrical outlets in different areas and configurations give you flexibility for the games on your floor today and those you may buy years from now. Arcades evolve. Games move. New technologies and cabinet designs arrive. An electrical plan built too specifically around today’s layout can limit your ability to adapt later. Building flexibility into the floor plan from the beginning leaves more options as the game mix changes. We recently put many of these principles into practice while working with Legends Entertainment in Springfield, Illinois. Before installing 75 games for the new entertainment destination, our team worked with the Legends team to develop both a custom game list and detailed floor plan designed around the location and its customers. The planning went beyond determining which games would physically fit into the available square footage to consider how the game room Start at the entrance and walk slowly. Where does your eye go first? Which games disappear behind larger cabinets? Where does the room feel crowded or empty? Is there a reason to continue toward the back? Can guests move comfortably between games when the facility is busy? Then walk it again from another direction. What you notice may add some context to what you’re seeing in your performance reports. The numbers matter when deciding what stays and what goes, but they don’t always explain why a game is underperforming. Placement can be worth another look, too. Frequent guests often head straight for their favorites, so moving games can change their path through the arcade and introduce them to something they’ve overlooked. When at IAAPA and walking the show floor looking at what’s new, think beyond which games you want to bring home. Think about where they’ll go, what guests will see around them, and how they’ll change the flow of your arcade. Sometimes the next opportunity on your floor starts with looking differently at the games already there. would work as a whole. TAKE THE WALK
Eileen Schreiner is the Director of FEC Sales & Service at AVS Companies.
IBI magazine // November 2026 12
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