Pretty interesting topic. Big thing one needs to consider is who do they want to cater to. That will help drive your decisions.

In the early to mid 90s when I was a teen, my family owned a big baseball card/comic store/arcade. For the arcade, we had about 5000 sq feet with 28 pool tables, about a hundred games, snack bar, etc. At the beginning, we had a wide spectrum of people coming in but after a while we noticed that it became teens and hardcore pool players. As part of this, we saw revenues going down. Teens did not spend money and caused issues while the hardcore pool players focused on shooting pool, gambling, and not spending money. We were not getting families (who spend money) and our reputation started taking a hit.

So, we shifted focus. We switched from quarters to tokens (best thing we ever did) and shifted focus from trying to be hip (I was a teen, so that was important to me) to becoming more family friendly. Because of our size, we setup an area for the hardcore pool players away from others and limited the tournaments for the high end to certain occasions. We started doing tournaments that brought in more people such as coed (guy and his girlfriend) or dad/kid. Catering to different groups at different times helped us to expand our base.

Now that I am about to hit 40, I enjoy going to places to play pinball and arcades but will not go to a tournament because it does not appeal to me and frankly, some of the people turn me off. Some of the places are nice, others are a little sketchy. It is hard when you do not own your own location, but if you can put your games into places that are nicer that will help bring in more people. It is an investment, but work with your location owner to do some food/drink promos. As mentioned above, unlimited play with a beer can help get people in for both pinball and food. Depending upon the locality, if you can allow kids in that is great, but overwhelmingly, make it an environment where people feel comfortable bringing their wife/girlfriend/daughter with them. That doubles your audience right there. If you do a league or something for the hardcores, pick a night. But, do other goofy promotions (Coed tournament for example) another night. That way, you are appealing to a variety of folks.

People laugh about Dave and Buster's but you never go in there and they are never not busy. You will also notice that it is groups of people, not single dudes. That is a key to help expand the base. I know that because it is an inviting area, I have no problem taking my nine year daughter there. Last time we were there, we dropped over a hundred, and my daughter asks when she can go back.