Quoted from dannunz:I would love to put 5 or 6 games in their. That could happen if the pinball machines start to make them more money than some of their video and driving games. It's up to you guys coming out and playing them.
Others have mentioned the notion that there is only so much pinball money that will walk into that room, so you would reach the proverbial point of diminishing returns. But you can promise the owner that you'll be promoting play in the Location forum here on Pinside! Try to make the best of it. It's the location owner's job to worry about revenue per square foot, not yours.
Regarding the deal, I would suggest the following guiding principles:
1. You want freedom to rotate any game out, whether due to low earnings, repair issues, because you just got a better location and want to put it there, or any other reason.
2. You always want the location to make some money off every game, every week, unless the cash box is utterly pathetic. I'm opposed to an arrangement where you get the first $1000 (or whatever) that leaves him high and dry for those important early weeks. More generally, you don't want to give the location a monetary incentive to drive players away from any one of your games, but I think a premium split (more to your favor) for a premium game is OK, since the game is so desirable.
3. Be willing to have different pricing on different games. Sarah at Pinball Wizard Arcade does that all the time. Example: Premium game at $1.00 per play, location gets 40 cents at 40%; standard game at 75-cent play, location gets 37.5c
at 50%; they (and you) make more money on the higher-priced game.
Beyond those principles, I prefer to have that $500 bonus be recouped from the cash box rather than have it be a direct payment to you, but I'm not solidly opposed to the direct payment. (Now re-read principle #1 above.) BTW, the location has a lot of potential if they want to spend $500 on something to promote pinball, like taking out paid ads somewhere. There are a lot of ways to constructively channel an offer to pump money into this special offering, and many of the options are ones that are better executed by the location rather than the operator. As a former operator, I can say that I always dreamed of having a location that was this interested in pinball!
.................David Marston
