alt Hacker NewsI would have expected animatronics to become more popular after Five Nights at Freddy's, not less. But I've never seen a store with animatronics in my country, so I don't really know how kids feel about them.
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I was a showbiz kid (same thing but different 'band').
For me I really didnt care much one way or the other about the animatronics. You would snarf down your pizza watch the dumb show and go back to the game room. Now some of my friends were smitten by the things. They wanted front row and would try to get the merch.
They were mildly interesting and gave the place a uniqueness over the dozens of other places with video games and pizza. More importantly your parents would be in on it and would take you out to a 'safe' arcade.
When the places where all over the place. It was a tiered system. The showbiz/chuckie places were for kids under 12. Usually much cleaner and less of the older kids bullying the younger ones off the machines. The arcades were for the over 10 group and were much less supervised. The people running them would actively discourage older kids from coming in by themselves in groups of 4 or more. If you went in and dropped a couple of quarters and kept to yourself they would ignore you.
I was invited back years later to a CC with a family. The pizza was utter rubish, SB had better pizza. Many of the games were outdated or broken. The place felt worn out and tired and very focused on the ball pit (which any free playground can provide a similar experiance). Not pleasant at all for anyone involved. Pretty sure the animatronics was broken then too.
The five nights thing would be more for the 12+ crowd. CC is squarely aimed at lower aged kids and parents who want 'a break'. They might know about it and have played the game but it would not factor much on if they want to go.
I think they are expensive to build, maintain, and ultimately kids are dazzled by video screens now. The economics just aren't there.
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Idk, parents took kids to Chuck E. Cheese for the (at the time seemingly) wholesome appeal. Having an extremely popular and visible IP point out how creepy animatronic animals are is not gonna make parents want to take their kids to Chuck E. Cheese more. Nobody wants to take their kids to an “edgy food and entertainment place”, that’s not a thing. I think this is a great textbook example of “There is such a thing as bad publicity.”