ST. LOUIS — A much-loved St. Louis activity is getting a makeover, to the dismay of some.
4 Hands Brewing Co.'s free arcade games, Skee-Ball and pinball are no longer free at the brewer's locations, it confirmed to 5 On Your Side on Wednesday. The change was reportedly made to streamline game repairs, as brewery workers used to be responsible for game upkeep.
"While it was awesome having arcade games that were free to play, we were responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the games and it turns out that we’re waaaaay better brewers than we are video game repair technicians," said 4 Hands Digital Marketing Manager Jeremy Danner. "Switching to a service that handles all of that for us and allows the games to rotate more frequently will ultimately result in a better experience for our guests.”
The new service appears to be a new company in charge of maintaining the games.
"We wanted a better experience for our customers to be able to play arcade games anytime they came in, and not be disappointed that a game was out of order," said 4 Hands Marketing Director Liz Swyers. "So, in order to do that, we had to go with a reliable company that can maintain our games regularly for our guests."
The company made the transition to the new games in the middle of January, Danner said. The games were free since the company's St. Louis brewery location expanded in 2016.
Currently offered games at the brewery's locations include two Skee-Ball machines, Mortal Kombat 2, Donkey Kong, NBA Jam, Giant Pac-Man, Giant Galaga and bubble hockey. All of the games, except bubble hockey which remains free, now cost $1 to play.
Numerous people on St. Louis' Reddit page had mixed feelings regarding the change. Some used the free games as an easy way to entertain children, while some celebrated the change saying that kids would often hog the machines.
"My brother's girlfriend has two kids. She's a single mother and it was just a cheap thing she could do for them," Reddit user Dancingbriefcase said in the post that kicked off the discussion.
"Whenever I would go to the downtown 4Hands there were always horrible kids smashing up the games, running around unaccompanied, just being terrors with the parents also unaccounted for. I'm okay with this move if it means there will be fewer children being horrible," Reddit user Salsa_on_the_side said.
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