Street Fighter V is the first Street Fighter series not going to be released in the arcades in its long glorious history. For many of the older generations, the Street Fighter cabinet is probably one of the must have cabinet in any arcades but SFV releasing straight to PC & console probably marks the death of the arcades.
For those living in Syd, in the 90's arcades would found in every major city and usually more than one and now you'll be lucky to find any. From memory, at its peak Parramatta had 4 arcades - Playland and Timezone next to each other opposite of the station, Galaxy World on ground level near the exit of Westfield and Intencity a 2 storey level arcade inside Westfield food court on level 5. In the CBD, there were about 5 arcades - 3 on George St cinema strip which includes a massive Timezone (not where the current is inside the cinema), a 2 storey Galaxy world and next to it a 2 storey called Play World or Fun Land along those lines. Further down Chinatown there was another Galaxy World inside Market City top level and a smaller one in the alley where all the foods are.
Seeing all of them closed down over the years is quite a sad sight, is this really the end of the arcades?
It depends, having gone to Timezone Fremantle (WA) a few times, and taken my daughter there, it can be pretty busy! But it is on a main street, in a restaurant/night hotspot. But even given the popularity of consoles/pc gaming, hell even mobile gaming, it hasn't overly taken business away. They've reduced the store numbers yes, but at least for that store in particular, I certainly don't see it closing any time soon.