Considering opening a gaming lounge.. any thoughts

[provaporous]

if anyone is interested in going to ta gaming lounge its the mainstream and not PC gamers, you will save on not having to buy 4k TV's as the consoles cant do better than 1080p anyways 720p for the last gen consoles. I would serve bottomless non-alcho drinks myself to get people in the door if you want to charge an hourly rate.
OFC you need to serve alchohol aswell maybe with discounts with your membership cards.

Im just afraid that the demand for a "PC" gaming lounge is going to be so low. Maybe start with 1080p ultra setting rigs and see if the PC community where you live is interested b4 yuou invest in 4k machines that cost about $4k themseves.

[Deleted]

who's to say drinks couldn't be served too?

OP - Yes I would definitely go, set up a mini bar too, drunk gaming

Booze, food and keyboards is asking for a disaster.

[mercychan]

I worked for an arcade for two years, and we sort of had a similar setup with having tournaments every Saturday night for the FGC. Tons of people show up, mostly because there are never any other serious venues around for them to gather. (Then again, we're smack in the center of NorCal just off the bay, so it makes sense there would be a lot of hype around it). The tournaments sound interesting, but if the community isn't there then it's just not going to take off. It's a very niche thing.

People would never go to a gaming lounge by themselves. Too costly. Our arcade offered full access to tons of pretty good shit for only $12 upfront. People would only go there every once in a while to hang out with their friends, so a lot of your target demographic is already cut out because of the lack of interest to pay money to go by yourself when they can just buy a PC themselves. Arcades have an advantage because nobody can just buy an Initial D machine.

I've seen similar sorts of gaming lodges pop up at the mall I live 8 minutes away from. They always close down in less than a year. It's a really cool idea, but I would encourage you not to. Unless you have thousands upon thousands of dollars to shed.

[Spl4sh3r]

You should go around in your town to ask people, asking in the net won't help you see if there is any demand for it.

[Deleted]

who's to say drinks couldn't be served too?

OP - Yes I would definitely go, set up a mini bar too, drunk gaming

Yeah, such a good idea to let drunk customers operate all that expensive hardware.

[Blueobelisk]

You should go around in your town to ask people, asking in the net won't help you see if there is any demand for it.

No way. It was a great idea to ask a forum of computer gamers who have their own equipment if they wanted to spend $8/hour to use his. Why would he try for the demographic of people who would actually need his service/actually live in his area?

[Deleted]

No way. It was a great idea to ask a forum of computer gamers who have their own equipment if they wanted to spend $8/hour to use his. Why would he try for the demographic of people who would actually need his service/actually live in his area?

Maybe he thinks we are...pfft...console gamers.


Insert excessive laughter here.

[Arewn]

There's a couple net cafes in my city that seem to do well. I'm not sure you'll get a very positive response from people here, since most seem to already have a setup (thus, they're outside your target demo), but if you survey your area you might find interest.
I have no clue if those prices are reasonable, should probably check the going rate at other places.

[vindicatorx]

who's to say drinks couldn't be served too?

OP - Yes I would definitely go, set up a mini bar too, drunk gaming

You would have to get a license to sell alcohol and you would have to have a separate section for minors unless you just plan on catering to adults in which case you would go under even faster.

[Arenis]

If the games are good and the place is comfortable and affordable, I'd give it a shot for sure.

But using "used" headphones and mice/keyboards is just something I'm not fond off personally.
And wifi.... please no. Use wired. Way more stable for when you want competitive players there.

[Reeve]

No way. Why would I spend the money?

[Deleted]

The prices you set are just way too high, this is from one of the biggest and most popular in stockholm (sweden)

1 Hour 25:- about 4dollars
2 Hours 50:-
5 Hours 80:- about 11dollars
20 Hours 200:- about 28dollars

they have everything you wrote about and more, in their main place they have about 390 state of the art computers and still keep the prices low. I'd say it's a super hard market to enter considering a lot of it is about location location location..

Good luck if you still want to go for it.

Link to their webpage. http://www.infernoonline.com/

[Lightwysh]

Instead of a gaming lounge. Just open a high-class lounge/bar and have gaming available.

Drunk people + kinect = maximum lulz

[anyaka21]

I think something like this can work, it just needs to about location, location, location. And that will take some work to find the right spot. As others have said, it'll also have to be about what you're offering. if it's just WoW, or other online gaming, forget it, that's a bad idea. The 4k thing is a good idea, good chairs, etc... also a good idea.

Definitely the ability to host tournaments would be an excellent idea, and one that I wouldn't do just weekly, but maybe even daily, at least in terms of small tournaments. There is something to be said about LAN gaming and basically lagless options that you won't get thru the interwebs.

That said, I would also concentrate on beverage sales, whether that is alcoholic or non-alcoholic. never under estimate the power of alcohol to bring people in. I would also add that for serious gamers, never under estimate the power of a few Red Bulls or mochas either. Also note though, that if you have alcohol, at least in the US, you'll also have to have a kitchen to make food. Just goes with the territory.

Also, offering other forming of gaming entertainment isn't a bad idea to attract other people, a few state of the art stand up games.

I think membership isn't a bad idea, even with possibility of something like bronze/silver/gold packages (ie $10/$20/$30) a month. Bronze giving you discount on gaming time, $20 giving even more discount on gaming time + beverage discounts, $30 giving you even more discounts on top of silver package maybe even something for free once a week.

A couple other things that I would suggest - 1) make it so gamers could bring in their own mouse and keyboard. if a gamer is serious, most will feel most comfortable with their own. 2) internet access and wifi hotspots are big and free in most coffee shops, I would not restrict this, as it would definitely be something that would turn customers away.

[Reeve]

Instead of a gaming lounge. Just open a high-class lounge/bar and have gaming available.

Drunk people + kinect = maximum lulz

Now that I'd totally go check out.

[IRunSoFarAway]

I remember going to internet cafes as a kid, the only reasons back then were to hang out with friends and get out of the house, I never went by myself. Other than those, I see why anyone would really bother, maybe just to be around others who do the same thing you do all day? I don't know. I guess another reason would be if the place you went to had equipment that was far better than your own, but even then, why not just save up and buy one yourself? I think the cost of the one I went to back then was $5 an hour.

There used to be a bunch of them maybe 14-15 years ago here, but since then, they've mostly closed, and I don't think I recall seeing any recently.

Anyway, I'd have to say no, and I think most here would most likely have the same reason, they already have a good computer at home and don't see the point of going.

[anyaka21]

Instead of a gaming lounge. Just open a high-class lounge/bar and have gaming available.

Drunk people + kinect = maximum lulz

good point. A good few spots for kinect and the ps4 versions would be good. Add that this is something that you could also do to host a few tournaments as well. Kinect sports games would be good for tournaments.

In terms of tournaments, I'd run this kind of a couple different ways, like a standard March Madness bracket. Pool play, then smaller tourney, like World Cup. Buy-in's should run like Poker tourneys. Id suggest a 75%-80% pay out with house taking 20% to pay for expenses, time usage, operational costs, etc... Too much and you won't make any money during tourneys, too little payout and and you'll look like you're just fleecing customers. Add that I'd start with a higher payout ratio because it would be a better draw, only taking away from that to make sure expenses are covered.

[Frozenbeef]

I think the people that would want access to them would be the ones that can't afford their own computer therefore wouldn't be willing to pay the money.

[Lightwysh]

good point. A good few spots for kinect and the ps4 versions would be good. Add that this is something that you could also do to host a few tournaments as well. Kinect sports games would be good for tournaments.

In terms of tournaments, I'd run this kind of a couple different ways, like a standard March Madness bracket. Pool play, then smaller tourney, like World Cup. Buy-in's should run like Poker tourneys. Id suggest a 75%-80% pay out with house taking 20% to pay for expenses, time usage, operational costs, etc... Too much and you won't make any money during tourneys, too little payout and and you'll look like you're just fleecing customers. Add that I'd start with a higher payout ratio because it would be a better draw, only taking away from that to make sure expenses are covered.

Tourneys just to bring the people in. No "house cut" shit. Have leagues, maybe a 1 time league fee. Offer free drink to tourney winners. This is the stuff that builds regulars and keeps the bullshit to a minimum.

[anyaka21]

Tourneys just to bring the people in. No "house cut" shit. Have leagues, maybe a 1 time league fee. Offer free drink to tourney winners. This is the stuff that builds regulars and keeps the bullshit to a minimum.

I don't think a 1 time league fee would work But I do think pro-tourneys would bring people in. And would add to more serious competition. Slight modificiation: I would agree that a league fee, maybe in terms of weekday would be a good thing that would give newer players a chance to learn, reserving the weekends for the serious tourneys. But that might just depend on clientele if successful.

Other thought, corporate sponsors, maybe get gaming companies like Steel Series to host a tournament, or maybe even get someone like Blizzard to host an Arena tournament or a SC2 tourney, LoL sponsored tourney, etc... these kinds of things would definitely bring in people.