@thehig1: We're looking at as young as 11-18, but I think most customers will be older, from 18-25 and a third group from 25-34. All three groups have slightly different needs and problems.

The school kids (11-18) will probably have enough social interaction at school, but most won't have the budget to buy a lot of games and consoles, so the appeal their is focused on the range of games they can play. We'll definitely have to target parents for this age group, like you said, so it'll have to be appealing to them as well. It could be like a weekend activity like a sports club, so your kids are away from home or an after school hang-out.

For young adults (18-34), it will still also be a budget thing depending on their income, but mostly the social aspect. For the students (18-25) within this group it's a bit a combination and what I said in a previous message.

I should also give a bit more info on the set-up I'm looking at.

Ideally we'll have a bar area with a big screen (for events, live streams, eSports stuff) as well as a few consoles to (mainly) play couch co-op or local multiplayer games. This is for the social aspect.

For those who just want to play games alone or in a small group, we'd have more closed of set-ups, booths if you will, to mimic a cozy living room. Why a living room? Well firstly to give a nice surrounding to play in. Cozy is key here. We also have all the platforms and a lot of games to choose from, including that VR game you wanted to try out, but can't at home cause you don't have the money or the space for it. Everything is also set-up for you and drinks and snacks are always readily available.

Finally we'd also have one bigger closed of room for bigger groups, events or people could hire it for parties. A bit multi use.

This will of course all depend greatly on the venue we find.

@Random_Matt: Technology ageing was probably their issue and an important and difficult one when doing something like this.

@thehig1: oh okay, I get it now. To bad you aren't a real dragon!

And yeah, I hear you. But that's true for most start-ups in the current financial climate. The only way of really knowing is to do it and take the risk, but with good planing.

@Random_Matt: That's sad to hear. What was their concept though? They all seem to do the hourly rate system that is clearly failing, and just expect it to work for them. The marketing and branding, though not the most important aspect, of the ones I've come across is generally really bad as well, which doesn't help. You can't just put a bunch of consoles and PC's in a room, put a random name on it, take an old business model and expect it to work miracles. I really want to make something unique and different.

@MrFreehuggs: Thanks for the info! and yeah, I was thinking of aiming it more at kids, student and young people who don't have a lot of money to spend yet! It's always great to hear of succesful business like this! I've only found them in the US as of yet though, but I believe we can do it in Europe as well, especially the UK. Birmingham is a big city with loads of big schools and Universities so it's a great location. Thanks again!

@thehig1: Are you a dragon? I'm confused. If you are I would love to meet you! Ö

I agree there are a lot of people who just want to play at home on their own and that's fine. But this isn't for those people, or maybe they just don't know it yet? This is aimed at people who love games and want a place to be social with like-minded people. I also want it to be a place of discovery and give people to possibility to experience a wide range of games. Most people only own one, maybe two consoles and miss out on all the rest, the exclusives of other consoles, VR (which is crazy expensive atm) and local multiplayer games. I go to a meet-up of indie devs every month where they sometimes have local multiplayer games or a VR set-up and it's always great to experience those and play with others, the same goes for conventions. I love it and I think it would be awesome to be able to do this everyday of the week and especially in the weekends.

Then there are also kids who don't have a lot of money to spend yet, or student who are far away from home and can't bring a giant tv, a console and loads of games to their dorm room.

To make a comparison: you could just watch football with a beer at home, but people also go out to watch the game at a bar and enjoy a beer with like-minded people. Why? Because of the social interaction and maybe also because they have a wide range of beers to choose from in ideal conditions.

I believe there is a market for this. I only need about 50-100 people to support this idea to make it work and this is the first step to finding out who those people are.
Thank you for your reaction btw. It's good to have people criticize my idea and point out things to think about.

Hi,

I’m researching an idea of opening a gaming bar/club in the UK and I need your help to see if it has a market. Currently I’m looking at Birmingham as the location. It’s a big city with nice variety in people and a history with videogames, so if you’re from Birmingham and you’re interested give me a shout.
I’m not from Birmingham myself btw, so any help with choosing a location or neighbourhood within the city is always welcome.
And if you’re from somewhere else in the UK or you think another city would be better, do tell me and also why that city would be better.

Back to the idea. Instead of doing it the existing way, like a cyber café with hourly rates, we want to make it subscription based. In other words, with a membership with a monthly fee. Here’s a bit from the business plan I’m working on to argument the idea.

“Why Memberships? We want to build a strong community with a family feel. People who are likeminded and highly engaged and just love games. Subscription models are already popular for other services and form strong gaming communities online through the passion and financial commitment of their subscribers (e.g., Kinda Funny and Giant Bomb). We want to bring that into the offline world. “

“… The fixed price makes it easier for members to calculate the cost into their monthly budget … “

Ideally, we will have a wide range of platforms and games and we’ll host regular events, but I won’t go into that for the sake of keeping this short.

What do you think. Would you like a place like this?
If yes, how much would you be willing to pay for it?

[QUOTE="DJ_Headshot"][QUOTE="Bigsteve3570"]WOW!? Is this the first time the TC has not been bashed for even talking about a 360 controller on the PC? Finally, about time. PC is all about versatility and choice. Everyone so far has given great info, I don't have much to add, but that I prefer to use the 360 for FUN at times (even for FPSs :P).morrowindnic

Exactly! Controller for pc games, cool. Controller for FPSes = an abombination!

hehe, thanks for the info people,
i promise i won't use the controller for FPS's! xP

I'm thinking of buying a Xbox 360 controller for my PC.
Now I was wondering wich games actually support the controller?

Thanks!

Bavoke 8)

There is a little problem whit the tokens.

If there is another flash thingy running on the page like those warnings about a new episode of "On The Spot" or a tournament or something the token won't load, to fix this you have to close this add and then renew the page and then it'll load.

I found this out today (whit the On The Spot add) so i thought i should tell this so it can be fixed, i hope i could help ;)

Bavoke 8)

Lol. Funny vid. The Offical PS3 anthem.MusashiSensi

i couldnt take listening to rap long enough to watch the videoLoG-Sacrament

Bavoke, I am a hardcore ps3 fan but that wasn't good kyleali11