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Massive Multiplayer Gaming Warehouses On The Way
hephaist0s writes "A company called Holo-Dek Gaming has opened a gaming center in New Hampshire where $5/hour buys gamers a 73-inch high definition projection screen and a networked Alienware PC or or Xbox. More impressive, though, are the prototypes for their 180-degree gaming theater... and their game sphere. Yes, sphere. This is just a pilot program--the Baltimore facility planned for 2005 would have 300 networked gaming stations. Story and pictures here, company website here."
At $5 an hour, somewhere between $3360-3720 a month depending on the month.
If the projector bulb lasts 1000 hours, you would need to sell 100 hours alone just to cover the bulb cost.
Southeastern Virginia REPRESENT!
Tinkering with a fresnel lens to get a larger virtual display with depth. (Haven't tried this, don't know how well it works.)
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
here
got sig?
I own a cybercafe in colorado, and I'll tell you from first hand experience that the gaming community, although incredibly loyal and a ton of fun, cannot financially support such a behemoth.
/Don't/ cater to gamers, but instead to the joesixpacks.
300 Stations? I know there is one place in NY (??) that has something like that, and the only reason they are in business is because they
Sure, the coasts are a lot more populated and have a higher per-capita of hardcore gamers who will pay to play, but with only ~20 stations, it will take them a -long- time to break out of the red incurred by the initial investment. We've been open for 14 months now, and we're still paying off our $1200 PCs, and we're the most popular gaming center in town! We charge $3/hr for members, and $4/hr for walk-ins, and we get by with very modest paychecks. We would surely be unable to stay open if our *screens* costed $1k apeice, not to mention the $2k+ alienware boxes they have, even at $5/hr.
It's a great idea, but man. Good luck guys.
About a week ago. Cost me bout $6.50 for a 100-120 minute movie. There is a theatre round here that used to be 5.25 for matinees and students, then it was 5.50, now its 5.75, all within a year. Still cheaper than that place tho.
Keep in mind that the Steam CyberCafe setup costs $10 per PC, per month. Blizzards games are $3k per year for up to 20 machines, and linear from there. Almost every publishing house has horrifically expensive licensing fees for cafes.
$30k a month for just steam/counter-strike,the world's most popular game, will add up quickly, especially when they make you pay in three-month increments.
randal
I considered modding this Famebait but decided to reply instead.
New Hampshire is actually more urban than most people think. Hell, the southeat sector of the state is more-or-less all Boston suburbs. Nashua is home to plenty of high-tech companies, including military contractors and hard-drive manufacturers. The site's slashdotted so I can't see where the place is located, but if it's in Nashua or the Seacoast area, then they'll be in a good position to attract Massachusettes gamers, especally with the I-495 corridor right there.
Of course, I couldn't be wrong, as I've been living in a -rea- rural area for the last two and a half years -- Fargo, ND. I miss the urbanized Nashua, NH.
In my experience - which is a lot, considering that I own a cybercafe and am involved in one of the largest LAN events in America (everlan.net) - hardware and software companies are loathe to sponsor or advertise in cybercafes, and are -MUCH- more likely to invest in large, media-garnering LAN events like Quakecon/CPL/EverLAN/etc.
/aren't/ doing is spending $55 on xyz's latest title, and they /aren't/ buying the hottest newest $500 video card. That pisses off the megacorps a lot, and hence, they really have very little to do with cybercafes besides trying to bend them over with insane licensing fees.
You have to realize that when a person is paying $3/hr to play a game at a cafe, what they
It took MONTHS of negotiation to get wholesale pricing on ATI video cards, and even longer to get five, yes, five free processors from AMD -- at the cost that all of our promo banners and ads have their name on them, our store is littered with their names, and we still had to purchase TONS of their gear to get anything free.
And don't get me started on how horrible publishers are at working with cybercafes. iGames is a large step in the right direction by providing a unified front for cybercafes nation (world) wide; in my experience the only company that didn't try to rape us is id games - $500/title and 5% of any revenue generated by the game over $50,000/yr.
randal
My co-workers and I have been going to a place like this for sometime here in Greensboro, NC. Digital Lifestyle Center has approx. 16-20 Alienware 64-bit gaming monsters and around 10 XBox'en.
Great place to go after work, enjoy a few Bawls, and kill your co-workers (legally).
Video games sales in 2003 exceeded $7 billion, according to the Entertainment Software Association-double the amount sold in 1996. There were 239 million games sold, $5.8 billion in console games and $1.2 billion in PC games. 1.2 out of 7 is about 17% (less than 20%). Therefore, The pc game market represents less than 20% of the Overall game market.
And how do I write it off as a business expense?
If you really want to know the answer to that...
1. Go to your bank and open a 2nd checking account and for the name pick your business name. This is much cheaper than a business account. If they ask if it's a business say it's a hobby. Common among professional ebayers. Make sure you separate your income for book keeping. The IRS doesn't like it when you mix your funds.
2. Invest in a webcam, net access that permits servers, and register a domain. Both pornosphere.org and pornosphere.net are free.
3. Charge people to watch you jack off in front of your webcam while watching the porno sphere. Or better yet, charge other people to jack off in front of the porno sphere on webcam.
4. Don't ever ask how to write of porno equipment as a business expense again.
5. Laugh at any mod that ranks this as insightful or informative.
As for iGames, do you feel you get value for your membership fees? Aside from the showcases (which are nice, but the games always show up no more than 2 days before the event - in some cases, not until after), are there any of their services that you feel are worth it? Please don't tell me that their leagues/tournaments are something you enjoy :). The last one we had any intention of participating in was the BFV league over the summer. That was a HUGE mess - the winning team still hasn't got their x800s.
Really, what I'm starting to wonder if iGames is doing as good a job as it should be. It seems they're trying to be everything at once (server hosting, discount software, tournament organizers, etc) and not doing any of it terribly well. BTW, do you actually use the Steam cybercafe licence program? I just can't imagine the cost being justified.
A man who can't pronouce "nuclear arsenal" shouldn't have one -sig ends here.
If you get in, then you can get whatever booze, smack, or blow you want to go along with your choice of "interactive partner". Natrually, nothing in the interactive room is free; the $500 is the weed-out money to keep the riff-raff from even asking.
Yeah, right.
Where you are, sure, but I've seen three arcades shut down within six months of opening back in Arizona. Even the youth center didn't last more than a year or two before there was howling to have it shut down for the dangers of letting kids congregate..