Can a Gaming Cafe be Successful?

droidlev asks: "For years I've been toying around with the idea of opening up a medium sized gaming cafe in the Chicago suburbs. I have already taken care of the issue on how to make money during the day, when our younger market is in school, However, the question of whether or not a place like this can be successful, still remains. I've seen plenty of undermanned and poorly planned places in the area (and on the East Coast) like this go under in six months. What is your opinion? What ideas and thoughts do you have that could help a place, like the one I'm proposing, succeed? Do you have gaming cafes in your area that are successful? What unique techniques have they implemented?"

Comments

Yes we have one.

[TheZorch]

Springfield Mall in Fairfax County (not far from the Franconia/Springfield Metro Station), Virginia has a cyber cafe which also offers gaming on PCs and game consoles and its doing really well. They also have WiFi for people who bring in their own laptops. I'd say go for it!

Re:Yes we have one.

[kindlekoma]

There's also one here in sunny Portland, OR. It's called backspace ( www.backspace.bz ). They have just celebrated their 3 year anniversary of gamingness. I think the trick that Backspace has pulled is that it's in a very swanky area of downtown Portland, and they've fused a cyber cafe with a full-fledged art gallery, and chill out area. They've got a lot to offer in the way of neo-entertainment. Modern art, coffee, free wi-fi, comfy chairs, chess and other board games, pool, and a slew of PC games with either an internet or LAN option for play. It should also be mentioned that their location in downtown provides them with a maximum amount of both, business traffic in the daytime, and lots of people in the evening that are within walking distance that want to get out of their tiny apartments. I don't know how you'd convince a bunch of suburbanites to leave their tract housing developments to play games. But, I think a key is to offer diversity and appeal to professionals looking for a convienient and chic place to have meetings, as well as gamers looking to come out of their caves. Good luck!

Re:Yes we have one.

[Orangejesus]

you have to understand that most people don't go to gaming cafes for the games perse, they go for the social interaction, they go to play with their friends and be able to yell at them, they go to hang out with people with similar intrests. I have a better PC than the local place I go to game at and so do most of my friends, but it's easier to spend a few bucks and just go to the gaming place down the street than drag a bunch of computers around and fool with networking them and making sure everyone has the same version of what we want to play and working cd keys and ect. the gaming place I go to is open 24/7 and after 5 hours is free, (5 an hour) So it's pretty common for us to just go and set up shop and do an overnight there playing till the wee hours of the morning. When I was on break from college one summer about 6 of us litterally lived up there for almost a week straight sleeping on the couches and ordering pizza. I mean we probably didn't smell very good by the end of the week but it still ranks as one of the most fun times i've ever had. The key to a good gaming place is to make it somewhere that people just want to go to hang out and escape and not be bugged. I don't know how long this place will last but it's been open for over 5 years now and it's just a small 10 computer place in a small town. the key is that the owner is a cool guy, he lets people play sometimes if they are a little short or he'll let them owe him and ect. people like him people like the others who play there, people keep coming back and the place stays full all the time.

Re:Yes we have one.

[DarkMantle]

There's a place in town here (Cambridge Ontario Canada) That does fairly well (open for a year now) They use memberships for people that want to play regularly to make most of their rent. They also have food/drink there (pop and chips kind of stuff) and gamer and geek T-Shirts as well (similar to Think Geek). The WiFi is cool, secure it though so you can control who's on it better. There's another one in London Ontario that has a "Internet Cafe" in the front, so people can check email and surf the web. Then the back room is the gamer room. Combine the front Internet cafe style with a bit of a real cafe (watch out for the licensing if you're selling food/drink you make there) with a few tables at it so people can grab a coffee and do a quick email check on their own laptop/PDA while there would be a neat idea as well. Best advice is to look at the area and ask what is needed. Maybe hang out near the local EB Games for a day or two and ask people as they're leaving/entering if they'd fill out a 5 question survey about it. You may be able to avoid the mistakes the other places made.

Re:Yes we have one.

[Cromac]

In other words it sounds like they aren't trying to cater to the teenage/kid market, they want middle/upper middle class adults as their clients. That probably reduces a lot of the problems other gaming cafes deal with and lets them charge more for similar services, and offer other more expensive services. Kind of a modern replacment for the old local bar people used to go to after work.

Re:Yes we have one.

[enbody]

Add East Lansing, Michigan (home of Michigan State University) to the list with http://www.fragcenter.com/. They have been in business for three years. They also repair PCs. As a parent of a teenager one feature I've noticed is that they give out free playing time for good grades -- quite a bit of free time.

Re:Yes we have one.

[CastrTroy]

When I was a kid, a local rental shop started charging by the half hour for kids to play the consoles like Neo Geo and Super Nes. It gave them a lot of nice advertising, as people would come into the shop just to watch people play, and often decide to rent a game, or rent one of the systems. I remember them doing quite well, although they did close eventually. The store was always full, and they sold a lot of stuff that people really wanted, like those hard cases that rental games came it. It was much better to keep your games in those than in the crappy sleeves that the games usually came in. Back when most people still had NES, they were enabling people to play Neo Geo and Super nintendo, and I probably spent enough playing games on rental time to buy an entire system. I'm sure they made a lot of money.

Re:Yes we have one.

[kurzweilfreak]

...he lets people play sometimes if they are a little short...

All I imagine is a little sign on the wall next to the computer that says "You must be this tall to play this game" and this really nice guy letting the little kids play anyway. Down will height discrimination!

Re:Yes we have one.

[edunbar93]

I mean we probably didn't smell very good by the end of the week

What do you mean "probably"?

Re:Yes we have one.

[Kaao]

There is one here called E-LAN they have blacklights, a pool table, etc. Make sure that you sell drinks, snacks, etc. What E-LAN does is every Friday night they have an all nighter for $20(Canadian) you can reserv a computer and lay from 9pm to 7am(thus requiring energy drinks, and a place close by for food.) Also something I would recomend would to mod the cases of the boxes you either buy or build make your cafe look a lot "cooler" than the rest in town.

Research?

[Jrabbit05]

I know that the Dining and Gaming combined nicely and has several locations. I've done some light research on this topic and what you'll need is a way to be able to get rid of most of the stuff if it doesn't work out. Leasing equipment untill your making enough profit to satisfy your tastes. http://www.daveandbusters.com/

wwtdd

[antiphoton]

I live in Brisbane, Australia, and gaming cafe's are quite popular in the major cities. I know of at least four around inner city brisbane that have been open for years and are quite successful. From my observations their main revenue intake is based around these key concepts: 1. Location 2. Word of mouth Location is imperical, and you need to strike deals/lan nights to get word of mouth generation. Setting up shop near a school (preferably private school) can sometimes make this type of business a success, as i've seen in Brisbane. If you start all nighters and events it will generate a decent amount of friends telling other friends and so on to bring in business and customers. Anyway, these are just a few suggestions i'm guessing you already know about, hope it helps. PS: If you have the room, get a pool table!

Re:wwtdd

[Anonymous Coward]

The school / pool table sounds like a great combination. Schools would get the non-sports kids to drop by as soon as the bell rings.

If the computers could be rigged with bill accepters, it would make your job of keeping track much easier.

The pool table gives the non-gamers a place to hang too, and the gamers a place to relax between games.

Due to the target customers, it seems designed to be a disaster... kids dont make money.

This is something I've always wanted to do too, but never seemed like it had a good revenue potential... :)

-FBL

What kind of games?

[Enoxice]

You didn't specify what kind of games your cafe would feature. I assume you mean computer games (WoW, CS:S, et al). There is a place in my area that does very well in that market, but only because of variety.

I'd recommend offering something aside from computer games. Set up some tables for Magic: The Gathering, D&D, Battletech, Warhammer, etc so you aren't only catering to the "I don't have broadband" market. This way you'll become a social gathering place for geeks. You may even consider starting a card/miniature trading deal in your shop where you buy things from your customers and sell them back.

That's my advice. But, then again, I have NO business sense.

Re:What kind of games?

[Denial93]

You may even consider starting a card/miniature trading deal in your shop where you buy things from your customers and sell them back.

Or at least have a pinboard somewhere for people to put up notes about stuff they want to sell. You won't make money from the deals directly, but if you become a known trading hub, people will get used to dropping by for new deals. Add another pinboard for people looking for groups to play with, and a third for convention dates and the like. Information brings in people, and too many make the simple mistake of cramming it all on one pinboard.

Re:What kind of games?

[Anonymous Coward]

I coulden't figure out what they were untill i actually went in there

I think you should already know why this place failed.

But to the poster of the article... the first thing you do when you go into ANY business is to draw up a plan. Figure out what services you want to offer. Try to find out if anybody in the area really needs or wants those services, and how much they are willing to pay for them. If there is already competition in the area, figure out if there is an innovative way you can offer a better value: either in slightly better service/product for the same price, or similar quality for a slightly lower price. Figure out how many customers it's going to take to pay back all of your investments, then try to figure out if it's reasonable that that many customers will come through.

Next is a lot of behind the scenes work. Get a lawyer. GET A LAWYER. There are going to be a lot of codes, regulations and liscensing to wade through, and it's difficult to know what to expect. Get an accountant... you will need someone to verify everything to make sure that 1)you are doing it legally and that 2) your employees aren't stealing from you. Now go back to that business plan... make sure that everything is spelled out nice and neat. Some things may not be right, and unforseen opportunities and obstacles will pop up, but having the plan gives you something to deviate from. Without it everything will be chaos. Then have your lawyer and accountant go over the business plan. Are you going in with other people? Friends? Family? Acquaintances? Investors? Partners? Employees? Make sure it is spelled out exactly what is expected of them, and exactly how they will benefit from helping you. Make sure the penalties for either party not living up to their side of the bargain are clearly deliniated beforehand. Otherwise the plan will fall apart, and any existing relationship will become severely strained.

After all this is layed out, take steps to acquiring the storefront, equipment, funding, etc. For the big stuff, make any purchases/loans contigent on everything working out to at least the point where you can open the doors. Get everything in writing, including contigencies such as liscenses going through, funding coming through, etc. Determine occupancy limits and how you are going to enforce them. Make sure the physical premises can be secured, as well as any hardware/software used.

And remember, it is extremely difficult to start a business of any reasonable size alone and keep both a full-time day job and your sanity. Running a business of the size it sounds like you are going for will probably be more than full time, at least in the beginning. Once everything is smoothed out and a lot of the initial investments are paid off, you can think about farming some of the work off to a manager, but right off the bat you want the owner there for most of the time the cafe is open, and there is a lot of work that will have to be done when the cafe is not open.

When setting up all the finances, don't forget to budget money for yourself to live. It's okay to give yourself a salary out of loaned money to the company, as long as you are honestly working on the project. There is going to be a LOT of work that has to be done before the doors open, and you will be burned out before that time if you need a full time job to live.

Re:What kind of games?

[sabinm]

Yes, set up the Dungeon master table far away... preferably in the dungeon. Require a separate entrance and a dress code. Cheetos food coloring must be washed off the mouth area before you attempt to engage in social interaction with female surface dwellers. No shouting "Excelsior!" no comments like 'she just turned you down with 9999 hit points direct damage!'

If you want to lose money, make a common area for all gamers in one place. Let's face it. Gamers occupy serveral differnt rungs on the food chain. Putting sports gamers and Magic gamers in the same place is like putting Preying Mantises and Spiders in a jar to see who will win. Entertaining, but utterly valueless.

The trick is to understand what you're doing. Are you trying to turn a profit? Or are you trying to do what you love? Doing what you love and turning a profit are almost always mutually exclusive. If you want to turn a profit, that's easy. Lots of marketing (in the thousands--tens of thousands if you have it); Let EVERYONE know. Parents. Grandparents. Kids who can't push buttons yet. EVERYONE. A quality location and good atmosphere (which includes design, food and service). Analyze it before you get into it with different price scenarios for profit (gas prices, electricity prices, what is your salary--do servers work off of tips plus a small wage, management is trustworthy). Plan to sell in a few years. Give away prizes. Have tournaments.

If you're doing it because you love it, why do you care if you turn a profit? Do just a little bit of leg work and you might get lucky. What you're really opening is a restaurant that happens to cater to a gaming clientelle. Give it a shot.

Value added.

[F34nor]

The key to anything is adding value to a commodity. PCs are a crappy commodity even with mods.

Why should I use your facility rather than a crappy one. Are you going to have hot chicks offering massage? How about a place to smoke while you play? Good DJs beat matching to the action? Red velvet? What?

Take it from me nothing is worse than just another fucking cubicle.

Re:Value added.

[darkmeridian]

The guys running the computer place in my neighborhood has it figured out: hot high school girls. Apparently, they get paid 15 an hour, which is decent, but obviously draw in the entire geek crowd (especially from their high school). They sell computers, too.

No, here's why

[Monkelectric]

Anyone who can afford your services is too busy making money to actually go to your shop. Your only chance is to appeal to people who have lots of money and lots of time. IE: Near a very expensive university.

Perhaps elsewhere...

[IANAAC]

meaning another country, yes. I live in the Chicago area (Chicago proper) and internet access is pervasive. I'm not just talking about in the home. I'm talking about other places that offer free internet access in addition to beverages and food.

Good luck, but currently, I don't think it's a viable business plan.

depends on how you do it

[grapeape]

I had entertained that idea myself for a while but after going to ones outside my immediate area but within driving distance one thing I observed was that while they all mostly started out great with good staff, top of the line machines, local advertising, a pleasant atmosphere and a good selection of games, within a year or so most are pits with low staffing, unkept facilities, outdated machines and poor selection of games. I dont know if their budgets run out, or if they just found that the majority didnt care about the latest and greatest so it wasnt worth the investment. One theory is that those that are hardcore games already have systems as good or better at home

I did find a few things I would do differently, for one I would like to see a bank of printers, scanners, etc so that during certain hours (maybe school hours and few after that, the machines could actually be used for study, business etc. I also thought of adding a gamestop type game exchange with maybe a points program for time rented and maybe tournaments and contests (monthly high score, etc). Another idea would be to have certain nights that are 18+ and special events on a monthly basis. For rental time I wanted to use a keycard system like gemstar to keep track of time and charges. I had also thought about working out an advertising/sales deal with a local vendor to help with equipment costs.

I wrote an entire business plan but then got a job offer I couldnt pass up and just kind of threw it aside for now. I belive "cyber cafe's" are viable here but they need more of a hook than just "PC's for rent".

Re:depends on how you do it

[c0d3h4x0r]

The real problem is what you said in your first paragraph: those that are hardcore gamers already have systems as good or better at home. Simply providing a place with PCs doesn't really add value over top of what most gamers can do for free by meeting up at each other's homes.

But there are a lot of things you could do to add compelling features that go beyond what gamers can typically provide for themselves. You just have to put yourself in the mind of a gamer.

Gamers tend to be a picky sort. Each gamer wants his/her configuration (or PC) exactly the way they like it -- having to use a public/shared machine sucks, even if it may have a bit more raw power. Gamers also tend to like "ricing up" their machines to show off to each other, since PC gaming is as much about hardware as the games. And while typically good at maintaining their own individual computers, they tend not to be the greatest at building and securing and maintaining high-performance impromptu networks. In my experience, when gamers meet up to play, there's typically hours wasted trying to get/keep a LAN running so the games can actually be played. Other concerns not typically thought through well by gamers gathering in groups include things like adequate power outlets, comfortable seating, plenty of desk space to put the PCs on, etc.

You don't want to be in the business of maintaining all your own hardware and keeping it all up-to-date. That gets expensive quick, especially with all the technically-skilled hired help you'd need to pay to keep things running.

Given all these factors, I think the best thing you could do would be to provide a space, decked out with plenty of proper furniture, plenty of power strips, super-fast secured reliable network with Internet access, places for spectators to sit and observe comfortably, and some awesome fast-response LCD DVI monitors. But make the entire affair BYOC (bring your own computer). Let the gamers pay for and maintain and bring along their own PCs. Let the "small penis == huge neon glowing overclocked PC" culture work for you rather than against you. Make your spot the place for hot-shot gamers to show off their machines. Offer a cash prize each night to the craziest case mod, etc.

Don't make the place a "you can walk up at random and play" kind of thing. Make it exclusive. Book the place out to groups. Make spectators who randomly drop by feel left out, so next time they'll book the place out with their friends. People typically don't want to just play against strangers randomly -- that wouldn't be much different than playing some random player over the Internet. Instead, focus your efforts on getting groups to rent the whole place out at once. Encourage groups to create team names, and keep a stats system with the team names, etc. Take advantage of the social and competitive aspects of gaming.

Finally, you can take a lesson from movie theaters and actually make most of your money off concessions. When gamers are in the middle of a long gaming session, but get hungry or thirsty, they don't want to have to leave the game entirely to go hunt for food. How great would it be if someone went around to each station offering them snacks and drinks? How much better would it be if those "someones" were attractive Hooters=style waitresses?

I've given you all the ideas you need... good luck.

in the 80's they were called arcades

[mark_lybarger]

and the more successfull ones were built around other businesses as an additional attraction. a local pizza/sub shope would have a game room where i could throw away a roll of quarters from the paper route income. the laundry houses also had a few video game machines. i don't recall standalone game rooms (the malls had 'um but i never frequented these places) that were successfull.

today, places are starting to incorporate wifi access as part of their extended business plan. most panera bread stores have free wifi access. so, i go to panera bread for coffee. i hear the starbucks has wifi, but you have to be part of some expensive plan to use them. i've never gone that route.

so, to answer your quetsions, no, there are no gaming houses that are successfull around here, and more creative business establishments would use something like that as an attraction to compliment their other business.

An Idea

[Digz]

A very successful one around me - which was open for years, but has recently closed (I think mostly due to new developments in the area) - incorporated a slightly esoteric menu (vegan items and so forth) with a coffee bar and gaming den.

It may work, it may not.

[vbwilliams]

If you don't have something that people can't get at home, it's not worth the trouble.

We had one place that was successful in my area quite a few years back because they could provide a large amount of internet bandwidth for a relatively low cost compared to consumer prices. However, when DSL and eventually cable modem caught on, that market was done.

If this is strictly a gaming cafe, in the age of oodles of bandwidth everywhere, if you cannot support numerous tournaments with worthwhile prizes (that people will potentially play all day or two straight days to get), it won't work.

As other posters suggested, if you combine food/coffee with the gaming, you may be onto something. But a gaming-only cafe, I think that idea was done 6-8 years ago and then it was done. When corporate-level bandwidth started to be available in homes at commodity prices, that was the end of that. You can now play in numerous online tourneys and still get very good prizes and whatnot...and from my perspective that's what a good portion of the people will go to a cafe and play for. When I played, I played for cash or prizes worth over $300 USD. That was the only way I could justify paying to get into a place and then wasting a day or two with the possibility I might get eliminated before I got the chance to earn a top 3 spot (which were the only payouts in a cafe tourney).

Aside from what I just said, if you live in a major metro area, it might work. I would imagine Chicago would be a decent place to try this because of all the bandwidth there and managed hosting of all kinds. I know Hurricane Electric will rent out completely furnished computer labs and such expressly designed for gaming. You pay a deposit to the provider, charge the people to come in and play, etc etc. If you plan it right, you can make money.

Cafe experiences

[originalnih]

Well, I don't have any. But some close friends of mine just opened a gaming cafe in a town small enough not to have one yet. They put the cash in and got decent hardware while spending minimal amounts on the decor, just enough to clean it up. Against my advice they franchised some software to manage it but the franchisor gave them a lot of help along the way. In this case the fees were paid off within the first three months but the quality of the setup was sometimes suspect (VMware virtual machine on linux running Windows NT running TurboSquidNT as the gateway. WTF?). I don't see how you couldn't do all the work yourself just a easily however. The hours are long! It's hard, monotonous work and you don't get a lot of time to focus on your own gaming, but the cash is coming in and they're making a lot of money. They're focusing on return customers and keeping them happy, doing things like all-night lock-ins to keep it interesting. As for around here, there are dozens, literally dozens of crap quality net cafes in the area, but they're always full, mostly of the local asian population. The moral: study the area you're opening. Are the cafes full? When are they full? What's the rent like? Is the area safe to hang out in? Is the cafe presentable? Work your ass off and it'll all work out just fine.

Re:Chicago...

[beheaderaswp]

RE: Old Orchard

It's also right across Lawler Ave from Niles North High School.

Regarding the demographics in that area, there's a lot of money to the north, and it's standard suburbia south into Chicago proper. The kids from Niles North have more money than brains (I went there- I can say it!). And Old Orchard is a hangout for most young people from the Chicago border north past Wilmette.

The location at Old Orchard is exceptional, and one of the few locations I'd see working for this kind of thing in Chicago.

Sadly though, the person doing this is going to probably fail. There's very little chance a "cyber-gaming cafe" is going to make it. A better shot would be a high quality coffee/cafe type thing, with some computers and gaming thrown in. Make sure it's got the three keys to retail success: "location, location, location!".

I've seen maybe 30 venture of this type around the country. One is still in operation. It's a business that reproduces a non social activity in a social setting. People can game at home... eventually they stop hanging out at the parlor and go home- but the business still has a lease.

They Can Work

[KagatoLNX]

Well, I run one along with two other guys. The place will eventually make money but its not exactly a cash cow here (although it may get better after some of our competition goes under).

A lot of people chimed in mentioning that computers and net access are cheap. Well, that's true. I would also mention that, at a hypothetical $5.00 / hour (we're cheaper due to being in small town USA), it takes quite a while to catch up with a computer, games, maintenance, and internet access.

For people who either just browse the net or people who play games maybe five or six hours per week, it's much less trouble and cost effective to go to a place like this. I dare say that most people fall into that more casual group--especially when you consider they also divide their time with home consoles. We also have a nightly and weekly open-pass rate that keeps the place hopping when we would otherwise be slow.

There are other mitigating factors too. Maybe they don't trust their roommates. Maybe they're traveling. Maybe they really just want to avoid their parents. Maybe they skateboard in the area and just want to buy a drink someplace cool. All of these people fill in the gaps that are left by hardcore gamers just buying their own computer.

Some advice, don't go it alone. We have three people that own / work the place (only open after 5pm) and we couldn't really do it with less (and bona fide employees are expensive). Also, plan to replace your computers. If you don't you'll run out of money just when the business is taking off. Also, don't forget the three most important things to a business: location, location, and location. Finally, keep in mind that some games aren't licensed for cafe usage without special arrangements. Most notable is Valve Software (for which we have a cafe license). Also, don't pirate Windows. It's just stupid (and *will* get you shut down when the competition kindly turns you in).

Re:They Can Work

[Breakfast Pants]

Change the name. While geek is a badge of pride for many, you are basically limiting yourself to just the hardcore geek by using that name.

Re:They Can Work

[moonbender]

I assume you'll need to replace certain parts which are used by the customers frequently: mouse and keyboard in particular, headphones, too. Maybe even the display, although a regular cleaning might do. People tend to treat stuff badly when it's not their own. Fortunately none of these is particularly expensive.

You think?

[Anonymous Coward]

I know you're envisioning a non-stop LAN party like you have with your friends, but (at least in the USA) it's probably not going to go down like that.

You're probably going to need to cater to teens. Teens are less likely to have their own computers, or their usage is restricted by their parents. They're also a lot more social-- they want to get out of the house and they have time to kill. Conversely adults are more likely to be able to afford their own gaming rigs, and (more importantly) they tend to want to be left alone-- they'd rather play in the comfort of home than hanging around a gaming cafe-- especially if it's filled with packs of teenagers (kind of a catch 22...)

The downside, of course, is that you'll be spending a lot of time playing babysitter. You'll be constantly monitoring for theft and vandalism, telling them not to smoke in front, maybe even breaking up a fight or two. You're going to get a lot of attitude. Did I mention the theft and vandalism? Things are going to go missing and you're going to have no idea how they pulled it off. Things are going to be broken for no reason at all. Ever seen an arcade machine in pristine condition? For that matter, ever seen an arcade bathroom? That's what yours will look like every night too...

Console games!

[Sartak]

I recommend console games in addition to PC games. I long for the past days of four-player free-for-all GoldenEye 64.

Laundry

[dredknight]

I know a guy that has a successul gaming business. He offers a laundry feature. So people can clean their clothes while they purchase \ play games. This is a great idea considering alot of gamers need to clean their clothes anyways. btw I'm an evil genius.

There were a few in the Kansas City area

[miyako]

There have been a few in the Kansas City area where I live, one is still fairly successfull, the other was doing well but was shut down due to the owner getting ill.
There were also a few that failed. There were some things I noticed about what made the successfull ones successfull, and the unsuccessfull ones fail. The biggest thing was that the ones that were around for a while didn't focus just on PC games. Both of them offered (for free) space for running table top games, sold CCGs, table top books and accessories, sold PC hardware, rented time on machines to play PC games, and had a couple of TVs set up for console gaming (also for free).
They didn't focus on selling stuff as much as they focused on a place for gamers to hang out, and just happened to sell anything that one might need for gaming. Part of that was also keeping the stores fairly kid friendly. This meant keeping the older gamers from cursing loudly, as well as turning down the gore factor on games with such options. This made parents feel better about letting their kids hang out there, and the kids usually spent a good amount of money.

Re:Bargain shopping

[Daschu]

Just make sure that you're not price-gouging your snacks and beverages. Do not price anything higher than it could typically be found in a vending machine or convience store. You won't sell very much AND your customers (particularly kids) will dispise you. Actually, if its possible, see if you can undercut local snack options even by just a little bit. It could go a long way to developing a trust between you and your hungry customers.

Also, I've only ever been to a gaming cafe once, but I recall that they had some sort of tab system. They had software that tracked users login times so that accurate bills would be. An unlimited monthly plan would probably kill you, but do offer some sort of membership discount. A couple free hours at sign-up and discounted hourly rates help. And as far as the tab concept goes, have some sort of system that instills trust into the customers by allowing them to play for a few hours without having to pay until the next time they come in. Say that after you pay for 10 hours, you're allowed up to 5 hours of unpaid time. After they play for 5 hours without paying, then you kick them off.

Basically, you want to have rigid rules to combat cheating/stealing, but in those rules, allow some flexibility so that your customers trust you and don't feel like you only care about them for their money.

Maybe

[akjl99]

I'm from chicago and I know 4 different owners and two of them I supplied them the computers. 3 of the 4 went out of business in under 2 years. Not to be a pessimist but you really need to know what your doing. It's a big investment. It's not a matter a buying a bunch of cheap gaming systems a fractional t1 and think flocks of teens are going to come. The major cost is supporting those PC's especially if you allow your patrons to smoke like most cyber pc's. You have crazy sofware costs involved, but the biggest problem is unlike the past but today 90% of people have access to broad band internet and they want to use there computer since most likely it will be better then the cyber cafe. I know of at least 15 cyber cafe's in the chicagoland area ranging from 5 PC's to 60+ and half or 3/4 are korean owned and of those half have gone out of business. It's a very tough market. You need to market to schools run tournements get sponsorship and try to atract a few pro gamers. Most pro gamers are not going to be caught dead at a cyber cafe, why would they use inferior machines that aren't customized to there needs and why would they bother with the noise and distractions. Another problem with many cyber cafes that I've seen is you lose alot of females and older like 40+ crowd because cyber cafes are so overwhelmed with teenagers playing counter strike at the highest volume possible and being very obnoxious. I actually visited korea last year and I can't believe how much money they make especially for what they charge. You can play for .50 to a dollar and hour on a full T1 sometimes a T3 and the cafes are so nice and they bring you food and everything. These cafes are packed and run 24 hours. Hope this helps and good luck you'll most likely need it.

Read about this guy's experience

[Supercrunch]

A good article from Slate about a guy and his failed coffeeshop business. Not quite the same, I realize, but still very insightful.

Re:Read about this guy's experience

[Ticklemonster]

Well duh, look what he was doing. If you want to have a cyber cafe, don't get all bent out of shape with the cafe part until you get off the ground. Stick with good service, and plenty of fun. Hey, do you have a swat team or an armed forces base in town? City and county police or sheriff's dept? Hit them up with the idea of having computers they can rent to use for practicing team work, then subtly hint that sheriff Joe Blob said his good old boys can take on the local city cops, then have competition nights! Yep, they'll bring in their spouses and friends, who will consume mass quantities of imbibables. Or how about if there is a local collage with a digital arts class? Get with the teacher about 3d design, maybe have them make maps or something for extra credit. Computer sciences? Mods and new game types. It's there, you just have to be inventive. I want to do this in Rome, Ga, but I'm just too afraid of biting off more than I can handle, myself. One of these days, maybe... but good luck to anyone who tries this.

Uh, no, they generally can't.

[fthiess]

I started and ran my own cybercafe/game center for 3 years, so I have some experience with this subject. It was GREAT fun! Financially it always made enough money to get all the bills paid, with a little (really little) left over as salary for me. That doesn't mean it was profitable, though: unless you like charity, you need to be looking at whether a business will be profitable in an economic sense, not just an accounting sense, and that means you need to take into account not just what a reasonable salary for yourself is, but little things like depreciation of your assets (so you can afford upgrades), your cost of capital (even if it's your own money), and a reasonable return on investment (compared to what you would earn on the money if you didn't put it into a game center). After having looked at my experience in the business every way I could think of, I'm firmly of the belief that there is just no way to make money on this type of business unless you have a very special set of circumstances. Consequently, I closed my place down a couple of months ago.

I like to think of the real problem game centers have in terms of system dynamics: a game center draws customers from within a limited geographic radius (about 10 miles, or maybe 15 km, in my case). Within that radius there are a limited number of people who will be interested in what you offer. In the early days business grows exponentially, but NOT because of any kind of growth in the number of potential customers--it's just that more and more of your fixed number of potential customers are finding out about you. At some point you reach saturation, and that where the system dynamics comes into play: you are in a fight between the number of potential customers in your area that are leaving (graduated, moved away, bought their own computer, ran out of money, lost interest, etc.) versus the number of new potential customers that are being created (moved in, got old enough mom would let them play, etc.). Basically, there are many more paths for customers to leave then there are for them to arrive in your pool of "potentials", so it's a loosing proposition.

Yes, there are things you can do to change the coefficients of some of the terms in the basic equation: you can try to bring in more adults, you can add more games more frequently, do more advertising, etc. What I've seen, though--and I've validated the basic model with several other (former) game center owners--is that if you do everything right business is good for about a year and a half, then it peaks and falls off to much lower level. Revenues can remain stable after that point, but at a level that is WAY below the peak--and that generally means you don't have the profits you need to upgrade machines, buy new games, etc. When you stop being able to upgrade and add new games, you enter the final part of the curve when business falls off further from the already-low plateau it was at, and then you're dead (in terms of the business).

Tweak the situation a little bit and the timing of when you hit the inflection points on the curve will shift forward or backward some, but the basic shape of the curve doesn't change--that's why I say that this really isn't a viable business.

Oh, those "special circumstances" I mentioned, that would make it viable? They DO exist, but are rare: for example, you don't pay for most or even any of your games (a popular strategy in developing countries, and unfortunately used much more frequently than you might think even in the developed world!); you're setting up business in a community where there's nothing else for kids to do; you find other uses for the floorspace and computers that you can make money on when people aren't playing games (computer classes, for example). Even if these or similar factors apply in your case, though, they usually only make the difference between surviving and not--I've never seen a case where they are enough to actually get things to the point where the business is financially attractive to be in.

Yes, all of the

Cyber Cafes are successful.

[kahrytan]

In Hampton Roads Virginia (Southeast Virginia), there is a cyber cafe that has been in business for years. I'm not sure how long but at least 5-10 years. I would imagine the most expensive part of Cyber Cafe startup is the Tier line and being able to pay for it on monthly basis.

Check out Website CyberCafe. They have webcams and photos of the place to see how they got it setup. Webcams are live so you can also see how busy it is with a 1.6 million population.

Re:Are there any left?

[0racle]

In places other then the US and Canada, they seem to do very well.

suggestions

[akjl99]

I posted earlier why it's tough to open one, but some suggestions that will help you are the following: 1. Have a payment system where patrons prepay not pay after like there done in many korean cyber cafe. 2. If your going to be selling cooked food make sure you get a food establishment license or else the Chicago Department of Revenue or Department of Public Health can and will come after you. 3. Limit the noise, get high quality headphones 4. Offer patrons to bring there own PC's and charge them internet connection only something reasonable like $1 an hour. Your selling your T1 and the social experience to these customers 5. Offer tournaments lock in style. Offer tournements where customer prepays and plays over night for a reasonable fee. Offer prizes from sponsors or money. 6. Don't ignore senior citizens and females. Senior citizens may be your bread and butter during the day and non school hours, don't ignore females since they represent half the population. To get both enforce conduct code limit smoking to smoking section only, and limit profanity and shouting. 7. Offer hardware/training classes during the day or early mornings. 8. Run a secondary business like PC repair, PC sales, webhost and webdesign etc... 9. Target schools and other organizations, give them a discount 10. Get good chairs like previous posts. 11. Maintain PC's all time. Any minute a PC is down is losing you money. 12. Offer wifi service, at an extreme discount like .50 an hour or free with purchase of food or prepay internet card. 13. Market, Market, Market, so many cyber cafe's fail because they cater to only certain people and they expect people to be able to find them. Build a website, run ads and coupons, create a referrel program get as many people don't be content. 14. Make sure you have the capital to sustain your operation. I've seen so many cyber cafes that last only 6 months because there undercapitalized. 15. Realize your running a business so go easy on those comps to your friends and family or so called friends. That's just a few that came to the top of my head, I have more. If you need help with web site and online marketing you can email me at alink@estoreware.com my company specializes in that we're based in chicago. Good Luck!!!

I ran one

[Onetrack]

The best thing you can do is get affiliated with Igames.org, you get a wealth of information and ideas + support from hundreds of exhisting owners.
I ran my centre, Capture The Frag here in a small town ~80,000 with 2 other pc and 1 xbox center and we did alright, surviving about 15 months.

What ends up killing you is the price of the games, the stupid licensing from companies like valve and the cost of supporting your hardware/upgrading and making sure the machines are maintained.

Get a license for Deep Freeze, it'll be your best friend.

We made a good deal of $ but it mostly went to advertising and paying for the property lease plus games, remember you're not buying 1, you're buying however many games for however many comps you have.

In the end, after about 15 months, i got sick of working 100 hours a week for no pay, its SO much more than just hooking some comps into a hub and going.

Re:I ran one

[TheRaven64]

Just wondering, did you try approaching any of the game publishers for a discount? You could sell it to them as a try-before-you-buy scheme. People come into your cafe, play the game, decide they want to play it at home and buy a copy; you can even sell copies in-store. You mentioned lgames.org. Since they represent a significant amount of buying power, they might be in a good position to negotiate a steep discount on games.

In 06....

[mpapet]

The parent post is right. And add to that: in 06 I don't see why you *must* pay rent on a retail location. Your target audience isn't the young gamer. It's an older crowd that remembers having fun playing games before they went to work.

Here's the order of events as I see it.
1. Go to *every* place that has people sitting down, even for a few minutes. Coffee, bars... nightclubs.
2. Corner the head-honcho and tell her you will bring the PC's for a game night and you want a cut of the business that night. Talk to somebody that books nightclubs to figure out what the nightclub is used to paying.
3. If you get enough enthusiastic yes's then step 4.
4. Lease PC's and LCD's
5. Advertise, Advertise Advertise!
6. Run game nights.
7. Profit?

Re:Chicago...

[AKAImBatman]

VideoGames Etc. near Harwood Heights (Chicagoland area, toward Skokie) is the place to visit if you want to check out the Internet Cafe scene. It's run by a fellow named Sean Kelly. Kelly is one of the primary organizers of the Classic Gaming Expo, and is well versed in gaming systems new and old. As a result, you'll find that his store is filled with a combination of Internet Gaming, classic systems, and the latest stuff from Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony. It's weird to find it all under one roof, yet quite satisfying when you can walk home with something for both your PS2 and Odyssey^2.

Here's their address if you want to visit:

Videogames Etc
4351 N. Harlem
Norridge, IL 60706

Don't tell them I sent you, because they'd have no idea who I am. :)

Prepay Prepay Prepay...

[Pleb'a.nz]

Prepay *sweaty clap* Prepay *sweaty clap* Prepay... I've helped start up a major internet cafe and has been running for six plus years. It's the place the national news uses for any "computer" related shots. Two things brought success to the place, prepay (the on going success story) customers. Take the money and run, there is no need for debt recovering, when people split for "emergency reasons" they aren't leaving you in the lurch. Second is get some known gamers off the forum and employ them for a month or two, they'll pass the word on through the forums/chat channels and this'll really get people to know about your place. Then they will slowly want to game instead of work so you lay them off nicely and give them a "gold" status

Re:In Schaumburg

[Darby]

solution to the stealing the mouse balls - get a laser mouse instead

Yeah, but then people would just steal the frickin lasers, strap them to shark's heads and then we'd be in real trouble.

Re:Bargain shopping

[drsquare]

Do not price anything higher than it could typically be found in a vending machine or convience store. You won't sell very much AND your customers (particularly kids) will dispise you.

Every bar, restaurant, cinema and stadium in the world disagrees with you. People will pay for convenience.

Basically, you want to have rigid rules to combat cheating/stealing, but in those rules, allow some flexibility so that your customers trust you and don't feel like you only care about them for their money.

99% of your business will depend on the price and how good the service is. A WoW addict doesn't care about trust or how much money the owner is making, they just want to play the game.

They can't get it at home

[Harmonious Botch]

Disclaimer: I've never been in a gaming cafe. But I've run a small business for 20 years, so the following advice is mostly about the business side of it.

1) Your job is NOT running your cafe. Your job is improving it. Owning a small business is a red queen affair: you have to be constantly improving just to stay even with the competition. Do every job in your cafe just long enough to know how to do it well. ( This will be anything from doing taxes to fixing hubs to cleaning the toilet. ) Then DELEGATE.

2) Your territory does not end at the door. OK, legally maybe it does, but you must treat the area immediately around your business as your territory. Clean up trash, cover grafitti ( immediately ), get rid of panhandlers. If something goes wrong immediately outside your business, it is not your fault, but it is your responsibility.
Get to know your neighbors. They can be helpful, or they can hurt you. ( This is especially important in your case, for many of them may initially view your clientele as troublemakers )
Join your local business association. Get to know your local cops.

3) You may have drug dealers and hookers of both sexes trying to use your place as a base of operations. Get rid of them. Not only do they give the cops a reason to cause you problems, but they will be competing for your customers' money.

4) Decide exactly what your business is. Yes, it sounds silly, but many owners don't really know what line of work they are in. In your case, you are not just in the business of offering games. As several posters have noted, most people can get that at home. You have to offer them an experience that they can't get at home.
A) Coffee and food will help. It does not have to be great food + coffee, but decent and reliably so. ( which many people don't have at home because they are too busy playing games. )
B) Have at least one hot babe working for you. ( Most gamers don't have one of those at home ) It helps if she is not an idiot, too.
C) Create a social scene ( most gamers don't have that at home, either ) This means catering to women. Keep them happy, and they will hang around, and then the guys will hang around too. Find out what kind of games women prefer. Have plenty of them. Keep the bathrooms clean.
D) Have a clear statement of expected behavior ( no smoking, no fighting, no booze, etc - whatever rules you think will do best ) Be very, very clear about what standards you expect of your customers, and then stick to them. Be prepared to explain why those particular rules are important to you. A large number of gamers play games because they find the rest of the world to be confusing, irrational, and hypocritical. Very few of them have a social environment that makes sense at home. E) Keep asking yourself 'What can I do for my customers that they can't get at home?"

Good comment, and a few additions.

[cbreaker]

There's a lot of times when I'd like to be able to play a game of CS:S with some friends that don't even have PC's capable of running the game but would have a blast in a 6v6 LAN friends game. Or, perhaps I want to go and meet some fellow game players that I might find online later on. Maybe my PC is broken, and I want to play some games.

It's like a rebirth of the video arcade, but it's more captivating.

Some things that a game spot should avoid:

- Ruthless monitoring of the players. If you have the game police watching everyone and barking every time someone does something you don't like, it will keep people away REAL fast. Make sure you have a supply of keyboards and mice. They're cheap. Don't worry about them so much.

- Tailoring to the very young kids. While families might visit a gaming center once in awhile, you don't want to alienate your core customer group by forcing them to be proper little gentlemen because sometimes a young kid might play. Some ediquite is a good idea, but be too strict and you'll drive them right away.

- Limiting internet usage. Don't limit internet usage. Sure, you could block porn sites, but don't block everything else.

A game cafe should have a method of quickly regenerating a PC to "defaults" and should have a couple machines on stand-by. If you don't have to worry about users screwing up Windows, you don't have to be the PC Nanny.

You should also provide stations for people that want to bring in their own PC's. You could charge the same amount of money, but let people use their own equipment. If I am going to go to someplace like this for a bunch of hours with some friends, I want to bring my own PC, my own LCD screen, and my own keyboard+mouse.

I've been to places that break all these suggestions and I'll never go back. It would have been great if they weren't so strict. I mean, gamers want to hang out, play some games, yell at each other, and have fun. Let them do that and you could be successful.

Re:Good comment, and a few additions.

[binarytoaster]

A suggestion to keep the system at default settings would be Deep Freeze. If someone manages to fuck up the system a reboot will take care of it quickly.

Re:Bargain shopping

[horn_in_gb]

Yeah, but I ("we") despise every bar, cinema, and stadium in the world. It annoys me to no end how they jack up prices. And I spend less because of it. The guy is talking about a gaming bar, where probably most people won't just have excess money. I'm sure they would really appreciate well-priced food & drink, buy more because of it, and come more often.

If you knew a bar that had tasty food and snacks for a reasonable price, would you go there more often than other bars? I sure would! If there was a cinema in town that had dollar cokes, that would be the ONLY cinema I ever went to. And I'd buy a coke every single time. Everybody would buy a coke every single time.

I'm no economist, I know there's a special point between the two competing factors of how much people will buy vs. how much you take in per purchase. You gotta maximize it. I have a sick feeling that maybe bars, restaurants,etc. have maximized their profits, but it's downright sick, and I wonder if the curve is shallower and you wouldn't lose much money even if you avoid inflation.

Just don't do everything at once

[cheros]

As any business knows, cash is king. Planning is essential to make it through the years.

Your principle problem will come from having to pay bills and not having money for it. You get money by (a) your original investment: be careful of what is known as "the cost of capital" - anything you borrow will have to go back (b) paying customers: whatever your target audience is, be ready to shift this as fashions change - this can be almost seasonal.. (c) whatever franchise you manage to get going local businesses may be interested in banner advertising on your default logon screens.

You spend money by running the business (read: pay your bills, staff, live AND set aside enough for maintenance and equipment/business refresh - the cycle of that depends on what you want to do and how destructive our clients are :-). Don't try to be everything at once, that means you're spending before you earn which is worth avoiding. Get the basics up first - systems, chairs, premises, backup, etc. Leave the fancy stuff - flashy decoration, huge advertising, costly extra features - until you can pay them from income, that way you keep your borrowing as low as possible. Borrowing costs interest which is money that doesn't work for you.

The equation is simple: if you get your income (including future planning) to rise above your spend and you have about 3 months running costs in the bank you have a winner. As a matter of fact, if you have a winner of that scale you should pump some of your profits in doing it again elsewhere and create a chain but NEVER try to continue a business after it shows not to work where you you put it. You'll know that in 3 months or so (so you know what your potential loss is before you do this).

Ultimately, if you've got 3 shops doing this with profit you have in principle something that you can sell on for quite a bit more, but let's tackle that when you get there :-).

Oh, and try to avoid personal risk, companies can be set up with 'limited liability' but some companies want your shirt/house as guarantee - be careful because it can be used on a succesful business to take it over. The bankis by NO means your friend. They may help you, but they're a business too. The more you can avoid external money the better it is, and if you do get a loan, make sure it's one you can clear ASAP without penalties. Try and stay debtfree where possible, that's the stuff that will keep you awake at night.

Good luck - starting a business is a nervous enterprise but it's also very rewarding when it all starts to tick.

= CH =

Recipe for Disaster

[Noodlenose]

For a commercial operator like the cafe you've been describing, I think it's a recipe for disaster to let third party machines into your network. Think of the damage these machines can cause if they infect the rest of the network with some nasty rootkit/worm/trojan.

gaming cafes in Japan

[bigrespect]

I don't know what lessons can be applied to the U.S., but FWIW, game cafes are big business in Japan. In addition to computers with games and broadband connections, they typically feature large libraries of manga, CD's and DVD's, plus various types of fast food and complimentary drinks. There is often a subset of computer carels that are basically fully enclosed cubicles with lockable doors, where privacy is assured, and really big, luxurious reclining seats that people would be comfortable spending the night in. These places are often open 24/7.

I used to work for a gaming cafe that went under

[Anonymous Coward]

in six months, on the East Coast (Boston). How about that? So, I know plently of what not to do

1. Put the cafe in a building that is not protected by the National Landmark Act. This will keep you out of conflict when you try and comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
2. Put the cafe somewhere you can get cable, or satellite TV. (Of course make sure that you've go a fat LAN to boot)
3. If you're going to sell food or drink:
a. Sell it behind a counter, or in a vending machine. Selling food out in the open will lead to vermin.
b. If you're going to sell drink, make sure your bathroom is publicly accessible.
4. If you can, (and I bet you can't), allow people to smoke. MMORPGs that are released in South Korea are designed so that you can control your character with one hand, and chain-smoke with the other. (Also used to work for an MMORPG company)
5. Get a location with as much tourist foot traffic as you can. Being just a general internet cafe helps to pay the bills while you generate a stable client base.
6. Don't spend any money on flashy crap. No Aeron chairs, no Alienware computers. Keep the space, and the website, simple.
7. Go with a stable, trustworthy computer locking system. Make it card-based, not password-based. Don't go with a vendor that doesn't expose the whole OS when the computer is unlocked. 'Gamer OSes' are presumptuous pieces of crap. Re-ghost all your machines from an offline server every day at least.
8. Charge $5 an hour or less. Anything more, in terms of more money or less time, feels like a ripoff to customers.
9. A gaming cafe requires that you get special licenses for the games you allow people to play.
a. Blizzard is ridiculously expensive. If you've got a Korean community next door, it's probably worth it to get the licenses for Starcraft and WC3, otherwise don't bother.
b. Get games that _sell well_. Don't get new games until you know how they do. Sure, I enjoyed Tron 2.0, but I didn't have to pay $7.50 an hour to play it.
c. Get games that have no licensing cost! What a concept! get as many of these as you can.
10. Get headsets with microphones. Allow people to customize their area with their own mouse/mousepad/keyboard/headset. Crazy FPS players do take that seriously.
11. Do something wacky to bring people in. The best Internet Cafe in the Boston Area serves bubble tea. I have advertisements for gaming cafes in Tokyo that offered manga libraries, on site tanning salons, and onsen. Do well, and emulate them.

Basically, the cafe I worked for did all of those things wrong, and so quickly died.

Re:Bargain shopping

[mobby_6kl]

Of course it's not that simple. My point was that you can have your place full of happy customers 24/7, each buying something, and still not make a profit. It's fine if you (or droidlev, the submitter) just want to have fun running the place, but such cafe won't last long unless its main purpose is money laundering.

Re:Uh, no, they generally can't. (license mgmt)

[fthiess]

As a matter of fact, there are legitimate licensing solutions--they just don't cover all the most popular games, at least not yet.

The best license management system out there, bar none, is Valve's "Steam" (http://steampowered.com/) system. Most people are familiar with this is the basis for their internet-based software distribution model, but there is actually a special version of Steam that is available for use ("required" actually, if you're licensed) by game centers. This "cafe" version of Steam solves three problems:

(1) it does license management: you pay Valve for a certain maximum number of concurrent licenses, regardless of how many actual PCs you have, and Steam manages the licenses for you.

(2) Normal game software updates can kill your internet connection's bandwidth--World of Warcraft is the worst (but others are almost as bad): it runs a custom BitTorrent client with no bandwidth limits on every machine running the game; every time people started playing WoW in my 27-PC cafe after an update had been released, no one else in the cafe could do anything on the internet, including simple web surfing. The cafe version of Steam uses a local Steam server (which you have to provide) to fetch updates once, then disburses them to local PCs over your LAN, as needed.

(3) The cafe version of Steam lets customers save their games, automatically copying the relevent game state files onto your local Steam server. If you don't have something like this, no one can really play single-player games, since they have to start from the beginning every time they come in.

And no, Steam isn't just for games from Valve--there are lots of other publishers that are using Steam now. . . but if the game publisher doesn't have a distribution deal with Valve, Steam won't help you.

There are several other companies that are trying to do their own version of Steam specifically for game centers, but, as is often the case, these problems are actually a lot harder to solve reliably and consistently than they appear at first sight, and Valve has at least, from what I can see, a 2-year head start on everyone else trying to do this.

Could you do it yourself? A friend and I wrote all the software (http://fun-o-matic.org/) we used my game center, and we tried to tackle license management, too, but never got beyond the early development stage with that particular module--I'm convinced there is no technical reason why it can't be done. However, as a previous poster pointed out, just because YOU think you're being fair and legal doesn't mean the game publishers will see it that way, so unless you have a special licensing agreement with every publisher, you'd be running some legal risk, anyway.

I own a gaming center.

[MongooseCN]

I feel my center is succefful (http://www.theqwerty.com). I have been in business for two years. I've been able to pay my bills and make a little money for myself. It's also a fun business. How you measure "success" depends on you though. You probably won't get rich running a gaming center. You also have to be able to deal with kids and bad parents. Lots of parents will try and use you as a cheap babysitting service. Then you have the kids who have never been displined by their parents, so you get to deal with all their problems. Luckily, I have a lot of good kids in my store that make up for the bad ones.

No one can tell you if your future game center will be successful or not. It depends too much on you, the owner. How you can manage stress, details and time. How good you are at securing business deals and contracts. How good you are at advertising, marketting, promoting and spreading the word around. How well you can manage customers and keep them happy... There's so much involved that depends on you that only you will know. As an entrepreneur, the only thing you can do is dive in and take the risk to find out.

www.igames.org (Uniting Game Centers)

[Nieley]

I would like to invite you any anyone else that owns or is thinking of starting a game center to join iGames (www.igames.org). iGames has over 900 game center members from around the world working together to build a better game center industry.
We have many members that have been around for years and are doing better than ever. We look forward to helping to first help you make the decision on whether a game center is a good business for you and if so, how you can be as successful as possible.

Best regards,
Mark Nielsen
iGames Executive Director