Would opening a gaming lounge be a good business to start in

>>1571660
Bump

>>1571660
Would people bring their own computers or would you supply them?

>>1571739
I would supply the computers, they could bring their own of course but the attraction point of my computers is that theyre all top of the line. Can run any game on ultra setting so those that are not as financially fortunate enough to have a nice PC can still play the games they have always wanted.

No.

> why would people leave home to play video games? At home they can sit in their underwear, smoke weed and eat hot pockets

> Gamers are generally not people with money, they are generally low income earners or have no job at all

> Name a successful gaming lounge

Brick and mortar entertainment venues make money off one thing and one thing only: alcohol.

>>1571745
That's gonna be expensive. How much per setup and what would you rent it out for? You would have to upgrade pretty often.

>>1571753
Im actually taking a lot of inspiration from a place in chicago called ignite. People would leave their dens to play in my lounge to socialize with likeminded people. The competition is always there too, maybe you can find your next gaming partner or bf/gf possibilities are endless. This is playing off the fact that theres not shit to do here. When i was in high school 2 years ago me and my circle were alwayd looking for something to do. So we settled with pool being the only affordable thing we could do daily.

>>1571758
Probably around 2k per PC. Im sure i could work something out with manufacturers to get a better price for buying in bulk. And id probably have a 1 hour fee of around $7 and for 3 hours $15 and all day for $20 or so, open to opinions on that though

>>1571660
Why would you go to a gaming lounge when you could be gaming at home?

>>1571777
Checked. And to socialize. Hiding in your room all day can really drag you down, i understand this personally. So coming into an establishment and doing the same thing could make things more fun. Coupled with the fact you get to socialize in real life and create relationships with likeminded people. As well as the competitive side of things such as supersmash bros would be way more exciting in a tournament style of playing than if youre alone in your room in the dark.

Yeah I dont think gaming caffes work anymore, it's been a while actually

>>1571776
At the prices you're talking u won't make rent let alone computers and staff. You need to sell alcohol. If u sold alcohol and cigars I'd go there almost every day and I'm 24

Had one by my highschool. It died after 3 years or so. Only profit to really be made is off of deinks and food cause the margins on those are high

>>1571777
I would consider going to a cafe to find people to play csgo or battlefield with
my irl friends are either not into PC gaming or don't like the games I like

>>1571800
this
also turn it into a vaping lounge
I'm not joking

My town had 2 gaming lounges when I was growing up... both failed within a few years

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Unless you live in China or Brazil, don't. Why would you go outside to play or talk about videogames when you can do it at home?

Sounds like a great way to lose all your money

>>1571660
just do it, everything is a gamble in this life, but gaming lounge with 1mil people near you? just transfer me your savings and all money instead op. thanks.also suck my dick, maybe? just until i cum in your mouth ;) maybe?

>>1571788
I don't see enough people visiting regularly to make up for the expenses. Maybe once or twice, and maybe they'd even make friends, but what's the incentive to stay?

It's plausible, but it'd be down to very hard work & luck.

you would basically be operating a comfier flgs except instead of traditional games with sanctioned events you're spending a dickload on computers and consoles and televisions.

Honestly start it as a bar where you have a few televisions with consoles hooked up, don't go for the pc route until you've got consumers.

>>1571776
That's way too cheap. Imagine you have 10 computers and they're all booked for the day at $20. You won't even come close to breaking even.

I doubt the likelihood of a conventional setup working very well, it's why all the old gaming places shut down. There's a very real possibility of doing VR and making it profitable. Most people aren't going to dish out the 800 bucks for a Vive, not going to want to have to dedicate a room in their house to it. I would have VR be the main attraction and if you want to have a computer cafe in addition, cool.

i live in nj and theres a place in fort lee called local batlles and its a pc bong. pretty dope, but i wouldnt do it unless there are a bunch of underage asians in your area

>>1571660
No. youre an idiot

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>>1571800
>>1571817
sounds pretty fucking fun, you're forgetting one thing though. you need women. Girls dont go to gaming lounges.

>>1571660
I want to say no, but the truth is that I would be at such a place right now because my laptop can't handle the 8 hours of dota2 my body is telling me I need to play a day. I'd start a new steam account for it though.

I doubt you could actually make that business work long run though. This is 'Merica not Korea. We don't have that sort of gaming culture right now.

>>1571660
It would be tough. Ran a nightclub few years ago and it's much harder than you would think.

Hire only 6/10 friendly gamer chicks to create another reason to create your loyal customer base and keep them coming back.

It's a long shot if it's even possible to make that a profitable biz.

But if you really believe in it and it's your passion fucking do it. Even if you fail the lessons you learn will help you with your next biz.

>>1571660
It would totally fail as just a gaming place, you'd also have to make it a special events center, that's where the real money and mark up is. How much capital do you have to invest?

You're better off making another Barcade, OP.

>>1571660
OP there's a guy in my town (100k-ish population) trying the same thing right now. It should open in the next month or two, in Jackson TN if you want to keep an eye on it. I'm skeptical about it succeeding but I'd love to be wrong. It's a cool idea if anyone will use it.

>>1573777
>Jackson
>Not between Nashville,Chatt, or Knoxville
Doomed to fail desu. West Tennessee doesn't have a big enough gaming culture to justify that

>>1571753
>Gamers are generally not people with money, they are generally low income earners or have no job at all
This is really the salient point. They're poor as fuck.

>>1571660

>be me
>go to gaming lounge
>play on computers
>see playstation room with 45 inch.
>think to myself who wants to pay for playing on this cheap ass console it better be cheap
>mfw I come over there multiple times to see people using it a lot more than the avg
>mfw it costs the same as playing on computer (5$)

buy some PS4 it makes create income and it's cheap as fuck

>>1573867
Yeah, I agree. We've been organizing quarterly-ish LAN parties in Jackson for the last year or two, and we're pulling 50-80 per event, but I can't see how that's enough to sustain a full-time business. I don't see something like this succeeding anywhere in TN but Nashville desu. I've lived in Chatt and the community isn't really there either.

>>1571660
Look into Korean PC bangs, very popular there

>>1571660
Have very low monthly rates, and make profit off of things like food and other services

>>1571660
You could also host events and parties for esports tournaments

I'd love to go to a place that was all about meeting other people to game with, but the key operator here is making money off providing space and equipment. Good luck with that.

>>1571660
Would you serve food? Would there be more than computer games? I like arcade games. You're gonna need a much wider audience than gamers.

Plus do you want to be surrounded by nerds all day?

The fact that we're all pushing food and booze on top of the original idea IMO just goes to show how few business ideas are workable in an economy where most of the wealth is hoarded by a few and rent-seeking landlords steal most of what's left.

>>1571660

...An ARCADE you stupid millenial fuckstain? God damn I wish I could reach through my monitor and strangle you hipster dipshits who give fancy new names to shit that ALREADY HAS A NAME AND IS ALREADY A THING because you think your speshul sneauflaxe vision is so unique and different when it's the SAME FUCKING SHIT. It's a fucking god damned arcade, call it a fucking arcade, and no you underage wanklitter, they went out of business for a reason.

>>1574196
Or maybe because I can do the same shit from the comfort of my couch.

I can: trade stocks, take out a loan, read entire encyclopedias, play any game ever, learn languages, and fucking anything else on my couch. and I don't have to wear pants to do any of those.

>>1574913
Have you ever been to a real arcade? I mean a 20th century one? Where they had cars you could sit in and force feedback guns? Hunched over a laptop dialed into TeamSpeak is a pale substitute.

I ran front of house and promotions for a gaming bar in a city of 2 million. It tanked so hard it sent the owners, previously wealthy restaurateurs, broke.

You are 1) vastly overestimating your demographics size and their desire to get off their ass
2) thinking your demos will get along - normies dont like turbonerds and turbonerds dont like normies and you need both to make rent
3) managing the operation of hardware in a bar environment is a nightmare, you wont be big enough or busy enough to ever warrent a full time guy, but you need to constantly be keeping an eye on the millions of things that could go wrong, and they are always breaking and costing you more money despite huge setup costs
>>1574072
this is the worst of all, idiot owner tried to make esports happen by charging absurd entry fees for guaranteed prize money, people don't want competition on that scale (maybe 1% of your demo does) and its a waste of time.

Games are fun OP but theres no business to be had in them. Open a bar.

I rarely see this shit work

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>>1574972
>thing you need to know about what kind of president he would have been.
>>>
> Anonymous (ID: X3p2vMiL) 10/19/16(Wed)07:10:35 No.1575399▶
>>>1572257
>better than the alternative.

i live in a city with 500k people and i see videos of friends who have left to the big cities having drinks and having fun at Round 1...it could be worth it, i'd like to work there..but not invest or own one..maybe if i had more insight

>>1571769
You're thinking too much like a normie. I'm not a gamer, but I'd assume a good portion of gamers prefer socializing over the internet as opposed to socializing with people IRL, even if it is about something like (like vidya)

Back when I played a lot of CS 1.5 and 1.6, cybercafes were totally a thing and popular to boot.

Nowadays I never see them and the ones that used to exist have all shut down.

>>1571753
In New York City's Asian districts, the neighborhoods are crawling with gaming lounges. They're flooded day in, day out with gamers.

The younger gamer demographics are definitely broke (think 12-18), because they're living off of parent's money. But older people (18-25) have jobs and still live in their parent's homes, so they're more than happy to throw away cash every weekend to play games.

It all depends on your location. Success of a gaming lounge is based on your location.

>>1571660
I like you way of thinking, you re gonna make it.

>>1571660
Won't work outside of Korea and China. Honestly the best you could hope to do in an English speaking country is have sports bar that occasionally panders to Esports.

Unless your living in a collage town with a strong wall and shop culture you're kinda screwed.

>>1575638
Gamers want to be as social as anyone else. The problem is gaming is not a very social activity in most cases. Asians get away with gaming cafés because kids can say they're studying while fucking around online, where as at home they would get called on that shit. Here in America, parents don't care.

I'd like to see someone with dedicated video gaming space with a slew of multiplayer games available, but that doesn't bring in the money like barcades with their shitty ticket games and alcohol sales.

I guess you could, but you need to expand the products to bring more people. Gaming on pc is fine. But why not card games (magic) and board games(risk, wharhammer, d&d)? I have two of those in my town, working like crazy.

>>1571660
LAN lounges and arcades are a nice idea, but they're just not sustainable in an age where everyone who cares to game already has their own battlestation at home. People who can't afford their own rig can't afford regular payments or subscriptions to a LAN arcade, either.

We've had several pop up here in my 1mil+ metro area over the last decade or so, and they were all nice places, but every one of them ended up as a glorified rent-space for the occasional gaming-related event and inevitably had to close because there just isn't a market for regular customers for that kind of thing.

I'd imagine to really be successful you'd have to both:

1. own the property to stave off the costs of a commercial lease (none of my local places could afford this in a decent area), and

2. open up a sort of hybrid cafe/general hangout/comic shop/etc. spot to generate some other source of revenue alongside it, because a dedicated LAN lounge by itself isn't going to cut it.

>>1576075
Same idea here

>>1571745
nothing but poor niggers, so you'd have to keep the place up

>>1571660
too bad gamers dont have any money in the city

>>1576075
I think the most important thing is to gain customers by having a store that is really well kept and up to date.
That being said, in order to run top tier ultra settings you'll have to update the hardware every 3 years.
The cost of a good rig would be at least maybe $1500 a piece, times that by let's say twenty and thats a total of $30,000.
GPU upgrade would be maybe $700 but you can offset that by selling the old parts.
Maybe you sell it for $300 and buy for $700,
upgrade cost of $400 times 20, cost of $8,000.
you would have to upgrade monitors every 5 years for about $300, maybe sell the old one for $150 lets say, thats $150 times 20, $3,000 for that.
let's say you charge $7 an hour, you open at 10 am and close at 10 pm.
20 times 7 is $140 an hour.
you are open 12 hours, so 140 times 12 is $1,680 a day if every rig is occupied all the time, which it will never be.
You're looking at maybe $600,000 a year, minus utility, possible upgrades, replacing broken products, rent, any other minor costs.
That's if the place was full all the time.
So I would say your biggest issue is getting people to come, which people will never come.
You'd be lucky to even break even.
Lounges always fail, unless it's in some asian country.

>>1571660
I owned one in a city of 500,000, and one in a city of 35,000. It wasnt worth the money.