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Arcade-orientated new business - it's happening BUT NEED NAMES. Probably ;)

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drawfull:
Thanks everyone for all the advice. Certainly some food for thought.

I have done a lot of thinking a number-crunching too, and am back to the LAN centre / (retro) arcade mishmash.

I looked at omega sektor (in the uk), and if they can justify £4m investment it must be viable to a point.

What I wasn't able to find despite quite a lot of googling was anything concrete on the licensing issues. Anyone know how it works with commercially available games (not classics, modern stuff)? I think this could be the stumbling block.

What I also discovered is that arcade ops are still stating that they give something you can't get at home. Personally I think that's a little tenuos, but that will also be the angle I would go for if this gets anything near to being off the ground.

The level of investment for a LAN environment is also considerably more than an arcade would appear to be so I need to do more number crunching.

Thanks again! Especially for the links and names of outfits over there.

RayB:
LAN centre, meaning a place to play networked PC games? Talk about entering a declining market. As broadband adoption and speeds increase, your market shrinks. I've seen places close up shop. There's no point to them when you can just play from home or find free wifi hotspots.

drawfull:
I agree. But the FASTEST access we can get here as domestic users is 2mb. Yes, there are rumours that it is going to 8mb via rollout over the next 18 months, but the other thing going for it is that for my phone line and 2mb I pay £41 per MONTH. A LOT of people here are still on PAYG dial up.

There is still a market here for simple net cafes too, but the main one in the place I live is a shthole.

Also, few people, even really keen PC gamers are going to blow £4k on a good setup.

Give em what they can't get at home, for less, and you will in my opinion get people through the door.

1. We domestic users have crap speed adsl with severe bandwidth limitations.
2. Business users get premium speeds and bandwidth, albeit at a £££
3. Gaming rigs cost stupid amounts for the average joe
4. We have a diverse population. Nothing to do for the kidz, and a lot of older folk that require net access
5. We're entering recession. Are people really going to dole out £500 / year for crap net access when they can pay as they use in a premium environment. OK, some will but many will not.
6. Family orientated - there is nowhere for families AT ALL where I live.
7. We have a ridiculously generous business tax system. 0% corporation tax for example. 

I don't think it's the most stupid idea ever, but that doesn't mean anything will add up ;)

All that said, I completely agree with you wrt the rest of the developed world, and I haven't spent anything yet.

SavannahLion:

--- Quote from: RayB on January 08, 2009, 12:59:19 pm ---LAN centre, meaning a place to play networked PC games? Talk about entering a declining market. As broadband adoption and speeds increase, your market shrinks. I've seen places close up shop. There's no point to them when you can just play from home or find free wifi hotspots.
--- End quote ---

LAN centers (at least in my experience) are ethereal at best. We mostly get Internet Cafe's which aren't exactly conducive to gaming. In any case, the few LAN centers I know of, I make it a point not to visit. Why should I? I would much rather play on familiar equipment that's customized to my specific tastes and computing habits than to go play on a standardized (read: generic) PC that may or may not be better than the machine at home. Of course, I live in the U.S., appears your situation there is a little bit different.

LAN parties are an entirely different beast altogether. Before I got my kid, I would happily cart my PC and monitor to all night LAN parties.

If you're thinking of a non-food venue, then you should look into to casting your gaming net as wide as possible. LAN, Console, arcade, and pinball if you must. How successful that might be? It's really tough to say in a weakening economy. I make note of some of the largish gaming (not video) shops here and the ones surviving do well because they cast their entertainment net as wide as possible then snuggle into some really low rent areas.

drawfull:
Points taken.

I feel, that properly structured, it might work. It might sound mad, but I am looking for an income and am willing to take a level of risk to achieve that. By income, I mean meet my obligations. I am fortunate that I don't have a mortgage, and until myself and my employer parted company I figure 80% of my income was disposable. And I didn't earn a lot. I just want to get back to that level on my terms initially.

There is a slight catch 22 with your suggestions I think Savannahlion - in order to cater for every type of gamer (console, pc, 'cade etc) one would require larger premises. Larger premises tend to be available bang smack in the centre  of town commanding premium rents (IE more risk, even though theoretically if it works in a garage it works in a stadium assuming infinite population) or in the middle of nowhere. We do nowhere really well here.

Also, I would expect to incorporate food somehow. But without the legal minefield.

Ho hum, all good fun / dreams

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