Joined: Oct '11
Location: Sweden
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 1410
Hey guys!
I want your opinion about an idea that me and my brother have. We've been thinking about starting our own company. The idea is basically a video game café. People can come in and rent a video game console hour by hour. Or rather pay to play at that location. It will have rooms that contain the console of their choice, a tv, a sofa, two nice chairs and one table. The game itself will be safely locked so no one can steal it.
The other part is the café aspect of the place. Basically like a really nice coffee shop with nice sandwiches, buns, chocolate muffins and other nice things. They are allowed to bring whatever they buy into the room where they play. No outside food or drinks allowed.
The idea is that they pay hour by hour where the price is discounted for every hour they rent and for additional people.
You get the idea. Numbers isn't the actual numbers we're thinking of, it was just to illustrate the idea.
Now to the questions I need your help on: - Do you think that people would go to such a place? - Do you think people would pay for this type of activity? - Would people pay to play on new consoles (PlayStation 4, XBOX One) as well as older ones (Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Atari)
- Based on our calculations, to earn a profit and get a salary out of it, we would need at least: * 25 single people every hour or * 15 couples every hour or * 11 parties of 3 every hour or * 9 parties of 4 every hour
Would these numbers be possible when we've been open for 6 months and gotten the word out? Keep in mind that these numbers are NOT counting any money going in from sales in the café, simply from the video games.
Sorry for the long read guys, I really appreciate if you've taken the time to read this and if you could give me your honest opinion!
Joined: Oct '14
Location: Serbia
Age: 34 (M)
Posts: 4358
you want my honest opinio, and I dont want to be rude... you are asking this in wrong place... this is poker forum, not gaming forum... also standards are not the same in your country, also mentality isnt same, so maybe a lot of people would like to chill in that game house that you plan to open in my country, but not in sweeded...you know what I mean... but still you are asking for advice in wrong place...
Joined: Oct '11
Location: Sweden
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 1410
I know what you mean. That's why I'm asking in a lot of different places to get a better view of what the population as a whole would say, no matter of your personal interests. I know I might get a totally different answer from a gaming (not gambling) community, but that community is most certainly more positive then the general public. Also, from a gamblers point of view, the investment in this company could be considered a gamble as to whether or not it will give any return or result in a loss. That might affect a gamblers answer to my questions and could possibly give me another point of view to think about. A hard core gamer would no doubt say "this is a great idea!" Not very objective to the possibility of maintaining it long term.
Some dude I know had the same idea, but I was thinking that it will become like bum/thug/terror youth hangout.
So.... Gaming should be free and people need pay an entrance fee (to keep the scum out).
This fee can be low as long as they order drinks etc. So you need waitresses asking if people want to drink/eat something else.
You could offer 5 discount coupons for 1+1 free or something if they buy a "multiple days entrance ticket card" (with 10 times entrances).
You would also need water/bulletproof keyboards/joysticks/screens. And extra strong cables or a wireless system without the usual technical apocalypse. You would need bouncers or employees who can handle drunks and "sniffers". You would need to do a lot of cleaning, I mean how much time you need to clean every corner/button/edge in your house every day? very much..
This all costs a lot of money and even more stress.
Good luck with your plan, Don't let the negative people bring you down, but try to be objective and think sober!
Joined: May '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 58 (M)
Posts: 1372
Yep what IceQueenAce says. Your real profit will come from food and drink. In my town there is a cafe that lets you hire board games. All the money from game hire just goes back into buying more games and their profit is from food and drink.
Your business model sounds very similar. You'll need to be constantly updating your library of video games and that most likely will eat all the cash you bring in from renting them. Your only source of profit will come from the cafe side of the operation.
Not a bad idea but when this boys grow up and start to think about p...y and cars then u are screwed . Its better that u open a strip bar with sweeden girls that serve beer with boobs falling out - like in Octoberfest. Then i would b ur regular costumer and play that game for days.
Best of luck but just like Ingrid sad - think objectivly and dont be sober
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Canada
Age: 36 (M)
Posts: 3207
My thinking would be you would need a hudge variety of games for all thr differnt systems and that could be hard/expensive...no one would want to go to a place to play a game they dont want to play. You would need them allllll...if i wanna play call of duty im not gonna pay to settle for halo...or if i want to go play battle toads for sega genesous and you dont have it i probably wouldnt return. Your selection will have to be strong and constant new material. Also what if two groups want to play paper boy for nintendo and you only have one copy? Could cause a gamers riot. So having multiple copies would prob be necissary
- Based on our calculations, to earn a profit and get a salary out of it, we would need at least: * 25 single people every hour or * 15 couples every hour
< Wow,....some pretty kinky $h!t goin' on THERE dude...
... < I can't wait to see when pochui gets his hooks into this....!
Posted by zeroster: Your business model sounds very similar. You'll need to be constantly updating your library of video games and that most likely will eat all the cash you bring in from renting them. Your only source of profit will come from the cafe side of the operation.
Also it's not like in Sweden people did not have enough money 2 actually buy these games instead renting and go home to play them w/ their friends sans all the priced up food and drink....
. Its better that u open a strip bar with sweeden girls that serve beer with boobs falling out - like in Octoberfest. Then i would b ur regular costumer and play that game for days.
