Social Question

tedd's avatar

What do you think the viability is of this business idea, and do you have any suggestions to add to it?

Asked by tedd (14078points) September 20th, 2011

So an idea for a business occurred to me. As my generation (I’m 26 now) grows older and becomes the core of the work force/money makers, things we had as we were growing up will become more valuable or sought after. I know for example that I really enjoy old school Nintendo/Sega/etc games. I thought to myself, man it would be great if there were a place you could go to play these games. They can still be found on the internet, but it usually requires ordering offline, paying a sometimes hefty (pending the game) price, and then usually playing alone or with a couple buddies who happen to like the games as much as you (it’s almost like there’s still some kind of stigma with playing old school video games, even though modern games are becoming pretty common place across all social groups).

So I thought, what if I made a business, a “hangout” if you will, that had tons of these old school game systems and games. You could set up “booths” or areas of some kind, with one individual system set up to a TV at them, and let people use the games and play at those booths with their friends or whoever. It would have to be a huge selection of games for a ton of systems. Stuff you can’t get in your regular game stop stores anymore. I’m talking Super Mario Brothers, Zombies ate my Neighbors, duck hunt, street fighter, Zelda… you could even do some old arcade rigs like a pac-man or ninja turtles, turtles in time….

Now I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be able to “sell” use of the games at your establishment thanks to licensing of the games. But you could sell drinks, food, souvenirs, cigars, etc. You could do a membership or cover fee even (though I would personally shy away from that).

To me that sounds like a great way to spend a night with some friends. Everyone goes out to this place…. Classics is the name that comes to my mind…. get some drinks, a few snacks, maybe a cigar if you’re with the guys, and play some old school games you grew up with.

I know I would go to a place like this, but what do you flutherites think the viability on a business like this is? How would you make it more viable or better? Would you go to a place like this, or know an area that would?

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8 Answers

lillycoyote's avatar

It might work out very well. A guy I went to college with runs this place. It seems similar to what your taking about. You would still have to arrange for licensing agreements though, I believe.

augustlan's avatar

I think it’d be fun. We have Dave and Buster’s on the East Coast, which is sort of similar, but more of an arcade for grownups. Like a bar and grill with arcade games. They seem to do a pretty good business.

atch's avatar

Not a good idea. Maybe a few people would like it, but you wouldn’t generate enough capital to cover things like: overhead, insurance, occupancy licenses, business licenses, fire marshall permit, lease/mortgage, utilities, trash, maintenence, buying systems and games, thefth prevention, employee wages, workmans comp…etc.

JilltheTooth's avatar

If you bill it at a restaurant with classic arcade attached as a draw you might do very well. The money is in the food and extras.

tedd's avatar

@atch Do you have anything to back up that argument, or is that just your opinion on it?

@augustlan That’s the type of thing I’m going for, but with more of a classic games feel, and probably a bit more of a relaxed environment than Dave and Busters.

@JilltheTooth That’s sort of the type of thing I’m looking at. I dunno how intricate of a menu I would be looking at though.

JilltheTooth's avatar

Well, with the classic arcade theme, probably a casual menu type thing (burgers, wings, hand food stuff) with options for the vegetarian crowd, but definitely casual. I can’t see why such a thing wouldn’t work especially if it was family friendly, that kind of casual begs to be a take the (older, so they can play, too) the kids.

wundayatta's avatar

Not my thing at all, but it sounds like a concept worth working on. Check into the licensing issue. Maybe rent time at booths if not renting games. There are a gazillion other details to work through. Get some business plan software if you don’t already have it.

You want to see if there is a market before you start, of course. To me, it sounds so stupid that there must be a big audience for it. I’m just totally out of tune with gaming. It never appealed to me, except for the few months I was unemployed and I spent days playing Ms. Pacman or whatever. That was the only game I ever played.

wiseacre's avatar

Bars in Minneapolis used to do that until it got to be far too expensive with all the proper upkeep of it all.
I think it would still be a good idea, just not that profitable. I would love to play some Joust.

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