@ArcadeGalactic we shuffled games in and out, added VR, bought used arcades like House of the Dead 2, hydrothunder, an had pinball on loan from a local collector.
If I didn't add games, I mounted screens, moved things around, or painted and added led signs.
It was fun. I enjoyed it. 12 years of the easiest money I ever made.
The only media attention was local coverage about ps5, fornite, charity events would make the local news most times.
Shoot me an email sometime I would love to know more about your business and maybe help you out in some manner?
Any small business should try to diversify the goods and services they offer. Especially gamer or entertainment venue related businesses. There are plenty of options and plenty of profitable ways to go about it.
I operated a LAN center with various consoles, PC's, and arcades from 2010 to 2022.
We had everything from DDR to pool tables to NES/Dreamcast/Gamecube and PS5, Multiple arcades, extra seating and tables.
The only way I made it profitable was by diversifying revenue streams that were independent of one another. Electronic repairs, private event hosting, weekly all night events every Friday and Saturday, concessions, retro video game sales.
I was on the front page of reddit and imgur several times that alone was worth approximately $10k in sponsorships from brands like Steelseries, BAWLS, Domino's, and others. I never paid for ads, I rewarded customers for bringing in new people.
We sold high end retro games. It was normal for collectors to spend $3k-$5k in one visit.
My point is small business is hard. It's even harder if you put most of your eggs in one basket. I see the local places open now and they slowly add in services and things to sell to try to stay open. It's hard but that is true of all small businesses. Entertainment venues are not difficult places to operate. If you get your bookings right you are no longer depending on walk in traffic. You offer repair services for the type of equipment you are already responsible for maintaining your own.
There were months were I never opened to the public during peak booking hours on the weekend. Sometimes we didn't have open hours Friday-Sunday.
I am happy to answer any questions in regards to making this model work. How I did it, how I have seen others do it, and how I have seen other fail to. It is not a difficult model and there are plenty of places that do it very well. I saw several come and go in my city while I was in operation.
Comments 3
Re: "It's Just Not Working" - FreePlay Arcade Will Close Its Doors Later This Month
@ArcadeGalactic we shuffled games in and out, added VR, bought used arcades like House of the Dead 2, hydrothunder, an had pinball on loan from a local collector.
If I didn't add games, I mounted screens, moved things around, or painted and added led signs.
It was fun. I enjoyed it. 12 years of the easiest money I ever made.
The only media attention was local coverage about ps5, fornite, charity events would make the local news most times.
Shoot me an email sometime I would love to know more about your business and maybe help you out in some manner?
Re: "It's Just Not Working" - FreePlay Arcade Will Close Its Doors Later This Month
@Llia
Any small business should try to diversify the goods and services they offer. Especially gamer or entertainment venue related businesses. There are plenty of options and plenty of profitable ways to go about it.
Re: "It's Just Not Working" - FreePlay Arcade Will Close Its Doors Later This Month
I operated a LAN center with various consoles, PC's, and arcades from 2010 to 2022.
We had everything from DDR to pool tables to NES/Dreamcast/Gamecube and PS5, Multiple arcades, extra seating and tables.
The only way I made it profitable was by diversifying revenue streams that were independent of one another. Electronic repairs, private event hosting, weekly all night events every Friday and Saturday, concessions, retro video game sales.
I was on the front page of reddit and imgur several times that alone was worth approximately $10k in sponsorships from brands like Steelseries, BAWLS, Domino's, and others.
I never paid for ads, I rewarded customers for bringing in new people.
We sold high end retro games. It was normal for collectors to spend $3k-$5k in one visit.
My point is small business is hard. It's even harder if you put most of your eggs in one basket. I see the local places open now and they slowly add in services and things to sell to try to stay open. It's hard but that is true of all small businesses. Entertainment venues are not difficult places to operate. If you get your bookings right you are no longer depending on walk in traffic. You offer repair services for the type of equipment you are already responsible for maintaining your own.
There were months were I never opened to the public during peak booking hours on the weekend. Sometimes we didn't have open hours Friday-Sunday.
I am happy to answer any questions in regards to making this model work. How I did it, how I have seen others do it, and how I have seen other fail to. It is not a difficult model and there are plenty of places that do it very well. I saw several come and go in my city while I was in operation.