Are gaming cafes economically viable?

RabidDog

Overheal wrote: »

there is also the valve cyber-cafe program. If you began to see more initiatives like that in the industry, it would be a lot easier for cafes to stay open when not drowning in game licensing costs.

Quiet the opposite actually.

Valve charge €10 per seat (computer) per month. That's €2400 a year for just one publisher (only Valve developed games are covered by the scheme, all the other games on Steam aren't included).

It's just not viable.

And Valve's support of the gaming centres in the scheme was so bad that they closed the Cyber Cafes public forum to hide the complaints (for one the Steam server they supplied cafes was underdeveloped and unfit for actual use). They didn't even send the advertising materials they promised (they were supposed to send posters, t-shirts and other promotional items for each new release).

cherryghost

RabidDog wrote: »

Quiet the opposite actually.

Valve charge €10 per seat (computer) per month. That's €2400 a year for just one publisher (only Valve developed games are covered by the scheme, all the other games on Steam aren't included).

It's just not viable.

And Valve's support of the gaming centres in the scheme was so bad that they closed the Cyber Cafes public forum to hide the complaints (for one the Steam server they supplied cafes was underdeveloped and unfit for actual use). They didn't even send the advertising materials they promised (they were supposed to send posters, t-shirts and other promotional items for each new release).

we're paying a fiver per account per month, and the games provided in each account includes all the major valve games, plus flatout 2, all Quake games, all doom games, plus many indie games including darwinia and the likes

RabidDog

Ah well things have obviously changed since they closed the public Cyber Cafe forum over a year ago (which is where I got my info).


I'm glad to hear things have improved. I thought the price might go down considering how weak the Dollar has been, but €5 is a significant drop.

Overheal

cherryghost wrote: »

we're paying a fiver per account per month, and the games provided in each account includes all the major valve games, plus flatout 2, all Quake games, all doom games, plus many indie games including darwinia and the likes

Even at a tenner per seat, that sounds much more cost effective than having bought the software at retail or bulk prices.

RabidDog

Ah yes but look at it this way:

Twenty seats (at €10 a seat) would be €2400. Ok you'd get a good few games but in reality most of those wouldn't be played. So you're spending €2400 on a core group of maybe five games.

To buy those five games outright would be €2000, a once off payment. Even if Valve added five worthwhile games to the list a year (which they generally don't, considering singleplayer games aren't played that much), that would still only be €2000 a year.

Now at €5 a seat it would probably be worth while to join.

cherryghost

yeah we had cleared the old accounts and purchased some new accounts last month, well worth the investment if anyones trying to entice some more people for a reasonably affordable price

Overheal

other than that, are you staying afloat? i mean with all the other costs and considerations as in my post #2

cherryghost

Overheal wrote: »

other than that, are you staying afloat? i mean with all the other costs and considerations as in my post #2

just about we break even on computers daily, sometimes make a profit, everything taken into account, its the western union and alphyra that keeps us up an running

Overheal

cherryghost wrote: »

just about we break even on computers daily, sometimes make a profit, everything taken into account, its the western union and alphyra that keeps us up an running

sell coffee much?

Fracture

euroman wrote: »

Has anyone checked out franchises in Ireland? I'm interested in opening a center in Letterkenny ... I've looked at gametheworld.com ... they seem to have a growing network in Ireland.

Are there any others worth checking out? I really like the idea of being part of a network ... gotta be lower risk.

Also, is there an easy way to find out where the existing centers in Ireland are ... particularly in the North-West?

There is a gaming cafe in letterkenny, its below the 4 lanterns. Now, its been years since i was at it, it wasnt busy at the time (probably because their pc's were crap, and the people working their seemed to care more about playing each other on lan than actually helping their customers out with problems on the pc they are paying to play on), i dont know what the story with it is atm, it would be well worth checking out especially if you are interested in setting up in Letterkenny, a bit of market research would be a good idea if your thinking about setting up anywhere these days.

As for the Gaming cafe's in Galway, its sad to hear wired closed, it was a great spot (nicest staff ever).
Is clan still open? Last time i was near it the owner was to tight to fork out for new systems and they soon lost their crowd to wired.
Square eyes is some spot, really nice inside n all. I went to it once, they charged me 8 quid for an hour to play cs, which wasnt connected to the internet and had to listen to everyone in there because they use speakers instead of headphones
If they fixed the problem of getting some headphones in, took a chunk off the price, and got the net thing sorted then tbh it would be the best gaming cafe in the country.

CutzEr

I think people want to use pc's more than gaming systems..

For example in Scarrff (co clare)

There is an internet cafe that is big, Printing, sells games, Drinks etc..

They have great games on the pc such as minesweeper and hearts.

Boasting speeds of up to 600kb/ps.

Then, ACROSS THE ROAD there is a 'gaming cafe' that does everything, ps3 360 & pc for €1 per hour, And you can buy a 'gaming card' to get discounted rates..

And the gaming cafe went out of buisness a few months ago (closed down)

Wtf!!

CutzEr

I think people want to use pc's more than gaming systems..

For example in Scarrff (co clare)

There is an internet cafe that is big, Printing, sells games, Drinks etc..

They have great games on the pc such as minesweeper and hearts.

Boasting speeds of up to 600kb/ps.

€4.50 per hour.

Then, ACROSS THE ROAD there is a 'gaming cafe' that does everything, ps3 360 & pc for €1 per hour, And you can buy a 'gaming card' to get discounted rates..

And the gaming cafe went out of buisness a few months ago (closed down)

Wtf!!

Overheal

CutzEr wrote: »

I think people want to use pc's more than gaming systems..

For example in Scarrff (co clare)

There is an internet cafe that is big, Printing, sells games, Drinks etc..

They have great games on the pc such as minesweeper and hearts.

Boasting speeds of up to 600kb/ps.

€4.50 per hour.

Then, ACROSS THE ROAD there is a 'gaming cafe' that does everything, ps3 360 & pc for €1 per hour, And you can buy a 'gaming card' to get discounted rates..

And the gaming cafe went out of buisness a few months ago (closed down)

Wtf!!

Look at the business models here:

4.50 an hour for stock standard PC use
1.00 and hour for expensive gaming rig/console/gaming use

Not to mention for regular pc users the gaming cafes are ALWAYS full of noisy mothafukkin kids.

Who the hell did you think was going to go under first?

the_syco

Kimora Delicious Marsupial wrote: »

Games are expensive, but you only need one copy for lan. If it's online game play then get people to bring their own copies? Can you purchase extra CD keys from the gaming company for cheaper? I am sure you could arrange some sort of deal...

This killed any half decent gaming place. They'd spend money on good machines, one license for LAN play, but people would go in, find that they and their mates couldn't play on the same server online, so never went again.

As for "playing with your own account", I did that once. My account then got hijacked 8 months later, and I found out that I had gotten banned from severeal servers. Unless you spent your first 20 minutes doing a scan for virii, malware, key loggers, etc, you're f**ked.

=-=

Also, buying games "once off" is dumb. Someone uses hax in your cafe, gets your accounts banned. That's €50 down the loo in 20 minutes. "Um, [GAME] is not working" "Oh, try the next PC" Another €50 goes down the drain.

Vic Vinegar

Fracture wrote: »

There is a gaming cafe in letterkenny, its below the 4 lanterns.

It's not a gaming cafe anymore! just PCs/printing/international calls etc. All the PCs were replaced last year with new ones!

I work there btw

Sierra Oscar

What do Cafe Owners think of the prices for Valves Cyber Cafe Program?

cherryghost

the_syco wrote: »

This killed any half decent gaming place. They'd spend money on good machines, one license for LAN play, but people would go in, find that they and their mates couldn't play on the same server online, so never went again.

As for "playing with your own account", I did that once. My account then got hijacked 8 months later, and I found out that I had gotten banned from severeal servers. Unless you spent your first 20 minutes doing a scan for virii, malware, key loggers, etc, you're f**ked.

=-=

Also, buying games "once off" is dumb. Someone uses hax in your cafe, gets your accounts banned. That's €50 down the loo in 20 minutes. "Um, [GAME] is not working" "Oh, try the next PC" Another €50 goes down the drain.

heh. we have our PCs ghosted in the netcafe, one game, one cd key, any computer can play any game online regardless of how many peeps are playing the game

the_syco

cherryghost wrote: »

heh. we have our PCs ghosted in the netcafe, one game, one cd key, any computer can play any game online regardless of how many peeps are playing the game

This with using Valves Cyber-Cafe program, as opposed to buying one serial in a shop, and using that one serial for all the computers?

Tar.Aldarion

And also, about your account getting hacked, some cafes have it so that after you log off the computer restarts with a fresh image, no danger in using you accoun there.

cherryghost

the_syco wrote: »

This with using Valves Cyber-Cafe program, as opposed to buying one serial in a shop, and using that one serial for all the computers?

we have the valve cyber cafe program, but some games (COD4/BF2 etc) we legally buy one copy and ghost the programs to all PCs so one key is needed to play online

Sierra Oscar

RabidDog wrote: »

Quiet the opposite actually.

Valve charge €10 per seat (computer) per month. That's €2400 a year for just one publisher (only Valve developed games are covered by the scheme, all the other games on Steam aren't included).

It's just not viable.

And Valve's support of the gaming centres in the scheme was so bad that they closed the Cyber Cafes public forum to hide the complaints (for one the Steam server they supplied cafes was underdeveloped and unfit for actual use). They didn't even send the advertising materials they promised (they were supposed to send posters, t-shirts and other promotional items for each new release).

They closed the forum to non-cafe subscribers, because they wanted a specific private forum where cyber cafe subscribers can discuss issues in confidentiality. Once a user signs up to the café forum, they will get access to the forum section on the Steam Forums.

Also, the cafe system has totally changed over the last few years - especially since that forum was hidden from the publics eye.

thusspakeblixa

GameTheWorld on Grafton street has been going for at least a year now.
Haven't been in since the Summer but it's always busy when I pass by.