Gaming cafe and a community

I live in Eastern Europe, Other gaming cafes charge as low as 0.50€ an hour, so not having an additional source of income makes it nearly impossible to actually make money. But Streaming, reviewing and gaming events (even at a smaller local scale) have a pretty big potential, especially here where they are very rare.

depends on who your clientele is, for example, if you are in a shit second world area you can buy computer parts dirt cheap and you will be able to sustain a demand

Check and check. The place will mostly be just PC's, but Ill put a sofa and a table in a small area, possibly to be used for a 'lunch break'.

if the cafe is closed at night, he can do mining then I imagine

OP, if you find the right place you can also have a 'creative space' set up. My town is relatively small too, maybe 600k and a couple years ago some people opened this thing which is basically a nice presentation room plus a 'workshop' area with computers and work desks. You can rent the space to do what you want but they also organise stuff like programming classes, robotics workshops for teenagers, blockchain seminars. They're selling themselves as a place for 'new ideas and education'. I think they're getting funded by government funds because of the educations stuff they do for free which is my whole point.
Look into options where you get funded by some organisation because you provide free programming/game development education for youth

We had one in my town (120k people), went out of business after 5 years, but not because it didnt pay, he just found a more easy/more paying idea.

Im pretty sure it can work out, but be sure to create some sort of a community, try holding competitions etc etc, in our town it was the 'cool spot' for the gaming youth to spend the off hours. Hope you will make it user. Good luck.

Ill definitely read the thread, I'm well aware that some ideas may sound bad because someone or a lot of people failed to execute it properly in the past. There are too many stories of failed gaming cafes here. One which I was familiar with is a guy who bought every new game that came out for all of his 20 PC's. He never had more than 10 people in and most of these games werent played. Thats just an example of bad business

how much money do you have to start this venture

Well I'm planning to branch out, I do not see this as the main source of income, just a means to build a better community. I've seen how they work, a lot of people who frequent there become friends and they build smaller communities themselves.

What year is this, 2004?

Well I don't need to have every new game, Ill mainly focus for the mainstream ones.

Most people play one out of the 6 or 7 popular games, mainly the competitive ones. Buying new games just so 5% of clientele play it for 3 days isn't a smart move.

>Gaming Cafe Blockchain
>Value is now going up to 9000%

Well it might be due to the fact that its a city with more than 15k students that moved here for college so don't have their own PC's. Also I've seen people form communities and might find it more fun to play games together. There are also people renting whole rooms for parties or personal events.

This is actually an amazing idea. I had a client few months ago from another (much larger city) that rented similar creative spaces, mainly as offices for companies.

I will actually consider this.

You asian OP?

Go work for one of the other cafe's for 6 months.

Then start your own (or don't) based upon what you learn while working there.

/thread

I live in metro Atlanta and we have a very successful one here, that serves alcohol. Every Fri and Sat it's packed.

I have enough. But that doesn't mean I will spend it on stuff that I don't need or on something that won't pay off in the long run.

Depends on the country. In mine, most cafes just pirate games and download free MOBAs like DOTA2. It's still packed because most cany afford evem basic PCs and internet is slow as shit for non-business consumers. It's a win for investors. Even small PC cafe shops with as little as 5 PCs earn profit here

Well I do have a business area in a part of the city with few highschools and colleges around, and it is also where more that half of the nightclubs are, so potentially I could organize an alternative "night out".

>I have enough.
lmfao no you don't

I've already written down all the expected expenses, I've been in contact with the suppliers for computer parts and already know the rough prices for everything. With all this info I came up with this conclusion.

What information have you used for yours? Care to share the expenses you think I might have forgotten?

How about a trading cafe?

the the fact that you were unwilling to provide a rough estimate of how much money you had to start the business tells me everything

Is weed legal in your country/state? Sell weed there if it is legal.

It is not.

I second this. There's a "shared workspace" near my house (just outside DC in a pretty nice suburb) that charges absurd monthly prices for access to workstations, printers, conference rooms, etc. They make out like bandits, they've got a waiting list!

Get jerseys and make a team of people who play at your café to participate in lan events.
You need a cool team name and then just contact other local teams and invite them to join your café/community in exchange for some "sponsoring"

i was in the business between 2k5-2k13 in European country AMA

BRAPPPPPPPP ... sniff snifff .. hmm yes.. delightful

Pretty much this. It’s a good idea in concept, OP, but I would highly recommend not wasting your gains on this particular investment. There’s really no reason for these businesses to exist anymore.

When is the ICO?

Might as well start a VR thing, might draw more people. Of course you'd have to change your equipment all the time to stay up to date, so it's not all good.

Gaming cafés were fun a long time ago, but I think it would be though to open one now. Still, if you want to do it, go for it.

Braindead faggot

make it into a gaming arena where you give a stage to all the people that go to the cafe's,
sometimes people just wanna show off what they are good at and when given that opportunity people will take it.

make it into a gaming bar

How did you go about upgrading your set ups? How did you decide if you should buy new games, ever did any polls or something similar with your regular users to help you?
What software did you use?
Did you have any loyalty based reward system?

Got any advice you feel is important for me?

They seem to be big in places like South Korea/Japan/China still

that, serv alkohol-free stuff like coctails and hire two or more nice looking waitresses

they died out 15 years ago in my shithole of a town and that considering i'm not even a first worlder and my shithole has horrible shit for internet

>How did you go about upgrading your set ups? How did you decide if you should buy new games, ever did any polls or something similar with your regular users to help you?

Well to be honest, u upgrade as you go and your finances allow you, thinking of you starting know you will have a rigs to be competitive for next 2-3 years. Always have some bank for replacement GPU/Drives these will go away way more often than you think

Majority of your income will come from people that play LoL/PUBG/CS GO . You dont have to have licenses for every computer you will have for every game, Separate couple PCs for RPG/AAA games.

We ran Windows rigs with a Image system, so if some user fucked up windows you just reload image and the computer is back online within 10 minutes ( srsly do this )

Back when we started it was a gold mine you could fuck your users in the ass and they still come back cuz there was no other way how to play online. Nowdays its way more of a community business than anything else. You(or people that will work behind bar) have to be friends with people that spend money there and come there as regulars thats the msot important part of the business nowdays.

What is the scale of operation?(Number of PCS)

What is the range of budget you have?

FUCK VR

Get atleast 1 xbox + 1 ps3

get good CISCO switches and someone to setup netwrok with limited bandwith per pc for you.

investigate how steam updates work and learn to setup them to autimatics - customrs hate to come to sit in a pc where PUBG/STeam/WoT update kicks in and user has to wait for XYZ time ( regardless if u give him the time back)

FUck stoners ( they are good customers but they will make your comunity degenerate and eventually bring issue with Kids X School X Parrents X drugs

AMA

>So assuming that having people or money for any tasks isn't an issue, what are the things I could add to my gaming cafe/community?
Rather than vidya, you can go for a board games café, this works pretty well.

I was thinking about this, especially because I had a bunch of clients that are indie board game developers, but sadly board gaming isn't very popular in my Country

>What is the scale of operation?(Number of PCS)

I was planning to start with 10 PCs, easier to maintain and I can add more if needed. If I decide to set up streaming boots or similar I would add more pcs, so its 10 just for regular customers.

What is the range of budget you have?

I'm still putting all the expenses on the paper to see how much I should roughly shell out. I guess I was thinking about $50k should suffice.
I just haven't given myself a clear budget for this exact project yet.

Also I wasn't very keen on adding VR either, even tho I read about it everywhere I feel like everyone just THINKS its a great business, noone had a huge success with it. Its interesting to see and try out, but thats it.

you offer the one thing online gaming doesn't offer: winning money. could be as simple as running pubg rounds. do you realize how many people would show up to play at your cafe if they could get paid to win pubg matches? charge people $? to play pubg, the winner takes the pool, and you get your cut. that leads to championships with large pools. eventually focus on another game or two.

Ill stick for another 15-30 mins and then i will leave for a swim, might check the thread later on.

I dont see bussiness via streaming. You have to realize the PC caffei are a LOCAL business, its not scaleable into even country-wide operation let alone anything bigger.

You will be dependant on trends. eg when LoL became really popular we grew like crazy, then it jumped into CS GO and nowdays ( I still check the business from time to time after i sold it) its PUBG

Popularity of MULTIPLAYER games streamed on twitch.tv defines what kind of PCs u need.

VR is shitttest i went from owning a gaming caffe in to game developement and even in game dev we make fun of VR, nobody wants that shit, games are shit, headaches, literally investor scam nothing else at this technological point and age

alternative: become a service provider for the other cafes and eventually buy them out and combine them.

DONT, the less HW you own the smaller your exposure.

Service provider YES
Owning the places, fuck no

why would you want a business where you surrounded by a bunch of faggots playing shitty pleb games like LoL, CSGO, and PUBG
sounds like a living hell to me

You don't, thats why i sold it.

When i started GAMERs were completely different than they are now. It was a nice nerdy community of insecure peeps that found their place in a society.

Nowdays its cancerous faggots, nothing more or less.

It's actually very easy to outcompete the others, just follow the Asian model of making a place where gamers can gather together and spend a nice time while playing games. Don't sell them just another gaming cafe, sell them a unique atmosphere with a gaming cafe as a side bonus. Just like restaurants, once the basic services becomes oversaturated you start focusing on the luxury instead

you talking about that korean pc cafe with a pool hall in duluth somehwere?

This business model has been successful in Asia so if you're a chink , knock yourself out

I have a list of what not to do though

You may be tempted to cheap out on peripherals but trust me, good keyboards and mice go a long way. Research on the best budget peripherals.

Proper spacing is also a huge factor. The less successful pc cafes I know of have had horrible spacing between PCs making it awkward. The interior design is also important because people will sometimes go out for a bit. If the place is too tight it could become an issue.

As mentioned by a couple of people, toilets need to be clean because people stay in for hours. Giving them a comfortable place to piss is gonna earn you some points.

Speaking of comfort, get some cheap office chairs. Fuck """"gaming"""" chairs.

Your systems dont need to be top notch but it helps. If it ever becomes successful, consider making a VIP setup row.

You'll also need a user system to reward regulars. Have them pay a membership fee in exchange for discounted rates. Even a 5 cent discount on 50 cents an hour sounds tempting. You can also incentivize longer stays by doing that as well.
Like
50 cents for an hour
90 for two
So on

Food And drinks are also an option when your operation can sustain it.

even in chink land, its going out of fashion.
firstly community online gaming is dying, and people can now get powerful gaming pcs/laptops that are small (ie mitx boxes).
here in singapore there used to be popular malls where people go to play online back until ~2010, now i can think of one shop in the entire inner city left.