starting a gaming internet cafe, what are your thoughts?

[saif96]

i've been thinking about this for years, setting up a gaming internet cafe which i would place near the largest university in my city so people can just relax and have a fun time after classes or during their breaks, the area im thinking of doing hasn't been completed yet its just filled with dirt roads and construction but this area is planned to be the next big city in my country, right now theirs only a university, but in the future theirs going to be houses, business, buildings the area could be really cheap if i get it

 

im not really a business guy, my degree is media and communication so i dont know how running a business works but i really love pc gaming and i always thought that having a internet cafe near collages, schools would be a great thing to have, what do you think? 

 

what should i take into consideration before even pursuing this idea in the future?

[Guest]

1. Don’t have 1 avenue of income. 

If you look at the gaming hotel, they have a hotel & the gaming. I have a gaming computer at home & it’s cheaper in the long run to buy my own pc. 

 

2. Know your audience. If you must do gaming, know that it might not be the most profitable part of your business-if people in the area don’t care about gaming cafe, then you should try to have other things there on your property to tie into number 1. 

 

3. Don’t give anything away for free. Always come out on top. Try not to scam though as you won’t keep regulars if you pull too much money from them. 

 

4. Advertise. I don’t know you have a gaming cafe. I just go between class at college, the dorm and food. 

 

Edit:

5. Don’t count your money before you get it 

 

6. Make sure you have extra money. Don’t blow your whole budget before you have customers as it can take time for people to hear about you. 

 

7. Insurance. 

 

8. Consult or hire an experienced business person. 

 

9. Don’t play video games at work. People that open bars fail because they like to drink and socialize, not work. It’s a business & has more work than you think. 

 

10. Be ready for people to break and mess with EVERYTHING. 

[wasab]

Do people in your areas play games?

 

Students on my campus, espically the engineering students who wear glasses do not game at all. Instead they bury their noses in books which is what ruin their eyesights and cause them to have glasses. 

 

The other students usually  party on their free time or go out so they rarely game, at least not solo-one computer per person style. They will more likely be using controllers and consoles, playing multiplayer on a big screen television in a group.

 

Don't assume just because people are young, they are interested in gaming.

[PlayStation 2]

Think about demographics.

When it comes to PC building for the cafe, however, don't overbuild if it isn't necessary. If the PCs are going to be running Team Fortress 2, League of Legends and Overwatch? Just give 'em a Ryzen 3 and a 1050.

[captain_to_fire]

1 minute ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

Just give 'em a Ryzen 3 and a 1050.

I think an i5-8400 with UHD 630 Graphics is enough for most internet cafes 

[PlayStation 2]

Just now, captain_to_fire said:

I think an i5-8400 with UHD 630 Graphics is enough for most internet cafes 

Hmm, maybe. I'd argue, as I said, depending on the games there. Especially if the cafes are gonna have CS on it, I'd have some slightly higher-end systems, or a higher-end GPU.

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

Hmm, maybe. I'd argue, as I said, depending on the games there. Especially if the cafes are gonna have CS on it, I'd have some slightly higher-end systems, or a higher-end GPU.

A lot of high schoolers and college kids need specs to run fort nite, rainbow six & overwatch

[PlayStation 2]

1 minute ago, fpo said:

A lot of high schoolers and college kids need specs to run fort nite, rainbow six & overwatch

Looks like that 1050 would come in handy, heh.

[captain_to_fire]

7 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

Looks like that 1050 would come in handy, heh.

I'd say a Ryzen 2400G would be a better bang for the buck that a 1050 + i5-8400

 

[wasab]

46 minutes ago, captain_to_fire said:

I'd say a Ryzen 2400G would be a better bang for the buck that a 1050 + i5-8400

 

No. 2200g can be but not 2400g

[Taja]

1 hour ago, captain_to_fire said:

I think an i5-8400 with UHD 630 Graphics is enough for most internet cafes 

Not for gaming. The games played would be most likely mobas, battle royales and fps. So ofc you need a bit of gpu power, but a ryzen 2400g should be enough.

[handymanshandle]

4 hours ago, fpo said:

1. Don’t have 1 avenue of income. 

If you look at the gaming hotel, they have a hotel & the gaming. I have a gaming computer at home & it’s cheaper in the long run to buy my own pc. 

 

2. Know your audience. If you must do gaming, know that it might not be the most profitable part of your business-if people in the area don’t care about gaming cafe, then you should try to have other things there on your property to tie into number 1. 

 

3. Don’t give anything away for free. Always come out on top. Try not to scam though as you won’t keep regulars if you pull too much money from them. 

 

4. Advertise. I don’t know you have a gaming cafe. I just go between class at college, the dorm and food. 

 

Edit:

5. Don’t count your money before you get it 

 

6. Make sure you have extra money. Don’t blow your whole budget before you have customers as it can take time for people to hear about you. 

 

7. Insurance. 

 

8. Consult or hire an experienced business person. 

 

9. Don’t play video games at work. People that open bars fail because they like to drink and socialize, not work. It’s a business & has more work than you think. 

 

10. Be ready for people to break and mess with EVERYTHING. 

3 hours ago, wasab said:

Do people in your areas play games?

 

Students on my campus, espically the engineering students who wear glasses do not game at all. Instead they bury their noses in books which is what ruin their eyesights and cause them to have glasses. 

 

The other students usually  party on their free time or go out so they rarely game, at least not solo-one computer per person style. They will more likely be using controllers and consoles, playing multiplayer on a big screen television in a group.

 

Don't assume just because people are young, they are interested in gaming.

2 hours ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

Think about demographics.

When it comes to PC building for the cafe, however, don't overbuild if it isn't necessary. If the PCs are going to be running Team Fortress 2, League of Legends and Overwatch? Just give 'em a Ryzen 3 and a 1050.

All of these for sure, before you open your cafe.

If you are serious, consider a survey to your target demographic, like the first quote I have here says. Diversify your income, if you can't attract enough people to your cafe on the games alone, at least do the cafe part really well in case people aren't drawn in by the games. If they aren't. At least you're not at total loss.

 

[saif96]

9 hours ago, fpo said:

1. Don’t have 1 avenue of income. 

If you look at the gaming hotel, they have a hotel & the gaming. I have a gaming computer at home & it’s cheaper in the long run to buy my own pc. 

 

2. Know your audience. If you must do gaming, know that it might not be the most profitable part of your business-if people in the area don’t care about gaming cafe, then you should try to have other things there on your property to tie into number 1. 

 

3. Don’t give anything away for free. Always come out on top. Try not to scam though as you won’t keep regulars if you pull too much money from them. 

 

4. Advertise. I don’t know you have a gaming cafe. I just go between class at college, the dorm and food. 

 

Edit:

5. Don’t count your money before you get it 

 

6. Make sure you have extra money. Don’t blow your whole budget before you have customers as it can take time for people to hear about you. 

 

7. Insurance. 

 

8. Consult or hire an experienced business person. 

 

9. Don’t play video games at work. People that open bars fail because they like to drink and socialize, not work. It’s a business & has more work than you think. 

 

10. Be ready for people to break and mess with EVERYTHING. 

i really dont think i would get much profit from just them hourly gaming i would charge them like around 2-3 dollars in hour but my main income is food, like if they want a hotdog id sale it for $5-8 if they want cola id sell it for $2 and energy drinks costs $4 

 

pretty much the main income for me is from them ordering food and i've been to gaming cafe its really impossible to hold back your self ordering food their its like going to a cinema without a popcorn, nachos or coke or whatever it feels like you really want something especially the smell of food helps

[saif96]

9 hours ago, wasab said:

Do people in your areas play games?

 

Students on my campus, espically the engineering students who wear glasses do not game at all. Instead they bury their noses in books which is what ruin their eyesights and cause them to have glasses. 

 

The other students usually  party on their free time or go out so they rarely game, at least not solo-one computer per person style. They will more likely be using controllers and consoles, playing multiplayer on a big screen television in a group.

 

Don't assume just because people are young, they are interested in gaming.

in my area? yes they all do and the university i was talking about, i studied there and there were alot of gamers that gamed in my

 university, they only had PS4's which people hated, everyone loves pc gaming because how smooth it feels not alot of people i've seen their are nerds and the few nerds there actually loved gaming 

 

and no one goes outside in my country since its like 20-50 degrees outside in the hot weather so everyone is like inside so that could be a plus for my business 

[ketchupOnWaffles]

in my city (Brussels) there is a gaming cafe, we can go there, it's 2.5€ an hour or 15€ a day, all games are installed and we can borrow their accounts. they have i5s + 970s and 24" 1080p60hz monitors, they are sponsored from asus. we can also get food and drinks there. but it's not the only reason people go there. some people exclusivly go for dungeons and dragons games people can borrow there, the yu gi oh turnaments and stuff

[saif96]

7 hours ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

Think about demographics.

When it comes to PC building for the cafe, however, don't overbuild if it isn't necessary. If the PCs are going to be running Team Fortress 2, League of Legends and Overwatch? Just give 'em a Ryzen 3 and a 1050.

what i was planning is have area stages like for example room 1 would be the main entrance  of the internet cafe, they would be given a 1080p 144hz monitor + 1050 or 1060 and would fit around 40+ people and i would charge them $2-3 an hour or bronze membership which would cost $795 a year or $440 6 months (btw im just throwing numbers out there)

 

the next area would have 1440p monitor + 1070 or 1080 that would have about 20+ people and charge them $5 in hour or silver membership 1 year would be $1600 or 6 months $950 and it would be a little less cramped, given more space and better chairs and tables

 

the third area would be privet with only 10+ people that would game on 4K monitors with 1080ti gold membership would be $15 hour or $2150 a year (this is aimed more on rich people who want to game on internet cafe with friends)

 

fourth would be alot more privet with only 6 different small separated rooms next to each other with 4K 144hz with sli 1080ti's OC watercooled this would be the diamond membership with $50 in hour or $2800 a year its aimed at people who want the ultimate experience and feel more at home, i would include the rooms to have spacial kind of walls that can be opened just incase you want to see your friends next to you 

 

lastly ill include 20+ a rooms for people that smokes  = to bronze memberships

[chiller15]

Some points I immediately thought of:

 

1) Have an Internet filtering service - If someone browses on stuff they really shouldn't, you are the bill payer for that connection and you would be held accountable unless you can actually prove that person did it.

 

2) CCTV - Ties in with 1) - If you can actually show that person xyx was sat on computer abc at a specific time, it will be vitally important for any legal matters.

 

3) Physical security - Ensure that your devices (both the towers and monitors) are locked to something to try to prevent theft. Generally if someone wants something, they'll take it which ever way. But I've worked in many schools that use Kensington locks. Simply loop the locks through one-another. That way all the machines are literally tied together and they'd all have to be stolen at the same time/in one go/lift.

 

4) Create an easy way to reimage a PC - You're inevitably going to get someone breaking a setup, whether maliciously or accidentally. Downtime = money in a business like that, so you want to create an easy and fast way to reimage a PC. If you can get almost the same hardware, then you can create one image for all the PCs. You can then possibly script any additional software installations that may be needed.

 

5) Have hot spares - Ensure that you have working spare components and PCs should any fail or be vandalised, you can quickly swap it out.

 

 

[saif96]

29 minutes ago, chiller15 said:

Some points I immediately thought of:

 

1) Have an Internet filtering service - If someone browses on stuff they really shouldn't, you are the bill payer for that connection and you would be held accountable unless you can actually prove that person did it.

 

2) CCTV - Ties in with 1) - If you can actually show that person xyx was sat on computer abc at a specific time, it will be vitally important for any legal matters.

 

3) Physical security - Ensure that your devices (both the towers and monitors) are locked to something to try to prevent theft. Generally if someone wants something, they'll take it which ever way. But I've worked in many schools that use Kensington locks. Simply loop the locks through one-another. That way all the machines are literally tied together and they'd all have to be stolen at the same time/in one go/lift.

 

4) Create an easy way to reimage a PC - You're inevitably going to get someone breaking a setup, whether maliciously or accidentally. Downtime = money in a business like that, so you want to create an easy and fast way to reimage a PC. If you can get almost the same hardware, then you can create one image for all the PCs. You can then possibly script any additional software installations that may be needed.

 

5) Have hot spares - Ensure that you have working spare components and PCs should any fail or be vandalised, you can quickly swap it out.

 

 

where i live crime rate is very low almost every corner in the street has a camera, but i will take a few paercution just incase something happens and im 100% going to install a software so no one does anything illegal on it  

[chiller15]

2 minutes ago, saif96 said:

where i live crime rate is very low almost every corner in the street has a camera, but i will take a few paercution just incase something happens and im 100% going to install a software so no one does anything illegal on it  

Is that something you want to risk on such a large investment?

[saif96]

7 minutes ago, chiller15 said:

Is that something you want to risk on such a large investment?

no i will take things you said take in consideration all i was saying is crime is really low in my country the only issues i can imagine getting into is if someone gets so angry that they start smashing pc's or get into a fight with my employees because they thing there better then them or something or fights with gamers over a dispute 

[Guest]

3 hours ago, saif96 said:

i really dont think i would get much profit from just them hourly gaming i would charge them like around 2-3 dollars in hour but my main income is food, like if they want a hotdog id sale it for $5-8 if they want cola id sell it for $2 and energy drinks costs $4 

 

pretty much the main income for me is from them ordering food and i've been to gaming cafe its really impossible to hold back your self ordering food their its like going to a cinema without a popcorn, nachos or coke or whatever it feels like you really want something especially the smell of food helps

You’re not a lemonade stand. I’m presuming you’re using USD. Do like 15 dollars an hour for gaming pc, and have them away from the cafe area. If you have a Starbucks like cafe, they don’t want to be typing and hear “oh, you fucking suck!!! Kill yourself, you’re bad at games! Why do I have to leave? *keyboard smash sound*” they want a relaxing low volume pop music radio and a latte. 

You can mark things up in price like Starbucks because you’re also serving a place to stay and potentially serving free WiFi. 

 

If you plan on food being income, you should open a restaurant. People are more than likely to bring their own food, unless you have a no outside food policy but even then, they’d expect pizza to be cheap or they can just come back after a quick leave to next doors pizza place for 3 dollars less a pie. 

 

Also no one I know buys food at theatres anymore lol. It’s expensive. Even when movie tickets were “cheap” people still didn’t buy food. I know a lot of gamers that can go without eating. 

 

I’m saying a lot of negative because this is America & most people have PlayStations and gaming PCs and from my experience being a patron at some places, I would go the what’s cheapest not convenient route & spot my friends doing the same. To gauge the profitability of this, i think hosting a LAN event where you don’t have to buy 10~ or more gaming PCs would show how many people are even interested. Have a note saying “if you don’t have a gaming pc, call us & let us know.” There are services that rent out xboxes and things for parties like renting a bouncy house. They might have PCs that you can rent and then charge premium to people not having PCs. If you get poor results from the lan party, (which may or may not be a flop) then it may show that people aren’t too interested in a gaming cafe. 

 

If you do organize a lan party, make sure you can properly get the word out and schedule for about 1~3 months in advance. I used to play airsoft a lot and at their POPULAR field, they found 1.5 months ahead of the event is the best for announcing the events to get the best turnout. Announce too soon & people will forget. Announce too late and people are already busy. 

[TVwazhere]

Dunno if you plan on a liquor license, but if you do, having a bar with E-Sports on would possibly be as successful as the cafe itself, catering to the drinks and less about the games. Especially during World events like the LoL Championships. 

3 hours ago, saif96 said:

what i was planning is have area stages like for example room 1 would be the main entrance  of the internet cafe, they would be given a 1080p 60hz monitor + 1050 or 1060 and would fit around 40+ people and i would charge them $2-3 an hour or bronze membership which would cost $795 a year or $440 6 months (btw im just throwing numbers out there)

I would almost just leave it  at that. Gotta remember your demographic. IDK what kind of upstart city this is but if you're dealing with college kids, chances are they aernt going to have a lot of money to burn. 

[handymanshandle]

2 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

Dunno if you plan on a liquor license, but if you do, having a bar with E-Sports on would possibly be as successful as the cafe itself, catering to the drinks and less about the games. Especially during World events like the LoL Championships. 

I would almost just leave it  at that. Gotta remember your demographic. IDK what kind of upstart city this is but if you're dealing with college kids, chances are they aernt going to have a lot of money to burn. 

I wanted to say his cafe could serve more than just cafe stuff it could be more like a restaurant with a PC gaming section and maybe it's own liquor bar.

[saif96]

12 minutes ago, pinksnowbirdie said:

I wanted to say his cafe could serve more than just cafe stuff it could be more like a restaurant with a PC gaming section and maybe it's own liquor bar.

nahh, liquor is bad for business, im from dubai and i dont recommend it 

[saif96]

2 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

Dunno if you plan on a liquor license, but if you do, having a bar with E-Sports on would possibly be as successful as the cafe itself, catering to the drinks and less about the games. Especially during World events like the LoL Championships. 

I would almost just leave it  at that. Gotta remember your demographic. IDK what kind of upstart city this is but if you're dealing with college kids, chances are they aernt going to have a lot of money to burn. 

liquor? im from dubai so thats out of the question plus alot of people are gonna get drunk and get into fights so whats the point, rather serve energy drinks and junk food instead

 

and i really doubt people in my city that are in collage are gonna have taught time with money wise, i really dont think its an issue