raven56706

Hey guys.... yes i did one of my dream ventures and thats opening a cyber and video game cafe.....now i need some help and who not to ask but my dvdtalkers...

I was wondering,....

What are the hottest titles out there for multiplayer on the PC, XBOX and PS2?

please list what you know.

Also put down the coming soon titles as well(but specify its coming soon)

Static Cling

Please tell me that you already knew the answers to that question before opening a cyber and video game cafe.

Tarantino

I thought you were in London...temporarily?

Groucho

Is this café in London?

shadowhawk2020

Halo 2 for xbox (coming soon)

raven56706

Lol..... ok maybe a little bit of history.......

we bought the place and have over 300 pc games....

Now i have known titles like Halo2, Half Life 2, Smackdown vs Raw, Axis of Allies, Doom3, and etc....

The only thing is that i am trying to see if there are any other games that anyone knows about that can be great for the cafe.

PS yes i am in london still but i am trying to handle the video games and electronic stuff from here and relay it to my partners in Jersey

goLUCKY

Robotech/Mechassault type games for the PC are supposed to be good.

j123vt_99

something you may need to look into is licensing for the games.. for example if you have 10 comps networked, i doubt you can buy just 1 copy of the game and put it on all 10.. likewise, you probably do not need to buy 10 fully retail copies of the game

LuisL

i say look on various game sites/retailers and see what the best sellers are.

Jackskeleton

I have some bad news for you. Chances are your store will fail. My friends from highschool opened up one of these cyber cafe shops. I helped out a great deal through it all. Didn't last more than 2 years. The amount of upkeep it takes to keep these places up to date and with the latest games, equipment and so forth is just to much to handle.

Not to mention the amount people are willing to pay for the hour opposed what you need to stay in business. You need everything legit. J123vt has it right, if you have 40 machines, you need 40 legit copies of a certain title and 40 versions of a legit windows key, etc. etc. Security so no one fucks with the machine and you need workers.

As for PC titles, you are going to get a wide variety. I would say that Star Craft and War Craft and all those other Realtime strat. games will be good games to get since they last a long time. The more they sit in your store, the better for business right?

You need Half life. Get the version that comes out with the back log of games and you have all the old games. Counter Strike is still a big player. Battlefield is also a good game.

You need to stay ontop of all patches and all the latest mods. It's a lot of work and a lot of hassel.

I have seen store after store go down because of other factors as well. Local towns don't see these places to kindly. they consider them hang out for kids and that can lead to only one thing. Trouble. Especially when you get two kids who can't keep the shit talking down and you get fights or have to get police involved. It's just not good business if you ask me.

Even in hot zones like west wood near UCLA these sorts of places have closed down soon after opening. Not really a hot market. Especially with equipment coming down so cheap. Some one can get the same thing from fry's and through dsl/cable modem

That's my 0.02 on it.

raven56706

So far we are having on average 30 kids in the place and they are staying for a good 4 hours..... also we have an older crowd for tournaments like Madden and NBA 2k5.....and Socom and mechassault.....


We are doing great business and its not how everyone else does their business but how you do yours....... so far we are doing great

I am working with 3 people and the business was promoted with the help of the schools and the county....


We have the help of all kinds and we are sponsored by an videogames company.......

We have a model that we are sticking to and so far all fo the sides havent failed.... soon it will get rough but all businesses are like that.....

Feneant

A store here had placed games like Everquest on his pc's and charge people for one of the slots on the account. I think that actually was his hottest seller since people sat there for hours playing.

He eventually failed though, it's a hard to keep people interested- the prices have to be low enough to have people play often, but you have to juggle between having your regulars and having room for new people to come in.

zerotl

So where are you located in Jersey? Or is that a no no to advertise on here?

RoQuEr

When I go to my local Lan hall, the most common games I see are counterstrike, Halo, warcraft 3, and city of Heros.

Is there some unwritten rule that says that all these places are forced to serve Bawls?

Lastblade

Get some dance rhythm games in there.

Or even home exclusives like Taiko Drum masters, Karaoke Revolution (esp Vol 3 for PS2), etc.

EDIT: IF you want to put in the best multiplayer game ever...... hook up a SNES and put in Super Bomberman 1/2 for 5 player goodness.

Or a Saturn w/Saturn Bomberman with 10 people, now that's a hoot!

Barney1234

Any titles, just have hot chicks in thongs rent the games out.

Aphex Twin

You should get Duke Nukem 3D and Quake 2...we played those games a lot in high school.

efftimmy

You could host Animal Crossing DS parties.

PrincessT

I wish someone did this in the Chicago burbs. I just saw a new LAN gaming place on 75th Street in Downers Grove and will have to plead and beg with them to do Animal Crossing DS and other DS games. It's a few doors to the east of Gamestop for any locals.

Third Baseman

Battlefield and Call of Duty for the PC (also the new Call of Duty for the Xbox)...

Breakfast with Girls

Those are a little out of date.

Deftones

I think that was the joke.

chowchris13

Retro games can be cool though.....like goldeneye for N64

Jackskeleton

I wouldn't stick with a video game system in the place. That's just my take.

Sorry to be all doom and gloom in my first post raven, just my experience from working and pretty much being part of the business and seeing how it is treated by various local communities when it comes to asian kids hanging out. The initial thought is that violence and anything bad that could happen will.

In any case, make sure you jump on all the possible patches. Keep some sort of snacks handy. Go to a local costco or whatever and buy chips and sodas in bulk and make a side profit off that. Bawls is in those shops because of the caffinee factor and the "cool" factor that comes with it. The local rep for the soda company here was cool. And if you have tourny's and the such you can talk to the BAWLS company distributor to get you hooked up with some promotional material.

I would also hit up Nvidia or ATI about possible prizes. The store I worked at got a lot of free goods from file planet in the past just for having lans.

Have comfy chairs is a must and keep any form of clock out of the place. Treat it like a casino. Customers don't know what time it is, they wont be in a rush to leave or keep their eyes on it.

Retro games can really spice things up in a store like that. Have a tourny every now and then of an older game so people start practicing up.

Star Craft is still big and you'll be amazed at how well some players are on it. Mmembership would be a good idea to reward returning customers.

that's all I can think of right now.