Will you go to the offline video game store to play games?
For many people, this is a very contemporary concept. When I mention going to the store to play console games, my memory will jump to the scene where I pressed the handle in front of the "big ass" TV in some noisy and dimly lit places more than ten years ago. It seems that the situation only belongs to the pre-Internet era, and it is a flash in the pan between the decline of arcade and the rise of Internet cafes.
This year, this seemingly old form of offline entertainment ushered in a small "Renaissance". If you are in the north, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, open the apps such as Meituan and Public Comment to search for keywords such as PS5 and Switch, and you will find dozens of host game stores with various names. Even if you live in a small county, you may find it not far from home. They may be opened on the street and in shopping malls, and more generally, they are scattered in apartment buildings near the business district, and the hourly charge price ranges from 20 yuan to 30 yuan to hundreds of yuan.
Many shopkeepers will post their daily operations to video platforms such as bilibili, and one of the most common voices they face is questioning: Why do they spend more than ten times as much as when they were young, and go to the store to play console games with low cost? Can you still make money by opening a mainframe store now?
Poisonous eyes chatted with several console game owners. "Watching a group of people play games will also be infected by a happy atmosphere" is their common feeling, but no business can really "generate electricity with love".
First, social > games
"When I was a child, I especially loved to go to the mainframe shop to play" Alloy Warhead ",because the PS2 version can last indefinitely, and the arcade always has to be coin-operated … This memory has nothing to do with my opening a shop now." Shopkeeper "I am NPC"After graduating from college for more than a year, I returned to my hometown, and it has been less than two months since I opened the store. It can be regarded as a group that joined the "shop opening tide" later.
Contrary to what the onlookers guessed,Few shopkeepers will invest their real money out of emotional factors such as "realizing childhood dreams".
The game memories of post-90s shopkeepers are similar to those of most of their peers: they played "Little Overlord" when they were young, and they may be exposed to stand-alone games such as The Red Alert, The Legend of the Sword and the Chivalrous Man, and then they may be attracted by online games such as Legend and Fantasy Westward Journey. "When I was a child, my dad bought the first computer in the village. But until recently, I understood the difference between console games and computer games. " Owner "Mengmeng from scratch"Say.
Switch, the Nintendo console with a sales volume of over 100 million this year, has inspired a group of shopkeepers. There are many "party games" suitable for friends to get together on this model. Owner’s "One Day’s Game House"He has been operating a host store for more than a year. After purchasing Switch in 2017, he often succeeded in "Amway" with his friends and gradually came up with the idea of opening a store.
In the view of "one day", "it is precisely because of the Switch that we can get through this industry. This is the first game console that can take socialization as its main function. Many games on consoles like the PS4 are too hard-core, and they will definitely not work alone. "
A common cognition of shopkeepers is that,Compared with 20 years ago, the function orientation and service crowd of offline host stores have changed a lot, and more is to provide an entertainment choice for friends who go out for parties and dating couples besides "eating and watching movies". Many customers come not even to play games, but to have "space to stay together".To some extent, there is no essential difference between the nature of host shops and KTV and coffee shops. Their competition targets are not the living room where players set up game machines, but emerging entertainment places such as script killing, escape from secret rooms and baseball halls.
"One day" console game store. Photos provided by interviewees.
Accordingly, no matter on what platform, the most popular games in the main console store are mainly social games, such as Mario Party, Mischievous Kitchen, FIFA》《NBA 2K, and none of them is as popular as the TGA annual game "Two People in a Row" in 2021.
More than one shop owner believes that "Two in a Row" is the key factor for offline host stores to blossom everywhere, and many customers come to experience it. In NPC’s store, the only game that can be called a popular game is "Double Walk", and he has only seen the guests who will pass through the customs in the store. After the customs clearance, the frequency of "old customers" coming back will be much reduced.
Two people in a row
"Mengmeng" told the poisonous eyes that "A Journey for Two" has many advantages, such as moderate difficulty, easy to use, and freshness provided by each card. The direct result of these advantages is that customers will play for a long time at one time. "A Journey for Two" can last for three or four hours, and I have seen it played for nine or ten hours at a time. Other games will be changed every 20 minutes on average. "
Second, opening a host store is "not difficult"
The threshold for opening a host store is not high, and only equipment and rent are hard to invest. There are many shopkeepers who control the cost within 100,000 yuan, but not everyone can successfully start business.
Owner’s "Friday Game House"I got the business license in mid-March, and went online at the end of March, but I caught up with the notice that Jinan suspended the operation of public places. I never thought that this was just the beginning of his tug-of-war with the epidemic. Half a month later, he went to the store to clean up as usual. On this day, another local shopkeeper who wanted to open a shop made an appointment to visit. He waited until noon on Friday, but the other party told him that he could not get on.
After checking the situation on Friday, I had to accept my fate with the shop that I haven’t opened yet. Fortunately, the delivery window was not completely closed. He temporarily ordered all kinds of daily necessities and slept on the carpet of the private room at night. "It’s basically upside down day and night, and I can’t see anyone. I don’t want to play with so many games."
Three days later, when he felt a little better, he "settled down and tried to play games" and calmly passed the week when he was restricted. When he unsealed, he sent a video titled "Escape from the host store". However, by the end of April, there was another epidemic in Jinan, and it was not until mid-May that the store finally officially opened.
Friday’s console game store. Photos provided by interviewees.
Opened in an apartment building, the online diversion of group-buying apps is almost the only source of tourists. Perhaps it missed the recommendation window of new stores. The turnover in the first month of "Friday" was basically "zero" every day. "I may be the worst video game store in the country." He said.
Contacting a new industry will inevitably lead to detours. "Mengmeng" originally worked in a logistics company for many years, and his boring and repetitive life gave him a kind of "self-realization impulse". Inspired by his friends, he wanted to combine VR with console games. But it didn’t take him long to find that VR games had to be debugged in advance for each group of guests, and they had to accompany them all the way and constantly solve problems such as "can’t find the gun", "how to change bullets" and "dizziness". A single person can’t guarantee the service, so he can only sell the equipment and hang idle fish, and lose money if he doesn’t make a profit.
Young shopkeepers may also face strong resistance from their families."NPC" needs parents to provide funds to open a shop. His family lives in a small town with a population of more than 3 million, where there is quite a tradition of entrepreneurship and investment, but his mother is not optimistic about this "emerging industry", so the family quarreled many times. "In fact, taking 80,000 is a small amount for my family, and it won’t hurt my bones. It’s annoying that they didn’t understand me at that time, as if everything I did was wrong."
"NPC" opened the store only for "having fun with pictures". Nevertheless, he made a 7-page PPT to explain the prospect, budget and estimated profit of the video game store to his parents, and successfully persuaded his family. The opening of the business caught up with the peak season, and his turnover in the first two months exceeded 15,000 yuan. However, he felt that too many guests were also an annoyance and would "delay himself from playing games".
Third, those who come to play games
In the "NPC" store, the most "strange" guest may be a junior high school student. After he entered the private room, he turned on the device, then took out his mobile phone to play games such as the glory of the king and Genshin Impact, and spent more than 100 yuan for four hours without touching the handle much all afternoon.
The host game store of "NPC". Photos provided by interviewees.
"Anyone who opens a shop will encounter it" applies to any industry, and some customers may make shopkeepers "blood pressure rise". "One day," I met "one hour, you can change games for 40 minutes", and when I left, I would ask, "What do you think is interesting about these games?"
"Friday" is more exclusive of "Bai Piao" behavior. Once, a mother came to the store with a child who looked like a primary school student. This was a gratifying manifestation that the game could play a parent-child entertainment function, but the second time, the mother left the child in the store after paying the fee for three hours. The third time, "Friday" couldn’t help but remind the children that it was overtime. Only when the children called did he know that his mother had gone swimming by herself and could not come to pick it up for a while.
Unpleasant encounters may have their own reasons, but most of the reasons for happiness can be summarized in one word: atmosphere.There are not many guests who really go to the main engine shop to clear a single masterpiece, but it does exist. One day, a guest in his mid-thirties came to the store, and it took him 109 hours to clear the Elden Ring. "They can afford the mainframe, and they can’t afford it. It may be for the atmosphere of communicating with others while playing, which is different from playing alone at home. "
"One day" console game store. Photos provided by interviewees.
"Mengmeng" has also seen the guests who passed the customs clearance of "Devil’s Soul" for two consecutive days, "playing from morning till night, not eating but drinking water". He called those impressive customers "interesting souls". For example, a pregnant woman with three children often came to the store, and she would play Mario Party and Dance with her eldest daughter who was in the first grade of primary school. Through the host shop, she also met a doctoral student, and they often sat together to enjoy fistful of dollars 2, one playing and one watching, chatting about the history and culture of the 19th century American West.
There is also a female customer who seems to be in her early twenties. She has cleared the game for two in Mengmeng’s store, and learned from the conversation that it was her fifth time to clear the game, with different boys every time.
The love of something can often infect people around you. The game console store can provide both the owner and the guests with a space to bear the love.
Friday’s console game store. Photos provided by interviewees.
A stranger in the same city contacted "Friday" and said that he wanted to provide his own PS5 for free. The original words were roughly "console games are still very small, and I hope that more people can get in touch with the next generation console through your store". It was true that the equipment was put in the store on Friday for three months, but almost no one played it. Friday attributed this to the poor business of his store.
"Being close to friends" with guests is also quite common for single-person shops. When there is a lack of customers in the first month of opening a store, only a couple often go to the "Friday" store. They can go for four or five days a week, and the time is basically at night, so they will spend more time than normal closing the store. Sometimes, "Friday" simply waits for them to come out and do other things, and asks them to help them close the door when they leave.
Fourth, harvest and fatigue
Business was poor three months before the opening, so I feel lucky to have a group of people on Friday every day. More often, he can only sit in an empty shop and stare at a dazzling array of game boxes. If he sleeps on the sofa, the day will pass quickly.
When walking on the way to the store the next day, if the idea of "will no one come again today" flashed through his mind, he would have a little regret.For him, the greatest pleasure of opening a shop is that he can observe all kinds of people.
People can’t avoid projecting their real personality into the game. Some people are willing to explore in the game, find and try their best to solve mysteries, while others are passive and will always ask their teammates where to go and what to do. Some people like to complain, while others are gentle with their peers’ mistakes. These different game behaviors may not be meaningful in themselves, but "Friday" feels that "the biggest gain of opening a store is to see all kinds of people, and the differences between people make me feel very interesting."
Friday’s console game store. Photos provided by interviewees.
The popularity of different people getting together to do one thing is always the soul of a store. One of the reasons why "one day" thinks that he can run a relatively successful business is that he has accumulated a wave of old customers in the early days, and the old customers will continue to introduce new customers. The harvest of owning a store is that "it usually takes ten years to know so many people, and it takes only one year to know so many people".
In the past two months, "One day" was busy preparing for a new store facing the street, and a video comment once touched him: "This is an era when I can live well without meeting, but it makes me want to meet someone." The main reason for expanding the store is that the store is too small, "it can’t provide a place for everyone to sit down and chat and discuss games." He feels that the new store is positioned closer to a coffee shop or a theme club. "Even if time is fragmented and you can’t settle down to play games, it’s good to just get together."
"One day" console game store. Photos provided by interviewees.
Of course, for the shopkeeper himself, the more people he serves, the more tired he will be. "Too much more tired than going to work, it is simply 007." "One day" said that when he worked for 8 or 9 months, he also experienced a stage of "special collapse and physical and mental exhaustion", which mainly came from the double pressure brought by frequent video updates and store keeping. After that, the business embarked on a virtuous circle.
Located in Wuhan, the "White Hole Video Game Club" adopted corporate operation at the beginning of its business, and was one of the partners.Say to poison eyes, "I think of opening a shop and I think of being tired, so tired, especially tired." They have opened three VR experience stores and one console game store, and expansion is an inevitable choice for corporate operation: "Opening a store can’t support a team at all. Only when multiple stores are profitable at the same time can everyone get money."
White hole video game. Photos provided by interviewees.
When he started his business, "White Hole" could only see a 3-year-old child once a week at most. He described the opening of the store as "a process of losing weight". Before the opening of the second store, he weighed 150 kg, which was reduced to 130 kg after the store was "smooth". On the busiest holidays, "keep coming, keep queuing, and keep handling appointments", which will make him "the whole person’s state of the day is stupid."
V. The future in "involution"
The income of an offline video game store depends on many factors, such as popularity, price, time and so on. The situation of different stores is also very different. In the inquiry of poisonous eyes,The highest monthly turnover of well-run shops can exceed 30 thousand yuan, and the monthly turnover of those in poor condition is only 3 thousand yuan. The basic law that is generally recognized is that what you earn is "hard money" and there is an upper limit on your income.
"The video game industry is like this. Even if it is full from the first hour of opening to the last hour, the turnover is so much, and it is impossible to be more." "One day" said, "I think there should be a lot of things that can’t be done at this time next year. There are 20 cities with a population of 10 million. "
"One day" console game store. Photos provided by interviewees.
In fact, the growth rate of similar stores has surprised many shopkeepers, and "involution" is also a high-frequency word when they communicate with each other. At most, people who send private messages on bilibili asking about their experience in opening a store "one day" can have "37 or 8 a day".Qingdao, where he lives, had only two stores a year ago, and now there are nearly 40.
Another typical city is Chengdu,After the Spring Festival this year, the number of offline host stores in Chengdu was around 40, and it quickly rose to more than 100 in July.At first, "White Hole" saw peers vomit, and after counting them one by one, it was found that there were so many: "It’s rolling to death, and one is rolling than the other. There are always many words in Wuhan. At the hottest time, there are more than a dozen host stores within one kilometer of our store. "
Under the fierce competition, ironic things will happen occasionally. Mengmeng’s shop will be reported anonymously once every once in a while, and when law enforcement officers come, he can only be closed for a few days, and in the most serious case, his equipment will be taken away. He asked a friend for help before he found out that the whistleblower was another shopkeeper who opened a shop not far away. "There is an epiphany. As soon as we close the door here, customers will run to her."
At present, there is no corresponding supervision system for offline host stores, so treating them as "entertainment places" can always pick out some business loopholes. As early as 2020, the overall market scale of script killing exceeded 10 billion yuan. According to the consulting data of Ai Media, it is expected to reach 23.9 billion yuan by the end of this year. It was not until June this year that the state specifically introduced policies to bring it into supervision for the first time.
Considering the hidden concerns of supervision, it is still far away from offline host stores.The more recent practical problem is that popular models and popular games may not support the long-term vitality of the industry."The script can be updated frequently, but the production time of the game is very long, and not every game can keep customers as much as" Two in a Row. " Mengmeng said. "One day" means that if the next generation of game consoles do not have strong social attributes, "this industry will decline."
"One day" console game store. Photos provided by interviewees.
Because of its early entry, Baidong video games have accumulated advantages in the experience and technology of VR game stores, which is also the core competitiveness of their company’s operation. "But the host store does not exist at all, and the difference between stores is nothing more than decoration, location, or a bigger TV screen. Everyone uses PS5. What’s the difference? "
If the experience is similar, the direct means to get out of the tight encirclement is to "depress the price", which undoubtedly increases the risk of opening a store. There are also many people who will send private letters to "Baidong" asking about the experience of opening a store. He firmly believes that this is neither a "profiteering industry" nor any personal promotion. It is very likely that the business will not be easy to do in the end after a few years of savings.
"All those who ask me for advice on opening a store, I suggest not opening a store." "White hole" is very helpless. "There are dozens of people looking for me, but I didn’t persuade anyone."
