The whole package--as far as Meltdown London would go, anyway-- would include not only game time for amateurs, but also for those amateurs looking to compete in local tournaments, as well as the ability to watch professional gaming contests in action. Locals would be able to play things like "League of Legends," "StarCraft II," "Street Fighter IV" and others.
This isn't the first such occurrence of a bar with video games, of course--several others from the Mana Bar in Australia to the other Meltdown locations in Paris and Berlin to several across the United States like chain restaurant Dave & Busters are all in play. But the idea of an eSports bar is still something a little on the new side, and it may well prove to be the kind of thing that catches on.
Most bars target users who are over 21. It's largely necessary as those are the only people who can legally drink alcohol. So that means the target market of an eSports bar pretty much has to be born in, at the very least, 1992. The so-called golden age of video arcades, by way of comparison, was the early- to mid-1980s. There was also a resurgence of popularity that happened in the mid-1990s, but as home gaming technology improved, the role of the arcade started to fall apart.
So what could get the eSports bar up and running? Two critical points: one, while the technology improved, there are other elements associated with the arcade experience that the eSports bar can offer. Perhaps the biggest of these is the local social experience. A local social experience allows like-minded people--in this case gamers--to physically meet, get together, and do that which they clearly enjoy. While that can be offered on a certain level by home gaming--the increasing number of Xbox Live connections and the like certainly helps--there's just no complete substitute for that live, personal connection. That's the kind of thing that an eSports bar can bring into play.
With eSports making gains across several continents, we may well be looking at the time when a bar for eSports could come into its own. With its target market likely still smarting from the comparative lack of arcades and potentially interested in live social engagement, there's every possibility that the eSports bar may well be ready for prime time. It may not come to pass, of course, and it may well be the kind of thing that doesn't catch on everywhere. But it may be that the live gaming experience could be looking for a comeback, and only time will tell just how far it goes.
