GameWorks Downsizes

A persistent industry reporter put a GameWorks spokesperson on the spot last week and now all the world knows: GameWorks is going through some changes.

"Our plan has been modified," GameWorks' Melissa Schumer told GameSpot News. She stated the company's goals, hammered out and promoted last year when the mega-arcade was first announced, are no less grand today than they were then - but they have lost a wee bit of their luster.

Discussing GameWorks Studios - smaller, "tighter," and themed arcade locations - Schumer acknowledged that GameWorks is "still committed to being the leader in branding games arcades." Still, lessons learned indicate that one size arcade does not universally fit all settings.

GameWorks is in the process of not only opening large-sized arcades similar to current operations in Seattle, Las Vegas, and Dallas, but also actively seeking locations where decidedly smaller GameWorks arcades - the Studios locations - will be built.

A not-so-secret test location in Tuscon, Ariz., called Stage 35, which opened last November, was the test case. Evidently the decision makers at GameWorks approved of the new model. As in the case of Stage 35, which has a Hollywood theme, upcoming GameWorks Studios locations will also be themed.

Schumer says "surf shack" and "living room" (as in lava lamps and shag carpets) motifs are being considered for the next locations, which would likely wear the GameWorks Studios name rather than an anonymous moniker.

Immediately on the agenda for GameWorks this year are two full-service locations due for Miami and Detroit, and another giant location due to open in Rio, Brazil, in March of next year.

The full-service locations "weren't as integrated as we wanted them to be.... The new locations will be tighter," Schumer explained.