Games
These two gaming entrepreneurs are opening gaming cafés in Pretoria central to help inner city kids have a larger slice of the video game pie.
South V Gaming Cafe
Musa “Knox” Linda from Pretoria West opened the first gaming cafe in PTA central, South V Gaming café, on Church Street in 2015 when he was 23 years old. At first glance, the dozens of students from surrounding colleges & university campuses glued to the monitors make this seem like any normal gaming cafe; but the overwhelming smell of oil fried chips & hubbly smoke combined with loud GQOM music makes it obvious this is no conventional gaming cafe, its a township spaza shop, hookah lounge and gaming cafe in one...Just how Knox wants it.
“We added spatlos (Pretoria's version of a kota or gatsby) because guys get hungry when they play for long, and hubbly bubbly's for guys who just want to smoke up and watch games, now we are setting up a recording studio... We are adding all these extras because we don't make enough money from games alone.” Says Knox.
“... But we also want to be more than a gaming cafe, we want to combine kasie (township) culture with the gaming lifestyle.”
The primary reason he started the Cafe is too make gaming accessible to those who cant afford it, “I could never afford a console as a kid...I only played video games when I visited the “cheese boys'” (spoiled kids in the township).
He has six PS4 consoles in his cafe and charges R15 for one game, & R20 for two games for 5 minutes per game. R10 for 10 minutes for action and combat games.
“Opening a café like this in the suburbs would go against everything I stand for cos those guys can easily afford consoles, games, controllers, online accounts etc. Its the guys in the CBD who struggle more for gaming access cos there are people from all social classes living here,” says Knox.
“Many of the people who come here have only seen a PlayStation4 on magazines or TV, they have they're first gaming experience in my café, and that's the kind of people I want to reach.”
Viral Gaming Cafe
Its exactly one year ago that Moloki Mosome took out a R120 000 bank loan to open Viral Gaming Cafe, situated in Ster-Land, a cinema complex in Arcadia, “but I've already paid it back and I'm earning my return on investment now,” says Moloki triumphantly.
“I loved watching movies in Ster-Land, but I had nothing to entertain me while waiting for my movie to start...That's when I got the idea to start Viral Gaming Cafe, a place where people can game while waiting for a movie.”
But despite the popularity and success of his shop, he faces the humble threat of eviction, as he is renting his space on an exhibition basis, “we could get evicted any time a big player wants to rent this space, so I need to have a plan B when that day arrives...Plan B could be something in Soshanguve township but I'm also looking at attractive spaces in the CBD.”
They currently don't offer any online gaming on any of their three XboxOne's & six PS4's because opening an online subscription for each station would be expensive & impractical, “...we are thinking of an online gaming model to cater to guys who already have their own online gaming account at home. They'll be able to access their personal accounts here so they can save data at home.”
He says PlayStation is more popular than Xbox for one simple fact, the parts last longer “there are so many people using the joysticks & consoles that it creates quicker wear and tear than normal home usage..I've discovered the hard way how Xbox components break down quicker than PS4s...We've had to replace 15 parts since we started operating, majority are Xbox.”
Currently, neither the Department of Science & Technology nor Arts & Culture respectively has an initiative to fund gaming, but Moloki has a few motivations to encourage government funding, “Gaming cafés should be supported cos they takes kids away from mischief, it helps with social interaction because you can make friends with gamers you meet here, we create employment & you can make money from gaming competitions...like the FIFA tournaments we host once a month awarding R2 300 prize money for the winner.
“My hopes for the future is to start a gaming team to compete at major local competitions like Rush or VS Gaming, and to open a franchise of gaming cafés in major townships so I can bring gaming to kids in the 'hood.”
