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Would have used “Game Over” but Columbus Business First already used that one:
“Game over for GameWorks at Easton“.
Appears they closed for good last night.
Comments
- cheap: i highly recommend the Millersport sweet corn festival of course,the cor
- Jimmy Mak: Thanks for the write-up! Just to clarify - this is the third year we've do
- Briana Henry: Well, eventually they plan to add more bands from the region...gotta start
- bucki12: I like the business model, but the internet sales part seems like something
- racheltb: I don't see the Ohio Shrimp Fest on the list. It is truly a good time. h
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Gameworks at Easton Has Closed
By: Walker
Related Posts:
+1 for the indoor roller coaster
So many employees lost their jobs today without notice. Gameworks fell victim to high rent; I dont care what Easton says it will be hard to fill that huge spot that GameWorks had.
Is Gameworks owned by SEGA nowadays? When it opened I remember it was part of Dreamworks (the movie studio). I read an interview with Spielberg where he said “video games are the future of entertainment and blahblahblah.”
Well, Spielberg was right about that… but the gaming explosion is happening on home consoles, social networks and mobile devices… not in arcades.
Any word on what they will do with the arcade machines left behind? If they have some kind of auction, I’d love to put in a bid on the Street Fighter IV machine.
Don’t throw out your giftcards or playcards to Gameworks. According to their website, you can email them at questions@gameworks.com to try and get a refund on the balance of any giftcards, but as for the playcards, they just say to visit one of their other locations to redeem. The Columbus Gameworks is one of seven that Sega has closed during restructuring, with the hopes that some of the locations may reopen in the future, according to the press release I read.
Not surprising, really. It’s sad to hear they closed one of their best performing stores, but as Walker said – folks play video games on their own consoles, computers, or devices these days — it’s been a long time since the best games first came out in arcades, and you had to wait for the home version.
Games like DDR and all the ticket/prize-type stuff may have prolonged the inevitable, but for as much as I lived in them as a teen, arcades are fairly irrelevant these days.
As for the space, well it seems an oddly shaped space – with the basement and all. I don’t think it’ll be *easy* for them to fill, but a mid-range clothing store might work. Like H&M for example, might have been a good fit, if they weren’t already moving into the smaller space by Shadowbox.
I e-mailed the questions@gameworks.com e-mail address about arcade machine availability and was told “GameWorks no longer owns the equipment.”
There goes my shortly lived dream of having SFIV in my living room/basement.
This space won’t need to be filled by just one tenant or one/multiple tenant(s) who must accept the current configuration. Easton management has shown little hesitation in completely revamping space to accommodate new tenants. They razed significant portions of Virgin to make room for C&B and completely replaced the old Discovery Store on the back quad for new retail. I think they’ve learned some lessons about remaining static from older malls, and will make significant infrastructure moves to keep their product viable.
@LBOWACC – that seems to be the standard lifespan of a Jillian’s. Open up, be all the rage for a year, lead the parent company towards massive expansion, fall out of favor as the in-place, become unsustainable because they’re too large. The Columbus one was in the property that now contains Brothers and Gaswerks in the Arena District. The company filed Chapter 11 back in 2004-ish, some of the locations were sold to Dave & Busters, while a few including Boston became independently owned and operated.
LBOWACC:
The Columbus Jillians was not half as good as the one in Boston. The Boston one was Awesome! Used to go in the early to mid90′s myself. The one in Columbus was quite inferior.
dru Says: This space won’t need to be filled by just one tenant or one/multiple tenant(s) who must accept the current configuration. Easton management has shown little hesitation in completely revamping space to accommodate new tenants.
+1
I doubt it will sit empty for long either. Management at Easton is very smart in their reconfigurations, and I can see this quickly flipping into something else within a year.
My apologies – I didn’t see the update where they left the end date for the gc’s at vics more open.
Dave & Busters…..ok, bad idea….
Easton is losing one of their charter members; but it’s not like City Center, if one charter store leaves, then the rest go belly-up; Easton is 20 times stronger than City Center ever was
RIP- Gameworks @ Easton (1999-2010)
What could go in Gameworks’ place- ideas?
You already have the restaurant space built and largely separated.
It’s that basement portion which will pose a challenge. I don’t doubt something will take over, it just seems the space is a bit more work than the free standing structures Easton changed or razed to suit new tenants.
ETA
Bowling Alley?
There used to be a bowling alley at Easton. I think it was where the Ruehl stuff went in if I remember correctly.
Gameworks Easton Closed!
How many more things can Les Wexner ruin before people will stop shopping at his areas. A management (Easton Management) friend of mine said that the new lease agreement was asking for 25% of sales as rent. So by being greedy, we loose a great saturday night evening of fun. You know what is really funny, if something closes at Easton it seems to get relocated to Polaris…Perhaps we will see a Gameworks Polaris opening in the future……I sure hope so!
I doubt Wexner himself has anything to do with the day-to-day lease management at Easton.
The closing of Gameworks came from their parent company and affected multiple locations.
Polaris already has a Dave & Busters. I doubt opening a Gameworks there makes any sense at all.