A few good friends of mine have taken the entrepreneurial leap, and are starting a new business, a “gaming center” (how very Yellow Pages... surely there's got to be a better term?  I like neoarcade, but anyway), complete with all the usual accoutrements - low level lighting for optimal display (think Outback), seating that won't leave you bruised after a few hours, and HDTV everywhere (including 3 giant displays) - no “normal” displays in sight.

What's the catch?  They've decided to feature only the Xbox as their platform of choice.  Between the support for HDTV, easily the best networked solution, and, well, Halo 2 - the choice was easy.  They're forgoing PCs for cost and support reasons at the moment - two more reasons why the Xbox was (and still is) accepted so openly into the world.

At opening, the place will have consoles, controllers, games and seating for 32 gamers at a time - with plans to expand if things go well.  Contests and tournaments will be the norm, but new gamers (and even their parents) are always welcome.  There are plans to allow people to sell their used games to other gamers as well (not directly to the store like most retail shops) - they're thinking about charging just a small fee for shelf space/display while the game is unsold (think eBay), but that's all still very much up in the air.

I wish these guys the best - I'm actually heading up there today to help them continue to get ready - the grand opening is in 1 week, and they plan on having plenty of GTA3: San Andreas available on hand... and of course, come November 9th, all Halo will break loose.

If you're in the Bergen County, NJ area, and you're tired of cramming yourself into a tiny store in the mall to play your favorite games, look them up - you'll be glad you did.

[Update: Apparently there will be a few PS2s for the non-believers, thus GTA3:SA - this is what happens when you get pieces of information second hand, and don't really think it through... ah well, that's why blogging is spelled with a small 'j'.]

- G