To take a break from his linen/bedding business on North Halsted Street in Chicago, Vish Agarwal likes to sneak away for 45 minutes or so to shoot a round of golf. Luckily for him, a “course” is just a few doors away.
“I enjoy this more than anything,” said Agarwal, 30, from a cushy seat in front of a plasma-screen television, hitting a few balls on the Tiger Woods PGA Tour video game in Escape, a new high-end electronics/gaming retail store on 2128 N. Halsted St. in Lincoln Park.
Rather than an old-fashioned video game arcade, Escape is a first-of-its-kind boutique, a test site from electronics retailer Best Buy. You wouldn’t know the chain was behind it. Its yellow and black logo is practically non-existent, and the place looks more like a computer geek’s loft with its hardwood floors and exposed brick.
But with enough cash, you’ll experience something that can be duplicated only if you’re friends with a video game-crazed pro athlete.
That’s due to the plasma-screen monitors located in four gaming pods. The screens are 40 inches or more, and the pods feature theater-quality sound and carry PlayStation and Xbox systems.
“It’s not a little monitor, like a regular [TV],” Agarwal said. “It’s bigger, the colors are much more vivid. Then they have SurroundSound. You get to pick whichever game you want to play, whichever console.”
The pods’ theme environments include one with Wrigley Field seats and another with steering wheels for race games.
Hunched at this particular pod were Vanessa Vazquez, 18, and Anjelica Garcia, 17, Lincoln Park High School students engaged in Grand Theft Auto 3.
“It looked real because I want to start learning how to drive,” Garcia said. “[My boyfriend] learned on the first Grand Theft Auto.”
Vazquez, who said she isn’t a huge video game player, does like to test games, but said the stores she has sampled in don’t carry “this type of equipment. . . . I like [this] better.”
A suite–sweet
Escape also has two private suites for parties of up to 10 people.
One features a 100-inch projection screen with a crystal-clear picture and quality sound, with a 50-inch plasma screen hiding behind it.
The other suite has two monitors set up for competitive game play through the Internet. You also can watch high-definition broadcasts on both monitors.
Besides the video games, Escape has the latest gadgets for sale: digital cameras, computers, iPods, cell phones and stuff that only those who are hip would know what they did. But gamers might want more game stations than just the four.
All of this is going to cost you. The pods rent for $10 an hour; suites are $50 an hour, with a two-hour minimum. A $9.95 yearly Escape membership is required for all game play.
Agarwal doesn’t mind the cost. “I come here just to get away from [my store] for a half-hour or 40 minutes,” he said. “Even if you spent 15 minutes a day, [you] get your mind off of things and relax.”
Getting people to spend some time in the joint is one of the goals of Escape, according to assistant manager Joe Obucina.
“You’re able to shop, [and] you’re able to hang out,” Obucina added, referring to the store’s cafe, which sells sandwiches and salads (no alcohol); lounges for relaxation; and Internet access.
Julie St. Marie, part of the team that put the Escape concept together, said it also was a goal to attract young men who are into video games and gadgets in general.
“The gaming piece is truly a differentiator within the marketplace,” she said. “We want people to stay. We want them to try out things. We want them to get a feel for what they are buying before they buy them.”
That should be enough of a lure for gamers, who are mostly males averaging 29 years old, and who helped to buy a record $7 billion in video games in 2003, according to the Entertainment Software Association.
The right game
What’s better than “test-driving” games on equipment that brings out the best in sound and picture, said Geoff Keighley of Business 2.0, a monthly business and technology magazine.
“People really want to be sure they’re buying the right game. So I think the idea of having to spend $9 or something to experience it or test-drive it before you actually plop down your 50 bucks is probably a smart move,” Keighley said.
The closest thing to Escape are offshoots of a phenomenon in South Korea called the PC Bang–laptops and monitors set up in a variation on Internet cafes, where gamers hook up and play against each other. St. Marie said there might be around 2,000 such “mom-and-pop” outlets in the United States. Unlike PC Bangs, Escape offers both Internet and non-Internet gaming.
Next big thing?
The concept isn’t new, according to Mark Friedler, chief executive of GameDaily, an online gaming industry newsletter.
“What is new is the fact that the technology of gaming is pretty advanced, and the interest in this type of thing shows the interest of the social nature of gaming,” Friedler said.
Even though Agarwal said that “marketed right, I think it could be the next big thing,” some believe a game is a game.
“If you play it on a regular television or if you play it on a plasma screen, the visual aspects of video games aren’t like high-definition television, where you might see some improvement,” said Matt Hunt, a 26-year-old Chicago investor who also played Tiger Woods’ golfing game for a few minutes.
“If you want to play video games,” he added, “go home and play video games.”
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Gamer offers 2 tired thumbs up
Because I’m such a video game addict (I bullied my little nephew out of playing Spider-Man 2 on the PlayStation 2 he got on Christmas Day), I knew I would get myself in trouble “test driving” the game-playing atmosphere at Escape.
Sure enough, I embarrassingly played longer at the place than I should have. But who could have resisted?
The game suites represent the best of all possible worlds. I got lost in a video football game while lounging on a couch and using a wireless joystick to navigate my Chicago Bears (I know, but I’m die-hard) on a 100-inch projection screen.
Because they’re relatively inexpensive at $10 an hour, many will hit Escape’s four gaming pods more than the $50 suites. Because of the pods’ intimacy, that’s not a bad deal.
I’d probably play video games on a crummy 10-inch black-and-white TV, so blasting the aliens of Halo 2 on a 40-inch plasma screen was too truly scrumptious. The crispness of video graphics makes all the difference, and a plasma monitor is as close to perfection as possible. The pod’s effective SurroundSound speakers make Halo’s simulated gunfire crackle.
Escape’s total package doesn’t make you feel as though you’re inside the game–nothing short of virtual reality will do that. But it does get you closer than you’ve ever been.
— A.J.
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Escape’s store hours are noon to 7 Sundays; noon to 10 Mondays through Wednesdays; and noon to midnight Thursdays through Saturdays. For more information, call 773-384-4217, or go to www.enterescape.com.
