Dominic Mulroy responds
UPDATEI was contacted after this article went live, by Dominc Mulroy from Gamerbase, one of the original founders of Omega Sektor, who left the company before its Birmingham base opened.
Dominic wanted to make it clear that the closure of Omega Sektor is in no way an indication that gaming centres are less popular now or in decline. In fact, he says, its actually the contrary:
He writes:
It is in Administration now so Im hoping that someone can rescue it. I have already been contacted by several people but Sujoy and I are very happy at Gamerbase in London and we are currently building a new store in Manchester. We will not be getting involved again with Omega Sektor. We may well open a Gamerbase in Birmingham one day, but not til late next year at the earliest.
After we left Omega Sektor (Summer 07), we did not agree with how the management planned to operate the business, not least we knew that for a centre the size of Birmingham, it needed a strong marketing and sponsorship strategy. I guess they didnt listen.
Im sad for the staff of both centres in Birmingham and Harrow, a lot have already contacted me but currently there are no vacancies available in London, but if any wish to migrate to Manchester Im happy to consider them for one of our positions there. Please contact me at jobs at gamerbase.com and mention your experience at OS and I will contact you back.
One thing that I must say is that the games industry shouldnt feel worried about the whole gaming centre concept - it is still very strong and centres such as Gamerbase work very well in terms of reaching the end user and promoting titles and the industry as a whole. Indeed, after opening Manchester before Christmas, Gamerbase now have investment (not debt!) to open at least 6 stores next year, again, inside HMV stores.
So, according to Dominic, it seems that there are plenty of gamers out there who want to use gaming centres. It seems that Omega Sektor just didn't know how to get them through it's doors.
