More gaming-related venues are reopening in the UK following the lifting of the lockdown.
Earlier today the National Videogame Museum in Sheffield sent emails out to some of its followers and supporters about a preview day on Saturday August 15th.
“This will be the first time we open to the public with our new safety measures in place,” the museum said in an email.
“We’ve been asked a lot about reopening. With our community’s help, we’ve been building hygiene and safety measures into our museum that keep visitors safe, while preserving our unique experience – the interactive, playable and fun museum that you remember.”
Elsewhere, London’s Platform gaming bar has reopened and is available to visit from Wednesdays to Sundays, with PVC separators now in place and other new safety measures. However, walk-ins are limited and customers are being asked to book a slot online, reports Esports Insider.
“It’s been very strange to close for our first anniversary, but we’ve been working very hard through the lockdown to reset and refresh our branding and offering,” said Nicolò Portunato, Platform COO.
Other venues have been opened for a while already. The Wanyoo esports studio in Charing Cross reopened on July 8th. There’s also a studio in Coventry and a new one at Canary Wharf. Meltdown London also reopened in early July and others are open too, including Pixel Bar in Leeds.
In addition, most of GAME’s Belong Arenas have reopened, except the Craigavon, Glasgow, Hull and Wardour Street stores, as they cannot fully comply to the government’s social distancing guidelines at the moment.
GAME said on the Belong website: “All our open arenas have been carefully set up – and modified, where needed – to ensure they can be run safely for everyone. We have introduced a wide range of measures, which include desk spacing, screens at tills, guidelines on the floor to maintain strict social distancing, staff wearing visors, only accepting card payments, as well as a full clean of all peripherals, desks and chairs after each use.
“We are also asking you to wear a mask in our arenas.”
GAME recently sold its Belong Gaming Arenas brand to Vindex, which hopes to open 500 stores in the US and 1,000 more globally over the next five years.
Pubs and restaurants recently reopened in the UK – you can see some more info and FAQs on this on the BBC website.
Coronavirus caused many esports events and venues to shut down, but 80% of esports execs say the industry will come back stronger following COVID-19.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
