UK-based gaming bar chain Pixel Bar has suffered a break-in, with nine gaming PCs and one monitor taken from its Manchester bar in an organised robbery.
The equipment – worth £25,000 – was stolen at around 5am on Friday May 13th 2022 just after staff had closed up. The thieves left some monitors and other hardware including peripherals behind, and were in and out in just over four minutes.
Pixel Bar is now working with Greater Manchester Police and talking to PC Specialist – which owns the PCs – about the situation. The systems were sponsored hardware provided by PC Specialist to Pixel Bar, which recently announced their own Rocket League esports team.
Pixel Bar has published some footage of the break-in on Twitter, posted specs of the Pixel Bar/PC Specialist PCs, and has called for anyone with information to contact them or the police. The full footage can be found here on LinkedIn.
Update: Suspects were arrested, PC equipment was replaced and security has been improved.
The Pixel Bar PC gaming arena will not be in use – nor will there be any esports tournaments held there – until hardware is replaced and security has been improved.
Pixel Bar co-owner Craig Ryan told Esports News UK: “It’s just a horrible situation. They’ve clearly planned this and scouted us out for probably weeks. They were in and out in just over four minutes, before any reaction could happen.
“One small gap in our security is they’ve come in through the residential property above us. We have a big fire door but they’ve gone around the locks rather than through them. They cut the locks out – they went through the wall. It’s the invasion of privacy that stings the most.
“I’m speaking with PC Specialist about it – hopefully we can restock the PCs at cost and that will help. They’re out of pocket and I’m not asking them for replacements. We’re not taking replacements until we’ve improved security as much as we possibly can. We’re putting a ton more security in. But you can only improve it so much before it’s not fire compliant.
“The scary thing is our staff stick around, play games and wind down after their shift. They left at around 4.30am, then half an hour later these guys arrived, and it’s obviously shaken the staff up a bit. But it’s stock at the end of the day, at least the staff weren’t put in danger. We don’t want to do a ‘GoFundMe’, but if people want to support us they can come to the bar and buy a drink.”
Craig Ryan, Pixel Bar
“I appreciate yourselves and so many other people reaching out – it’s a great community. So it’s a shame when you try to push things forward in a public setting, you get hit. We don’t want to do a ‘GoFundMe’, we have a way for people to support us – they can come to the bar and buy a drink. We might do a fundraiser for a gaming charity to give a little bit more good into the world rather than what’s been taken out.
“We’re still open as usual. We’re obviously losing revenue through the PC area now through tournaments and things, but the main bar and console booths are still going.”
Pixel Bar first opened in Leeds back in October 2019, and opened their Manchester bar in late 2021. We interviewed Pixel Bar co-owner Craig Ryan last year.
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.
