Family Entertainment Center Case Studies: What Profitable Centres Have in Common

Across the eleven entertainment projects we have delivered since 2025, we keep seeing the same thing: the projects that make the most sense for these venues are usually built around a play zone, not a row of machines designed for one player at a time.

The active gaming projects in our case list are mostly in the 50 to 80 square metre range. The content is also adapted to the project and market rather than simply taken from a standard catalogue.

There are two main types of projects in the group. Some are new attraction zones built into a new space. Others are upgrades added to an entertainment venue that is already operating.

Those differences are important when you are looking at a case study and trying to work out whether the same type of setup could work for your venue.

What a Case Study Can — and Cannot — Tell You

A case study can show you what was installed, where it was installed, and what the project looked like.

It does not automatically tell you how much money the venue made.

That distinction is easy to miss when comparing equipment suppliers. A project page can tell you that a 60-square-metre interactive floor games zone was delivered to a family entertainment center in Mexico in November 2025. It cannot tell you the venue’s revenue per square metre unless the operator has shared those numbers.

Revenue depends on much more than the equipment itself. Pricing, staffing, opening hours, local competition and customer traffic all have an effect.

For that reason, we use case studies mainly as a reference for configuration and project conditions. For financial planning, the numbers need to come from your own market.

You can see our separate sports simulator ROI guide and interactive floor games ROI guide for the financial side.

Our Projects: 11 Installs, Three Main Formats

All of the projects below are published on our projects page with the location, delivery timing, venue type and solution where available.

Where we do not have a published figure, we leave it as “Not published”. We would rather do that than fill a case study with estimates that look precise but are not actually verified.

1. The Main Attraction Is Often a Zone, Not a Machine

Looking at the five projects with delivery dates, the common point is that they use a floor-based attraction. That includes interactive LED floor games, active gaming zones and combinations with other attractions.

None of these five projects used a single machine as the main attraction.

One reason is simply capacity.

A single-player machine has a fairly obvious limit: one customer plays at a time. A floor-based attraction works differently because several people can play together in the same space.

That also changes how the attraction looks from outside.

In a shopping mall or FEC, a floor game zone can be seen from across the space. Visitors can see other people playing, which makes the activity easier to notice than a machine that is only visible when someone is standing directly in front of it.

That is one reason this format appears in both FEC projects and shopping mall projects such as the Saudi Arabia and Hangzhou installations.

For more detail on planning the space, see our guides on how to build an active gaming zone and interactive floor games space planning.

2. The Published Zones Are Mostly 50–80 Square Metres

Three of the projects have published footprints: 50, 60 and 80 square metres.

We do not treat that as a fixed standard size. Each venue is different. But it does give a useful reference range for operators looking at this type of attraction.

At that size, the project usually needs to balance three things:

Player capacity.
There needs to be enough space for several people to play and for sessions to overlap when demand is high.

Use of the retail space.
For a mall or FEC, the attraction still has to fit within the available unit without taking over the entire space.

Circulation and spectators.
Players are not the only people using the area. There also needs to be room for people waiting, watching or moving around the attraction.

Based on the projects we have published, a zone below roughly 50 square metres can still operate, but it becomes harder to handle a booked group while also taking walk-in customers.

At the other end, once you move much beyond 80 square metres, the extra area needs to be justified by the additional business it can generate. Otherwise, that space may be better used for another attraction.

This is also why we recommend looking at the budget by attraction category rather than starting with one large total project figure. Interactive floor games are priced partly according to area, so the footprint affects the equipment investment directly.

Our FEC equipment cost guide goes into the budgeting side in more detail.

3. Active Gaming Is Not Limited to FECs

Six of the eleven projects in this group are outside a typical family entertainment center.

They include:

• a shopping mall entertainment zone in Saudi Arabia
• a shopping mall installation in Hangzhou
• an arcade centre upgrade in South Africa
• campsites in Germany
• an indoor playground in Shanghai
• an entertainment centre in São Paulo

The reason this is worth looking at is that the same type of attraction can fit into very different businesses.

Shopping malls can use it as a visible attraction that encourages people to stop and spend more time in the area.

Arcade centres can add it alongside existing machines. The South Africa project is a good example of this approach.

Indoor playgrounds can use active gaming to give older children something to do once they move beyond the main soft-play age range.

Campsites and holiday venues can use indoor attractions to provide another activity during bad weather or in the evening.

So, not being a traditional FEC does not automatically rule out the format. It just means the site needs to be checked carefully before the equipment is selected.

Ceiling height, available power and the actual layout of the space all need to be considered. Our VR arcade space requirements guide covers some of the same site-planning questions from another type of attraction.

4. Content Often Needs to Be Adapted to the Market

Three of the dated projects specifically mention customised content: Toronto, Monterrey and Saudi Arabia.

For an operator, this is more than a sales feature.

The attraction needs to stay interesting after the first visit. If the game content never changes, repeat customers are eventually going to know what to expect.

That is why content should be part of the purchasing discussion from the beginning, together with spare parts, warranty and technical support.

Before placing an order, it is worth asking:

Can the game content be updated after installation?

Who handles the updates, and how often are they provided?

Can the content be adapted for local languages, themes or seasonal activities?

Does updating require an engineer to visit the site, or can it be handled remotely?

These questions may not seem important when a new attraction is about to open. They become much more important later, especially in the second and third year of operation.

5. A New Attraction and an Upgrade Are Different Projects

The projects also fall into two practical groups: new-build attraction zones and upgrades to venues that are already operating.

The upgrade model is easy to overlook.

The South Africa project is a good example. The goal was not to rebuild the arcade or replace its existing machines. The new attraction was added to an operating venue to introduce multiplayer, motion-based gameplay alongside the existing single-player inventory.

For some operators, that can be a more practical way to test a new attraction category before making a much larger investment.

Six Questions to Ask When a Supplier Shows You a Case Study

A case study becomes much more useful when you ask a few questions that are not always included on the project page.

1. How large was the play area?

Ask for the actual footprint and the ceiling height, especially the lowest point above the play area.

2. How many players can use it at once?

The number of players per session and the typical session length will tell you much more about capacity than the equipment name alone.

3. Was it a new project or an upgrade?

A new-build project and an installation inside an operating arcade can have very different cost and scheduling requirements.

4. Was the content standard or customised?

Also ask who provides updates after installation and whether localisation is possible.

5. What was included in the project price?

Equipment only?

Or did the scope include freight, installation, site work and commissioning?

That difference can have a significant effect on the final project budget.

6. What happens after year one?

Ask about spare parts, technical support and content updates.

These details tell you much more about the supplier’s actual project experience than a few finished installation photos.

What Our Project Pages Do Not Show

Our project pages focus on the practical project information we can publish: location, delivery date, venue type, solution and, where the venue agrees, the zone size.

We do not publish client revenue, attendance, utilisation or payback figures.

Those numbers belong to the operator, and they are difficult to compare between markets anyway. A venue in one country may have a very different ticket price, labour cost, opening schedule and customer profile from a similar venue somewhere else.

So when you use a case study for planning, we recommend treating it as a configuration reference.

Look at the size, attraction mix, venue type and site conditions.

Then build the financial model using your own market numbers.

That is also how our ROI guides are structured: the calculations are shown so operators can replace the assumptions with their own figures.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a family entertainment center case study?

It is a record of a specific attraction project, including the venue type, location, delivery date, solution and, where available, details such as footprint and customisation.

The main value of a case study is understanding what was actually built and what the project needed. It should not be treated as proof of financial performance.

What do profitable family entertainment centers have in common?

Our project list does not provide enough financial data to make that conclusion.

What it does show is that several of our projects use zone-based attractions rather than single-player machines. The published active gaming footprints are between 50 and 80 square metres, and some of the dated projects include customised content.

Those are useful project patterns to consider, but they are not the same thing as a guarantee of profitability.

How big does an active gaming zone need to be?

Our published projects range from 50 to 80 square metres.

That does not mean every project needs to be within that exact range. Smaller spaces can work, while larger venues may make sense when the business model supports them.

The right size depends on the number of players, group size, available floor area and how much space needs to be reserved for queues and spectators.

See our interactive floor games space planning guide for more details.

Can I see a case study for a venue like mine?

Possibly.

Our projects include family entertainment centers, shopping mall zones, arcade centres, indoor playgrounds and holiday venues across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and South America.

A project that looks similar to yours can be useful, but so can a project that is different. Comparing the two can show you which parts of the setup are specific to the venue and which parts are easier to adapt.

Do these case studies include financial results?

No.

We publish project and configuration details, but not client revenue, attendance or payback figures.

For a financial assessment, the better approach is to build the model from your own ticket price, expected customer volume, operating hours, staffing and costs.

You can use our FEC equipment cost guide and sports simulator ROI guide as starting points.

Planning an Active Gaming Project?

The most useful information for the first discussion is usually very simple:

How much floor space do you have?
How high is the ceiling?
How many people do you want to handle at one time?

With those details, we can compare your project with the installations we have already delivered and look at which configurations are closest to your venue.

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Active Gaming equipment
Interactive floor games for FEC
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