We chat to the people behind the online games retailer who have decided to open a new space for gamers in Dunboyne, Co Meath. Though they do get the odd crowd who visit just to do their knitting as well…

Pat Forde was hanging up a few signs in the windows of his new Gamesnash Live outlet in the middle of Dunboyne, Co Meath when he started noticing some funny looks coming from the local community. “I think there was a good few people concerned that there was a big arcade coming in and I reckon a few of them were on the verge of getting the banners together for an organised protest.”

Gamesnash Live aims to be a mixture of social centre, coffee shop and retail store, all designed to be as comfortable as any (admittedly well kitted out) sitting room.

They were, he says, “heading for the ‘careful now, down with this sort of thing’ territory” just before the Gamesnash Live launch earlier this year, but once the concerned locals in question came through the doors they seemed to change their minds, “they’ve seen it now and they know it’s bringing something different to the area”.

Forde’s Gamesnash brand, run with his wife Joanne, has, over the past two and half years become established as the country’s leading online games retailer (specialising for one thing in some excellent deals on pre-owned games). However, with a desire “to put some bricks and mortar into place” Gamesnash Live was born.

Walk inside the outlet and it’s a mixture of a social centre, coffee shop and retail outlet, all designed to be as comfortable as any sitting room… okay, admittedly it’s a sitting room that can fit 30 people in it, but then what’s life without being sociable.

There’s consoles, couches, beans bags, 32-inch HD screens, ‘Rock Band’ kits and more. “It’s an experiment,” Forde admits, but also one that in its brief lifespan has already seen “five interested parties” inquiring about the idea of franchising out the idea.

The PR for the venue says that Gamesnash is “very conscious” that across Ireland  young people have very little available to provide entertainment and they say they offer a safe and comfortable location that  parents are “happy to know their child has gone to visit”. Indeed, a huge number of kids parties over the first few months of business has helped build this reputation. “However,”  Forde is at pains to note, “we have space for the hardcore gamer as well and as we’re getting things into shape over the first few months we’ll be able to offer more across the age ranges we get in the doors.”

Speaking of age range, the clientele does indeed vary from seven year-old kids to committed gamers with mortgages and, should you arrive into Gamsenash Live on a Friday morning, you’ll also be greeted with the somewhat bizarre sight of “a group of women who come in and do their knitting”; a recent but welcome trend, says Forde. “I’d say it’s a fairly good signal that the local community accepts us”.

“We’re not GameStop, there’s not half a million euro worth of gear here so we’re relying on having a space that people enjoy visiting.”

Commenting on how the model actually makes money, Forde says “We’re not GameStop, there’s not half a million euro worth of gear here so we’re relying on having a space that people enjoy visiting. They can buy the games if they like after obviously but coming back is the main thing in the long run.”

Added Forde, “When we were planning on setting up we said that if we can create a relaxed environment where you can have a limited amount of games sales but nobody’s expecting you to have every title that’s ever been released, it could be a kind of win-win. We started to look into this type of concept of a gaming centre but it was doing it right, there are gaming centres in Ireland but a lot are internet cafes, some of which can be downstairs in some dark and seedy environments.”

A normal day at the moment sees kids from fifth class up to 14 or 15 coming in throughout afternoon (there’s roughly around 2,000 school kids in Dunboyne between primary and secondary pupils), though Forde says they are getting comments and enquiries about having games nights for adults “where you come in with your own bottle of wine, that kind of thing and that is part of where we’re going towards as well”.

‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’ is, unsurprisingly, very popular at Gamsenash Live.

The main idea though is to make sure there’s “no exclusive atmosphere about the place”. For instance, he said, “By far the most popular title being played each day is ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’.

“We’ve six copies of it here and quite often all six copies are out being played at one time and a huge amount of both the kids (who need a parental consent form to play it) and adults coming in want to play that,” says Forde. “It’d be silly to just try and look at one age range, when you’ll find a big similarity in what everyone is playing no matter what age they are.”

One recent FIFA 10 tournament he says, was a great success, with 18 players turning up on a Saturday morning (“there was sup[posed to be 26 but eight who signed up didn’t make it, so maybe they had a heavy Friday night” says Forde) . “It was a learning curve basically,” he said, adding that over the coming months Gamenash Live intends to host “not just tournaments but leagues”.

The vision is to bring structure to competitive gaming akin to football “where all levels of skill from Sunday football to Premier League are represented and through promotion/relegation moving teams”. All this needs GamesNash Live venues nationwide to implement though, but as mentioned before, Dunboyne is an “experiment”, and there are “aggressive plans to open more through ourselves and through franchising the concept”.

“I was looking at some similar things that others had done,” says Forde, “but you have to get the balance right and it’s only early days but a walk in location where you can buy games, play them in a relaxed atmosphere and just generally chill out is something that people seem to like thus far.”