Businesses thrive if one puts all their heart and soul into it, and what could be more satisfying than owning a business you are passionate about.
For instance, playing video games becomes a passion for many gamers and if pursued correctly they attain the status of a professional gamer. However, turning this pastime into livelihood would make their life entertaining and carefree.
So, if you are an avid gamer with a mind to turn your gaming ventures into a profitable business, you must consider the following options for starting a gaming business with a small investment.
1. Starting a gaming lounge
This could be the simplest and the easiest idea of starting a gaming business. However, it may take time to establish.
Since you play games as a professional, you may have a separate space for all the gaming equipment and it does not become a hindrance in any way for your family members. If not, you must create a place where you have proper gaming equipment for gaming.
At the initial stage, it could be a garage or some unused space of someone you know and they can lend it for free. You would need some funding for the equipment and the furniture.
If your friends are generous enough, they can provide things for your gaming lounge that they do not need; be it the gaming equipment or the things for the general decor.
You can set up your equipment there and start by inviting close friends and people in the area whom you know to be gamers like yourself. You can provide a platform to them where they can play games freely without disturbing the people they live with.
You will gradually need to upgrade by getting a variety of platforms that gamers might prefer; for instance PCs, Virtual Reality Headsets (VR), or Arcade Machines. As your customers increase, you would need to refurbish the lounge to create a better gaming environment.
You can upgrade the internet speed, make a better seating arrangement along with the waiting area, air conditioning, and background music.
If you have the means, you can also provide food and drink options to your customers. This would be an added source of income (we all know how much movie theaters make at the concession stand).
Since it is a place where people gather to play, you should continue to look for ways to keep up the interest of the customers in your gaming lounge. You can hold weekly or monthly events, set up tournaments, give discounts to your regular customers, etc. You can also hold birthday parties or provide free drinks to customers on special occasions.
2. Gaming gadget rental store
This could also be a good idea for a profitable small gaming business. Many gamers cannot buy gaming equipment for themselves. They would gladly rent it for some time at a much cheaper rate and then return it after playing.
You would need to collect the gaming equipment; gaming accessories, gadgets, and other devices that are needed for gaming. For this, you must have some funding or you can take some time to collect the equipment required before putting your plan into action.
You can start the promotion of your rental gaming business with reference to personal contacts with the gamers. You can also distribute pamphlets in your area, advertise on gaming sites, or give ads in the newspaper.
You would have to be vigilant as you may come across some difficult customers who may not return your equipment. You would need proper documentation procedure and measures against theft or violation of agreement so that you can take action against any customer that tries to swindle you.
3. Video game development
For a gamer to become a game developer is quite daunting. Learning to develop games in today’s time is not impossible, even if it isn’t a child’s play.
If you are a passionate gamer, willing to explore and experiment on your game developing skills, and have exceptional software skills, this gaming business could take you places. You can develop your own games and then market them.
Developing a game is a pretty tedious task and it takes months and years to develop. You would not need any finances for developing the game but you might need to spend some amount on the marketing.
Plus you can implement in-game monetization using blockchain technology so that gamers who are passionate would be willing to pursue monetization strategies such as in-app purchases, subscriptions, rewarded ads, and much more.
4. Creating gaming apps
Similar to game development, this might turn out to be a profitable gaming business if you are a creative, consistent hard worker and are very patient.
If you have decent programming skills, you can create a small app in 1 to 2 weeks, a medium-sized app in 2 to 3 weeks, and a huge app in 3 to 4 weeks. However, your app may not be successful as per your expectations. You need to use your creative skills to bring improvement to your app in case it fails.
The key to success in this gaming business is persistence and perseverance. Once you have created an app, you would need to market it. You can either use some funding or some freely available resources for marketing.
5. Training center for gamers
Trainers are needed in every field. Similarly, trainers can train young gamers who want to be proficient in gaming.
This gaming business has good prospects as many young people are quite serious when it comes to gaming and they want to become excellent, kick-ass gamers.
To open a training center, you may not need much investment. Initially, you will have to attract new gamers through websites or by placing ads in newspapers.
Your style of training has to be inspiring if you want your training center to flourish. Once the training center gains popularity, trainees would come in large numbers.
6. Website for gaming tutorials
If you do not have enough funding to open a training center, you can opt for starting a gaming tutorial website. You can sell tutorials to people who are aspiring to become professionals.
People want to become professional gamers in order to win tournaments and many of these tournaments offer huge cash rewards for the winners. You have to be at the top of your game if you want to teach people how to play. Otherwise, people may not give good reviews about your website and the traffic might divert from there.
You must be wondering how you can get money for teaching people to play games. You would be surprised to know that those who are beginners at their games, like Fortnite, can pay as much as $45 an hour to learn to play it.
Hence, if you know everything about the gameplay, storylines, and controls of Fortnite, you can earn a decent amount by selling its tutorials. Plus, you can convert your professional gaming hobby into a glowing career as well.
7. Reality TV show on video games
You can start a reality TV show where you can organize events or tournaments for people to play video games. You can have several teams to compete with each other and incentivize them with prizes at the end of the tournaments. You would require funding for getting the sponsors for the show.
If you have contacts with people in the media industry, you can easily materialize this small gaming business idea without investing any money yourself.
You can partner with someone who is willing to take this gaming business venture along with you. So, you can work on getting sponsors, organizing the show, and dealing with the contestants.
Reality TV shows become popular if they have fresh, innovative, engaging, and appealing content. You can experiment by trying different ideas for the reality TV show like inviting families who can compete with each other or friends who love to compete with each other.
One such show is WCG Ultimate Gamer which had 2 seasons that aired in 2009 and 2010. In this show, players lived in one loft and competed by first looking for the clues of the game they had to play and then playing the game in the Isolation Challenge.
Conclusion: Gaming Businesses You Can Start Now
With all the variety of options available, you can definitely start a small, profitable gaming business if you are confident about your gaming skills and determined to excel in whatever you do.
You can weigh the pros and cons, assess the fundings required, and the time and energy you would have to invest in your gaming business. In the end, all that matters is how much effort you have put in for getting your small gaming business on track and making some extra cash.
Sarah is an intense gamer. She likes to play games and is interested in anything related to gaming. When she isn’t occupied with playing games she likes to review gaming equipment for gamingverge.com.
