Wed 5th April saw the official opening of the first Xbox Live Gaming Centre in Europe. It happens to be located on Dublin’s South William Street, not far from the Stephen’s Green shopping centre or for fans of late night coffee, Café Mocha.
A few gd.ie faces were to be seen on the night not least the inimitable Jamie McCormick official community manager of the centre and on the night powered only by Lucozade (apparently) he was rallying the pizzas, keeping the lights turned on and giving lots of tips to Xbox non-aficionados like myself.
It turns out that the centre is run by Multiplay Ltd., a business founded by Frank O’Grady and Dylan Collins. Frank O’Grady founded the online DVD rental service Screenclick.com. Dylan Collins, well I think a few of you know him. Yes it is Dylan of Demonware, serial entrepreneur with the midas touch. Later his partner in crime in Demonware, Sean B, turned up and of course Pavel B. was there doing QA on the cocktails.
The building itself is an old Georgian building spread over three levels, with a VIP four screen area at the back of one level and some pretty cool flat screen TVs, both Xbox 360 and Xbox 1 consoles, plush chairs and backlight screenies around the walls – all clearly designed to draw you in and keep you there for many many hours.
Unlike lots of areas in the country the Xbox play centre managed to pull a few strings with Eircom and get broadband installed so there is no excuse for us broadband starved game players not to go in and see what all the fuss is about!
There are loads of competitions coming up to win stuff and in case you didn’t have all the latest gadgets and Xbox games they sell them at the front of the centre. Apparently they may even start to stock high quality game related books!!
Other info:
Xbox Live Gaming Centre is situated on 51 South William Street, Dublin 2.
Opening Hours:
Monday – Thursday – 10am – midnight
Friday & Saturday – 10am – 2am
Sunday – noon – midnight
Hourly Rates
Off Peak Rate – 5.00 per hour
Regular Rate – 6.50 per hour
Peak Rate – 7.50 per hour
