Where a Chuck E Cheese once stood is now the home of Cambridge's first interactive play space for all ages.
Activate Games has just opened in Cambridge as its creator brings his now global business back home.
Adam Schmidt and his wife Megan who are originally from Cambridge and the Waterloo region have been on a mission to bring their high-tech play space to as many cities as possible.
"This really started when we went to an escape room in Kitchener and we knew we wanted to open one back up here in Winnipeg," said Schmidt. "Activate was our take on an escape room that has a lot more games and the objective is to rack up points not escape."
Schmidt who was previously a commercial pilot moved from Cambridge out to Winnipeg in 2011. He went from being a pilot flying all over the world to an entrepreneur responsible for a global brand.
At first Schmidt and his wife opened the first escape room in Western Canada with a total of eight rooms and 50 employees. They saw the market for these interactive play spaces and doubled down on creativity and introducing technology to make the games more complex and unique.
The company's rise can be attributed in part to a viral video of some of their games on TikTok, but Schmidt admits that this was just a window into what goes on at Activate and it really took off when people got to go in and play.
"I think our games really speak for themselves," he said. "There aren't many places like this and that is why we've grown so fast."
The company's TikTok account has over a million followers and 57 million likes with it's viral video topping out at 75 million views. The popular game "Grid" has players run to either touch or avoid a certain colour tile. Schmid notes that this is one of the games that you can play for hours, if you don't run out of breath.
Schmidt was at the new Cambridge location at 42 Pinebush Rd. for the grand opening. He bounced from room to room showing off each game and the hundreds of variations that can be played throughout the space.
When asked if he had played every game at least once, Schmidt told CambridgeToday, "I invented each game."
From glow-in-the-dark competitive basketball to laser mazes designed to test your endurance and strategy, there is a game for almost any occasion and something that translates to any market.
This concept of marketability is the exact reason why in about five years, Activate has grown to at least 38 stores in North America covering the entire continental United States and coast-to-coast in Canada.
They also have plans to expand to the United Kingdom and are on the cusp of opening up their first-ever store in Dubai in a few weeks. Over the next 10 years, Schmidt estimates there will be around 70 stores in the Middle East and North Africa, 30 in the UK and a total of 250 in North America.
"This is a prime example of taking an idea and letting it grow," added Schmidt. "We started with just one small escape room in Winnipeg and now people will be playing our games at malls in Dubai, in the UK and all over the States."
Each Activate Games is built exactly the same with the same technology so only the language has to be altered to fit in any country.
Each game is tailored to the player's skill level with entry-level difficulty to an expert level that even gives Schmidt a hard time completing.
The games are designed to make you move, be interactive and have fun with your group. Competition is always encouraged and a leaderboard is displayed prominently in the hallway of the space.
"Events like birthdays, bachelorette parties or even team-building exercises are perfect at Activate. Everyone has to either work together or against each other and you always want to come back for more," said Schmidt.
With the Cambridge location officially open, the Schmidts now have a tangible place where their friends and family from back home can enjoy and experience all of the hard work the couple has put into their business.
"This is a real space our families can go to and it's not like a specialty store that is only open to a select few; this is open for anybody at any time to come and enjoy and most importantly play."
To find out more about Activate Games and the many games at the Cambridge location, please visit their website.
