Activate Games offers a new level of interactive entertainment in the UK, with 30 locations opening by 2025. (Image: Courtesy of Activate)

The latest entertainment hub in the UK will feature 30 locations as part of a deal with a UK immersive leisure and hospitality company, with the first location set to open in 2025.

This move is expected to create many jobs across the UK, similar to the impact of new casino destinations that drive local employment and tourism. The Activate Game offering is something very new to the UK. 

Chief Concept Officer Richard Beese of We Do Play said: ‘It’s going to be a frenzy over there.’

He should know, it started as a single location in the Westwood neighbourhood in Winnipeg, Canada, in 2019. Since then, it’s expanded across North America and now internationally, with Activate Games being in 15 states in the US and 15 locations in Canada.  

What Is Activate Games? 

Quite simply, it is the world’s first active gaming facility where you can physically interact as you would at an adventure playground or on an assault course. The rooms offer the opportunity for climbing, jumping, problem solving and, of course, plenty of fun as you move around the room, going from challenge to challenge on your adventure.  

You can play individually or in groups. You can switch teams or mix and match smaller groups while you play. 

There are hundreds of 1-3-minute games with varying difficulty levels to choose from. The technology includes an electronic wristband that tracks your progress. The aim of the wristband is so that you can accumulate points and make your way through the levels to earn prizes and become the best in your group.  

For a UK audience of a certain age, think ‘Simon Says’ but with elements of Mission Impossible and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Think of the retro dance mats where you had to leap onto a colour to the beat but throw in a huge lava floor and mayhem where you must hop skip, run, jump and avoid being caught by the lava.

The Technology Is Amazing

The technology is truly amazing. Each room has a plethora of electronics, lights, screens, and settings to provide more than enough entertainment for individuals and groups. This level of innovation is reminiscent of the advanced tech used in the best casino sites, where players enjoy seamless and immersive gaming experiences.

In one room alone (Grid), there are:

• 17 Light-Up Wall Buttons 
• 500+ Touch-Activated, Multi-colored Floor Tiles 
• 20 Neo Pixel Screens and LED Buttons 
• Cooperative Mode 
• Competitive Mode 

Activate can be best described as containing all the games you used to play as a child but with electronics, lights, whistles, bells and tools to measure and record your progress that don’t cheat like your old Dad did.  

What Do the Rooms Involve? 

Each Activate location is beaming with a selection of interactive light-up game rooms designed to test your physical and mental agility. For those who enjoy a different kind of gaming thrill, exploring the variety of slots in the UK can offer a more traditional yet equally exciting experience.

Activate rooms include:

• Arena- a digital dodgeball game where you are tasked with striking specific glowing hexagon wall targets.  

• Push - Push is a light up game room designed to test your nimbleness and memory. Master the game by pushing the correct buttons, which light up at lightning speed.  
• Climb – Think rock climbing without the gear. The buttons represent a rock hold and every level increases in difficulty.  
• Grid – The lava floor is something children love playing with their imagination. Imagine no more; it’s here and in real time, full size. The aim is for your team to strategically run around the room to complete each level. Step on or avoid certain tiles to win. 
• Super Grid - The Super Grid game offers double the floor tiles and double the challenge, as well as the floor. There are light-up wall buttons that you must keep track of.  

• Hoops - Technicolor Basketball is the closest we can come to describing this game. Sink baskets off the colour-shifting backboards or give them nothing but net as you strategically swish through your chosen game.  
• Laser – Mission Impossible and James Bond meet in this thrilling adventure where you have to avoid being contacted by the lasers as you dip and dodge and carefully manoeuvre your way back and forth to the safe zone through a changing sequence of lasers. One finger out of place will trip the beam in this laser ops fantasy. 
• Trench -Laser tag without the cumbersome gear. Set your phasers to fun for triple-threat treat, featuring a laser maze, glowing targets, and beam blasters. Accurately shoot targets on the opposite wall, then quickly crawl through the laser beams below to certain victory. 
• Pipes – A real team effort is needed to get the balls into the right holes. You only have 5 seconds to identify the correct portal, toss the ball to your teammate, and put it in the hole. If anyone can do it, it’s you. 
• Hide - Best compared to hide and seek. The aim is to race around the room to complete sequences. Four glowing eyes are watching your every move, waiting for a misstep. You can hide behind the pillars to conceal yourself as you complete each level  
• Control – Just as it suggests, you are in control, but this time in control of a giant wall of lights and touch-activated, colored floor tiles, which are your control center where you must lean, step, and jump to guide the game. 

When Will I Be Able to Visit Activate Games in the UK? 

UK gamers can expect to see thirty locations across the United Kingdom and Ireland, with Beese saying that demand could likely allow for triple the number.

We Do Play expects to open its first Activate Games in 2025, with sites expected in London, Dublin and Manchester.