FreePlay - Gaming Arcade Somerton

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FreePlay - Gaming Arcade Somerton Paid entry, then everything is free!

03/06/2025

FreePlay lives on!.. in Somerton!

Hello everyone! Here are the opening hours until we permanently close on the 31st of this month. Hopefully this gives ev...
19/05/2025

Hello everyone!

Here are the opening hours until we permanently close on the 31st of this month. Hopefully this gives everyone a good chance to have one last sesh before it's gone.

This will be pre-book only, no walk-ins. I'm not going to go sit there on the off chance someone might turn up any more. 😄

Tickets purchasable on the website as normal.

https://ecom.roller.app/freeplayarcade/checkout/en/home

Edit: I’ve just been informed that it’s half term from the 26th to the 30th so I’ll open on those days too: 10-4 🫡 will do the usual 15% off on those dates. Will update the website shortly!

Cheers!

17/05/2025

Well.. rather sadly, it’s time to close the doors at FreePlay. I know many of you will be sad to see it go, but as a business.. it’s just not working. I’d love to “give it more time” as many suggest, but what you need to remember is, if there’s no money coming in, there are still bills to pay. The longer I wait it out, the more debt I get into. Then when it eventually completely falls on its ass, all of my assets (the machines) will be sold to pay off debt, rather than go back into the bank. I simply can not let this happen. Many people have suggested “advertising better” but I’ve done my best. I’ve been marketing it since it was just an idea back in October. We have nearly 2,200 followers on facebook, so we aren’t completely unknown.

As I’ve always said, everyone that has been, has absolutely loved it, the feedback has been fantastic, which makes it even harder to call it a day.

Just to put things in perspective, the business needs to make £500 a day on the weekends to break even, it’s making around £200. “Well, open more days then” this has been proven pointless, we tried week days and most days the takings were ZERO.. the odd day made £30-40-50. Everyone is at work or at school, and even after school and work, people are busy with their weekly lives.

The plan was to break even on the weekends and make profit in the holidays, easily doable I thought, but it’s haemorrhaging money on the weekends and just about breaking even in the holidays.

Money is tight for everyone and an arcade is a luxury at the end of the day, not a necessity. This combined with people just not knowing we are even a thing and the hefty overheads of the building, electricity and booking system. Are the dagger to the heart of poor old FreePlay.

Thank you to everyone that has shown their support over the last 6 months, also, shout out to the guy who came and bought a ticket just to show support but didn’t want to play 😄 I didn’t get your name, but thank you.

I have considered moving the arcade to a more affordable location, but I don’t think I’m prepared to take yet another gamble.

TO ANYONE WITH A OUTSTANDING BOOKING: Don’t panic, your bookings are still valid and will be honoured before we pack up.

05/05/2025

Weekday special tickets active for today! Only £8.50 - Available until 2PM!

02/05/2025

Here’s a little vid of what’s currently on offer.. just incase you hadn’t been in a while 😉👾

02/05/2025

It’s the little things like “clicking” micro switches that often get over looked on arcade machines.

The Dragon’s Lair 2 display is coming along nicely.. check out the Laserdisc player on show!Also, don’t forget. We are o...
01/05/2025

The Dragon’s Lair 2 display is coming along nicely.. check out the Laserdisc player on show!

Also, don’t forget. We are open tomorrow from 4pm to 8pm

😎

Don’t get too excited, it’s not ready to play yet, but it is now refurbished and on display 😎
28/04/2025

Don’t get too excited, it’s not ready to play yet, but it is now refurbished and on display 😎

So, some of you that have visited recently will be aware that I’ve gotten my hands on an Original Dragons Lair 2 machine...
19/04/2025

So, some of you that have visited recently will be aware that I’ve gotten my hands on an Original Dragons Lair 2 machine!

I’ve been restoring it behind the scenes.. I’ve also been documenting it (along with others) on my TikTok (Retro-Resto) link below:

https://www.tiktok.com/?_t=ZN-8vfbTBxoN0w&_r=1

😎👾

C’mon.. own up.. who’s beat my high score on TX sector and not even put their name in? 😂
19/04/2025

C’mon.. own up.. who’s beat my high score on TX sector and not even put their name in? 😂

Address

Portland
DT51GB

Opening Hours

Friday 4pm - 8pm
Saturday 10am - 6pm

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