IN THE NEWS: FORTRESS – BIGGEST E-GAMING CENTRE OPENS IN SYDNEY
- Fortress – the biggest e-gaming centre in the southern hemisphere opens in the Sydney CBD.
Sydney’s CBD is now home to the biggest e-gaming venue in the southern hemisphere. The e-gaming centre, named Fortress, is located inside Central Park Mall in Sydney’s CBD, and at over 2000 square metres, can entertain over 1000 people at once.
The giant gaming venue is anticipating 400,000 visitors in its first year.
“We have poured our hearts into every detail to create a venue that’s nothing short of spectacular, and we can’t wait to welcome our customers into the space,” Fortress CEO and co-founder Jon Satterley said.
The centre will offer gamers the chance to play releases like Fortnite in a public space with their friends and their online gaming companions.
Australia’s gaming industry raked in over $4.17 billion in 2022 alone, with over 8.6 million households in the country taking part in the online gaming community in some way.
Fortress offers a range of features for pro and hobby gamers alike, including a custom e-sports arena for international competitions.
The centre also caters to an older crowd, with a range of vintage arcade games available to play.
- Endeavour Group has invested $3 million into Fortress Sydney
Endeavour Group has invested $3 million into Fortress Sydney, a soon-to-open e-sports venue in Sydney as it looks to target consumers more familiar with pub lobbies than pubs and bars.
Endeavour Group is Australia’s biggest drinks retailer and owns Dan Murphy’s, BWS and heaps of hotels and pubs. It has purchased just under 5 per cent of Fortress, the company which owns the soon-to-open site in Chippendale, and Fortress Melbourne, which opened in 2020.
“I think Fortress is about creating, for us, the hospitality venue of the future,” said Paul Walton, interim managing director of Endeavour-owned Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group (ALH).
Walton added that many consumers aged between 18 and 40 enjoyed social games to some capacity.
“They socialise digitally at home at the moment through gaming, but they also socialise in our hotels, and hospitality. This is really a chance for us to invest in a company that’s bringing those two experiences together.”
Fortress Australia does not have a gambling side to its business but Adrian Giles, former chairman of ORDER Esports, who leads the business with Jon Satterley a former executive at theme park company Village Roadshow, said that Endeavour Group was a “great strategic fit” for Fortress.
“The tavern is as much about eating and drinking as well as board games … A big part of Fortress is hospitality,” he said. “[Endeavour] also have a focus on social experiences, which is exactly what Fortress offer: a social experience around gaming and games culture.”
Fortress Sydney has seating for 240 diners across its almost 3,000 square metre site along with an e-sports arena for gaming tournaments, video game booths, arcade games, VIP console suites, board game areas, and a Telstra lounge featuring expensive Alienware gaming PCs.
“We can create smaller versions of Fortress that could be relevant inside hospitality venues, and that’s part of the strategic opportunity that’s in front of us with working with Endeavour,” added Giles.
Endeavour will also support the Fortress founders by sharing hospo expertise industry, said Walton.
Read more >>> Dan Murphy’s, BWS Owner Invests $3m In Sydney e-Sports Venue To Target Millennial & Gen Z Gamers – B&T (bandt.com.au)
- This Is the Telstra Lounge, a Public PC Gaming Space in Sydney
Fortress Sydney, an impressive gaming venue that includes two bars, an arcade, a PC gaming lounge and an esports arena, is opening over Easter, and powering its NBN and connectivity is none other than Telstra.
Telstra has been working with Fortress for a while – it was one of the original partners back in 2020 during Fortress Melbourne’s first year, alongside Dell (through its Alienware gaming-oriented subsidiary).
But now Fortress is opening up a second store, and Telstra’s sticking with the gaming venue as one of its major partners, where Sydney customers can come in and play any game they want on a high-performance Alienware PC, in the Telstra Lounge.
It’s packed with dozens of Alienware computers with Nvidia RTX 3080 graphics cards and Intel i9 processors, and when the doors to the venue open, you’ll be able to book time with the computers online in hourly blocks (with a minimum of two hours, with a price to be confirmed). There are also two streaming booths, too.
Read more >>> This Is the Telstra Lounge, a Public PC Gaming Space in Sydney (msn.com)
