Activate Gaming, the world’s first “active gaming facility,” held a grand opening ceremony for its Cambridge location this past Monday, June 22. Imprint was invited to cover the event, and yours truly was the lucky one chosen to sample what it had to offer.
To ensure I would form an unbiased opinion, I went into this ordeal blind. I had never heard of Activate so I didn’t know what I was getting myself into and didn’t fall victim to any of their marketing (yet).
Even before I entered the facility, I was already impressed with how convenient the place was to access. From the Waterloo bus terminal, you only have to take bus number 25 for around 30 minutes before you reach the plaza where the facility is located in. Already one point for Activate, and we’re just getting started.
At the entrance, I was greeted by an employee maintaining the waitlist, for customers and for media representatives like me. After signing in, I was then offered a mocktail and an energy bar to “fuel me for the upcoming activities.” As I am unfortunately in the process of losing weight for an upcoming weightlifting competition, however, I was forced to decline. I was then guided towards the front desk where two enthusiastic employees helped me get settled in. I received two wristbands: one to serve as a locker key, and one to keep track of how much time I had to play the games. At this point, my curiosity about the place was piqued by how professional and clean everything looked. I caved and asked them what Activate was. Their answer? “You’ll see soon enough.”
I was handed off to another employee who was tasked with giving me a tour, and they immediately led me into what I would call the “real” facility. It was essentially a hallway with 10 rooms in total, and these rooms housed one of Activate’s wide assortment of games. The most popular, they told me, were Strike and Grid / Super Grid. Other games offered were Hoops, Pipes, Laser, Hide, Control, and Portals.
Seeing as it was a Monday afternoon, I was not able to find a plus one to come with me. However, the employees were more than kind enough to partner up with me to give me the full experience.
We started with Grid, whose room contained a floor constructed entirely of square panels that lit up different colours. With Grid and most other rooms, there were also sub-categories of games to choose from. The mini-game Zone was apparently the easiest for beginners to grasp, so we started with that. Once we were in the room, we were left in the dark for a while until a large, booming voice intoned “RED IN 5, 4, 3…” while the employee screamed at me to find a red panel to stand on before the time runs out. Using every muscle fibre in my legs to accelerate, I was lucky enough to make it, but I was only given a literal second of rest before the same voice returned with “BLUE IN 5, 4, 3…” Needless to say, the game had my heart rate peaking within minutes. The fear combined with the exercise was a surprisingly fun combo, and I could see how Activate was tricking kids to become active again.
After Grid, we moved onto Strike, whose room contained a panel of screens and some softballs. What we had to do here was throw balls at the screens which had asteroids hurtling towards us while simultaneously avoiding ones with satellites. Despite having a horrible throwing arm, I thoroughly enjoyed this game as well. If anyone plans to play this one, I recommend you bring someone who plays baseball.
We then moved on to a more classic arcade game: Hoops, which was basically basketball lite. I spent the most time in this room, trying out most of its subgames. One had us answering trivia questions by shooting at baskets that corresponded to the correct answer. Others had us trying to score as many points as possible before the time ran out. Another had the backboards continuously light up at certain times, indicating when we had to shoot to score points. You can’t go wrong with the classics, and Activate does a great job here too.
While I couldn’t play all the games, I did have the opportunity to meet the masterminds behind Activate — Megan and Adam Schmidt — and learn more about how Activate was born. The Schmidts were originally owners of an escape room game facility in Winnipeg. In 2018, they wanted to expand their franchise but found it difficult to do so given the industry-associated constraints of designing physical rooms, updating rooms across the country promptly, etc. This ultimately led them to their backyard shed, where they would work tirelessly to brainstorm a business model that would overcome these barriers. After raising a couple million dollars from their old company and banding with some engineers, they were lucky enough to open their first location in 2019.
Then COVID happened, which rendered growth and expansion difficult to say the least. Nevertheless, they persevered and since 2022, their team has grown from 10 people to more than 150 in their central Winnipeg corporate location. Activate now also has 35 locations across Canada, the US, and the UK and is set to open another location in Dubai.
Their journey was also one that was quite serendipitous. Megan is a University of Toronto and Western University alum and was a practising physiotherapist before the business took off. Adam is a Conestoga alum who worked as a pilot. The Schmidts’ accomplishments only go to show how the entrepreneurial spirit lives within everyone, and all we have to do is just put in the effort to find it.
After I was tired out from playing, I was then led outside to where food was being served, which included pork sliders, aged cheddar, and a salad bar. They pulled no stops on the food for their grand opening. The final cherry to top off my experience was getting a free $50 Stanley Cup, which I am using as I write this.
All in all, I was very glad to have been able to experience Activate. I highly recommend anyone in the KW region to give it a try — whether you’re 8 or 88 years old, you definitely will not regret it.
