New Birthday Parties Bring Virtual Reality To Your Backyard

Your kids love video games. What about a video game party for them and 15 of their close friends? Now imagine that you can get them all out of the house, not worry about supervising them and it’s all in your backyard.

Arcade 2 Go is 30-foot trailer equipped with 16 X Rocker game chairs with rumble and sound and 12 flat screens all around. There are 16 game systems Xbox 360 and eight Wii consoles.

Based in Nanuet, NY, owner Owen Soba regularly travels to backyards in Mahwah to host these mobile, virtual parties.

“I have a passion for making my kids happy so it translates into other kids,” he said. “The best business in the world is making kids smile.”

The typical age range that parties are booked for is 6-14, but Soba has had adult guys book the trailer for land parties. Halo: Reach grabbed the top spot for most-played game and Call of Duty: Black Ops takes second.

“Parents hire me for no reason at all, just to keep the kids occupied and out of their hair for a few hours,” Soba said.

Soba started this business venture just a year ago with just a vanilla box: white walls, wood floors. After 45 days by himself, he installed carpeting, paint, chairs, did the graphics for the trailer and set up his website. He did all the wiring, lighting for the TVs, the game consoles and the black and strobe lights. There’s also  fog machine to up the effects of the lights.

It’s also temperature controlled so it’s good all year round in all weather conditions. With all these features, even parents who book the game trailer for their kids are tempted.

“I have parents who kick the kids out so they can play the game themselves,” he said with a laugh. “Fathers primarily are the ones that kick the kids out, but I’ve had some moms play too.” 

With 12 screens, Soba has more screens than anyone else in the market. 

Arcade 2 Go’s game trailer is self powered and can run for up to 18 hours in a row. They’ve done 10-hour runs at festivals and have appeared at street fairs, school functions and fundraisers.

Soba is working on another game trailer that’s going to be 32 feet hold an additional three screens and 18 total chairs.

“I have games for all ages, from Disney Cars to Black Ops,” he said.

For more information, call 877-654-4386 or go to http://www.arcade2go.com/

Reservations should be done 30-45 days in advance, but it varies because there are times when last-minute cancellations open up a last-minute party slots.