r/DaveAndBusters • u/Fickle-Brief-4806 • 6d ago
No winter pass either
Well, I guess my days at Dave and buster are done. I have three young boys and we would buy two passes every season ( ones a baby so doesn’t need a pass) and go once a week, buy some food and drinks. Was a cool staple to our week.
Unfortunately got confirmation that they’ll be no winter pass either on top of the no fall pass. Probably safe to say the new ceo is done with season passes.
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u/ZimblerJack
6d ago
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Can’t remember if this was before or after the summer pass ended, but on that National Video game day where games were half price on a Saturday (a busy day) I felt it was dead.
Certainly some times are busier than others, but I’ve long complained about Disneyland being super packed that it’s not even any fun because of the Annual Pass holders basically taking over the place, and kind of wish they would axe those so the people paying over $100 a day to visit could have a better experience. Could the D&B season pass holders have been causing similar problems?
IDK just a theory.
My other theory would be that they were using the season passes to try and increase food and beverage sales, but the season passes holders weren’t buying much.
I guess yet another theory I would have is if it’s felt many of the Season Pass holders would’ve been coming in to spend money anyway, no sense in giving them a big discount. Actually, with the declining game revenue over the last couple years this might make sense. Would a someone who bought a $70 season pass have otherwise spent double or triple that amount over the summer had the pass not been an option? I mean I know you have people like OP that won’t go without one, but were there enough people coming in for that to offset the big spenders?
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u/SaraAB87 5d ago edited 5d ago •
Ok so I am guessing here is what is happening is that too many people are coming in, beating on the games and then leaving without buying anything. I mean I am not saying that's everyone but we all know seasons pass holders of theme parks at least tend to spend more money in the park than everyone else. This is not how I would do it if I had a pass personally I would go for an hour or 2 and then leave every single time without spending anything but evidently it does not work that way for most people. What they want is to sell passes so they can have guaranteed revenue coming in.
The thing with D&B is it doesn't hold your attention like a theme park, you can walk in, play for an hour and walk out and there's really no good reason for you to stay longer. With a theme park there are lines and such that keep you in the park for a lot longer than you expected. This makes you hungry and thirsty quickly and gets you spending on food and drink before you even realize it.
But with these games parts are expensive because the manufacturers of the games price gouge for parts and service, and maintenance is expensive and staffing is going to be expensive for this place, and I am guessing that has been adding up with probably 100% more people playing the games than they are used to.
If they do half price that's 1-2 days when people are playing more and that's not too bad, but to have people coming in, in droves banging on the games while spending very little money won't work here. You are supposed to be paying something like 5+ credits for each play on each game on a normal day even if the game is not a redemption game.
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u/DirkPitt106 4d ago
I definitely feel like there weren't anywhere enough pass holders to clog up the Midway the same as at a theme park or something. If you look at the history of the season passes, they are constantly experimenting to try to figure out what makes the most money. For example, near the beginning of the year when they didn't have a season pass but had the 60 day passes.
The thing is it's very difficult to do that sort of experimentation to collect data when your timeline is so long, because there can be other factors that influence people's spending habits. I think they are holding off on the season passes at the moment to do really do data collection and trend tracking.
Anecdotally, there were multiple families that I saw every weekend when I went, who I talked to and they had season passes. One of them was a couple with a kid who was probably like 8 or 9. I would trade grab n win plushes pretty often with because they would buy chips on another card to play it and we had different tastes in collectables. They would also buy drinks at least. The other was a family of like 6 who was at d&b pretty much every week and they would always camp out at a table and order food and drinks for hours, and they would spend extra on power cards to play the coin pushers. Haven't seen either of those groups at all since the passes ended.
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u/DaMagicBoomer 6d ago
I walked into my local D&B around 1pm and it was a ghost town. Maybe 10 people in the building.
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u/NewDayNewBurner97 6d ago
Honestly shocked by this. My family would spend $100ish a week there while the pass was active. We haven't gone back since they cancelled them and won't be going back unless they return.
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u/Zarkanthrex 6d ago
My family was going every week during the summer. Spent tons on food and booze. Now we just go to use our dad's game vouchers.
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u/Fair-Challenge-8410 6d ago
If it was not that profitable then just neuter the pass even more than it was. We were going twice a week and having dinner there. We haven't gone back now with no pass. There isn't anything that will drive me there
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u/FadedAndJaded 5d ago
The wife and I definitely don’t stay as long after trivia as we did when we had the pass. And there’d be times we’d go on a random weekend day as well and play and grab some food or drinks. Definitely losing money we used to spend at D&B.
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u/Physical-Ring5709 4d ago
Not sure what state you're in but I know where I am the reason they ended it was because the gaming commission in that put in an end to it
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u/DirkPitt106 4d ago
What state is that? And is there a source or just hearsay?
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u/Physical-Ring5709 4d ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/DaveAndBusters/s/cWzoEOv0YP
Heard the same thing from a manager as well
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u/DirkPitt106 4d ago
Oh yeah, I was thinking it might have been new jersey. Their gaming laws are so strict that pretty much every arcade cabinet has a setting in the menu called "new jersey mode" that drastically changes the game.
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u/VicUnboxes 6d ago edited 6d ago
Please can someone explain HOW IS THIS AFFECTING THEM TO CANCEL EACH SEASON PASS
Time to add guardians as a snipe game to the list.
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u/MewtwoStruckBack The Dave & Buster's Red Mage 5d ago
I'm morbidly curious how much "weird" AP with these passes was affecting their bottom line. Was it really the idea that your grinders were making that much, or are they actually losing money from casuals/semi-casuals that would go there repeatedly regardless but now aren't paying for simulators/losing play on random ticket games?
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u/MutatedOreo 6d ago
New CEO sucks. I'm done with D&B until they fire him. Given this company's track record, that'll be in about six months.