St. Games’ fire: how these two 31-year-olds turned console gaming into an events startup

If you’re old enough, you’ll probably remember how your local mom-and-pop store had an NES console you could rent. Those services disappeared as convenience store chains and affordable home consoles appeared, and disposable incomes rose. Yet these two 31-year-olds have preserved that age-old tradition of “social” gaming – and no, they don’t run an indie arcade.

Lee Ming Wei and Lee Teck Hou are co-founders of St. Games Cafe, a retail outlet where customers can rent video game consoles for on-site play. Situated in The Cathay mall in Singapore, St. Games Cafe is part of a bigger startup called Gaming How, which organizes events – corporate and otherwise – that make use of gaming consoles.

This weekend, Gaming How is involved in Gamestart Asia, Singapore’s biggest consumer game convention yet. But the path hasn’t been all that easy for this startup that’s coming going on seven years old. We spoke to Ming Wei and Teck Hou to find out more.

Ming Wei (left) and Teck Hou (right) at St. Games Cafe.

Gaming? How?

Gaming How was founded by Ming Wei, Teck Hou, and Gan Chia Huey back in 2007. The trio met during their national service before heading to the same university. Ming Wei was a computer engineer and Teck Hou was an engineering student, and Teck Hou shares that they knew even before they graduated that they wouldn’t want to work for other people when they finished school.

The first idea for their joint venture was to run a human resources agency that placed students in internships or jobs before graduation. However, they soon realized that this simply wasn’t feasible, as each student attachment required them to put down a deposit ranging from S$20,000 to S$30,000 in case people broke their contracts.

At that time Ming Wei was working in retail, selling games. Teck Hou was a big gamer himself. Influenced by their passions, the duo started a video game rental service, where customers were able to borrow a number of games in exchange for a monthly fee. But even though Ming Wei and Teck Hou poured their hearts into this endeavor, it didn’t take off. They couldn’t get publishers to agree to support the business.

Customers enjoying some gaming time at St. Games Cafe.

“This is common in the US, but it doesn’t work in Asia,” Ming Wei shared in an interview with Games in Asia. “Every person who rents potentially won’t go on to buy the game from the publisher, so they couldn’t agree to that.”

Ming Wei and Teck Hou still wanted a gaming-driven startup, though. At that point in time, the Playstation 3 and Wii consoles had just hit the market. The duo started supplying consoles to events like family dinners and dances. They ran these events from 2008 to 2009, and enquiries started to pour in.

It felt like we were doing consoles a great service by introducing games to people [who wouldn’t otherwise play them].

Settling down

The constant customer enquiries led to Ming Wei and Teck Hou to put down roots. In January 2009, they rented retail space in Singapore’s Square 2 mall and started what would become St. Games Cafe, the country’s first proper console gaming cafe. Walk-in customers could now enjoy a full 700 square feet of video gaming entertainment in a bright, welcoming environment.

Moving with the times