The Dallas Fort Worth International Airport now has two gaming lounges, according to a report from the Dallas Business Journal.
The lounges function similar to the popular PC/game rooms in South Korea, except they are not quite as wallet-friendly. For 42 cents per minute, customers can sit down at an available Xbox One and choose from 19 pre-installed titles, including hits like “Fortnite” and “Rocket League.” A far more cost-effective option is to pay $20 for unlimited game time. Players can log into their own Xbox account or use a Gameway-provided account, which is the company that built the lounge.
Walbridge, president of Gameway, explained why a gaming lounge is a natural choice for an airport.
“Gameway’s purpose is to make airports entertaining,” Walbridge said. “With 50 percent of Americans playing video games at least three hours per week or more, and the average gamer being a male who’s 35 and a female in their mid 40s, this demographic perfectly aligns with who is traveling at the airport.”
The Terminal E lounge opened with 22 stations opened Friday, and the Terminal B lounge opened in early June. The lounges are located at gates E16 and B42, so maybe plan to arrive a little early if you have a flight from DFW. You can just say you need extra time for getting through security.
As for other airports, plan to bring your Switch or other portable consoles for the next little while. The process of bringing the new lounges to DFW Airport took about a year and a half, according to Walbridge. So it would seem we are some time out from seeing gaming lounges in airports becoming a trend, though it likely depends on how successful DFW Airport’s lounges are.