London’s Playhubs game startup accelerator goes free-to-play

The creators of London game startup accelerator Playhubs have decided to focus their efforts on studios using an interesting business model: free-to-play.

Playhubs recently debuted at the sprawling Somerset House in central London by David Gardner, Paul Heydon, Chris Lee, David Lau-Kee, and Nisha Valand. Its nonprofit mission is to help game companies get off the ground and to provide a low-cost co-working space for some of the region’s small but promising game startups. For those studios, the free-to-play business model has been taking over, where players can play a mobile or online game for free and then pay real money for virtual items.

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Now Playhubs is adapting that business model for its own startups. Playhubs has been open for four months, and it has signed up members at a rapid rate. Now it is creating a free-to-play model of its own, where young studios can use the services of the accelerator for free and then pay for specific benefits over time.

The model is designed to help startups who don’t have a lot of cash at the outset. The free members can become part of the Playhubs community, co-working space, events, mentorship, masterclasses, and other member benefits. I visited the accelerator in January, and it had plenty of room to grow.

“We’re thrilled to see Playhubs becoming so busy on a daily basis. The full-time membership has grown beyond our expectations for the first few months of this initiative,” said cofounder David Lau-Kee in a statement. “We’ve also been impressed and grateful for the huge volume of support from the more established European Studios and Service Providers, signing up as associate members, leading masterclasses, joining panel discussions, round-tables and attending events. We knew the European Gaming Community was a friendly and supportive bunch, but their investment in Playhubs has been beyond our expectations.”

The free-to-play memberships are in limited supply, and Playhubs is taking applications through June 26, 2015 via membership@playhubs.com.

“One of the biggest bits of feedback we’ve received from current and potential members has been an appetite to join the Playhubs community, but a challenge on cashflow and financial resources at the very beginning of the journey of building a new studio and company,” said Gardner in a statement. “We’ve all been there and we know what it’s like. We want to help address that challenge and have therefore established a system where teams without the resources to pay for membership can join for free and delay their first three-months membership until they raise funding or a generating income. The founders have provided further personal funding to make this happen and are also excited to be in talks with a number of high-profile sponsors who are lending their support to the Playhubs initiative.”