(UPDATE 12-17-24: Story updated with new location for the venue.)
An interactive, dynamic gaming venue has signed a deal for a new location in Loudoun County — and it may be the first location in all of Virginia and the DC market.
It’s called Activate Games and it will be taking a nearly 9,200 s.f. space in the Cascades Marketplace shopping center in Sterling.
Here’s how Activate Games describes the concept on its website: “Enter the game where you become the player in the world’s first active gaming facility. Jump, climb, problem-solve and laugh, as you and your friends move between challenges. Each dynamic game room has interactive technology that reacts in real time, ensuring an adrenaline-filled adventure.”
Examples include the Arena room, where guests play a version of dodgeball, trying to hit large illuminated targets on a wall.
Or the Laser room where you try and maneuver around an array of laser beams without touching one. Or how about the Grid room, where you must cross the room while only stepping on certain tiles and avoiding others — similar to the old game of “hot lava.”
Think of it like an escape room only with high-tech physical challenges to get past.
Activate Games is an international brand with locations open or in the works primarily in North America and Europe. There are no locations currently listed in Virginia nor the DC area, so the Sterling venue could be the first.
As we have been reporting seemingly non-stop, Cascades Marketplace was once a shopping center on life support, but it’s currently undergoing an amazing renaissance.
Other new deals will be bringing a drive-thru Shake Shack, a Mezeh Mediterranean Grill, a Taco Bamba restaurant, a CHIKO restaurant, and a new drive-thru Starbucks to the center.
The new Activate Games will be going into a spot immediately adjacent to the Taco Bamba and next door to the future Starbucks drive-thru location.
This flood of new, high profile brands comes after years of declining fortunes as retailers departed what is one of eastern Loudoun’s oldest shopping centers. New ownership and management took over a few years back and they have turned things around dramatically.