Activate game center in Scottsdale offers free play for opening weekend

What if your favorite phone puzzle suddenly required cardio?

That seems to be the thinking behind Activate, a new high-tech gaming facility near the reanimated PV Mall development where puzzle-solving and physical fitness collide — sometimes literally, as screen-tapping gives way to accidentally body-slamming your opponents on the way to a win.

It’s the first Arizona location of the hot Canadian-based chain, which, fueled by viral TikTok videos, has added over 40 game centers across North America, the U.K. and the Middle East in just six years. The official opening date is Friday, June 27, and the facility is offering free 60-minute play sessions from June 27 to 29. The games are appropriate for people ages 6 and older.

“Some of our regulars at other locations actually use it as their fitness center,” says Sébastien Piché, VP of operations, during a pre-grand opening walkthrough. “They’re playing the same kinds of games they’d be doing on the couch, but here, they’re moving the whole time.”

It feels like a concept ripe for our screen-obsessed times. If you’ve ever lost an afternoon lining up candies on your phone while lazily ignoring your smartwatch’s reminders to stand, imagine that game suddenly expanding — wall-to-wall — and demanding you move.


That’s what it’s like stepping into each of the 12 immersive rooms, lined up around a square of neon-lit hallways like a dark movie multiplex. In “Press,” you’re basically playing "Simon," the old handheld electronic game of short-term memory skill — only you’re doing it in a big circular room where you have to race to hit the matching patterns amid 452 glowing wall buttons in time-based challenges. In “Strike,” you’re playing "Concentration" but dodgeball style, hitting fast-moving digital targets with softballs instead of flipping cards.

“Each room has a selection of games,” Piché says. “So it’s up to you to pick the one you want to play. It’s a self-guided experience. You’re choosing your own games and progressing at your own pace — but depending on what you pick, you could really break a sweat.”

Unlike traditional arcades, most of Activate’s games require you to move — fast. Players sign up for 60- or 90-minute sessions (at $28 or $38 per player, respectively), don RFID wristbands to track their scores and choose from over 50 different games across the 12 rooms, with more than 500 levels total.

Some challenges are physically intense, requiring players to run, jump and even dance to complete a goal. Others are more cerebral, resembling memory or strategy games, minus the sitting.

“My wife pulled a hamstring recently,” Piché says. “We came as a family and she said, ‘I won’t be able to play the Mega Grid.’ But she ended up having a great time. There are many options that don’t require you to run.”

Activate owes much of its popularity to its flagship “Mega Grid” room. Clips of sweaty players sprinting across its glowing "Saturday Night Fever"-style floor while frantically avoiding moving red tiles in a high-tech version of “the floor is lava” have racked up millions of views on social media.

“These are the rooms that made us TikTok famous,” Piché says, noting that some customers come in just to re-create challenges they’ve seen online.

To that end, visitors are allowed, even encouraged, to film themselves in action, although there have been a few dropped iPhones. “Some people are more successful at it than others,” Piché laughs. But Activate is also experimenting with adding built-in video capture features to the rooms that would allow players to download shareable highlights after their games — kind of like the post-roller coaster photobooth stop, retooled for the “do it for the 'Gram” economy.

Beneath all the flashing lights and color-coded tiles, though, Activate is also fostering something surprisingly analog: human connection. Games are designed to be played in groups of two to five, and every room emphasizes teamwork, communication and shared accomplishment.

“Some of the games are competitive, some are cooperative,” Piché says. “But they all build in elements of strategy, trust and collaboration.”


The setup has made Activate a hit with school field trips and corporate team-building groups, and Piché says it’s not uncommon for solo players to end up forming groups with strangers. “People come back to meet other players,” he says. “It’s become a social outlet.”

A new leagues program, launching this July, will allow teams of three to five to compete weekly against other players from Activate locations worldwide. “You could be playing in Scottsdale and competing against someone in San Francisco, Toronto or Dubai,” Piché says. “We match players by skill level, so it’s fair competition across divisions.”

The seasonal league will run in three installments per year, and while the Scottsdale facility won’t host the summer league, it will be participating by the fall. “Will we be able to make it an eSport eventually down the road?” Piché ponders. “We’ll see.”

At its core, Activate feels like the next logical step after escape rooms — which makes sense, given the founders’ background in that industry. Adam and Megan Schmidt initially built their reputation operating one of Western Canada’s top escape room businesses. But escape rooms were difficult to update and tended to have limited repeat visitors: Once you’ve experienced each room, why go back? The couple hit upon the idea of creating technology-driven games that could easily evolve, that were more replayable and physically engaging.

“They wanted to create something that people would come back to again and again,” Piché says.

That repeatability is built into every aspect: Players can save their profiles, track personal stats and rankings and earn in-game “coins” redeemable for perks ranging from wristbands to drones and PS5s.

“The goal was to create a platform where every visit can be different, depending on who you play with and how you play,” says Piché. “And it seems to be working.”

Activate opens on Friday, June 27, at 4848 E. Cactus Road, #900, Scottsdale. Visit the website to sign up for a free 60-minute play session June 27 to 29, or to book a paid session from June 30 on.