It's happening - here's the announcement from LEVEL99:
LEVEL99, an interactive, social entertainment experience known for its challenge rooms, with locations across the East Coast, will open its newest outpost, and first-ever Florida location, at Disney Springs West Side at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The opening at Disney Springs will mark LEVEL99’s fifth location as it continues to grow and scale its footprint, targeting national expansion.
Backed by Act III Holdings, the investment vehicle led by Panera founder and current CAVA Chair Ron Shaich, LEVEL99 is a first-of-its-kind destination for real-world, challenge-based, social entertainment for adults featuring over 50 physical and mental challenges set in artistic environments. Beyond the games themselves, LEVEL99 features best-in-class design, an award-winning culinary offering, and craft beverages that are worth the trip.
Disney selected LEVEL99 after a comprehensive review of the location-based entertainment industry. LEVEL99’s Disney location will add to the growing list of dining, shopping and entertainment options at Disney Springs, which features more than 150 shops, restaurants and family-friendly leisure activities.
With its third and fourth locations set to open in 2025 at Tysons Corner Center in Virginia and The Corbin Collection in West Hartford, Connecticut, LEVEL99 plans to open several more locations in the future, including Disney Springs.
“We are defining the category and setting the standard for out-of-home, interactive entertainment,” said LEVEL99 CEO and Founder Matthew DuPlessie, an MIT engineer and Harvard Business School graduate who leads the team behind LEVEL99. “After spending two decades in the location-based entertainment industry, it became clear there was consumer demand for a concept like this – a real unmet need. Our vision is to make ‘challenge rooms’ a mainstream concept, and the opportunity to open at a marquee location like Disney Springs is the next step in our plans to expand the LEVEL99 brand nationally.”
Considered by most to be the inventor of today’s modern escape room industry, DuPlessie launched the first escape room style concept in the world in 2004. He opened the first LEVEL99 location in 2021 after contemplating for years how to build a more durable and broadly appealing experience that combined all the mechanics people love about video games with creative physical and mental challenges that could be repeatedly enjoyed in a competitive, real-life, social setting.
LEVEL99’s proprietary entertainment offerings are developed in the company’s game design studio where creators and engineers dream up and produce a variety of new challenges every year to keep the experience fresh and ever changing.
“We see immense potential in what the LEVEL99 team has built and are excited to bring the future of interactive entertainment and social gaming into the mainstream,” said Ron Shaich, CEO and Managing Partner of Act III Holdings, the investment vehicle he founded to help companies scale into becoming nationally dominant brands. “When Matt shared his vision for LEVEL99 with me seven years ago, I saw that this business had the potential to define a new category with enormous opportunity for growth on a national scale, making it an ideal investment for Act III.”
LEVEL99 has established a footprint in New England where it has experienced industry-leading guest traffic fueled by players driving on average over half an hour to visit. A typical experience at LEVEL99 includes at least 2-3 hours of entertainment play, followed by drinks and food at its scratch kitchen and bar, with some players staying all day. LEVEL99 features challenge rooms, where teams of 2-6 players work together to beat a themed physical or mental challenge that typically lasts 1-4 minutes; arena duels, dispersed throughout the gaming arena for player-vs.-player showdowns; and an art hunt, where players search for hidden glyphs amongst hundreds of pieces of commissioned, local art that are unique to every location.
The Disney Springs location will be LEVEL99’s largest to date including the most entertainment options, with over 60 challenge rooms and duels. LEVEL99 will occupy over 45,000 square feet in a two-level venue that will host upwards of 1,000 players at a time in the interactive gaming and bar/dining space. A two-story bar serving handcrafted cocktails and local beers will serve as the centerpiece of this location, accompanied by its chef-crafted menu including LEVEL99’s signature, award-winning, Detroit-style pizza.
This will be LEVEL99’s only location serving the greater Orlando area, and the company plans to hire over 100 roles for its team there.
