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New game store Game Haven opens in Downtown Bakersfield

Game Haven, owned by Broc and Joseph Reed-Rivera, offers a variety of board games and themed private rooms for rent.
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BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Two local gamers opened their game store in Downtown Bakersfield. In addition to selling board games, the owners say customers can rent private rooms at Game Haven.

  • A new game store, Game Haven, opens in Downtown Bakersfield.
  • Owned by Broc and Joseph Reed-Rivera, former patrons of the prior business, Clear Escape.
  • Game Haven offers a variety of board games and has 3 themed private rooms for rent.
  • Customer Cody Meek appreciates the new downtown game store where he can both buy and play games.
  • Themed rooms include a Dungeons and Dragons room, a card game room, and a party space named 'Big Blue'.

For your convenience, the skimmable summary above is generated with the assistance of AI and fact checked by our team prior to publication. Read the full story as originally reported below.

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:

A new small business opened its doors in Downtown Bakersfield on Friday. At Game Haven customers will be able to purchase and play a variety of board games.

Located off of 18th and N St, Game Haven is a game store owned by Broc and Joseph Reed-Rivera. The owners say they visited this location quite often when it was Clevr Escape, an escape room and virtual reality arcade.

A few weeks ago, Clevr Escape went out of business, leading the couple to take a shot at starting their own family-friendly card shop. In addition to board games, Game Haven is slated to have 3 private rooms that customers can rent out.

"Whenever you rent that room, you get access to almost the entirety of our collection, we'll have open box copies that you'll be able to play with in the room," said owner Broc Reed-Rivera.

A perk that customer Cody Meek says he's looking forward to considering he and his wife are gamers and are often looking for places to go out in their free time.

"There are game stores around but I live downtown and so the more places downtown that we can come to and not just buy games but also play them here is really nice," said Meek.

According to the owners, each private room will have a theme. One room will be Dungeons and Dragons themed with a wooden-like interior and another will specifically be used for card games. The third one, the owners say they've named "Big Blue."

"The main purpose of this room will be kind of to be a party space, like birthday parties or corporate parties," explained Reed-Rivera. "As well as we plan to host different card game tournaments like Magic the Gathering, Pokémon, and Yu-Gi-Oh!"

According to the owners, the game rooms are expected to be completed by early next month.


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