Escape Hunt plc (LON:ESC), a global leader in the growing escape rooms sector, has announced that it has signed a licensing agreement with a software provider, which gives the Company full access to a digital platform on which it can develop remote multi-player games including escape games, scavenger hunts and team-building puzzle-solving games to enhance its existing proposition.
During lockdown, Escape Hunt accelerated its strategy to create games that are not constrained by the need for a physical location. The Company began developing downloadable Print & Play games enabling customers to enjoy the excitement of escape games at home. This initiative proved popular and has since been picked up by Netflix, culminating in the announcement on 18 September 2020 of the agreement for Escape Hunt to produce a Print & Play game based on the Netflix Original Movie, Enola Holmes©.
The Print & Play proposition was followed by a solution which enables remote play of existing physical escape rooms. This has enabled Escape Hunt to make use of spare capacity within its network whilst customer demand rebuilds and has also made the physical locations accessible to a wider audience.
The announcement today represents a further important step in the development of the Company’s digital and remote play propositions. The platform affords Escape Hunt the ability to create and offer curated games to large, multi-site audiences building the Company’s capability to service larger opportunities, such as the corporate and education markets. The platform will be launched initially with a new game, ‘Hackathon’.
Commenting, Richard Harpham, Escape Hunt’s CEO, said:
“This licensing agreement gives us access to a number of existing games and more importantly, we have the ability to create our own games which will be delivered digitally. The platform enables us to run games from small teams up to large groups of several hundred participants operating from multiple locations. We are already seeing interest from a number of corporates who are looking for team-building activities which can unite employees who have been working from home or remotely with travel restrictions. The platform is an important step in building our ‘Escape Hunt for Business’ and ‘Escape Hunt for Education’ offerings, enhancing our digital capability and also in creating games which are truly scalable.”
