Level99 officially announced their expansion to Disney Springs at Walt Disney World.
Level99 at Disney Springs
Level99 is an “interactive, competitive social gaming venue for adults.” The Disney Springs location will be Level99’s fifth and largest venue. Level99 confirmed they would be taking over the space of the former NBA Experience.
The location will have over 60 challenge rooms and duels. The two-story venue will be over 45,000 square feet, hosting upwards of 1,000 players at a time. A two-story bar will serve handcrafted cocktails and local beers, accompanied by a chef-crafted menu including LEVEL99’s signature, award-winning, Detroit-style pizza. The bar will be the centerpiece of the venue.
Level99 (stylized as LEVEL99) is backed by Panera founder Ron Shaich’s investment firm Act III Holdings. It was founded by CEO Matthew DuPlessie, considered the inventor of the modern escape room, which he launched in 2004. He opened the first Level99 at Natick Mall in Massachusetts in 2021.
“We are defining the category and setting the standard for out-of-home, interactive entertainment,” said DuPlessie. “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.”
A second Level99 is located at Providence Place Mall in Rhode Island. The third and fourth locations will open this year at Tysons Corner Center in Virginia and The Corbin Collection in West Hartford, Connecticut. This means the Disney Springs location could potentially open in late 2025 or 2026, but a timeframe was not announced.
The press release states “Disney selected LEVEL99 after a comprehensive review of the location-based entertainment industry.”
“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. “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.”
Here is how a typical day at a Level99 location is described:
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.
Level99 plans to hire over 100 roles for the Disney Springs location.
DisneyQuest & NBA Experience
Level99 will presumably take over the former DisneyQuest and NBA Experience space. DisneyQuest, a gaming venue not unlike Level99, operated at Disney Springs for over 15 years, then closed in July 2017. The DisneyQuest building was demolished and a new building was constructed.
The NBA Experience opened in the new building in August 2019 to a poor reception. It ultimately only operated until March 2020, when Disney Springs closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Disney announced over a year later that the NBA Experience would never reopen.
The building has mostly sat empty for the past five years. In 2022, it hosted a limited-time “Star Wars” VR experience in 2022. Disney filed a permit for demolition at the building in February 2024 and removed some decorative elements from the exterior.
Disney would likely not demolish and build a new building this time, in part because City Works Eatery & Pour House is on the first floor of the NBA Experience building and continues to operate.
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