Brisbane, Australia, March 3rd
2008:
Queensland company Battlefield Sports has taken the concept of make
believe armed conflict to new heights with their own brand of
live-action gaming.
Founder Peter Lander drew on his own gaming background and developed an
award-winning and internationally successful business that combines
technology and the basics of battle.
"It evolved from gaming, role playing, miniatures, and then later on I
tried some laser-tag and some paintball and it's really morphed all
those things together into a game" Peter says.
"By 1999 we'd developed enough equipment to go and run games and that
was just in Cairns, locally, and we got up a website and people around
the world were really interested in what we were doing so it's really
evolved from that.
“We've always been entrepreneurs, and going 'this is really working',
locally, and with interest around the planet."
Battlefield Sports weapons and patent-pending inflatable barricades have
proved a hit with gamers in Australia and overseas. The company now uses
Australia as a test bed for new ideas.
"We do school fetes, we run backyard parties, games in the woodlands
like this. We have the inflatable barricades and forts,” Peter says.
“We do quite advanced team building exercises for corporates and we also
do a lot of corporate fun and that has its team-building aspect as well
and that's a great ice breaker.
“People naturally start communicating, just playing one of our simple
games, but if it's a board of directors, then the live-action role play
is really appropriate for maybe 10 or 12 people.
“But we've done corporate groups for 200 people at once, a hundred a
side, and that's really fun. Whatever someone's thinking about doing
around the world, we've got some experience in that area to help them
with."
Rather than sell franchises, Battlefield Sports supply customers with
advice and equipment, in a package designed to suit the customer’s own
business model.
"It's a matter of providing tools and techniques that enable people to
use their own ability and ideas. There are people running mobile
operations and backyard parties, all the way to people running a
dedicated location, where they've spent a million dollars just kitting
out the environment to make it really authentic."
Over 35 operations in Australia are using the company’s equipment, and
numbers overseas are growing constantly.
"There's currently 28 countries, there's over 200 sites around the world
using our equipment. That's growing at approximately one per week on
average. Some of them are fixed sites and
others are mobile, some are indoors,” Peter says.
The company’s growing list of awards has been a great advantage when
dealing with overseas clients, he says.
"The Smart State Awards and particularly the Australian Technology
Showcase Award which we won last year was fantastic, but we've received
export awards as well for exporting the equipment, which is made in
Australia.
“So that helps us a great deal because it gives us a lot of credibility
to the international customers, that we're a real business and it's
really successful.
“It's been fantastic that an idea that I've had for 20 years has evolved
and actually come to reality. However I'm still inspired, we've got a
lot more ideas in the pipeline.”
ENDS
About Battlefield Sports
Battlefield Sports™ is the world leader in live gaming combat simulation
systems
where gamers participate in combat simulation missions for entertainment.
Interactive entertainment company Battlefield Sports™ manufactures and
markets the gaming guns, patented live gaming inflatables, and unique
battle missions for this leading edge hybrid of electronic sport. With
representation in more than 35 countries and millions of games played Battlefield
Sports has revolutionized the combined entertainment and exercise
options for the video game generation. Headquartered in Australia and
offices in Los Angeles, Battlefield Sports won numerous awards for
excellence, including Exporter of the Year 2005 (FNQ) and the Member of
the Year (2007) of the Australian Technology Showcase. Battlefield
Sports sells about 85% of its products internationally.
www.battlefieldsports.com
