Want to know how switching from our Gen 2 to Gen 3 guns affects your business? Bryan our Regional Operations Manager for the iCOMBAT fields tells you all about it!

How has switching from Gen 2 to Gen 3 equipment changed your business?

Drastically. We see quicker start times for sessions, fewer complaints around weapons malfunctioning, more playtime, less maintenance, less cost, and best of all, a better experience for our players.

How has it increased playtime?

We average 5 – 10 more minutes of actual playtime, per session. While that might not sound like a lot to the average person, to our players, that is an additional game or 2 in every session.

Is the SMG easier to maintain?

Compared to the M4, it’s a walk in the park. First of all, just the cost savings we are seeing from not buying CO2 any longer is high. Our fields would dedicate one day a week to maintaining Gen 2. We no longer need that day, so that is both time and labor saved (or put elsewhere), not to mention the cost of parts being saved. Gen 3 has very few “mechanical” pieces in them, as they are 90% electronic. There are a total of 4 springs, that’s it!

What do the players think of the SMG?

We had a few hesitant players when we upgraded to the SMG weapons. Anyone who had concerns initially has returned, played, and learned to love these weapons. Their favorite feature is the ability to tactically reload at will, meaning they don’t need to swap out a mag after the ammo runs out. They can stay on the playing field and reload as needed. The sensor built into the weapon pleases all of our veteran players, as it eliminates the “blind-firing” ability. If a player sticks their weapon around the corner to fire, a player can shoot their weapon and take the advantage away. This is also great for us as an operator, as it can be dangerous having a weapon stick out. Now there is zero advantage for a player to do it.

How much work did it take to switch everything over to Gen 3?

It took a 2-3 man team about 6 hours to complete switching our armory over to the SMGs. Our armory consists of 45 sets of gear at each playing field. We like to keep our software nice and organized though so we removed all old equipment first then plugged all-new inventory into iCE, updated software to the most recent version, and organized it. We use red dot scopes on all of our weapons, so we needed to go through and sight them. Then we brought the staff in for about 2 hours of training and covered how to operate them. It was very easy to explain, as they already had experience in our vests and headbands, as well as the verbiage around “syncing.”

What advice do you have for any business wanting to upgrade to Gen 3 equipment?

Do it. I’ll agree that the Gen 2 weapons are cool-looking and fun to play with, so are the Gen 3’s. At the end of the day, are you spending money on CO2? Time maintaining the Gen 2 weapons? Then this is a no-brainer. The equipment can be run together as well, so if you are really bent on keeping M4s, keep some for an upcharge to players.

Any other thoughts or comments?

I cannot over-exaggerate the benefits of switching to the SMGs. We really enjoy the innovations and look forward to future additions to the Gen3 family.