Death By Audio Arcade
Death By Audio Arcade is a Brooklyn-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit collective that designs, builds, and operates 21+ custom local multiplayer arcade cabinets featuring indie games, anchored at Wonderville and serving the NYC indie gaming community, corporate clients, and cultural festivals through commissions, memberships, and merchandise.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2013
- HeadquartersBrooklyn, United States
- Headcount—
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingHardware or Manufacturing
What Death By Audio Arcade does
Death By Audio Arcade is a Brooklyn-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit collective that since 2013 has designed, fabricated, and operated a portfolio of 21+ custom-built local multiplayer arcade cabinets featuring original indie games. Its primary function is to create physical social gaming experiences—each cabinet is hand-crafted by indie game developers using CNC machines, custom controllers, Raspberry Pi computers, CRT monitors, and bespoke hardware (e.g., the Kinect-only Hair Nah, the vision-based Drink Rink interactive bar, the LED-lit Smash buttons on Slam City Oracles). The collection is anchored at Wonderville (1186 Broadway, Brooklyn) with regular Tue-Sun operating hours, and individual cabinets rotate to partner venues including Dreamhouse, Brooklyn Brewery, Cloud City, and All Night Skate.
The organization operates a hybrid community/event-driven go-to-market model. Revenue comes from four streams: monthly memberships and one-time donations via the WithFriends platform, limited-run merchandise such as the DBAA Snackpack Vol. 1 USB ($15), commissioned custom cabinet builds for brand clients (Soylent, Manhattan West), and event-based revenue from tournaments and the Deathmatch By Audio series. Customer segments include the NYC indie game community (primary), corporate/brand clients seeking promotional installations, and cultural institutions/festivals (Smithsonian, SXSW, MAGFest). The Wondercab, a rotating residency cabinet repurposed from the original Crystal Brawl in 2020, refreshes its game lineup every 3 months to drive repeat community engagement.
DBAA is run by a small team of approximately 12 employees/volunteers including founder Mark Kleeb, with no external funding, parent company, or outside investors. The organization has no public API, no software products beyond physical installations, and no disclosed AI/ML capabilities. Its strategic moat rests on a decade-deep community ecosystem, unique physical IP that cannot be replicated, and rare multidisciplinary craft talent spanning fabrication, electronics, and game design.
Death By Audio Arcade firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Death By Audio Arcade
- Legal name
- Death By Audio Arcade
- Website
- https://deathbyaudioarcade.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2013
- Operating status
- Operating
- Short description
- Death By Audio Arcade is a Brooklyn-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit collective that designs, builds, and operates 21+ custom local multiplayer arcade cabinets featuring indie games, anchored at Wonderville and serving the NYC indie gaming community, corporate clients, and cultural festivals through commissions, memberships, and merchandise.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Death By Audio Arcade industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Custom Arcade Cabinets
- NAICS
- Amusement Arcades (713120), Amusement Parks and Arcades (7131)
- SIC
- Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Arcade & Retro Gaming Hardware (Mini Consoles, Arcade Sticks, Cabinets) (HDACANAK)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- AAA & Premium Game Studios (PC/Console) (MPAFAAAA), Coin-Operated Entertainment (Pinball, Crane/Claw, Jukebox, Darts/Billiards) (MPAEAJAF)
Keywords
Where Death By Audio Arcade is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Brooklyn
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Death By Audio Arcade business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Hardware or Manufacturing
- Cost components
- Personnel, Supply Chain, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Others
Revenue model
- Event-Based Revenue: Fees from hosting tournaments, gallery events, and Deathmatch By Audio series. Revenue from venue partnerships and event hosting at locations like Wonderville.
- Community Memberships and Donations: Monthly memberships and one-time donations through WithFriends platform. Supports operations including truck rentals, materials, and developer payments for creating new games.
- Merchandise Sales: Sale of DBAA Snackpack Vol. 1 - limited-run USB stick containing 10+ indie game projects. Priced at $15.00 for Mac or Windows platforms.
- Commissioned Cabinet Building: Custom arcade cabinet commissions for events, venues, and brands. Notable commissions include Soylent (2016), Manhattan West real estate (2016), and SXSW Fader Fort (2016).
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | DBAA Snackpack Vol. 1 - Limited USB Edition |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels6 records
Death By Audio Arcade product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Death By Audio Arcade designs, fabricates, and operates a collection of more than 20 hand-built, locally networked multiplayer arcade cabinets featuring original indie games, housed at Wonderville in Brooklyn and rotated to festivals, cultural institutions, and partner venues. In addition to running the community arcade experience, the collective produces commissioned custom cabinet builds for brands and venues, sells physical merchandise such as the DBAA Snackpack USB compilation, and operates a membership/donation program to fund ongoing game and cabinet development.
Product overview
Death By Audio Arcade is a Brooklyn-based collective offering a portfolio of over 20 lovingly crafted local multiplayer arcade cabinets and interactive installations created by indie game developers since 2013. The core offering consists of custom physical arcade cabinets available for play at Wonderville and various NYC venues. The portfolio includes flagship products like the Wondercab (a rotating cabinet featuring different indie games on 3-month residencies), individual game cabinets (Crystal Brawl, Volleygon, Slam City Oracles, Powerboat Italia '88, Particle Mace, Star Versus, Hair Nah, Kung Fu Kickball, Video Freak, Super Sharp Birds, and more), special installations (Giffinator photobooth, Salmon Roll custom controller game, Drink Rink interactive bar, A Place To Bury Strangers Pinball), and community products including the DBAA Snackpack USB collection and membership program. The collective also offers educational workshops on arcade cabinet construction.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Wondercab: A rotating arcade cabinet featuring indie games that change for 3-month residency periods, originally converted from the Crystal Brawl cabinet during COVID-19 pandemic.
Products and services
- Death By Audio Arcade Cabinet Collection A collection of more than 20 lovingly crafted, custom-built local-multiplayer arcade cabinets featuring original indie games, available for play at Wonderville in Brooklyn and at rotating partner venues across NYC. Each cabinet is purpose-built around a specific game with bespoke controllers, CRT monitors, and unique physical aesthetics.
- Wondercab (Rotating Cabinet Residency) An arcade cabinet curated by Death By Audio Arcade featuring indie games that rotate on a 3-month residency basis. The first residency was Galactic Battleground in Spring 2021, with subsequent seasons including Chrono, StarCrossed, Smush Bois, CD-RUN, Speglar, Tough Love Arena, Molar Mayhem, Leisurely Eatery, and Trapped In Here With Me.
- DBAA Snackpack Vol. 1 (USB Compilation) A limited-run physical USB stick containing 10+ indie game projects from the DBAA collective, priced at $15.00 and available for Mac and Windows platforms via the DBAA online store.
- DBAA Membership Program A monthly membership and one-time donation program run through the WithFriends platform, allowing supporters to contribute recurring or one-time funds that underwrite DBAA operations, cabinet materials, and developer payments for new game creation.
- Custom Commissioned Arcade Cabinet Builds Bespoke arcade cabinet design, fabrication, and shipping service for brands, venues, and event producers. Deliverables include custom cabinets and/or custom games tailored to client activations.
- How To Build An Arcade Cabinet Workshop An educational workshop/panel that walks attendees through the arcade cabinet construction process, demonstrated live on stage while building the Kung Fu Kickball cabinet at Super MAGFest 2019.
Quantifiable outcome
- First indie arcade at MAGFest (2016)
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Death By Audio Arcade
Customer profileNamed customers4 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Death By Audio Arcade technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration1 record
Feature4 records
Death By Audio Arcade partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Eight partnerships are on record, tiered minor, flagship and core.
- Cloud City (Williamsburg)minorWilliamsburg performance arts venue where the Droid cabinet currently resides, running Filthy Kitchen or Super Sharp Birds.
- Dreamhouse (Ridgewood, Queens)flagshipLGBTQ venue that collaborated with DBAA to create the DreamboxXx cabinet featuring nine custom games by local queer, trans, gender-nonconforming, and non-binary developers. The cabinet continues to live at Dreamhouse.
- All Night Skate (Bushwick)minorVenue where the DreamboxXx cabinet is available for play, hosting rotating queer arcade content.
- BabycastlesflagshipNYC indie arcade collective that collaborated with DBAA starting in 2012. Jointly curated the Indie Arcade at MAGFest starting in 2016 and continue to partner on community events.
- SoylentflagshipCommissioned DBAA to build two custom arcade cabinets and a custom game called Hungry Hungry Astronauts that shipped to Los Angeles for promotional events.
- Manhattan WestflagshipReal estate company managing the Manhattan West high rise commissioned a custom Slam City Oracles cabinet for their arcade room.
- Brooklyn BreweryminorBrooklyn Brewery tap room hosts the Field-1 cabinet for patron play during operating hours.
- WondervillecoreWonderville serves as the primary home venue for the Death By Audio Arcade collection. Located at 1186 Broadway in Brooklyn, Wonderville is a bar, indie arcade, and event space that hosts the rotating cabinet collection.
Scale indicators3 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights4 records
Death By Audio Arcade competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Babycastles: NYC-based indie arcade collective that curates and builds custom indie arcade cabinets and has collaborated with DBAA since 2012, including co-curating the Indie Arcade at MAGFest from 2016. Directly comparable mission, scale, and operational model.
- Wonderville: Brooklyn bar and indie arcade space that serves as DBAA's home venue since 2019. Operates a rotating collection of indie arcade cabinets with regular public hours, making it both a strategic partner and a directly comparable indie arcade operator.
Broad incumbents
- Barcade: Established multi-location chain of arcade bars combining classic and indie games with food and beverage service. Overlaps with DBAA on the physical-arcade + craft-venue format, but operates at significantly larger commercial scale with classic-game focus.
- Ground Kontrol: Portland-based classic and indie arcade bar operating since 1999. Comparable arcade-venue + curated-game model but with a much larger classic-game library, multiple revenue streams (food, beverage, retail), and broader audience than DBAA's indie-only focus.
- Two Bit Circus: Los Angeles-based immersive physical gaming entertainment venue featuring custom-built interactive attractions and AR/VR experiences. Compares to DBAA's custom-build expertise and experiential ethos but operates as a much larger, venture-backed commercial destination.
Emerging players
- Nullspace: Pittsburgh-based indie arcade and VR event space focused on indie games and community programming. Comparable community-driven indie arcade model in a different regional market, with similar scale and operational footprint.
- Joystick Gamebar: Atlanta-based indie game bar featuring rotating cabinets and community events. Overlaps with DBAA on the indie-cabinet-rotation and community-events model, though with a more bar-centric revenue mix.
- Logan Arcade: Chicago-based indie-focused arcade bar with a curated collection of indie cabinets alongside classic titles. Comparable indie-curation approach to DBAA, though operating as a commercial venue rather than a nonprofit collective.
Others
- Rec Room Masters: Commercial custom arcade cabinet manufacturer serving residential and commercial customers. Adjacent to DBAA's cabinet-building capability but operates as a for-profit retailer rather than a community/creative collective.
- Dream Arcades: Commercial manufacturer of premium multi-game arcade cabinets for home and commercial use. Comparable to DBAA's hardware-engineering expertise but competing in the consumer/commercial sale channel rather than the community/experiential channel.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Death By Audio Arcade social profiles
Digital presenceDeath By Audio Arcade financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Death By Audio Arcade leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Death By Audio Arcade funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Death By Audio Arcade M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Death By Audio Arcade
What does Death By Audio Arcade do?
Death By Audio Arcade designs, fabricates, and operates a collection of more than 20 hand-built, locally networked multiplayer arcade cabinets featuring original indie games, housed at Wonderville in Brooklyn and rotated to festivals, cultural institutions, and partner venues. In addition to running the community arcade experience, the collective produces commissioned custom cabinet builds for brands and venues, sells physical merchandise such as the DBAA Snackpack USB compilation, and operates a membership/donation program to fund ongoing game and cabinet development.
Is Death By Audio Arcade a public or private company?
Death By Audio Arcade is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Death By Audio Arcade founded?
Death By Audio Arcade was founded in 2013.
Where is Death By Audio Arcade based?
Death By Audio Arcade is headquartered in Brooklyn, United States, in the North America region.
How does Death By Audio Arcade make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Event-Based Revenue is the primary driver. The others are community Memberships and Donations, merchandise Sales and commissioned Cabinet Building.
Who are Death By Audio Arcade's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Babycastles and Wonderville. Broad incumbents are Barcade, Ground Kontrol and Two Bit Circus. Emerging players are Nullspace, Joystick Gamebar and Logan Arcade. Others are Rec Room Masters and Dream Arcades.
Does Death By Audio Arcade have an API?
No public API is recorded for Death By Audio Arcade.
What industry is Death By Audio Arcade in?
Death By Audio Arcade's product category is Custom Arcade Cabinets. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDACANAK, Arcade & Retro Gaming Hardware (Mini Consoles, Arcade Sticks, Cabinets), with a secondary code of MPAFAAAA, AAA & Premium Game Studios (PC/Console). Its NAICS code is 713120 and its SIC code is 7900.