Third Zone

Summary

• The Third Zone engine learns what keeps each player engaged and tailors the game to it. Other venue games respond to score or skill at most; we found none that reads motivation.
• Players pay per game, and we split the revenue with the venue. Jukeboxes and dart machines run on the same model. Property owners bring an empty floor, and Mika pays for the game walls. Fit-out and operations are run as a partnership, with terms agreed floor by floor.
• The first prototype runs on a test board. Next come real players, a venue-ready wall, and a pilot at 2–3 sites.
• Founder Mika Kipiani has run 4,000+ entertainment events over 20 years and built the prototype. The engine starts from Mika’s method for identifying what brings each player back.

The problem

US offices are emptier than ever, and AI is now cutting the jobs that filled them. Young adults spend far less time together in person, and fewer of them drink. Landlords and venues both need a way to bring people back without rebuilding.

• US office vacancy reached a record 21% in early 2026, up from 17% in 2020.Moody’s Analytics, 2026
• AI was cited in 22% of US job cuts announced from January through August 2026, up from 5% in 2025.Challenger, Gray & Christmas, 2026
• Among Americans ages 18 to 34, 50% drink alcohol, down from 59% in 2023.Gallup, 2025
• Americans ages 15 to 24 spent about 150 minutes a day in person with friends in 2003. By 2020, that had fallen to 40.U.S. Surgeon General, 2023
• In the UK, half of 16- to 34-year-olds say that losing discourages them from competitive socializing.Mintel, 2026
• Among UK consumers, 64% have been to a pub with games, and 80% say it is better for having them.KAM Media, 2025

Our forecast: as AI agents take on more office work, teams will shrink, and desks on leased floors will sit empty. Landlords will need tenants that bring people into their buildings.

The product

A wall-mounted panel holds targets of different sizes: the large ones are easy to hit, and the small ones are not. The game is played by hand with an American football. Lights mark the active targets, and a screen shows whose turn it is. Scores are private by default. Anyone who wants to compete will be able to join a leaderboard among friends, across their venue, or worldwide.

Simple parts, serious results

There are no cameras. The game runs without an internet connection; only the leaderboards will need one. We chose Raspberry Pi and ESP32 on purpose: every engineer knows these boards, they are easy to replace anywhere, and our engine gets the most out of them.

The prototype

The first prototype is built and working. It counts hits and misses and already identifies each player’s type. Lit targets, the queue screen, and scores on phones will come with the venue-ready wall. See how it works

The engine

For each player, the engine finds the balance of wins and losses that keeps them engaged. It then adjusts the game to hold that balance, so they play again and come back. This is adaptive difficulty, a principle video games have used for decades, brought into the physical world with real sensors.

Everyone at the table can win

Each player competes against their own usual score, not against the others. Whoever improves the most wins the round. So a beginner can beat an expert, and friends of any level can share a game.

How it learns

The engine makes small changes and checks the result after every round. The main measure is simple: did the person play again the same day?

The starting point is Mika’s method because, without real sessions behind it, machine learning would only be guessing. After the pilot, AI will review the play data at regular intervals and replace any rule it can improve on. Every new venue will make the engine smarter.

Not gambling

Nothing is wagered, and no cash prize is ever tied to an adjusted outcome.

Competition

The systems below change difficulty by score, by skill, by hand, or not at all. Our research found no product or patent that recognizes what motivates a player.

What protects it

• The hardware is deliberately standard. The value lies in the method, the engine, and the data.
• The method comes from the founder’s own practice. Its technical details are shared only under an NDA, so competitors can’t buy or copy it.
• The data grows with every session and every venue.
• A worldwide leaderboard will link every wall, so each new venue will give players more people to compete against.
• Play hospitality, our hosting standard, is documented and can be taught to staff.

Business model

• Customers: indoor venues of any size and property owners with vacant floors.
• Revenue from venues: players pay per game, and we split the proceeds with the venue. Jukeboxes and dart machines work the same way. The panel mounts on an existing wall, with no construction needed.
• Revenue from vacant floors: the property owner brings an empty floor, and Mika builds and pays for the game walls. Fit-out and operations are set up as a partnership, and the upside is split on terms agreed floor by floor.
• Additional revenue: licensing the engine for other sensor-based games, such as baseball pitching, and selling the Play hospitality standard together with staff training.

Stages

1. PilotOur own walls in 2–3 venues, to show whether people come back and to gather the first data.
2. Scale with partnersWith proven results, we will approach companies that already operate games in venues, as well as property owners with vacant floors.
3. WorldwideThe long-term goal: Third Zone walls in venues across many countries.

Market signals

• Football is the favorite sport to watch for 31% of American adults, nearly three times the share for basketball.Gallup, 2026
• TouchTunes runs 65,000+ jukeboxes through more than 2,500 local operators.TA Associates
• Arachnid has 30,000+ networked dart machines. TouchTunes acquired the company in 2024.RePlay
• Toptracer is licensed to 1,450+ venues, with no upfront payment.Toptracer, 2026
• Flight Club US grew same-venue sales by 8.3% in the fiscal year that ended in March 2026.Nation’s Restaurant News, 2026
• Games earn Greene King’s pubs more than £2.2 million a year, and the chain is doubling its number of digital dartboards.H&C News, 2026
• Topgolf turned golf into a game for everyone, but giant venues are costly: the company’s valuation fell from about $2 billion in 2021 to about $1.1 billion in 2025. Pinstripes filed for bankruptcy in September 2025 and is being liquidated.Callaway; PitchBook; Restaurant Business

Stage and pilot

• DoneThe engine’s rules, version 1
• DoneThe hosting standard, version 1
• DoneThe design of the measurement system
• DoneThe first prototype
• NextTests with real players
• NextA venue-ready wall
• NextLeaderboards and AI updates in the cloud

Pilot design

Founder

“For 20 years I’ve run 200+ entertainment events a year with big crowds and can tell exactly what brings each player back. Our software is built to do the same, live.”

Mika KipianiFounder & CEO

Over those 20 years, that came to more than 4,000 events with 50 to 500 players each. Mika also designed and built the first prototype.