Last month, Savefile announced – humbly, in a small Instagram post – that they might close up shop, citing poor finances. The beloved gaming bar – filled with CRTs and playstations in cavernous, grungy rooms – has been a mainstay of the Tampere nerd scene for years. While Lategame either gives you a relaxed cafe or a sweaty LAN party (depending on which floor you’re on), and Noob Barcade mainly offers an expensive arcade night with drinks involved, Savefile unapologetically gives you a gaming bar. Cheap booze. Bearded men yelling at Burnout 3. Tekken on Saturdays. It was an institution. And yet, suddenly one that could vanish overnight.
The response was swift. The bar was packed the immediate weekend after the post: the line to the bar stretching deep into the middle of the main room’s Tekken competition. Southern Finland’s entire Tekken scene flocked to the bar, to save this vital home for the fighting game community. The people turned out, and Savefile could stay for a little while longer.
Of course, there needs to be consistent business to stay afloat. Since the Ukraine war started, rising inflation has made it harder and harder for restaurants and bars to stay open across Finland. Prices are higher and people simply have less money to spend on non-essential goods: like beer at bar prices. While inflation is nowhere near its peak of 7% in the immediate war breakout period, food and services (like “a bar”) are the main sectors still increasing in price (as per Nordea). It is simply much harder to be a bar or restaurant in today’s Finland, and especially one connected to a small business. Money is tight, and (unlike during COVID) the government isn’t particularly keen to help.
Savefile burst onto the scene in April 2019, to a very different Tampere from today. Taverna aside, there were few cafes or bars for gaming nerds to hang out. There were none for people to just play video games together, outside of official convention circuits: places like LanTrek and Tampere Kupili. It was in this lonely time that Mikko and Ville – two self-proclaimed gaming nerds – decided to turn their pipe dream of making a gaming bar into a reality. They had no experience, and yet they built something entirely new in this city: something that paved the way for a myriad other gaming cafes to follow.
And one which provided a home for Tampere’s fighting game scene. Tekken “stream team” Biiruken leapt at the chance to have a venue: holding one of their first in person Tekken tournaments in Savefile as early as October of 2019, and holding their second as soon as COVID restrictions ended in 2022. Among Finnish fighting game enthusiasts, Savefile has a near mythical status: I’ve met competitors as far out as Lahti who immediately started gushing about Savefile when I’ve told them I live in Tampere. This community (alongside the various quiz events that Savefile holds) drives the most footfall to the bar, and it’s fair to say that the bar would be in a much worse position without their support.
Savefile is a bar with a specific niche. The grungy basement vibes, constant metal soundtrack and indeed the focus on retro games and fighting games attracts a specific clientele (predominantly male, mainly wearing black). It’s a loud place, and rough around the edges in a way that (for example) Lategame isn’t. But this gives it its charm: what is Tampere if not itself a city rough around the edges? There is love and passion in these walls for this very specific vision of games. Tampere would be a poorer place without it. Go drink there, while you still can.
This piece is based off an email interview with Ville, alongside supplementary on-the-ground accounts.
