A VENUE which brought horror-themed escape rooms and virtual reality to Weymouth is set to close after two years.

Player Ready opened in Jeffrey House on Maiden Street in 2022.

The business offered a virtual reality gaming experience including escape rooms, laser tag, sim-racing, a zombie mode, and acted as a party venue.

Player Ready also operates venues in Taunton, Exeter, Plymouth, Portsmouth and Truro.

However, the owners have announced that their Weymouth business will close next Tuesday and said that issues surrounding the cost of living were a huge factor.

Owners also said their Weymouth venue drew a number of "anti-tech style comments" on Facebook adverts, which they claim did not happen in any other region.

A spokesperson for Player Ready Weymouth said: "Over the last two years since opening in Weymouth, we have seen costs of electricity, wages, and insurance all increase significantly.

"This is not something we can easily pass along in our pricing and at the same time, due to the cost of living crisis, demand has sessions dropped.

"Operating in Weymouth is very hard with the seasonality of the location.

"All while sustaining two members of staff and the premises all year.

"Summer has always been good but not good enough to sustain all year and we hoped the clubs would help smooth out revenue.

"Although 99.9 per cent of our customers have been amazing and helped us achieve number 1 on TripAdvisor, the marketing team always faced a lot of negative and anti-tech style comments on our Facebook adverts, which doesn't really occur in any other region we operate, meaning it costs a lot more to make a sale."

Owners said the focus of Player Ready Virtual Reality UK is now shifting to being more focused on using tech & VR for Educational purposes and have launched a Coding and Minecraft Club in Weymouth.

A spokesperson added: "This is a mix of mainstream clubs & alternative provision around coding, game design and robotics, especially for children and young people with SEN/ SEND."

All parties who have booked with the venue this week will still go ahead as normal and bookings are still available for the remaining days in April.

Any bookings made after May 1 will be cancelled.