What Happened to Playdium at West Edmonton Mall? - Best Edmonton Mall 

Only my Mall of America vs. West Edmonton Mall video took longer than this one. Searching for footage, discussions, research, script-writing, editing, etc. put me well into hundreds of hours. If you enjoy watching this even half as much as I did by bringing it to life, you're in for a hit... right in the feels.

Happy New Year! I worked at Playdium for a couple years, including as a supervisor for the last several months of my time there. I quit a few months before it closed down for good, but was invited back to the farewell party where we played some games together for the final time. I have the "honour" of being the LAST person to get LAST place on the Indy 500 racing game. :P

"Best Edmonton Mall" More like, Best... channel on RU-vid

The stars that burn twice as bright, burn half as long. May the memory of Playdium never die!

This makes me so sad! I wish we could go back in time when you could record an album with your friends, go to a dollar movie downstairs, be afraid that the leaping water fountains were gonna getcha, wait in line for hours at the HMV performance stage for an autograph, and seen a dragon breathe fire that was hot enough to make you wonder if it was safe! 😭😭😭 P.S. love all the footage 👌

I've been waiting for this ever since I started watching this channel 3 years ago

As an edmontonian who moved here in 1999 I totally forgot how cool hanging out at west Ed was in my early 20’s

THANK YOU for this. I have a story about Playdium I'd like to share. Playdium was a huge source of reprieve and joy for me. I had just finished moving to Edmonton from Grande Prairie. I was actually pretty excited about the move because I knew that I could go to West Edmonton Mall. More importantly, I discovered Playdium and spent a good year there, going there all the time to play my favourite game - DDR. It really made the move so much easier to bear and gave me a part of my life I will cherish forever. I'm glad to say I was able to see Playdium before it closed down and got to spend a lot of time there. I remember the big projector screen very well and the community that formed around DDR at the time. In fact many of those people are still in touch today. I remember the Drum Mania machine, the old school Hip Hop Mania (Beatmania US obviously) machine, the arcade machines, all the zones, the slushies at the Express and of course the people. However, the greatest part about going to Playdium was meeting my wife. Playdium holds a very special place in my heart because without it, I wouldn't have such an incredible story to share about how we met and, I don't even know that we would be together today. It was August 2, 2003 and I was playing good ol' DDR with a new friend I met. We were stomping away and after finishing a song, these two girls walked up to us and one of them asked for our phone numbers. For 15 year old me that was like a dream come true! Of course I hastily gave it to her.. and then never saw her again. Though, I did see her friend that she came with several times, since she was a regular. I thought nothing of it, and kept stomping away. And, let me tell you, stomp arrows I did. I played DDR for another solid 4 years following that, and even at one time obtained the title of being the best in Canada. Though to be fair, that was mostly because the competition wasn't intense at the time haha. But hey, I managed to climb to the top once! To this day DDR has been special to me for several reasons, but it really changed my life and helped me overcome a lot of the anxiety around the move and meeting new people. It was a huge blessing. Exactly 3 years TO THE DAY after I gave out my phone number, on August 2, 2006, I was browsing Nexopia profiles and happened to come across one of a girl I liked. She had a pretty dark looking profile and she was really cute, so of course I hit her up in a DM (which weren't called DMs back then.. I think private messages?). The crazy thing? She told me she looked at my profile the day before, unbeknownst to me. You see, on Nexopia you could pay for a premium account, and that gave you the ability to anonymously browse profiles and she had that. Otherwise, they'd show up on a page that showed you the profiles that have viewed yours. She wanted to message me but, she told me she was too shy. Also I had a crazy goatee that she didn't like LOL. Well, she clearly liked my message and so, we got to talking and we both figured out.. SHE WAS THE GIRL WHO ASKED FOR MY PHONE NUMBER!! Unbelievable! She actually still had the cell phone with my old number on it and sure enough, there it was. We started dating a week later and well, the rest is history. July 8 this year we celebrated 10 years of marriage, and 2 days ago we celebrated 15 years of being together. She is the best thing that ever happened to me and I really don't know that without Playdium, would we have reconnected all those years later and got together? Hard to say but, I am eternally grateful for Playdium, DDR, and my wife. Thank you so much for making this video and letting me relive those amazing memories.

Born and raised Edmontonian here, I can honestly say I was fortunate enough to go when I was about 11-13 three separate times, if not more. Every kid who had even a shred of disposable income from their parents had a birthday party here, and it was an amazing experience. Reds was still fun too, since you could trade the tickets you won for prizes, but getting to step inside the Playdium was an incredibly unique and memorable experience. Thanks for making this, and I hope your channel gets the recognition it deserves for your excellent quality videos.

3 years and the wait was worth it!!!!!!!!! You sir deserve a mention in the local news! Thanks for always making me proud to be from Edmonton! I still can't believe a bunch of us teens lived in that mall in the early 2000's LOL

​I used to love getting a Booster Juice down near the ship, then going to play some Tekken Tag Tournament there!

This was also known as the “Sunday Babysitter” for my parents. Thank goodness for the “Buy 1 Get 1 Credits” coupons 👍🏻 Food was similar to Chuck E Cheese from my memory (so 7/10). The Monster Truck simulator, theater sized Dance Dance Revolution, group racing simulators, game console launch events, mini bowling lanes and every mainstream arcade machine on the market 🤯 I can’t believe this was a business at one point but surely sad to see it go. Can’t wait for the premier 👍🏻 Born and raised Edmontonian and a loyal Best Edmonton Mall fan! Thanks and Happy Holidays good sir.

So many memories of this place i miss it greatly i had such great times here as a younger person. I was already a huge gamer by the time this opened and this just deepened my love for games that still burns to this day. I was quite sad when it closed down the lack of arcades in this city is not fun as despite owning a pc and games consoles a arcade is a unique experience. almost 30 now and this video just made a ton of memories come back i even had one of my birthdays at this place.

What an awesome nostalgic trip this video was. I only went to Playdium once during its entire 4 year stint in WEM. Despite that, I have never forgotten about it. I'll never forget doing the monster truck simulator with my dad. This was over 15 years ago, and it's still a vivid memory. That's how big of a lasting impression Playdium had. Arcades today just aren't built the same.

That was the place to be on a Friday night I had my 18th birthday party there I rented out one of there rooms for my birthday party I loved that place from the day it opened to the day it closed it’s doors I went to the auction they were having on all the equipment and arcades game they are getting rid of To me it was more like a funeral than an auction I’m still sad to the day that it’s gone when I think about that place but happy we got something that compares which is the Rec Room This is where I first stepped foot onto a dance dance revolution machine and instantly fell in love with that game

Awesome! I’ve been waiting for this one for a long time, thank you for bringing back the nostalgia! I sure do miss the place.

Thank you so much for putting this together! Done so well. Such a big part of my life growing up...took me back. What a time.🙏

I love the history of this mall. I lived in and out of Edmonton as a young adult, as someone from the other side of the world this mall was like something out of a scifi movie, especially when super stoned. Keep up the great videos they make my nostalgic for a youth I didn't actually live.

The Rec Room just doesn't compare to this place. I wish it still existed.

Thank you so much for this. Was hoping you would do one on this amazing arcade

You sir deserve a big thumbs up! Awesome video and fantastic commentary! I remember being a kid at Playdium, thank you for the videos!

I was waiting for you to do this one. This was definitely a gem in the mall

These video is hits the feels I never would’ve thought years ago someone would make a video this well done. I was ready to just accept this stuff was just a faint memory

I guess I was too young at that time to experience Playdium or maybe I was too young to remember ever going but it looks soooo awesome! I wish there was a way to go back in time to have day there just to have fun with all the games and take in the atmosphere of it. Thanks for always providing such amazingly informative & fascinating videos! Hope you have a Happy New Year!

Oh man, you just brought me back a good 20 years, whenever we come to Edmonton from Fort Mac, I always spent so much time at the Playdium, so many good times here, I use to play House of the Dead 2 to death here, that and Zombie Revenge in the combat zone, thanks for this trip down memory lane~

I miss A Channel

Can't wait to see the video, I spent many hours in this place. My dad and I decided to try the big monster truck machine they had, where you went inside of it and it would roll around as you drive... it glitched out and gave us the blue screen of death and started rolling out of control for about 2 minutes straight before the staff member shut it off. They gave us like 200+ dollars in gift cards for the issue, We used about half of them before they shut down. I'm sad that it's gone but it does make sense...

Oh man, A Channel. That brings back memories! Another fantastic video. I was lucky enough to go to Playdium for a friend’s birthday party once upon a time. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

Really well done video. I've never been to WEM and had never even heard of Playdium before watching but still felt nostalgic. Glad your channel came up on recommended :)

thanks for doing this video!

Matt, I just want to say how much I greatly appreciate all the hard work, time, and dedication to this video. Thank you so much! I regret to say I've never really been in there except a couple times, but wish I'd gone to the mall far more often as a teen (and kid). Anyway, I had a blast watching this. Your vids are always super informative!

Makes me cry a little lol 🥲 I miss this place. Worked there from 2001-2004

I’ve been waiting for you to talk about Playdium! This was my favourite place as a kid! I remember even having birthday parties there. I was devastated when it closed down 😩

Great vid, thank you for your hard work in bringing back memories of WEM. My son and I often talk about playing Tekken and other games there. This was an awesome place, it's too bad it was only around for 4 years! I remember bringing my son into Maxzilla, we purposely flipped the truck and all of the coins in our pockets came out into the machine.

So sorry to have missed all this. Thanks for the history!

I can't believe this was 20 years ago. I have so many memories of this place as a kid. The Monster truck was amazing they even opened bowling lanes here as well

Yay! Another great video. I was fresh out of college, and applied for a job at their automated job kiosk. Didn’t get a job, though. And I only ever visited once. After seeing the premiere of the first Spider-Man at Silver City, me and my friend played a few of our old favourites in the Classics Zone. And since you said more Playdium videos are coming, I hope Stingray Radio lets you in to photograph the bar. They left the bar untouched, and use it for staff parties.

Outstanding video! I consider myself somewhat of West Edmonton Mall historian as well, but the Playdium was that one attraction that I never experienced! I lived a block away from the mall from 1989 to 2012 and worked at Caesars Bingo from 96' to 00'.. To this day I'm not much of a video gamer, but I remember I spent a lot of nights up at the old Nashville's Roadhouse bar (where the T&T Supermarket is located now) or at Reds, or at the old club Malibu on Bourbon Street.. Lol.. I really wish I would have gone in and experienced this place just once while it was there! Love your channel dude! Awesome content!! Keep up the great work!!

Awesome video, I worked at this fine establishment back in the day.

I still have my play card 🤣🤣🤣 Loved this place so much.

I remember riding the original water slides that you showed in this video, I have a feeling they will bring something similar back ,, or more so ‘hoping’ !! keep up the great work, we love your videos 😍😁😁

The only time I went to Playdium was in the spring of 2001. I know my friend tried the Monster Truck Ride and I played some games. But the best thing we did was sit in the sports bar, drink beer and play bubble hockey. We must have been in there for a few hours before deciding to leave and take a cab to Whyte Ave for an impromptu pubcrawl.

Great videos. It’s nice to see what used to be. Hopefully there will still be a mall to go to after covid.

Nice video. I remember when my Dad told me about this place long before it opened as he was the guy who approved their financing at the bank he worked for at the time. Remember going their several times. The truck game was rarely working so never got to try it. After they closed for a while there was a paint ball place on level 1 by the mall exit. Thanks for making your video very informative and well done👍🏼.

Thank you for filling in the gaps in the memories from a lifetime ago.

Man to go back to those simpler days. Great video!

I am glad that I only live three hours away from the west edmonton mall. It is so much fun there. Hopefully I will go back after covid.

Great video once again btw

Great video! I was part of the original round of hires for the opening of Playdium Edmonton and worked there for about a year as a Playmaster. It always gives me pleasure to this day to tell people my first job was to play video games with people lol.

Dang I was so excited when I saw this on my homepage and it was even better than I hoped. Been waiting on this one and it was worth it.

Great channel!!

Wow way to bring the memories back for me. Playdium was awesome!!! That Monster truck ride was the best, I remember getting stuck upside down for about 5 minutes because we flipped it right when time expired lol

Man, its been that long. This was two and a half years of my life working here. It reminds me of the people that where working hard every day there. Amazing team. I really miss them.

Just found this channel, had no idea what this mall even was, but the videos are super high quality and interesting- looks more like something I would see from a channel with 1M subscribers, not 16K! Keep up the amazing work!

I loved going there My parents used to drive up there every summer from Vancouver i would play there for hours !!!

man I loved playdium

That was awesome!!

There also used to be a small bowling alley in Pladium, I remember this because I was there for a birthday party and broke the machine from throwing the ball too hard

Excellent video! I went to Playdium a few times around 01/02 and I didn't even blink watching this, hoping to see my favorite games which were the air hockey tables, the one where you shot the hockey pucks at the moving goalie, and The Lost World: Jurassic Park which you can briefly see in the background at 9:35

Ah, many good memories of time well spent. Best memories are of the bobsled game, as it was one of the few games my brother, my cousin and I could all play together (especially when it was quiet)!

Clearly a lot of time and effort went into this presentation. Thank you for all your efforts.

I visited Edmonton as a kid in the summer of 2003 and remember spending almost all day in the Playdium. It was amazing! Such a shame that it closed shortly after. I think we had one of the cards loaded with credits and because you earned credits, we never ran out for the whole day. I've still got the PlayCard as a momento. Thanks for an awesome video, it brings back some really fond memories.

New subscriber, and this brings back so many memories! Any plans on doing a "What Happened to Red's?" retrospective?

I remember going to Playdium as a kid when it first opened. It was on a completely different level as an arcade. I remember being impressed with the innovative game cards. I also remember they had staff that would walk around the floor serving slurpees and other drinks and snacks while you played. It was like Las Vegas for teenagers. I'm impressed with the level of detail of this video and how you described the specific games, many of which had escaped my memory until now. One criminal omission, however, was the Star Wars Episode one podracer game. That game was particularly special as it allowed Star Wars fans to live out their fantasies after watching Episode One at Silver City. Playdium is special because it was a product of the time when WEM really swung for the fence with its attractions. I take my hat off to you and your fine work. Do Supply Sargeant next.

I had some of my bachelor party here back in 2002. Miss it so much.

I worked in a Game works, one of the original sci-fi factory themed mega-arcades of the brand, operating Indy 500, and a multi-story tower ride/game, usually sky pirates. There was only 3 of the machines made (one per original Gameworks) so spare parts were a challenge! When I worked there we were down to one functional section of the three sided tower. It even opened up with Combatica but the impressive looking fighter game was replaced with a pad where various simulators lived before they were replaced with a card charging and cash stand. Alas, the glory of the super-size Gameworks was an ugly duckling once arcades collapsed and the Spielberg-hyped brand was spun off into a Sega partnership that was trying to be a Dave&Busters resteraunt experience and the big grungy sci-fi factory in Grapevine was closed, hollowed out and replaced one of the chain of mall aquariums that are opening all over. A lost gem we won't see again.

This is so nostalgic

DDR and Powerstone were my go-to games there.

Oh man I was definitely lucky enough to have been there when it was around, I remember begging my parents all the time to take me there haha.

I remember the slushes and you could also request a song to be played. Man I miss playdium. My friend won the street fighter 3 machine at the auction. Also that monster truck game almost made me throw up. The f1 game was awesome too.

Fond memories of the place. Opening day was same day that Romeo Must Die came out March 2000. Watched the movie then checked out Playdium later that night. Cool place. Lots of great games. Really miss a lot of those big Sega games. Had a blast with Daytona, Jumbo Safari, and Brave Firefighters.

I got to visit this sometime in the early 2000s when we at the mall vacationing from the tiny Saskatchewan town I grew up in. It honestly felt like stepping into a Hollywood movie set, and my like 12-13 year old mind was blown. I only got to spend an hour there and I don't even recall making it out of speed zone. I think that my mom gave me 20-30 bucks on a playcard and it didn't last much longer than 45 minutes. But man, such sweet memories. I am now into collecting retro arcade hardware, retro consoles, and playing pinball competitively here in Edmonton (Shout out to Die Hard Pinball League and YEGPIN). I like to think Playdium had a big formative impact on that, as the only arcade we had in my hometown was four old cabinets in a restaurant/pool hall. (Granted Golden Axe, 1942, and Gaelco World Rally are the ones I remember there... It wasn't all bad)

I really like this Channel so much to do at wem I wish I was there

I was impressed when I first came to playdium it had everything I couldn't get enough it was pretty popular I still have a few playdium cards lying around somewhere it was usually a busy location if you had the cash practically spend all day there especially as a teen good times

Man I miss this place I remember $25 for 4hrs of play and man that monster truck Sim was hella fun as well :)

I remember playing the Star Wars Trilogy Arcade, that fire fighting game, the hockey simulator, Rampage, gauntlet, and drop zone.

Great video! Sadly when I moved to Edmonton in 2002 I was a bit "over" most Arcades and never did many simulators, so when I think of Playdium I just think of a weird section where they hooked some regular PS2s into cabinets so you could play "Spawn" or something. I don't even remember a Fighting Game section! Did they take that out after a point? Recouping a 12 million dollar investment but then immediately closing because of rent is crazy. If WEM was smarter they'd have made a deal so more people would head to that section of the mall. PJ's Pets was in the lower space for years, but after that they had a miserable time finding stuff for it. And RADIO STATIONS?! That just kills the vibe of the area. Does Coin & Stamp really make enough for what is probably a huge amount of rent?

It had a really great sports bar. Use to go there after work for a drink. Also played name that tune a few times.

I went in the Virtual Monster Truck that would go upside down. So fun! I miss this place.

My buddies and I used to enjoy going to both Playdium and Curcuit Circus at West Edmonton Mall

I miss this place so much I remember it was $25 for like 3 or 4hrs of Play

I think you’ve done a video or two on Ed’s rec room. You should do one on the Edmonton Event Centre. I worked there from about 2009 till it’s close in 2013.

This was my favorite place to hangout. My parents would always get the biggest plate of nachos from the sports bar while we played on unlimited play time cards. I met so many friends playing DDR there. Also the cheat code to get the faster car on the Sega racing game was fun to use on strangers.

I got my first phone number at the big ddr machine at the age of 13-14. I remember playing Sega rally, each machine was claimed by someone who was trying for high scores and there was an unwritten rule that if you could beat the scores on the other machines, you would stick to your own. I remember meeting a person I knew back from elementary school on Sega rally. CJH. He had the middle machine, I was on the left. BOI. I remember you could hold the brake and pull the hand brake at car selection and it would give you secret cars, the celica gt4 and Lancia Stratos. Chris if you're reading this, been a long time. Hope you're well! I used to go here on Sundays for 3 hours of unlimited play so often, the lady working the kitchen area would pour me a sprite without asking. I had some good times at playdium. Ones I won't soon forget.

man west ed has really changed since the last time I visited back in 2009 I need to go back there it's a shame I never went there

I had one weekend at Playdium. My brother and I got to spend what seemed like a hundred hours in there over the course of three days. My dad had a conference in Edmonton and our parents would drop us at the mall just after opening and pick us up just before close. I'll never forget that place

my fav games was the star wars episode 1 racing game and monster truck

The original "Rec Room" before Rec Room! But with more hype!!

I remember the Monster truck ride and the indi 500 one always being out of service, or at least 2 of the cars not working pretty much all of the times we went. The Fighting games always had the gangs and tough kids hanging out in them.

aww yes, finally

IMO peak WEM was that 2 months after Playdium opened. It had HMV, Hard Rock, Planet Hollywood, the dragon, Drop of Doom, the submarines, dolphins, Bourbon Street, 3 cheap theatres, the inflatable lazer tag. Everything was also that delightfully tacky bronze theme. It also seemed to be a time where you could go everyday and something would be different.

I loved the Indy 500 game. I knew a cheat where you would spawn in as a police car that couldn't get knocked out, was great to just grief other people.

Just searching your videos for the video where you talked about the old beach hut cabanas with the blue/yellow/red with the white stripes, and they had doors on them, Before they renovated to what they have now, I remember watching a video about that about a year ago but can’t find it on Your channel? And also a video about the kids waterpark section before they renovated that too

oh man, this place sounds so cool! too bad it was way before my time living in the area. not to "young" myself, but I was only 10 for most of the year that it closed!

My dad was the manager of Hudson’s bay company in west Edmonton mall, he helped set the store up when it showed up in the mall.

I was too busy to ever visit the spot as I had to work up to 12 hours a day. Only things I remember about that section of the mall was the poor dolphins, the aquarium, and the subs that rarely ever ran.

Do you have any footage of the old Red's/Edmonton Event Centre? That was my favorite part of the mall for years, would love to see a video on it. Great job on this one 🙂 it's hard to believe that Playdium only lasted four years. It seemed to be so successful. I guess that time period was kind of towards the end of arcades being profitable in general though.

Seeing the footage of the sports bar made me think of Schanks - guess I'll see if you did a video on that after this one ends

I truly miss a great classic arcade like playduim they even had super niche cabs I have never seen in other arcades before and was a great could kill whole days there playing games

I remember having a mall director and map loaded onto a palm pilot way back in the day... Must've been like 04