The building that housed the legendary Central bookstore (Postigo de San Martín, 8) now houses a temple for video gamers. It is OXO, an innovative museum that came to Spain for the first time in mid-2023 in Malaga. After twelve months of success, it has decided to expand and open a new headquarters to spread the history and legacy of video gaming in the capital.
OXO Madrid will open its doors to the first visitors on December 4. General admission tickets are already on sale on the museum’s official website and cost 21 euros. For people with disabilities and children between 5 and 13 years, the cost is reduced to 16 euros.
With its strategic location -a 19th century mansion a few meters from Callao – and its dozens of games, OXO aims to become a meeting point for a large community of gamers nationwide and encourage the creation of new technological projects.
The gamers’ paradise has a fixed collection that shows the evolution of digital games in seventy years. It also has temporary exhibitions; a gift store; educational workshops and meetings with developers and professionals related to the gaming industry.
To differentiate itself from the Andalusian headquarters, its program includes immersive experiences of all kinds: from a snake game on a giant cell phone to recreational areas to play on legendary machines from Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft and other giants of the industry. The virtual reality spaces stand out, equipped with the best technology in the sector.
The founders of OXO are the Ramos brothers, responsible for Kaiju Group: a company from Malaga specialized in development, training and videogame events. Many of their initiatives are developed through Gamer Camp and the Escuela Superior de Videojuegos y Arte Digital (EVAD). One of Kaiju’s most famous projects is FreakCon: a meeting that celebrates geek culture and geek pride with exhibitions, concerts and cosplay contests.
What happened to La Central?
While the organizers of OXO are preparing for the opening, La Central is adapting to its new location, which is right in front of the museum. The bookstore had to leave the Elizabethan palace where it had been for a decade due to pressures from the real estate sector. In a statement, the owners of the iconic bookstore said that “foreclosures, lawsuits, auctions and ambitions of new owners” can make a project like theirs “unfeasible”. Therefore, “they had no choice” but to move.