Shift Arcade — Attraction in San Ramon

I’ve been going to Shift Arcade in Concord since they first opened and always enjoyed the experience. Back then, it was super easy. I’d walk in, pick my car and track, and be driving in less than a minute. Lately though, the experience just hasn’t been the same.

During my most recent visit, I ran into a bunch of issues that really took away from the fun. They’ve added a new launcher system that kept crashing during my session, and every time it did, it took a few minutes to restart. When you’re paying for a timed session, that downtime really matters. On top of that, the steering wheel on my rig kept cutting out and losing torque. It happened more than 10 times in just one hour, which made it hard to stay focused or enjoy the drive.

This isn’t just a one-time thing either. Some of my friends have had issues in the past with broken shifters, clutch pedals not working, and other hardware and software problems. These kinds of bugs seem to be happening more often now, which is disappointing.

One thing I do want to highlight is the staff. They were genuinely awesome. The whole time, they were running around trying to fix people’s rigs, including mine. You could tell they were doing their best and really cared about helping everyone have a good time.

I still like Shift Arcade and really hope things get better soon. But unless they get the technical issues under control, I’m probably going to hold off on coming...

Really happy that theres a sim spot near me now, theres just a few things holding it back from being perfect. I wish there were more cars and tracks, since the kunos on assetto corsa have weird physics models, and I miss the drift tracks they used to have at the old location too. The hardware is all great but the wheel settings feel a bit off, the self steering and force feedback feel weird and admittedly I don’t know the exact settings to dial them in but just speaking from dozens of irl seat time hours in both grassroots and pro level comp cars it doesn’t feel the same. Also it does get pretty hot after a few laps and I tend to get pretty sweaty lol. Other than that I really like the spot and I think it has a ton of potential to be perfect, and it seems like both the owners and the staff are really passionate about motorsports so I will definitely be coming...

’ve been going to Shift Arcade for the past month or two, and overall it’s been a fun experience. It’s a great place to chill and get into some sim racing.

That said, there have been a few issues lately. The new UI crashes pretty often, and picking cars is more confusing now since you can’t really see what you’re selecting — especially when there are different versions of the same model. On my last visit, the wheel on my rig kept cutting out during my session, and the shifter on the Lauda setup wasn’t working at all. When you're paying for timed sessions, that kind of stuff really matters.

The staff has been great every time I’ve gone (Shoutout to Blake and Chris) — super helpful and clearly trying their best. I still like the spot and hope they get the technical stuff sorted out soon, because I’d like to keep...