CloverFiserv
use our proprietary Point of Sale software and sign the license agreement attached in Exhibit H-7 of this Disclosure Document. The current credit card device that must be used is Clover Flex. We estim
From the filings
HQ + multi-unit
Game Kastle
Retail non foodGame Kastle's most recent Franchise Disclosure Document, filed in 2026, discloses 9 total units — 6 franchised and 3 company-owned — at an average unit volume of $786,449, with unit count down 14.3% year over year. Item 1 names Shaw J. Mead as Chief Executive Officer and Barbara King as Franchise Sales and Franchise Operations Consultant; no technology officer is disclosed, so a pitch lands with the CEO. The filing mandates exactly one system, QuickBooks, and names Clover in a fee or usage clause that requires nothing — leaving point of sale and payments open.
For software vendors selling into US franchise brands.
Live signals
Total units
9
6 franchised
Unit growth YoY
-14.286%
vs prior filing
AUV
$786K
Item 19, 2025
Royalty
5%
of gross sales
Ad fund
1%
national + local
Initial fee
$48K
per unit
Investment range
$195K–$419K
all-in, Item 7
Procurement
Approved supplier
from the filing
Non-compete
2 years
from the filing
Item 19
Claims
from the filing
Ongoing fee load
What the operator pays every month
The recurring percentage of gross sales named in this filing, before rent, labour or any technology fee.
6%of gross sales (FY2026)
15% reference
Mandated & recommended tech
The systems vendors compete with
Systems named in Item 11 of this filing. None is recorded as mandated here, which is not the same as the filing mandating nothing. Read Item 11 before treating the category as open.
QuickBooksIntuit
s of the following hardware and software: (a) a Windows desktop and our POS system, which should include at least two POS terminals; and (b) Microsoft Office, our POS software and QuickBooks. You must
Franchisor behaviours
What the franchisor requires
27 requirements the franchisor states in this filing, each in its own words; 3 explicit no's; 4 questions the text does not settle, which is not a no.
Accounting
Must the franchisee use an accounting or bookkeeping system designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesItem 11
We also require full access to the designated accounting software or system that you use.
Does the franchisor have direct or independent electronic access to the franchisee's financial, sales or customer records?
YesItem 11
We (or our designee) have the right to independently access the electronic information and data relating to your Game Kastle Business and to collect and use your electronic information and data in any manner, including to promote the System and the sale of Franchises.
Must the franchisee submit periodic financial statements (monthly, quarterly or annual) to the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
You will deliver a balance sheet, profit and loss statement, statement of cash flows and explanatory footnotes prepared under generally accepted accounting principles applied on a consistent basis (“Financial Statements”) to us within the time period required by the Confidential Operating Manual.
How the franchisor buys
Is the franchisor or an affiliate itself a supplier of required products, services or systems?
YesItem 8
Our affiliate, HGDI, is the sole provider of certain technology services and POS System support.
Does the franchisor reserve the right to change designated suppliers or systems at any time?
YesFranchise agreement
We may change or add approved suppliers of this Technology at any time, in our sole discretion.
How much revenue did the franchisor and its affiliates earn from franchisee purchases in the last fiscal year?
58712Item 8
During the last fiscal year ending December 31, 2025, HGDI received $58,712 from franchisee purchases of inventory.
Does the franchisor or an affiliate receive rebates, commissions or other revenue from designated or approved suppliers?
YesItem 8
We and our affiliates may receive rebates from some suppliers based on your purchase of products and services; however, we will pass these rebates on to our Brand Fund.
Item 8 gives this proportion in one of two shapes: separate percentages for establishing the business and for operating it, or one figure covering "establishing and operating" together. Where they are separate, answer with the operating percentage; where the passage gives only the combined figure, answer with that. What percentage of the franchisee's purchases must come from designated or approved suppliers?
5Item 8
We estimate that approximately 10% to 20% of purchases required to open your Game Kastle Business and 5% to 10% of purchases required to operate your Game Kastle Business will be from our affiliate or from other approved suppliers or under our specifications.
Does the franchisor charge a fee to evaluate a proposed supplier?
YesItem 8
We reserve the right to charge a fee to evaluate the proposed product, service or supplier.
Can a franchisee propose a new supplier for the franchisor's approval?
YesItem 8
If you want to use or sell a product or service that we have not yet evaluated, or if you want to purchase or lease a product or service from a supplier or provider that we have not yet approved (for products and services that require supplier approval), you must notify us and submit to us the information…
Communications
Does the franchisor own or control the business telephone numbers, or take them over when the agreement ends?
YesFranchise agreement
Immediately stop using all telephone numbers, advertisements, domain names and social media accounts associated with the Franchised Business.
Data and IT
Must the franchisee comply with PCI, data-security or cybersecurity standards set by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
You agree to comply with the then-current Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards as those standards may be revised and modified by the PCI Security Standards Council, LLC, or any successor organization or standards we may reasonably specify.
Franchise management
Does the franchisor conduct periodic inspections, audits or evaluations of the franchised business?
YesFranchise agreement
To ensure compliance with this Franchise Agreement, we or our representatives will have the right to enter your Premises, evaluate your Franchised Business operations, and inspect or examine your books, records, accounts and tax returns.
Can the franchisor change the operations manual and brand standards unilaterally?
YesFranchise agreement
We can modify the Confidential Operating Manual at any time.
Must the franchisor approve the franchisee's site or location before opening?
YesItem 11
We must approve the site before you sign the lease.
Marketing
Is a minimum grand opening advertising spend required?
YesItem 7
You must spend a minimum of $1,500 on grand opening advertising and promotions prior to your opening and during your first three months of operation.
Is the franchisee required to spend a minimum amount on local advertising or marketing, as a percentage of sales or a fixed amount?
YesItem 11
In addition to the Brand Fund Contributions, you must spend 2% of Gross Sales on local advertising (“Local Advertising Requirement”).
Must the franchisee participate in a customer loyalty or rewards program?
YesItem 11
You will participate in a customer loyalty rewards program for all franchisees, website, and affiliate stores.
Must the franchisee participate in a regional advertising cooperative when one exists?
YesFranchise agreement
You must participate in any advertising cooperative that we require for the purpose of creating and/or purchasing advertising programs for the benefit of all franchisees operating within a particular region.
Operations
Must equipment be purchased from designated or approved suppliers?
YesItem 8
You must use the computer hardware and software, including the point-of-sale system that we periodically designate to operate your Game Kastle Business.
Payments
Must the franchisee use a payment processor or merchant-services provider designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
You agree to maintain, at all times, credit card relationships with the credit and debit card issuers or sponsors, check or credit verification services, financial center services, payment providers, merchant service providers, loyalty and gift cards, and electronic fund transfer systems (together, “Payment Vendors”)…
Are royalties and other fees collected by automatic bank debit (ACH or electronic funds transfer) from the franchisee's account?
YesFranchise agreement
You must complete our automated clearing house (ACH) authorization form allowing us to electronically debit a bank account you designate (“Franchise Account”) for: (i) all fees payable to us under this Franchise Agreement (other than the Initial Franchise Fee); and (ii) any other amounts you owe to us or any of our…
Must the franchisee participate in a gift card program?
YesItem 11
You will not create or issue any gift cards or certificates and will only sell gift cards/certificates that have been issued or sponsored by us and which are accepted at all Game Kastle Businesses, and you will not issue coupons or discounts of any type except as approved by us.
Point of sale
Must the franchisee use a specific point-of-sale system designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesItem 8
You must use the computer hardware and software, including the point-of-sale system that we periodically designate to operate your Game Kastle Business.
Does the franchisor have independent access to the data in the franchisee's POS or computer system?
YesItem 11
We (or our designee) have the right to independently access the electronic information and data relating to your Game Kastle Business and to collect and use your electronic information and data in any manner, including to promote the System and the sale of Franchises.
Training
Can the franchisor charge the franchisee for additional, refresher or remedial training?
YesItem 6
We may charge you for additional person for training additional persons, newly hired initial training and personnel, refresher training courses, $600 per attendee per remedial training, advanced training day for additional courses, and additional or special training) assistance or training you need or request.
Is attendance at an annual convention or conference mandatory for the franchisee?
YesItem 11
In addition to participating in ongoing training, you will be required to attend any national or regional meeting or conference of franchisees.
The filing answers no to 3 questions
- Is there a franchisee advisory council, association or committee?Item 11
- Is the franchisee prohibited from operating its own website or social media accounts, or required to use pages the franchisor provides?Item 11
- Does the franchisor require minimum staffing levels or specific roles?Franchise agreement
The vendor opportunity at Game Kastle
Game Kastle is a California-headquartered retail non-food brand — game stores — and its most recent Franchise Disclosure Document, filed in 2026, discloses 9 total units: 6 franchised and 3 company-owned. Average unit volume is $786,449. Unit count fell 14.3% year over year, so this is a contracting system, and that shapes the pitch: cost-per-unit software with a short payback lands better here than a platform sale priced off growth.
Royalty is 5.0% and the initial term is 10 years. Operator mapping locates roughly 11 units held by 11 mapped operators, none of them multi-unit, spread across Iowa (2), Wisconsin, Washington DC, Nevada and Alabama at one each. The mapped count runs ahead of the disclosed unit count, so reconcile the two before sizing anything. No operator holds more than one store, which means there is no multi-unit franchisee acting as its own buying center.
Who controls software purchasing
Item 1 names two people: Shaw J. Mead, Chief Executive Officer, and Barbara King, Franchise Sales and Franchise Operations Consultant. There is no chief information officer, chief technology officer or IT director on file, so technology decisions land on the CEO — normal for a nine-unit system, and useful, because it means one conversation rather than a committee.
That said, control is split. The franchisor has demonstrated it will mandate a system (see below), so HQ can close a category when it chooses. But 6 of 9 units are franchised and every mapped operator is a single-store owner, so anything not mandated is bought store by store. Sell the standard to the CEO; expect to sell the rollout one location at a time.
Tech named in the FDD, and what is actually required
Two systems appear in the 2026 filing, and they are not equivalent. QuickBooks is mandated — the FDD obliges the franchisee to use it. Clover appears through a fee or usage clause rather than an obligation: the filing names it, and nothing in it requires a franchisee to run it.
Read commercially, that means accounting is closed at the franchisor level and everything else is open. There is no mandated point of sale, no mandated payment processor, no mandated inventory or ecommerce platform, and no mandated loyalty or CRM system. For a vendor selling into a game-retail system — where inventory depth, single-card SKUs and event scheduling are the operational pain — the categories that matter are not held by a franchisor contract. The presence of Clover in the document tells you the payments conversation exists; it does not tell you a store is running it.
Procurement, renewals, and timing
Item 8, covering sources of products and services, yields no extract in the most recent filing, so the procurement model is not disclosed. The QuickBooks obligation is the only firm supplier-side technology requirement visible.
Item 17 sets the renewal clock. A franchisee in good standing who meets the other requirements may add two successor terms of five years each, and must sign the then-current franchise agreement and ancillary documents for each successor term — which may carry materially different terms, including higher royalty and advertising contributions. A 10-year initial term followed by five-year successor terms means the contract reopens more often later in a store's life than at the start.
How to read the Game Kastle FDD
The 2026 document was filed with state franchise regulators and is embedded in the viewer below. Item 1 gives the corporate structure and the two people on record, Item 8 covers supplier obligations, Item 17 carries the successor-term language quoted above, Item 19 carries the $786,449 average unit volume, and Item 20 carries the 9-unit split and the year-over-year decline.
If you want Game Kastle ranked against every other US franchise system your product actually fits, talk to FranCloud.
Questions vendors ask
Game Kastle, answered from the filing
Item 1 names Shaw J. Mead, Chief Executive Officer, and Barbara King, Franchise Sales and Franchise Operations Consultant. No CIO or CTO is disclosed, so technology decisions sit with the CEO. With 6 of 9 units franchised and no multi-unit operators mapped, individual stores still buy for themselves.
One system: QuickBooks, which the FDD obliges the franchisee to use. Clover also appears, but only in a fee or usage clause — the filing names it and does not require it. Accounting is closed at the franchisor level; point of sale and payments are not.
The 2026 FDD discloses 9 total units — 6 franchised, 3 company-owned — in the retail non-food segment, down 14.3% year over year. Operator mapping locates roughly 11 units held by 11 single-unit operators, led by Iowa (2), with Wisconsin, Washington DC, Nevada and Alabama at one each.
Not disclosed. Item 8 yields no extract in the 2026 filing, so whether Game Kastle designates suppliers, maintains an approved list, or leaves purchasing open is unknown. The one hard obligation visible anywhere in the technology stack is QuickBooks.
The initial term runs 10 years, after which a franchisee in good standing may add two successor terms of five years each. Each renewal requires signing the then-current franchise agreement, which may carry materially different terms including higher royalty and advertising contributions.
It was filed with state franchise regulators in 2026 and is embedded in the PDF viewer below. Read Item 1 for the officers, Item 8 for supplier obligations, Item 17 for the successor-term conditions, and Item 19 for the $786,449 average unit volume cited here.
Source
Read the filing itself
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FDD alert
Tell me when this brand refiles.
We’ll email you the moment Game Kastle files a new annual FDD, usually the freshest signal of a vendor change.
Operator footprint
Who runs the locations
11 operators run 11 mapped locations. 0 of them are multi-unit. Aggregate counts from the filing; no names.
Operators by units owned
Single-unit11
Top states by locations
| IA | 2 |
|---|---|
| WI | 1 |
| DC | 1 |
| NV | 1 |
| AL | 1 |
Related Retail non food brands
Primary franchise filings · updated August 2026. Every figure is source-traceable and QA-checked.