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LBX Collective
The LBX Collective aims to inform and educate, create opportunities to connect with industry peers, and to spur collaboration, discourse, and cross-pollination of ideas in the location-based entertainment and experience industry.
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LBX Collective
The LBX Show #10 - 2025 Predictions and more from BW and Friends!
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Curious about what the future holds for the entertainment industry? Join us on the LBX Show as we kick off the year with our 2024 prediction review and Brandon gives his 2025 predictions. Join the rest of the LBX Show friends and explore how theme parks and family resorts are transforming by integrating more dynamic entertainment experiences. Kevin spotlights exciting developments in cineplex and retail entertainment spaces. From the trend-setting ClawTime arcade to the reimagined Patterson Pins venue, there’s no shortage of new ideas shaking up the scene. We also delve into the importance of integrating food and beverage options to enhance guest experiences and drive revenue, with insights from our new segment, "Chow Time" with Dave Wallace.
Finally, prepare for a sneak peek at the latest arcade game releases from Adam Pratt and event planning strategies from Chuck DeMonte. As we navigate these exciting developments, we also touch on potential consolidations and acquisitions that could reshape the industry landscape, offering a mix of serious analysis and lighthearted speculation. Tune in and equip yourself with the knowledge to stay ahead in the ever-evolving world of entertainment!
Tuning you in. Now to the LBX Show with your host, brandon Wilder, brought to you by the LBX Collective, your community to connect, engage and inspire.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, welcome everybody to the LBX show for January 5th. We have a phenomenal show ready for you today. We've got Open and Shut with Kevin Williams, arcade Corner with Adam Pratt, pro Tips with Chuck DeMonte and a brand new segment I'm really excited to show to you guys today, which is Chow Time with Dave Wallace, and he's going to dig into F&B operations and all that good stuff. But before we get started, we've got some news you should know, and also this is our predictions episode. So I'm going to go back and review my predictions from 2024.
Speaker 2:When we were doing the LBX Daily Show, christine and I, we were throwing out some 2024 predictions. So I'll go and review those and say basically, okay, what did I miss? What did I hit? You know all that good stuff. And then at the end of the show, I'm going to give my 2025 predictions for our industry. But before we get going, let's do some news you should know.
Speaker 2:All right, so we cannot go without talking about the LVX Galaxy. So very, very excited about this. You know, this is a community platform. There's lots of stuff being posted there. If you have not had a chance yet to join, go ahead and scan that QR code If you are watching this, you will scan the QR code and take you to a little form. You fill that out and we'll get you access to the LBX Galaxy. If you are listening to this show, then you just go to lbxgalaxycom and you can go ahead and get signed up.
Speaker 2:All right, we also have a couple of things popping up here. So we have EAG in London happening January 14th to the 16th. That's at Excel. It's a big convention center out there and it is co-located, as we talked about before, with the Social Immersive Entertainment Expo. I'm excited to be speaking on a panel there. I'm going to be rolling around getting to see what's new and what's happening out in Europe for the attractions and gaming industry.
Speaker 2:And so if you are in Europe or in London, definitely come check out EAG and visit me, love to say hi. So it should be a text, should be an email. You can always catch up with me, brandon, at lbxcollectivecom and love to spend some time with you out there, all right. And then we also have the FEC Summit through IAPA and that is happening in New Orleans January 19th to the 21st. So I'll be coming right back from London and then, like a a day later, heading out to New Orleans to have some fun out there and get some education, everything else. And, as a matter of fact, we do have a quick little video from IAPA that is available. Registration is closing soon, so definitely get going, get signed up and come on down there. There's going to be lots of good education and lots of good networking and also good tours of other facilities in the area. But don't let me talk about it, let's go ahead and hear from them through their video.
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Speaker 2:All right, awesome, so you can register for that at IAAPAorg and you can have a good. You see me there as well. So looking forward to having a good time out there in New Orleans, one of my favorite places that I could ever go and visit. All right, now I want to get into 2024 predictions. So last year it was episode 91 of the LBX Daily Show when we were doing daily shows those of you who've been watching this for a little while. We were doing daily shows and we took January 2nd as the day to basically give our predictions for 2024. Christine was involved in that, but I'm going to go ahead and just cover mine real quick and you know we can go see where things go. So we did three different levels of predictions. We did a high predictions, that which is basically 80% or greater, and we expect that like, okay, this is probably going to happen, and you know, so we'll see about that. And the medium was about all right, 50%, 50, 50 could go either way medium prediction. And then low was, you know, 20% or lower actually happens, and so you know we'll go through them.
Speaker 2:So the first one was the high and I predicted that VR goes untethered and I you know, and so, basically, if you remember, you know, if you think about all the trust, vr with the little cables hanging down and typically like four people, and you strap on the headset and then you're done, you have the headset going back up. I'm not talking about the VR rides you know, for like the amusement rides you know, like the Raw Thrills, godzilla, kaiju Wars, so I'm not talking about those or the King Kong ride. I think those were still. You know, I thought that those would still continue. What I was talking about is the VR arenas that are basically the tethered arenas, and I said, okay, vr is going to go untethered. And I even mentioned I went back and I listened to the episode I even mentioned that Hollowgate might actually be the only one left, but then I said that they would definitely, by 2025, this year be moving away from their untethered.
Speaker 2:As a matter of fact, hollowgate announced their be moving away from their untethered. As a matter of fact, hollow gate announced their untethered arenas and I think it was around may timeframe, and so hollow gate even moved away from it and at this point, other than some legacy systems that might be out there that nobody's really buying anymore, vr has gone completely free. Roam has gone untethered. The footprint doesn't necessarily change, so hollow gate still has some. They have a larger footprint, they have a smaller footprint and then they have their standard footprint. So that hasn't changed, but they've definitely removed the tether.
Speaker 2:Again, what I had said before consumers don't want tethers on their headsets, they're not used to that at home. Why would they want to go out to a facility, even if they have great IP or better experience, and still be tethered into a two by two area? And so, anyway, I think that that one definitely, you know, definitely gets the mark. I also went on to say that VR will really, inside of location-based entertainment venues, become a larger experience versus shorter play games. So I don't want to just go play some little Angry Birds game for like five minutes. I want to have larger experiences, you know, or more robust experiences, more robust experiences like the Limitless VR by CreativeWorks or Zero Latencies experience, which some of those can be 20 to 30 minutes long, and so I think that's really still where things will continue to go, but I think I will give myself an A plus, or at least an A on that one that VR did move away on Tethered, even got a little bonus, that Hollowgate moved faster than I actually expected them to, so I have a feeling that they were definitely experiencing some of that as well. All right, the next one's maybe not so much. So.
Speaker 2:The next one I chose was for my medium was that Chuck E Cheese gets acquired by Dave and Buster's in Main Event. I still think that this would be phenomenal to happen. I really do think that this would be the shot in the arm, frankly, that Dave Buster's slash Main Event really need. As I mentioned on the show last year that they just seem stuck. And then I really think that Chuck E Cheese has done a lot of evolving of their brand, development of IP, creating television shows or YouTube shows and a bunch of other stuff. They've really done a good job shifting, adding some active play components into their facilities, and I just really feel like Chuck E Cheese could help Dave and Buster's main event capture the full life cycle of their customer and just imagine the amount of data If you basically have a customer, one of your customers. They come in as a child with Chuck E Cheese and then they go and they go to main event, which is more like teens, and then they go and have Dave and Buster's as they're getting adults. The amount of data you can collect on that customer over that period of time and the insights you could gain about who your customers are and what they want could be incredible. Dave and Buster's needs to figure something out and this, I think, would be really one of those things that could be that shot in the arm for them. Would it help Chuck E Cheese necessarily evolve? Probably not, and so maybe there's a you know they may. You know CEC probably would not want to go forward with that.
Speaker 2:But that was my prediction. Got that one 100% wrong, so definitely an F on my medium prediction there and then my low prediction. I even said that this was more wishful thinking than reality, which is why I put it at a low prediction. But I said that the last pickleball location starts construction in 2024. Now, while I don't think I'm wrong about the failure the medium to long-term failure of Pickleball as a location-based entertainment venue attraction, I definitely was wrong in timing. So it's still got a lot of wind behind its sails and I do expect, unfortunately, more Pickleball venues to open under the guise of location-based entertainment or the competitive socializing construct.
Speaker 2:Again, 100% disagree that it should even be considered a location-based entertainment component or attraction and definitely doesn't fall into my view of competitive, socializing or social attainment. But it is here. It is here for at least the next few years. I think I'm just going to come to terms with that. I will say one of the benefits here is that I'm no longer doing a daily show and having to talk about pickleball every, uh, every other fucking day.
Speaker 2:So anyway, we are um. That was that. Definitely got an f on that one um, although you know we'll see, play it out, give it another two years and I'll probably come back around to an A. I also threw a little fun one in there, mickey Mouse, if you remember, from last year or the end of 23,. Steamboat Willie's, their IP protection or copyright protection on Steamboat Willie. The early version of Mickey Mouse ran out, and so I actually predicted that the first slasher Mickey Mouse film would get developed last year, like we saw with the Woody the Pooh, and that didn't happen, and so that's also an F, but it would have been fun to see. But you know, who knows, maybe we can still hold out for one next year.
Speaker 2:All right, now let's go ahead and dive into some of the rest of our segments. We will get to 2025 predictions my predictions for 2025 at the end of the show, so definitely stick around. And in the meantime this was News you Should Know and manufactured all under one roof, they introduced cashless technology to the amusement industry and have been leading the way for over 30 years. Cashless systems from Intercard increase customer spending, guest satisfaction and boost revenues by up to 30%. Intercard is so proud to be serving the amusement industry and if you aren't already part of their global family of customers, they hope you will become one soon, all right. Well, next up we have Kevin Williams with another episode of Open and Shut.
Speaker 3:Hey, big hello again. Welcome to the latest SoundOff. You catch us in the brand new year of 2025. And so I would like to wish Happy New Year to all of the viewers and listeners. So let's jump straight into the chaos and confusion that follows on from the previous year into the new year, and we're seeing a mixture here of refurbishments as well as new facility openings. You will see a pattern establishing the individuals that have already opened facilities and are trying to play catch up with what has been happening in the sector around them, as well as the new entrants also re-pivoting their design and approach to be more in tune with the zeitgeist. But one of those trends that carries on from 2024 is the beginning of seeing theme parks and family entertainment center resorts, or family resorts, actually pivoting to including a location based entertainment component stronger than just an amusement arcade have dropped in a mini golf experience into their space. But, as we were speaking with previously with the Butlins, this is going to be a trend where we're going to see competitive socializing added to the captive audience. That is at these kinds of resorts where you need to have some kind of secondary entertainment.
Speaker 3:On top of the venue Palladium in Canada. On top of the venue Palladium in Canada. The interesting thing here again is that this is a much more condensed version of the Palladium format. We've seen the Palladium entertainment experience. I call it a mule, but it would fit into the cinetainment argument, especially in this kind of configuration you have the Cineplex cinema on one side and you have the Palladium entertainment near enough butting on to this. This kind of approach, I think, is going to be a familiar format. We see as a number of the cinema venues go through their own refurbishments. This is a brand new site, but expect to see entertainment and cinema mix. And it's quite a large, you know, 22,000 square foot. It's a nice size for a mule of this kind and Palladium has proven itself. It is one of the old guard concepts from location-based entertainment. Lizzie's Lanes well, we have a bowling facility entertainment. It's taking over a traditional bowling location that closed in 2016 and has been refurbished and redeveloped again in Canada, but also trying to offer a much more social entertainment vibe from the mix.
Speaker 3:Then, of course, the continuation of what I've been charting in Texas and in other large metropolitans of the crane game facilities popping into a retail space, populating it with a number of the new wave crane machines and hoping to create a compelling experience. And if you follow our sound off, you'll also be hearing a little bit more detail about how the new wave crane sector is going through its birthing pains at the moment. But again, this is a chain that hopes to roll out a number of locations and, again, because they fit into a retail unit, there are a lot of opportunities for them. A refurbishment again uh, this time in island, and island pops up a couple of times in this runner rundown. Um, we have really a uh, location-based entertainment addition Cine-tainment again. So we have a cinema chain that is reinvesting in having entertainment or increasing the spend or quality or dwell of their entertainment at their facility and in this particular case, they've added a new mini golf. Ar darts attractions really turning the screws to create a compelling environment. Attractions really turning the screws to create a compelling environment. The Baltimore area gets to have its own what I would call boutique bowling component. This location is an interesting one. It has quite a long, rich history First opened as a bowling experience in 1927, has gone through a number of iterations and now its latest appearance after the closure in 2022, it's reopening and it's more duck pin and amusement and FEC. It's really something that we're going to be expecting across the whole of the sector. I think a lot of owners of bowling facilities are going to be biting the bullet quite hard to work out whether they invest money into pivoting to become a boutique or whether they reinvest in their bowling sports entertainment environment and add some kind of secondary entertainment on top of that.
Speaker 3:The mix of VR entertainment and location-based entertainment kind of facilities is still gaining momentum. You know an 8,000-square-foot facility in California under the Surge VR Arena. It has a dedicated VR arena from another world If you're familiar with that provider of immersive technology. They have quite a few facilities operating this center, but this is what we would call a VR arcade with a standing free roam entertainment experience. I'm interested to see how many more of these kinds of VR arcade standalones we're going to see opening, or whether we're going to see the many more of these kinds of VR arcade standalones we're going to see opening, or whether we're going to see the pivot where these facilities are still incorporating VR free roaming but they'll be pushing forward their social entertainment or their mixed-use entertainment credentials further. I don't expect too many more facilities to have VR stamped at the end of their name, strikes and Spares or Strike and Spares facility opening up in Kentucky Bowling Boutique. This is a full lane bowling environment rather than string, and they've expanded well, not expanded, they're incorporating quite a large amusement component on top of their new site.
Speaker 3:Our friends at Gender and they are really popping up a lot in the news and the media at the moment, but anyway, gender's latest Geico facility, getting the Game Oasis, opening up in Tokyo. You wouldn't think there's any free space in Tokyo for more entertainment, but they find locations. This one is the full mix. You have the Gashipo and the Cranes, you have the music games and you have the videos and you have the metal games. So it is the traditional approach to floors of entertainment, with also some kidtainment elements added. We're beginning to see a kind of formula across the 2,000-odd gender facilities that are out there In the GEICO range. We're seeing it become its own element and they are going for a traditional mix One we're going to keep a close eye on, because I think in the next couple of months we're going to see quite a few more GEICOs opening up, not just in Japan.
Speaker 3:Staying with Japan, though, and our friends at Capcom, who have quite a large uh entertainment division, location-based entertainment division, focused mainly in japan. Um, they have rolled out the first well, the first and the second and the third of their capcom box, which is fundamentally a new wave crane and gashipo component. Uh, I think the one that we're talking about here in tokyo is only crane based. It's using a cashless system, so you're not using coinage but you're using a special app to be able to play the machines and it's going into retail units. So kind of a derivation of what we were talking about happening in vegas, but with the Capcom brand being pushed front and center and a lot of the merch that will be found in those cranes will be collectible items based on the Capcom properties. So I owe Gainfield again a crane environment, again in the Tokyo locality.
Speaker 3:You know, carrying on this trend that we're seeing across the Asian market, our friends at Five Irons Golf is really accelerating their game. They've opened up Denver, we've been talking about a New York facility that they were breaking ground on and some others. They are also looking very heavily at pushing the franchise element, as we're seeing across a lot of these multi-facility operations where they don't just want to operate the sites themselves but they're looking for franchisers to come in and take their concept, this particular one that's going in. I'm interested about the Denver location because I think it's including a lot of components where they have learned lessons from their other sites and they're beginning to mature the brand to compete with all of the other golf simulators that are entering the market. Frankie's they have five facilities in the South Carolina area.
Speaker 3:I think this brand-new site is one of their largest, but again, it's a mixed-use leisure entertainment a little bit of bowling, a little bit of amusement and attractions, a mix of all, with F&B and another one, wow, st Louis. This is quite an expensive build out. You know it's a 26,000 square footer, so it's quite large. You know St Louis has some entertainment there, but you know this is really going for the mule. It has the dark pin bowling, it has karaoke rooms, the mini golf and virtual reality. It is being pushed very heavily and this particular site is brand new. From the information I have, it is just coming to the finish of its opening and they're hoping to throw the doors open this year, though there was confliction about whether it's this year or next year, and the other argument, of course, about this is that the wow entertainment chain is one of those new ones entering the market and wanting to make a name for itself. It's heavy on its mini golf component but its entertainment offering is also a strong secondary element Box parks or venues that use containers to hold retail, f&b or entertainment.
Speaker 3:In England we have the box park chain and we have a new entrance into the chain of facilities, which is Stack quite a good name for a container environment and Stack has started to roll out a number of locations and they're going for the live music, performance and entertainment, social entertainment elements to drive attendance to their locality. Their Lincoln facility is just about well through its doors open in November, but it's getting its feet under the door and this particular site incorporated AR darts, shuffleboard pool, all of the fun stuff again building on the container units holding some of the entertainment, are again building on the container units holding some of the entertainment but also some of the F&B being utilized of the other containers in there. This is a live venue business and you know approaching competitive, socializing as a means to draw an audience to these sites. It's now going to become Derriga. Audience to these sites is it's now going to become Derriga. So they just threw the doors open on their Middleborough venue and had a very successful sold-out New Year's Eve party period. And again, this particular site incorporates live music as well as some social entertainment. And they're just about to throw open the doors on the completion of their Newcastle venue. So that's three brand new venues. Bang bang bang compared to the chain that they already have operational. And again we're expecting to see interactive darts and shuffleboards all playing a part in the mix here. Social entertainment writ large, maybe not as strong a competitive socializing as some of the others I talk about, but we are now seeing the same way that some venues depended on amusement machines or arcades as an anchor to draw an audience, we're seeing competitive socializing being used in that manner.
Speaker 3:Jump all the way over to Qatar and we have Fun Villa, a brand-new 11,000-square-foot entertainment facility, part of a chain aiming both young audience as well as toddlers. This is the seventh in their operation under the landmark FEC Group and again a very popular entertainment offering in an audience-rich environment. The audience has a very strong disposable income and also they understand this kind of entertainment approach. Mum and pups this would be the definition for me of what a mum and pup is. Entrepreneurs have started up a family business. What a mum and pop is. Entrepreneurs have started up a family business what would normally have been a street route arcade a couple of decades ago or even 10 years ago. Now we see these individuals that want to break into the market, in this particular case in Illinois, are now going for a more amusement and social entertainment mix to the general ambience. But it also shows that the independent arcade approach to this business still has legs and still can survive.
Speaker 3:I was interested about Revell and Roll interesting brand. I hadn't come across them before. Michigan based and this is a refurbishment interesting refurbishment. It's one of the first Putterfy installations our friends at Greenspan so their technically infused mini golf system is being parachuted into this particular location, hoping to get a chance to see this in the round. Golf system is being parachuted into this particular location, hoping to get a chance to see this in the round, so we can see how this mix works with what's being offered. The trampoline and active entertainment park business is still going strong.
Speaker 3:We're still seeing people rolling out Folsom just dropping in a 14,000 square foot. It's interesting. This is a repurposing. So the pharmacy closed in 2022, and now it has been turned into an altitude. We'll be seeing a lot of this kind of approach, continuing on from what we saw last year, on from what we saw last year Lane 7 in Ireland again their latest of their stylisation. So they've been taking the Lane 7 boutique bowling concept one of the earliest boutique bowling concept approaches and been dropping them in updating the concept. This 14,000 square foot facility in Dublin includes the karaoke, now includes the shuffleboards and curling interesting and the ping pong and all of that and amusement, and we can expect to see a number of the other boutique bowling facilities either going back and updating their sites or rolling out brand new locations.
Speaker 3:Anyway, talking about the shots and the changes in the market, you know we heard a lot over the last few years about the Orlando Skyplex facility. We were told about how tall it was going to be, how innovative this tower-based roller coaster system was going to be, how much money had been allocated. You know I first started hearing about this in 2014. Uh, well, surprise, surprise, uh, the project has founded. Um, there's, uh, you know, conflicting information about, uh, what's happened to the land and what's happened to the debt that's been occurred. But, going back to what we were talking about, a couple of sound sorry opens and shuts ago about our friends at Area 15 selling their land that they had allocated in Orlando for their site. It sounds like that purchasing land in Orlando is advantageous, so the owners of the assets here seem to have decided to go for selling the concept out and moving on, rather than trying to continue to develop it and then closing. We started with CineTainment, we'll close with CineTainment. Attainment, or closures in attainment.
Speaker 3:We've reported on a number of the Cineworld facilities closing down in the UK after the financial situation had impacted that particular cinema chain. Well, those sites that are being sold are seeing other cinema chains jumping in to acquire them who don't have the same kind of financial boat anchor around their neck. And Odeon has made an announcement that they're going to be taking the Middlesbrough facility that was going to close there. And they've also hinted very heavily that this site will be being turned into not just an Odeon cinema but they will be adding some kind of cinetainment component to it. So again, watch this space very closely. Anyway, the first one for the year, and it's still a crowded market out there. So I'm looking forward to reporting on even more action in the next couple of days. Anyway, that's it from me have a good one, all right.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, kevin, for walking us through a lot of the latest new openings and a couple of ones that stood out to me. Clawtime is definitely up there, not because I really think that what they've got is amazing or anything else, but they definitely have solid branding and definitely looks like it has potential for expansion, I mean. So they really went above and beyond and I'll share my screen here real quick because I really like what they've done here. So they went above and beyond here real quick because I really like what they've done here. So they went above and beyond and with their logo you know this whole Clawtime logo and like, look at the end of the day, all they are right now is a San. They say they're a San Antonio based arcade dedicated to the claw machine gaming experience. They have 25 claw machines with high quality prizes, including plush value, high value items like Nintendo Switch, consoles and e-bikes. So probably cut the wind stuff and that kind of stuff here. But you know, my point is they've really done a good job branding their entire experience, branding all the claws and for a single location. I have a feeling that these guys are definitely preparing to do greater expansion if this first location goes well. I mean, you just wouldn't have done this type of branding for a 25 crane single location in San Antonio, at least not what we've seen from the typical claw machine installations in shopping malls and shopping centers. So anyway, we'll keep an eye on Claw Time.
Speaker 2:I definitely think that they have something interesting coming up. And then I also thought Patterson Pins was very interesting. So they've got an interesting website here and so we'll just flip over to this one. So their website and let me make it a little bigger for all of you guys to see. So you know, the little bowling ball or like disco ball moves around, kind of got that like synth wave vibe to both the logo and their branding. But what I thought was interesting is like they actually have no food at all. So if you go to the menu it's only just drinks. So they have cocktails. They have some wine and beer lists coming down the line, but very, very heavy on like the custom craft cocktail side of things location. They've gone really above and beyond to develop some really interesting cocktails. And again, no food and beverage, or, excuse me, no food, which is, I thought, really interesting. Maybe they'll have some snacks, but definitely nothing clearly defined on any type of menu that it's able to find online.
Speaker 2:And the last one I'll just pull up here is Stack in the UK. So Stack is really just a food hall. It's been a food hall. They have a bunch of different restaurants and so you know you can come here and check out all the different restaurants and you know what they call their street food. But basically they're all individual restaurants.
Speaker 2:If you've ever been to a food hall, it's a very standard version. And so you've got all to a food hall. It's a very standard version, and so you've got all different types of food. You've got your bao buns, you've got your Greek food, your duck street food, whatever you know. Duck must be duck inside of there Some Mexican, which is. You know I'd be really interested to see what kind of Mexican they're putting out in the UK. But anyway, so a lot of different things here.
Speaker 2:But then you know, what Kevin talked about was this whole concept of their sideshow. And the sideshow is again, what are we seeing? We're seeing a lot of the competitive, socializing side of things. So you've got the interactive darts, you've got the interactive shuffleboard and you know even some beer pong and some karaoke booze, that kind of stuff. So, anyway, we'll be interesting to keep an eye on them, because I think that what they're doing is also really, really interesting. All right, now it is time to hear I'm really excited about this one to hear from Dave Wallace about the importance of food and, inside, of location-based entertainment. So, dave, let's hear it and take it.
Speaker 4:Good morning everyone. Welcome to Chow Time hosted by me. I'm excited to be part of this program. I've been in the industry for 30 years and food and beverage is one of our passions in our world of consulting. Over the next couple I guess, many different presentations on food and beverage, we wanted to do a deep dive into why food and beverage is important within the family entertainment industry and, coming from the food and beverage or hospitality industry myself for many, many years, it's critical in today's world to really understand food and beverage and how it can be a great part of your social-based entertainment center.
Speaker 4:You know, looking at food and beverage, you know we go to an entertainment center generally, looking at the IAPA benchmark survey, about 2.9 times a year. People go out to eat though five and a half times a week here lately, as of 2022, which is a lot, as of 2022, which is a lot. If I can take those and push them together and get that 5.5 times a week versus that 2.9 times a year, I can maximize not only my revenue but the relevancy of who I am and drive considerably more sales. So, and looking at our world, you know I've been doing consulting for 15 years and again the industry for 30,. We've seen a significant change with millennials and now Gen Z's, where time and money are commodities and entertainment. People have money, they just don't have time to spend it. So instead of going out to eat and then going to an entertainment center because of the time constraints, they've been going out to eat and utilizing their disposable income that way. And bringing those two together, though, you'll see and we've seen significant opportunity in driving considerably more revenue. Significant opportunity and driving considerably more revenue.
Speaker 4:You know, entertainment is very I call it very sensorial. The look, the taste, the feel, the smell, everything matters in entertainment anymore. The attraction-based entertainment center and some still do well, but generally has gravitated to what we call social-based entertainment, leveraging the food and beverage against the entertainment to maximize opportunity, essentially becoming the mall of entertainment where they can come in and watch sports on TV, mom and dad can have a beer and a sandwich, kids play games or do full-service dining on the bowling lanes, on axe throwing if you have gamified golf, having cocktails through that and what have you. And the cost isn't the cost to get into. This isn't very expensive over the course of time Because once you get the equipment there, you will have cost of goods and labor. But overall you're going to make significantly more money. That'll, believe it or not, drive a lot more revenue and a lot more profit.
Speaker 4:And looking at the types of food service, you've got to be very careful there because you know, in opening properties, we've opened them in middle America where staff labor for tipped employees is $2.13 an hour, all the way to the Northwest where minimum wage for tipped employees is $20 an hour. So obviously you're going to have to have different types of food experiences in each one, because they can't afford $20 an hour service. It just doesn't make sense. You'd have to charge significantly more for your food and beverage, so that can become a challenge.
Speaker 4:Types of food service I mean obviously we have the concession. That's what everyone started with 20 years ago. And then a lot of people move to what we call a quick casual, where you go up and order, people will make the, or the kitchen will make the food and then deliver it to you after it's prepared. Then you got full service, which is servers, which is, you know, 11 steps of service at the table or in a bowling lane to maximize your revenue. And then you also have now coming on quickly is the QR codes. Qr codes are working very well in a lot of different markets, but it's still a new entry into the entertainment world. And that QR code for Gen Xs and millennials code for Gen Xs and Millennials Millennials are more adaptive but Gen Xs don't really understand technology like the ones that have grown up into it, the Millennials and the Gen Zs. So you know, making sure you have the right opportunity to maximize the spending for each different group whether it's grandma coming different group, whether it's grandma coming in, whether it's mom coming in, whether it's, you know, the 20, 24 to 45 year old, uh, millennials or the younger kids, and the comfortability of spending money, as well as seating and everything else.
Speaker 4:You know one thing to understand for food and beverage when you build an entertainment center, it becomes what we call an adult pacifier. Mom and dad have to have comfortable seating and that's critical. Don't put round tables in. You can't pull them together. The average group that comes in six in an entertainment center. So making sure you have comfortable seating, comfortable chairs with backs on them where they can mom and dad can stay there, have a couple of drinks, have some food and enjoy themselves will allow for the opportunity for the two and a half hour visit on average. So you know, I was just talking to one of my clients today and he was talking about he went to Chuck E Cheese and I said, yeah, I used to operate 64 of them many years ago and there is literally 450 seats in the Chuck E Cheese and a lot of people don't realize it, but that opportunity allows huge food and beverage sales. When you start getting into the details of stuff and we'll dig deeper into this in a couple more sessions down the road you know, so you got it.
Speaker 4:When, when you start looking at your menus whether it's your bar menu or your food menu if you have a bar deeper discussion of that down the road as well, understanding that you have to engineer your menu to maximize your opportunity. I have a client that says I want full pizzas at their table or full pizzas at the table. I said, ok, a 16 inch pizza will serve four people and if you charge 20 bucks and you're on a wait Friday, saturday and Sunday you only get five dollars a seat for food. If you switch to flatbreads, I can get twelve dollars a seat in food. And understanding how you present your menus and we've gone into a lot of places where they have popcorn and you know candy bars and what have you, which is all well and fine, but you have production labor. Candy bar not so much, but you still have a production level, expending the energy to ring stuff up and grab the items and what have you that has to be applied to the cost of that sale. And same thing it goes for.
Speaker 4:At a client that said French fries their number one menu item was French fries I said because it's $4. I said if you remove that and like chips and salsa and what have you, and bring your menu into a narrower path, and if you go to a restaurant you'll see this moving forward, where you know appetizers start at 10 to entrees at 18 or handhelds You're, they're taking in consideration that production labor, not only the food costs but the production labor. So when you start digging into the details you have to be very, very familiar with how much is it going to cost overall and is it worth it? It's worth it if you do it right. But the question is, how do I do it right?
Speaker 4:In the next couple episodes we'll explore ventless kitchens, vented kitchens, the difference of those bar programs and digging deeper into food production and why that's important. So you know I wanted to first introduce myself. I've been in the industry, like I said, for 30 years. I speak at a lot of different places but really get to a point where you guys are understanding after a couple sessions how to maximize your opportunity, your revenue, your profitability and your sustainability. So, moving forward, you know, watch for our sessions If you want to understand food a little bit deeper and you want to understand how can I make more money and more profitability. We'll explore all these in the upcoming episodes. Thank you, have a good rest of the holiday season and I'll see you on the next episode.
Speaker 5:If you run a location-based entertainment brand and want to attract more visitors, check out Radius. They use real-time location data and customized marketing strategies to help brands like yours stand out. Radius can boost your foot traffic and build a loyal customer base. Plus, they're offering a complimentary local market analysis to show you exactly how they can help you grow Curious, visit Radiusco and ask about your free market analysis.
Speaker 2:That's R-A-Y-D-I-U-Sco, all right. Well, thank you, dave Wallace, for that. First time with Chow Time and so excited about that. Yeah, I loved a couple of the points you made, specifically around time constraints, driving the combination of food and beverage and entertainment, where adults, millennials, et cetera, or even Gen Z now they have a limit to their time and if they're going to go out to eat and really have good food and beverage and good drinks, basically they're going to choose to do that. But if you could have that in your entertainment venue as well and give them opportunity to socialize competitively perhaps, then that's really what's driving a lot of those combinations. And then the whole idea about making these things adult pacifiers, so making everything comfortable, things easy to combine, tables again don't do the rounds, et cetera. And so really appreciate his insights and he's got an enormous amount of experience and excited for future segments from him. All right, next up we have Adam Pratt with Arcade Corner and he's going to talk about some of the latest things happening in the amusements and arcade sector. Adam, take it away.
Speaker 6:Greetings and welcome to Arcade Corner. Happy New Year. I hope that everybody had an enjoyable and safe New Year celebration, as we are now well into 2025. I guess I shouldn't say well, but with all the news that's been going on the past few days, it's felt like a year already. But what I'm going to talk about today are the games that were released during 2024.
Speaker 6:I am going to rush through this a little bit because we are limited on time and there's quite a few things to go through, but we'll see how much time we have after. I at least mention them all, and I'm only going to be covering North America. I'm not going to cover Asia, since I don't know that anybody here that watches this operates in Asia. There are a lot of these that are going to be marked as arcade exclusive titles as well, except for pinball machines, because that just comes with the territory. Yes, there are some virtual machines or some real machines that are turned into virtual ones, but that doesn't seem to make much of a difference. But this is all alphabetical and we'll go through there and again, I'll go back to anything that I can as long as we have the time. So let's get started with ABBA by Pinball Brothers. They're an Italian-based company. Brothers obviously a family-owned business company, um, brothers obviously a family-owned business, um, but they introduced this uh pop band to the world of pinball. Most of the time that pinball does stuff, it's rock band stuff from the 70s and 80s, and so this is certainly a change of pace. On that one, that one came out in april, uh, airstrike by ace amusement and lai games although I need to double check on that one that might be super wing, not ace amusement came out in january. Um, it uses a pendulum swinging seat and I've played it and probably seen it at shows. But I heard from a local fec to me that they have a, I think a couple of these and they were reporting very strong earnings on it and so that swivel seat can go a long way.
Speaker 6:Angry Birds Boom, which Kevin Williams here at LBX Collective lovingly calls Angry Nerf because the form factor is similar. The game is kind of sort of similar, although I would definitely hand the prize or trophy to angry birds boom is. It's funner than nerf was, has more content, but also employs the angry birds license in a unique way where you're shooting the birds at the pigs. So it's first person view, mainly created for redemption play that came out in october. We have animal k Plus, which is a reboot of the popular Animal Kaiser card series for kids, although this was mainly popular in the UK and in Hawaii I'm not sure how much attention it got in the mainland, but Namco released this in June to see how it might be taken by kids today. See, uh, how it might be taken by the kids today, because it's a smaller cabinet and vends cards with animals on them and such that are all collectible and some of them look really cool with the holographic foil. A very easy, simple game to play as well, and so be interesting to hear how that one's been doing. I haven't heard much about it.
Speaker 6:Apex Rebels by 3MindWave, who developed games for Sega such as VR Agent and ATV Slam this was their new racing game Brought back the spirit of Sega's 90s racing games like Scud Racer and a little bit of Daytona USA, but with brand new graphics, motion seats, second screen with the micro LEDs that came out on February 6th. We don't too often hear about exact dates when something ships in this industry. Oftentimes it's just a month, and sometimes I don't get told by anybody when something starts shipping, and so it'd be nice if any of you out there work for a manufacturer, please let me know when you start shipping something and so I can report about it and really helping you sell that stuff. It's always weird to me when people, when certain companies, don't say anything when a game starts shipping. Arcade collection live. This adds the live features to this triple collection of games like silver strike bowling and power putt and target toss bags that came out on june 10th another one where we know the exact date asphalt moto blitz dx by igs, wallop and lai games, and so this is kind of a pseudo sequel to asphalt legends 9 arcade, but with motorcycles, and has a super cool looking led, animated LED effect on the tires, also has the motion base that came out in January and it's also a modern looking game.
Speaker 6:Asteroids Recharged Arcade by Atari and Allen 1, the first of many Atari remakes that are coming to arcades, where this came out in November at IAAPA and won the IAAPA Brass Ring Award as well, in part due to the MLES app or Major League Esports app, which will inform players when somebody beats their score if they're using the app, amongst some other things that we just don't have time to get into, but a lot of content on this makes this very different from the home version not just the game cabinet. From the home version, not just the game cabinet. Avatar, fire and Ice bringing Avatar back after Stern had done that back in 2010, I think it was and now Jersey Jack's showing what they can do with that license and of course, I have the benefit of still having a second movie. So there's more content there and from what I played of it at IAAPA, it did have a lot more from the second movie than I saw from the first.
Speaker 6:Barry O's Barbecue Challenge, hot Sauce and Hot Rods by American Pinball. This was an homage to Barry Orsler, who is a very famous, well-loved pinball designer who passed away a few years ago, and so this was capturing his love of barbecue and he was working for american pinball when he passed away. Bigfoot mayhem, which is the second of the three different bigfoot games that eunice had produced, and this one obviously using a fast and furious style cabinet, but with monster trucks and off-roading and such, and that came out in march also very competitively priced against fast and furious. A bubblehead versus baseball, bringing baseball back to arcades been quite a while since we'd seen any baseball video game on the arcade scene. Now this one can be played either for tickets or just for fun. Kind of thought about getting one for my arcade. I just don't know how a sports game like that might do where you're not throwing an actual ball at something.
Speaker 6:Breaker's Revenge Chicago by Ex Arcadia. So this is a remaster and a remake of a 1998 game called Breaker's Revenge and bringing it up to speed with today, adding more content and some fixes, and such has a popular following in the fighting game community. That came out in August Also for the Ex Arcadia is Cambria Sword, another Cry, which is a unique side-scrolling shoot-em-up game. Has a very unique look and a lot of bosses and things to destroy. That just barely came out a week ago or two back into December 2024, 2024, uh, evil dead by spooky pinball also announced. Actually, I think this was announced during the week of iapa and so I had missed it initially, but it looks like a beautiful game. Incorporates stuff from uh, the two evil dead movies with uh bruce.
Speaker 6:Now his name is escaping me. It's not Bruce Springsteen. I know that that's going to bug me now that I forgot his name of that actor. Fixate Exolabel by Ex Arcadia, another remaster of a 90s arcade game, a scrolling run-and-gun shoot-em-up. That's a lot of fun. They added other stuff to it, like four-player support and some other nice touches. That was at iapa. Galactic take four, signature edition by american pinball, same game that they had released previously, just in this really cool cabinet. That was done in february.
Speaker 6:Godzilla, kaiju wars vr by raw thrills came out in april. Now, of course, that was only with two chapters. At iapa they had all five chapters available. From my understanding, the three additional chapters are supposed to be available sometime this month, but that could change because it seemed to got pushed back, because I remember at IAPA them saying something like they were supposed to come out very soon and then it got pushed back a little bit. Golden TPGA Tour 2025 I need to fix that there. That came out on September 9th. So latest, latest version of that adding more courses, old school courses remastered in HD Halo, fireteam, raven, the two player. I like to call it the Assault model, but Rothfields calls this the Tethered model. Assault sounds cooler to me and that came out at the end of October, right before Halloween.
Speaker 6:Jaws Pinball came out in January and I'm bringing Jaws to the scene and Stern always does reveal a game at the very beginning of the year and they're about to reveal Dungeons Dragons Eye of the Tyrant, but I think that'll be next week probably when they do all that. Jesus Squad featuring the Samurai Pizza Cats, which was a short-lived anime that came out in 1990. It's a scrolling beat-em-up kind of like Double Dragon, but for four players, or think of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, perhaps. John Wick Pinball came out in May from Stern Lane. Master Extreme came out in March from Unis and just upgraded that whole bowling lane experience. That's kind of like a ski ball but video bowling, lots of LEDs, very colorful.
Speaker 6:Marvel Contest of Champions was a surprise at Amusement Expo last year as this was a game that had been locked to Dave Buster's for five years but now it's available for the whole market. There was an updated version at IAPA. The game came out in june, mega shot. There's actually two models of this a single screen and then this dual screen you see here from jet games, usa um, and so that came out in the summertime. Very cool, very awesome guns with those big metal guns that have awesome force feedback to them. Metallica remastered by stern pinball and I got to play that at iapa. If you're into metallica, you can't go without that one.
Speaker 6:Minecraft dungeons arcade 2 player that came out in april. A monster cart by unis, I believe, came out in december, but this is one of those companies that I'm still trying to get a hold of. I've sent them multiple emails but I don't have the phone number to just call. But on their website they seem to indicate that this cart racing game featuring different monsters that was at iapa and it's available now and what's cool about it is the seats are like little go karts. It feels more realistic as far as a go-kart goes compared to, say, mario kart.
Speaker 6:Nba superstars came out in august after a limited release at dave and busters andAPA. There was updated software to that to make it more action-packed and faster. Omen of Sorrow Rising Chaos a new, very sleek, very modern-looking one-on-one fighter, came out on May 4th. Pac-man's Pixel Bash for Charity just the Pixel Bash game where you can collect money for charity there. Came out in April Phantom Breaker Omnia, another one-on-one fighting game for the Ex Arcadia. It blends two-dimensional graphics with 3D backgrounds. Pump it Up. Phoenix 2024 was an update released to that. For Random Miro's signature dance game in June Skull of Shadow.
Speaker 6:This was at IAPA at the Amusement Source International booth. There's actually a few different models for it. The one that Amusement Source was showing off was four-player. There's also a three-player model with mounted guns instead. At first I thought it was just a Dead Storm Pirates-like game, but it actually turned out to be a kind of Jumanji meets Dead Storm Pirates.
Speaker 6:Smash DX was LAI's answer to something like Bigfoot Mayhem with off-road racing. Surf League with surfing for kids on surfboard controllers A lot of fun. That caught a lot of attention at IAPA last year. This one came out in April. Super Blaster by Triotech came out in February, which was just a variation of the cube that they had unveiled previously. The Prince's Bride pinball by P3 Multimorphic came out this summer, but it's very, very hard to find one of these. I only saw it at Pinball Expo and I got dinged for showing footage of it on YouTube. Just stupid. The Uncanny X-Men by Stern Pinball was also at Pinball Expo Cool new design. Second time that Stern's tackled the X-Men.
Speaker 6:Thunder Attack this is by Amusement Source International Came out in March, also vended cards and you can scan the cards in for new weapon power-ups. And then Toho, scarlet, diabolic, fantastica by Team Shanghai, alex and X Arcadia came out on April 1st. This is a scrolling shoot-em-up game where I've been told that this series is like Star Wars in Japan as far as how people react to it. It's not as well-known, even close as well-known out in the West, but very, very popular in Japan. And then there were some limited releases, such as Space Invaders, gigamax, naruto, emblem Battle, ninja, escape, pinball and then Taika no Tatsujin, although technically I think taiko no tatsujin should be considered a full release. And so, yeah, that covers all the releases of 2024. Next time perhaps we'll talk about 2025, but we are out of time. Thank you for watching. Hopefully you'll see one of these games out there. Hopefully one of them will do great for your location and if you do have them, let us know how they've performed. We'll catch you on the next video all right.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, adam, for walking us through all the releases that we saw through 2024 and looking forward to seeing what we're gonna have come out in 2025. If you wanted to get more information about any one of those releases, or just get you know more up-to-date information, you should absolutely go to arcadeheroescom. That is Adam's website. You could also we've linked to it from our website as well, so you can go to lbxcollectivecom and then find under media a link to arcadeheroescom website, so you can definitely do that. All right, coming up next we have promo pro tips with Chuck DeMonte and then after that we've got my 2025 predictions. Looking forward to that one.
Speaker 5:Hello and welcome to promo pro tips with Chuck DeMonte that's me and so today I want to go over something that as much as as long as I've been doing marketing probably for close to 15 years now uh, sometimes you relearn lessons and you remind yourself, and one of those things that came up recently is promoting events. Um, and so you know, as you've worked with our clients and you've been working for a little while, sometimes you go, you know you, you go. Things may get a little stale, or you got to sort of remind yourself as to the ABCs of marketing sometimes, and one of the things that popped my mind recently is how do you market events properly and making sure you're getting the most people there? And so I want to go through a few different tips that I feel will really help you get the most out of your events and making sure you're getting people there Right To make it a really good revenue driving day Not only just revenue, but also get more people there from your community, hopefully help you drive more word of mouth and just continually grow your business. So let's go through a few of those tips of what I think will really really help you make the most out of your event.
Speaker 5:So, first and foremost, you need to pick the right day and the right time. So what does that mean? So, for example, we, recently we have a client that really wanted to throw the Halloween event on Halloween. You know, we didn't think that was the best idea. Parents are busy, the kids want to go trick or treating. Like they're not necessarily coming to your location for the event that day, right, especially at a certain time. Right, the kids are just getting home from school, the mom's getting them ready to get in their costumes. Like, not a good day to throw an event. So, uh, really important, you pick the right day and the right time. Make it as easy as possible for this event to be successful. Don't throw it at two on Tuesday, at one o'clock, right? Uh, yes, there are certain events that work for that and for, you know, for the working, uh, stay at home parent, uh, that could take their child, or you know, maybe something else that could work. But make it easy, uh, pick the right day and right time for someone to host or events. Okay, so that's one. Uh.
Speaker 5:Second tip less is more, right, let's not try and throw a million different events. Uh, let's not do you know, seven events a month or even every month, right, maybe you do every other month and maybe once a month will work Right, but you, you have, uh, you only have, uh, limited resources, limited marketing dollars, limited marketing people. You know, limited team to promote the event. Get the event done right, decorated, whatever, right, so, really, really important, less is more. In this case, uh, I'd rather throw one event that does unbelievable than you know three events that you know basically flop, right, or one does Okay, um, so less is more. Super important.
Speaker 5:Promote early and often. Okay, that is the third tip. Uh, you know, if, if you are sort of putting this together last minute, um, and not letting people know about them, takes a little while for people to to hear about this and for it to spread and talk about it and and get it into their plans, and so you want to remind them and promote this early and often right, so you could, you know, not only just get in front of them so you can plan it properly, right, you know, oftentimes clients will come to us, hey, I want to do this event like tomorrow, next week, and I'm like it's just, it's not a good idea, right, you're just not going to get, it's not going to be the most impactful and effective it could be. So that's tip three. Tip four promote it on multiple marketing channels. Do paid advertising, do email, sms, any channel that is at your disposal. Use that channel to promote your events. Okay, people need to have multiple touch points. They need to see it on email. They need to see it on their social media channels organic posts, paid ads right. Get it in front of people. There's a ton of different ways to do this. Uh, get creative. Right, get it in front of as many people as possible. Okay, that's tip four. Uh, that brings us to tip five.
Speaker 5:Uh, give people a reason to come, okay. Uh, put giveaways, giveaway tickets, memberships, birthday parties, whatever. Right, give people a reason to come there. Make it a special price, have a special guest okay, make it feel like an event, right. Again, decorate it right.
Speaker 5:Give people a reason to go. Oh, you know, that looks really fun, I want to come there. Or that the people that do come this year they go. Oh, my God, remember we went to that last year, I want to go again. If you make it an annual event, right. So give them a reason to come, okay.
Speaker 5:And then the last one is co-brand and co-promote. Maybe there's another business by you that you could have them come in as a sort of a vendor, a food vendor or something that you know they could be promoting on their end and to their people to be coming into your location. Okay. So get creative here. But the biggest thing is like I think this could all be accomplished by sort of being organized with your event right. Getting organized with it allows you to plan it properly, to think it through, to market it properly, right, give it its time to get the word out there, okay. So doing all those things, I think, will really help you to drive really a lot more successful events and have them be profitable, revenue driving events. So hopefully that helps and I will talk to you again soon on the next promo pro tip.
Speaker 2:Intercard is the only cashless system designed, developed and manufactured all under one roof. They introduced cashless technology to the amusement industry and have been leading the way for over 30 years. Cashless systems from Intercard increase customer spending, guest satisfaction and boost revenues by up to 30%. Intercard is so proud to be serving the amusement industry, and if you aren't already part of their global family of customers, they hope you will become one soon. All right, well, thank you, chuck, for talking to us about running events. So there's great, great tips there, of course, as always, and now it is time for my 2025 predictions, and so we'll start again with the high prediction. So, if you remember, from the beginning of the episode, my high predictions are anything that I think is like 80% likely to happen this year, at least 80% or greater. I also then have a medium predictions. I'll do two of each of these categories at 50% or greater, and then low predictions are like, okay, 20% or less, right, so something right around that area, all right. So, starting off with the high predictions, japan amusement comes to the US. That is one of the big things. And then you're like, okay, well, japan amusement is already here, we have round one, we have other things. But no, I'm talking about, like the Japan craze of cranes, gashapon, card battlers all this stuff we're going to see really come and hit US hard this year. We're already beginning to see things. I talked about claw time earlier. Well, actually, kevin talked about claw time and then I talked about claw time also. That's just one example of what we are seeing over and over in either independent, standalone crane operations or seeing cranes and more merchandisers coming into existing arcades, existing FECs and LBE venues. And we're going to see more Gashapon as well, especially in retail attainment environments. So in shopping malls we'll see Gashapon and then card battlers. If you're not familiar with this, this is games that you can play. You can then earn cards and then those cards can be traded. You can use those cards to then add enhancements and other things when you play the games again, and so I think we'll see is more and more of these card battlers come into the US. I'm not saying that they're coming in for the first time. I know that these things are already prevalent and are already here. I really just think that this is really going to overtake a lot of the amusement conversation throughout this year. So that is my number one prediction for the high prediction.
Speaker 2:The second one is that competitive socializing venues will overtake traditional mixed FECs in new builds this year. So I'm not saying that they'll overtake the total amount of traditional FECs that are out there and I'm talking about traditional multi-attraction FECs. So your laser tag, your bowling, your arcade and your mediocre F&B, maybe you've got roller rinks, you've got some of these other more traditional FECs or we call those, I think, the only one that I question about whether or not to throw into this category because there's just so many franchises and those franchises are being sold still so significantly and in significant high volume which is your trampoline parks. So your adventure parks, trampoline parks, active play If you put that into the same mix as the multi-attraction FEC, then I think that that could still weigh out over the competitive socializing venues. But if you cut that out and just talk about, all right, your main event style FEC, I believe that competitive socializing venues in new builds that are announced this year will overtake the announcements for traditional FECs.
Speaker 2:We are in this massive trend right now. I'm not saying it's a shift at all necessarily, but it is a big trend. And these trends like we're seeing, like we saw with Pickleball, where I was wrong there. I believe that these trends of competitive socializing will continue to drive that. I will say Pickleball does not belong in this category and so I am not including Pickleball belong in this category, and so I am not including pickleball venues in this category. So please understand, I'm talking about your digital shuffleboard, your golf bays, your simulator bays, your batting bays, your darts, like all of these things that fall into this category of competitive socializing. We are going to see that overtake traditional mixed multi-attraction FECs this year.
Speaker 2:All right, so that's my high predictions. So for my medium predictions, this one is interesting. So I'm not going to expand a whole lot here, because we actually expand quite a bit in the upcoming SoundOff that will come out in two days, on Tuesday, with Kevin Williams, but we go off on a little bit of a tangent there. But ultimately I think that Dave Buster's will launch a new brand. While I wanted to see Dave Buster's in main event acquire Chuck E Cheese into their thing and that may still happen at some point down the line While I wanted to see that happen, they need to figure something out, and adding social days into their existing Dave Dave Buster facilities is not going to work for them, it ultimately is going to fail and I actually think that they need to create a new brand.
Speaker 2:Kevin coined the term DMB Social, but something like that, an entirely new brand that focuses on that competitive socializing component and separates it from the traditional Dave Buster's sports bar. Feel right Like the problem is the Dave Buster's brand. This doesn't lend itself to this social, this competitive socializing or social attainment type of angle. So that's all I'll say about that. If you want to learn, if you want to hear more about that conversation, definitely listen to SoundOff that comes out in two days. It's SoundOff number 56. If you're not listening to this in the relevant time, soundoff number 56, we will definitely go into that. But I believe that Dave Buster's is going to launch a new brand this year as part of the way to just figure their shit out and turn things around over there. All right.
Speaker 2:So my second prediction for the medium is that we have seen consolidation or not consolidation, oversaturation in manufacturers and suppliers for two different areas, two different attraction types in the recent last few years. One is in virtual reality and then the other one is in mini golf, and I'm not saying that these two things are going to combine in any way whatsoever. Although people are trying to do virtual reality mini golf and I think it's just a terrible idea there's just like no relevance at all for that. But there are so many VR companies and there are so many so many mini golf high-tech mini golf manufacturing companies now that are, you know, have their own systems that all virtually basically look the exact same. I believe that there will be some form of consolidation within the VR space. So there'll be a couple of acquisitions happening in the VR space and or a number of acquisitions happening on the mini golf space, to where you see HoloVis acquire AGS or something like that and combine their two systems together or at least combine the things. Something like that is going to happen between the VR or the mini golf. There are just too many players in the space and either you're going to see consolidation or you're going to see bankruptcies. You're going to see closures of some of these companies who they just can't continue to. You won't hear from them ever again, right? So I'm not saying, I'm not going to call out any specific brands at all, but I do believe that there'll be some form of consolidation or shutting down in one of those, one or both of those two areas this year.
Speaker 2:All right, this is. I was going to have a little bit of fun with the low predictions because you know, look, if it happens, great. I actually think both of these could very, very likely happen this year. But at the same time they're a little bit tongue in cheek and you know, or they're just like I would just love to see this happen Like pickleball venues never get built again, something like that. Right, that was my prediction last year.
Speaker 2:All right, so the first one is that Disney acquires camp, and if you're not familiar with camp, let's take a quick look at what a camp experience is like here. There is no sound, by the way, so you're not missing anything. So if you're, if you're just listening, you can way, so you're not missing anything. So if you're just listening, you can listen to my voice. But basically this is just going through a quick little sizzle reel of some of the camp experiences.
Speaker 2:Camp is a retail attainment environment. You typically see these things in shopping malls and you can go in, pay for a booking experience. It takes you to the back. You get to interact with particular brands that they have and then you some of their characters and some of their staff, and then you also come out into a retail environment where you can buy all the stuff that you want, that you could possibly want, from any of these different things. So, anyway, that is a little bit of a sizzle reel on camp. And why do I think this is going to happen? Well, first of all, if you're familiar with camp at all, some of the experiences that they've recently put out are a lot of them are Disney related experiences. So they have Little Mermaid, they have Encanto experiences and they've also just recently done a Bluey experience, and you saw some of that sizzle reel there.
Speaker 2:Well, you're like well, bluey isn't owned by Disney, they're owned by Ludo and they're out of Australia, and I said, yes, that is true. However, disney has made major investments into that company and they've also licensed the Bluey show for Disney Plus. They have announced that, beginning in January 20th of this year, disney Cruise Line voyages that are leaving from Australia and New Zealand will feature Bluey experiences and those will include meet and greets with Bluey and Bingo, there'll be games and a dance party, and they've also just recently announced, in the last few months, that they are partnering with Ludo to produce a movie that will be in theaters but then also available on Disney+, and that movie will come out in theaters but then also available on Disney Plus, and that movie will come out in 2027 with Bluey. So you're going to see more and more Bluey infused into the Disney brand. I wouldn't be surprised that at some point in the next few years. Actually, disney just acquires Bluey from Ludo, and so you're going to see that happen, and sorry.
Speaker 2:So now why again? Why is Disney going to acquire camp? Because Disney has repeatedly tried to move into the location-based entertainment world and they failed at it. They do not understand the location-based entertainment model. They've tried with Disney Quest, they've tried with things like Makuta's Island and they've just tried to do this. And the problem is they need to figure out how to create these types of micro experiences for location-based entertainment, because Netflix is doing it with their announcement of Netflix House. Universal is doing it for smaller format as well. They're trying. They're universal, experimenting with things going into Area 15. They're experimenting with some of their announcements they've made in the Texas area.
Speaker 2:And so if Disney is going to miss the boat, if they don't get in and figure out how to do location-based entertainment and leverage all of their IP to produce these types of experiences. And who has done this very, very well? Camp. Camp understands the location-based entertainment space. They understand how to take this IP and infuse great short experiences and then drive boatloads of retail revenue, which again is also something Disney knows drives a lot of repeat visitation and just love for their IP and for their different stuff. So, anyway, I think that, whether or not this happens this year, I think it would be a brilliant move by Disney, frankly, to acquire camp. And so, disney, you can just pass my commission check on if you decide to go and do this, but I do would love to see this happen. I think it would make a lot of sense and if Disney isn't already looking at it, they should be All right.
Speaker 2:My second prediction, on the low side of things, is that Bluey IP is going to stick with Bluey here and LBEs overtakes Angry Birds IP, so we are going to continue to see Bluey, bluey, bluey everywhere. So, yes, disney doesn't have exclusive rights to the Bluey thing, because obviously it's not owned by Disney, it's owned by Ludo, and so Ludo is just going, they're going bananas and getting their ip out there. I say angry birds because angry birds is freaking everywhere, but angry birds is a tired ip. We've seen angry birds that you know like just in everything. Like even just doc robotics just released their latest angry birds thing. It's like everybody's announcing always something angry birds, angry birds, angry birds. So I want to see angry birds go away not go away, but like get overtaken.
Speaker 2:And I think Bluey will be the IP to do that, especially in the smaller kid focused amusement and attractions. You know, rides and games and everything else. So, anyway, see a lot more Bluey IP come this year. Will it overtake Angry Birds? That's what I'm predicting. We will see and we will vote and judge on all this stuff next year. With that, that wraps up our LBX show for January 5th. This is Brandon Wiley signing off. Stay tuned and keep kicking ass.
