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LBX Collective
Sound Off #66 - M&A Waves, Attraction Diversification, and more!
Sponsored by Intercard!
A wave of mergers and acquisitions is reshaping the entertainment landscape. Herschend's acquisition of Palace Entertainment's North American operations brings together companies with aligned cultures and customer experience philosophies, potentially creating a stronger competitor in the amusement park sector. Meanwhile, Lucky Strike's purchase of Visalia Adventure Park represents a more puzzling strategic move, pairing a bowling entertainment company with an outdoor adventure park concept. K1 Speed continues its expansion by acquiring one of North America's oldest go-kart circuit, while Pinstripes has undergone a financial restructuring with Oak Tree Capital taking a majority stake.
Major entertainment brands are diversifying their offerings in fascinating ways. Round One is venturing into the food service sector with "Round One Delicious," a Japanese-themed food hall concept planned for locations in New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. Sega Corporation is returning to physical retail with a merchandise-focused store opening in Shanghai that will feature exclusive products based on their intellectual properties. Disney is responding to competitive pressure from Universal with new developments at Epcot Center, including "Geo 82," an adults-only cocktail bar.
The competitive socializing market continues to evolve with innovative concepts. Social Rivals has unveiled a projection-mapped mini-golf experience, Game Volt has launched "Hot Shots," a modern take on shotgun-based competitive socializing, and Dave & Buster's has partnered with UFC to create an exclusive competitive gaming experience. These developments reflect the industry's ongoing focus on creating unique social experiences that cannot be replicated at home.
Want to learn how to maximize your venue's private event revenue? Join the LBX Academy on April 14-16 in Dallas, Texas at Andretti Karting for specialized training on building and growing your revenue through group events.
Are you on the edge of your seat Because we're about to Sound Off with Kevin Williams covering today's latest trends in location-based entertainment Brought to you by the LBX Collective your community to connect, engage and inspire. All right, everyone, let's buckle up.
Speaker 2:All right, well, welcome everybody. To Sound Off with Kevin Williams, number 67. Man, we are flying through here and I happen to be live at the Amusement Expo, even though that was, I think, when this was running. That was last week, but you know, we're recording it while I'm here live so we can get all the good details going. All right, kevin, what do we got for? You know, what do we got for? Changing my mind today.
Speaker 3:Well, I suppose it's quite important, while you're in Vegas, to have some fun, and the private party side of our business really seems to be an area of our business that in some cases is well attended or well supported by facility, but by other facilities it's left on the left, on the table. A great opportunity, and I'm just wondering if the the secret to to our future success is really going to be the private group hire business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean for a long time at least at the family entertainment center space, the birthday parties were a massive part of revenue and should be, I mean, at a minimum, 20%, if not higher than that of their total revenue. Whereas and again, it all depends on what type of like if it's a bounce, an old bounce house, inflatable place, like birthdays are going to be a higher part of their revenue than just open play, but depending on the venue. When it comes to, especially, the new LBE space, 100% believe that the group events, private parties, will and should be a key part of their revenue model and should be a key driver of their revenue growth as well.
Speaker 3:And it's a difficult market to crack. The assumption would be that the same person that books the birthday parties for the kiddies is capable of booking the adult private hire business. And they are chalk and cheese. And there needs to be an education from entertainment facilities of how to approach those two different markets.
Speaker 2:Yes, totally agree, totally agree, and yeah, so it's interesting that we talked about that. So anyway, that being said, before we dive into everything else, let's hear a quick word from our sponsor, intercard.
Speaker 4: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.
Speaker 3:I'm surprised you're not doing this on the Intercard booth. It would have been easier for them to have done the presentation. Yeah, you know what?
Speaker 2:Roller was kind enough to offer me on the Intercard booth. It would have been easier for them to have done the presentation. Yeah, you know what? Roller was kind enough to offer me a table and a chair with power and everything else, and so you know, not that Intercard wouldn't have been. They just don't have the right booth layout for this type of thing.
Speaker 3:So anyway, we need to fix that for next year. All of our sponsors need to have the right layout for our plugs.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly All of our sponsors need to have the right layout for our plugs, exactly, anyway, trend report 67. And while we were talking about the private hire and the group event sector, we should point out that the LBX Collective actually has an event dedicated to not just talking about that particular aspect, but all aspects of how to drive future business growth to your facilities, and I thought it'd be worthwhile for you just to give a little bit of information to our audience about this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great. I appreciate that. Call out Kevin. So, yeah, the LBX Academy something we started last year and we really were trying like there was a big gap in the education market around just building and growing a group event business within your facility and it is something that really has to be focused on intentionally and it is a different skill set than booking birthday parties, different skill set than running and operating your F&B components or your attractions or hiring. I mean, it is a very different thing. And so I feel like there's some education gap there and we have some great partners that are coming along to help us deliver that education and this is coming up in April 14th and 16th in Dallas, texas, at Andretti Carding, at the Colony, and looking forward to that. There'll be a couple more throughout the year. We haven't picked those dates or those locations, so this is, we felt like a great central location to kick things off. The year.
Speaker 3:We look forward to hearing how this goes and if possible we'll try and even pop by depending on how things are going, but things have been pretty hectic over the last few weeks so we will see. But anyway, moving on to the trends in the biz, and of course the big one is the announcement of the completion of the Herschend and Palace Entertainment acquisition. Herschend actually worked with the owners of Palace Entertainment to buy all of their North American business, or bring it under the Herschend name. Herschend also owns Dollywood.
Speaker 3:For those people that aren't familiar with this particular operation conglomerate, all of the North American amusement theme parks, water parks and, we're led to believe, lodge business will be now taken over by this group. So this is a major development, on par, I would argue, with the Six Flags merger about the ramifications it will have in changing the landscape. Some of you may be familiar with the Boomers Californian FEC business that Palace Entertainment runs. They also have some East Coast FEC and amusement park business here. For me this is the beginning of the next phase of merger and acquisition that we're seeing taking place in the market and we have other announcements from other companies that kind of shows that we are just about to begin quite a considerable juxtaposition or change in business ownership in the sector.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I really like this. I mean, obviously it's a big merger, it's blending things together. I really do like this merger better than the Cedar Fair Six Flags merger. I think that the culture, the ethos that drives both of these groups are much more aligned right out of the gate than the culture of Cedar Fair and Six Flags and the way that they run and operate and maintain their parks and facilities. So, anyway, I am excited to see where this goes. I think there's obviously going to be some changes, some layoffs at the executive level, as they streamline operations, which is, you know, it opens up opportunities for some of those people to go and do their own things or join other great groups as well. But I'm excited to see how this develops. I think this can really help improve the North American landscape.
Speaker 3:As I was taught. It's important, as with yogurt, culture is essential, and the right culture between the groups that are merging is essential to ensure that the merger is effective rather than just an occupation of one company by a larger foe. It will be interesting also to see how parco ramondos in Spain or in Europe, shall we say is now free to focus wholly on their European business the part of the reason why they put forward Palace Entertainment for acquisition. And again, I think we will be seeing two areas or two sectors of the market benefiting from this development, which is a rare thing to say when you're talking about a merger benefiting from this development, which is a rare thing to say when you're talking about a merger. Moving on and an acquisition, lucky Strikes Entertainment acquired the Adventure Park operation.
Speaker 3:It's a contentious one here. We've touched upon it briefly. This is really chalk and cheese kind of acquisition. A bowling and amusement operation taking on an adventure park seems a little bit out of their bully wick, but I am led to believe it is part of the growth that Lucky Strikes is hoping to achieve with their corporate entity, though I wouldn't be surprised if another name changes in the way. And along with the announcement of this acquisition. We also got confirmation that five of the Lucky Strike entertainment facilities have now been rebranded and brought up to code to match the new investment and the new positioning that the operation is looking for.
Speaker 2:This to me, is a stupid acquisition. This was totally mismatched across the board and I know we did talk about this briefly I can't remember who's on the LBX show, but I actually don't remember where we talked about it. But anyway, I think the only benefit here for Lucky Strike maybe, is that they are acquiring the AdventureParkcom domain, which is pretty impressive Because obviously it's one of the older adventure parks that's been around. So from a domain asset standpoint that's great. But otherwise there's no fit whatsoever here in what Lucky Strike's In theory, what their expertise is. These are two very, very different things oil and water and I think we'll this benchmark will suffer its results.
Speaker 3:I have to be positive about this. I hope they get the right people on board that can take the core elements of this and grow with it and maybe create a brand new profit center within the operation that will focus on amusement parks. But we will have to wait and see. We'll have to visit this again in nine months to see how things have progressed, if they have at all. Another acquisition, an interesting one again. Our friends at K1 Speed, the go-karting entertainment chain, has acquired one of the oldest go-kart circuits in North America. First dedicated as an entertainment go-karting course in the 1950s, this New York location will now be rebranded as a K1 Speed facility. You know Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I think I've driven past this a couple of times when I've gone down to Indianapolis to attend Amusement 360. Next time I'm down there to actually see how much work this particular venue is going to need to bring it up to the K1 speed level of entertainment engagement.
Speaker 3:But again we're in that M&A moment in the industry's history, moving on and acquisitions continue abound. We touched upon it briefly in one of the LBX show discussions. But our friends at Pinstripes has been going through a turbulent period. They were facing quite considerable downturns on their revenue and their access to liquidity was being impacted. But at the last moment, one of their senior lenders, our friends at Oak Tree Capital, has decided to step up and take a majority holding from their minority holding into the operation. Again, we're not sure how this acquisition is going to change the 18 facilities that are out there, whether they're going to go through a rebranding, a reinvestment and a repositioning, because I would argue that the pinstripes model is going to find it very difficult to compete in the current competitive socializing landscape. But for whatever reasons, we are now seeing a new structure to the Pinstripes liquidity and whether that will also be reflected in its management structure we have yet to see.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I feel sorry for the founder of Pinstripes and having to basically hand over to your senior, you know, and having to give basically basically hand over to your senior secured lender either the majority of your company, as a result of the massive debt load that they had.
Speaker 2:Obviously, a lot of this was to write off that debt. So basically, they converted that debt into equity as a result of this transaction. But, yeah, I mean, I think they have to do something to solve, for the same source, sales compliance, and the only way to do that, I mean I think they have to do something to solve, for the same source, sales of line, and the only way to do that, I think, is to change their actual attraction mix model that's in there or something, because they are overbuilt in all of their locations, their restaurants, their bars and their bocce areas and it's just not enough to compete with some of the smaller size chains. You know, your, let's say your why am I going blank on them? Oh, my gosh, I'm going blank on the dark chain Flight Club geez, flight Club, because I love Flight Club, right, but you know they can do similar amount of business in a smaller space than what Pinstripes has done in building your two-story massive 10,000, 15,000 square foot locations, and I think that's one of their big downfalls.
Speaker 3:Being overbuilt could be the savior and if there is investment money available, then you could turn Pinstripes into a very competitive operation because they have the real estate and the established name. But again, it will need the right heads in the right places to be able to do this and it will need some capital. And I know from investment positioning, after you've taken on board a failing or ailing operation, you're not going to be as keen to give them a total blank check to redevelop themselves. You don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but we shall see.
Speaker 2:Well, and this is I know we talked about ballers briefly on the LVX shows open and shut, but this is an opportunity for pinstripes to leverage their large facilities that they have and convert it into a mixed-use, multi-attraction competitive socializing venue from bocce to bowling, to darts, to shuffle, and really have a great competitive socializing venue.
Speaker 3:Yes, I have to agree that really going forwards with what they're trying to do with the pinstripes originally was hindered because of the management structure. Now, after this acquisition, the management structure will obviously have changed and hopefully they will be in a better position to take on. But anyway, moving forwards and diversification seems to be the name of the game for many of the successful companies out in the business, usually the type of thing you see when you have an established operation with a number of sites. They want to try and create other competitive entertainment elements that they can roll out as companions without vampiring their own or zombifying their own existence. You know you don't want to create a copy of your entertainment brand that will eat into the revenue from your existing brand and one of those examples is our friends at Round One.
Speaker 3:Round One has decided to get into the fine dining business, but with a kind of a skew, as I would say, to the amusement side. So Round One, well known in Japan and well known in the States for their bowling amusement, ping pong and entertainment property. They have, you know, about 50-odd facilities in North America and 100-odd, I think 70-odd facilities in Japan I need to be corrected on that and they have decided to launch a concept called Round One Delicious. To launch a concept called Round One Delicious and this is really, from my point of view, a Japanese-themed food hall or court. There will be multiple about seven different food providers with seating for around 12 people, very familiar to the Japanese food store approach that you see in Tokyo or in other parts of Japan, and this will be a chance for the finest of Japanese cuisine to be promoted into North America.
Speaker 3:The operation is talking quite ambitiously about opening this hub or court in New York, los Angeles and Las Vegas. They're talking at a quite breakneck rollout. We're still waiting for confirmation if it is the New York or the Las Vegas facility that will be the first to open in 2026, though there is some talk that they may actually be able to open it quicker than that. But they're going to go through a soft opening process. But this is quite a pivot. It's always made for the operation that they will now have a high level, high quality food components in their operation, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see that food uh operation maybe turn up uh in a modified version, uh in some of the round one entertainment facilities wow I was.
Speaker 2:I was laughing because this is ironic, considering the fact that the last word that I would use to describe most round ones food items on their menu is delicious. So, uh, the fact that they are leveraging the same brand name to tie to a food hall and when I think of round one, I think of actually probably one of the lower tiers of FEC food offerings I think they really need to if they're going to be successful. Come up with another brand, at least here in the US. Maybe round one has a much better and loved food experience in japan. Might be because they're much more, you know, japanese food focused. Obviously, the round ones here do have a few japanese food items on on the list some bento boxes and some sushi and some other things, but, uh, generally not good food. But this, this really makes me feel. This seems to be a similar. I don't know if this is a trend yet I'm not sure.
Speaker 3:Well, we saw this in Eno, if you remember.
Speaker 2:Well, and then Elevate. What I was saying is you know, elevate in Florida, right, elevate. Fun launched their concept.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:But launched their concept called Elevate Eats, which you know for their food hall. So this maybe is a new trend here. But again, rebrand it or something if they want to try to run this food hall, because in the US it's not going to fly.
Speaker 3:The push for Round 1 Delicious is coming from the Japanese parent company and I'm sure that they're quite happy with their round one branding in Japan. Let's see if they get an education when they bring it to New York or Las Vegas. Talking about elevation and diversification and brand, our friends at Walt Disney World have been revealing a little bit more of some of the developments that they've been undertaking, Some of this, of course, in response to the Epic Universe openings, and so they're trying to cement their position and add new elements and, surprise, surprise, they've added to the Epcot Centre area. It's an interesting one. This one's been called Geo 82 in reference to the geodome that represents the Epcot Centre.
Speaker 3:It is a bar, cocktail bar area that will also allow adults only over 21s to view some of the vistas and areas, and the response from the loyal Disney fan base to the renderings of this is that the Hilton Hotel would like to have its bar back. It's not that imaginative, I would say, if I'm generous and I have to hold my hand up. Not that imaginative, I would say it's not true If I'm generous and I have to hold my hand up at a X, if any of my artists pass that across the table to me for evaluation. They would have received it back in short order.
Speaker 2:It is remarkable that they actually even used this rendering which looks like just poor, poor, like you know, early stage rendering on their own website, talking about this new thing, and this is remarkable to me, that this is what they used.
Speaker 3:It is clear that the Disney management is going through change. We've already seen the first round of interviews regarding the new CEO and chairman of the Disney company being held by board members. I think that a lot of the early Blue Sky ideas that are being put forward at this point in time may be receiving some major changes under the new management that we can expect for next year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is rough, especially when you can have a really nice sit-down. It's not adults only, I understand, but you can have a great sit-down, refixed meal with some good cocktails at Space 2020 in Epcot already, and it has this amazing theme really cool experience. And then you have this that looks just like an Elton Bar. It's a great comment hilarious.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you, you use that and you look at club. Uh, uh, 32 and right yeah, club 33 yeah yeah sorry, 33, I keep on doing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it's, it's, it's number day today for me in club 33, which I had the pleasure of uh, doing quite a few times while at Imagineering. And then you look at the Hilton bar. No, I don't even want to insult Hilton. I've had some good times in Hilton bars. This is a very interesting hotel bar concept, but not a 21 and over entertainment bar. Disney Disney bar, right, looking out on Disney property. This ain't it. No, I wouldn't be surprised if this one gets pushed into the long grass and something better is put forward, but I wanted to share the rendering anyway.
Speaker 3:We talked about it in an open and shut. Our friends at Sega Corporation, japan. We talked about it in an open and shut. Our friends at Sega Corporation, japan. We'd already touched upon in a past sound off that they had partnered with Tomi and Mitsubishi to nail down their merchandising interests for an international rollout. And then, surprise, surprise, we hear that Sega is now returning to the facility operation business with a store. Literally, sega's store will be opening in a couple of months, in May, in China, in Shanghai. This is a merchandising property facility pushing heavily on the Sega and Tomy and Atlas brands of product you will only find unique merch within and toy brands in this sector, and we're also being led to believe that this store will also have some entertainment. We're not sure if that's specially themed amusement pieces or attractions, but this is a dedicated store on a similar level to what our friends at Bandai Namco have done with the Bandai Namco Cross store and also similar to what our friends at Taito have done in Japan with the Taito store, which is also offering unique merch based upon their IP. Based upon their IP With the success of the Sonic movie, with the big push that we will be seeing in the next couple of months from Sega Corporation regarding their new consumer games releases.
Speaker 3:They have a new Virtua Fighter in the wings that will be released soon. They have also some other new games. They have also some other new games. I wouldn't be surprised if we see this then open in Tokyo after they've tested out in the Shanghai business, before you go to the home business with this, and then, if it's successful in Tokyo and in Japan, then I wouldn't expect I wouldn't be surprised to expect seeing this in the West in short order. Very interesting, but, from my point of view, seeing sega return to the facility business with a small entertainment component is going to cause a lot of confusion amongst many people, uh, regarding where sega starts and geico's uh gender, so the gender geico facilities begin. But all in all, this is an example of a trend that we're seeing across the sector for pushing the licensing of the ip and the merch yeah, yeah, I mean this is not.
Speaker 2:I mean it's very different, but I would say it's similar. But you know, this is the experience we're seeing with media groups like netflix testing ideas and concepts in pop-up locations and some are stores, some are restaurant concepts, some are experiences, and they're using groups like fever and others to test out those locations, while they then see what works, what doesn't, what hits the market, and then how do they blend that into a more formalized offering, and I think this is a smart approach. This is where they're going and looking at doing something much more robust from a location based entertainment standpoint, just testing the waters with different things, and so hopefully, that's the approach that they're taking here. But you know what it does. You know these are the things we're having to watch out for. You have Paramount coming in with the John Wick experience. You have Sony trying to do their thing with Wunderverse own stuff that have some of these games and different merchandise and redemption items in their facilities.
Speaker 3:Interesting times ahead. Looking at the tech trends quickly, our friends at Dreamscape in Geneva announced that they have a brand new free roam adventure experience, have a brand new free roam adventure experience the House of Wonders. It's less of a shoot'em, zombie blast'em and more of an exploration kind of escape room-esque exploration experience. I'm not sure if this is going to be parachuted into, uh, the re-add uh dreamscape facility, the only two remaining of the dreamscape, uh, free roam, vr entertainment properties, but it is interesting to see that the geneva site is still investing in content creation. Uh, then, one of the surprises I'm not sure if that's on the show floor. No, I didn't think they would. So this is going back to our previous sound off and I was pointing out about how the video games, how the film industry and the toy industry were licensing into the amusement sector. Well, I also included the fashion industry, the sports industry and the streaming industry. And our friends at Dave Buster's have signed a deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, ufc, to create a unique and exclusive game experience for their facility. So yet again we're seeing Dave and Buster's putting their hand in their pocket and purchasing exclusive products that they can utilize through their 140-odd facilities.
Speaker 3:It is an interesting one. This is a two-player experience. This is a pad basher you hit the pad in correspondence to this screen action and then you compete with the individual on the other pad. I've seen similar examples of this concept in the fitness side of the business and in the leisure side, and it's interesting for Dave and Buster's to invest so heavily. It is also interesting to see the people that they got together to develop this. This was created both by our friends at Adrenaline Amusement, also our friends at IGP Distribution and Betson, so everybody had a hand in this one and we're looking forward to getting our hands on this to see how popular this particular franchise will be, though I am surprised that no one decided to bring an example of it to Amusement Expo. We will have to maybe wait for IALPA Orlando, the day Buster's there. Sorry, brian.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I would say I mean Adam, may you know Adam Pratt from Arcade Heroes may talk about this a little bit more on our, you know, on the LVX show coverage. But the you know the fighting, you know the pads, the pad at the bottom, that does exist here. It's not branded UFC. There are some, you know, a couple of the same mechanics. The same mechanism is here on the show floor, but just not the UFC cabinet, ufc branding. I think it's a perfect team up for Dave and Buster's. Already, you're going there to watch the UFC games. You have a lot of that already happening at Dave and Buster's, so why not integrate this and put this on their floor? They have this space for a unit this large as well. So I think this is a great team up and a great exclusive offering for Dave and Buster's.
Speaker 3:And it is not children centric, this is definitely adult centric. So we are beginning to see the pivots towards the social entertainment component that Dave and Buster's previous executive director was trying to achieve. We will have to wait and see how many of the facilities roll this out and how popular it is with the playing audience. I know from the reports I'm getting from Amusement Expo that boxing machines are prevalent across the show floor. This year Even connected competitive socialising style boxing machines have started to make an appearance, as well as the beating pads and the active entertainment. So this genre is hot at the moment and they're jumping on board at the right time, in my estimation.
Speaker 3:Talking about competitive socializing entertainment components that we're seeing in the market, and our friends at Game Vault who are part of uh conductor have announced their uh shooting game, uh hot shots interesting uh name for me. I was getting flashbacks to uh 1977 and shoot away by bandai namco. Most people will be familiar with the 1980s version, shoot away 2, which was a more modern international version of this, but again it is the shotgun against the digital screen. Our friends at game vault have learned a lot of lessons from some of the other shotgun based competitive socializing venues out there Clay's, pac, point Blank and many others, as well as the systems we saw at EAG from our friends at Simway. All in all, we are now seeing the creation of competitive socializing products that can be parachuted into existing venues as an additional entertainment component, rather than a single entertainment system being populated throughout the whole facility. So again, I wouldn't be surprised to see this type of machine sitting next door to an AR, darts and shuffleboard machine, possibly all made by our forensic conductor.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the main difference obviously is, you know, between the 1970s, 1980s versions of these types of machines. Those were meant to be arcade installations, where now we're really seeing bays set aside for groups to hang out, hang around and play for an extended period of time, whether that's an hour session or multiple game session, the way that you would in bowling alleys, the way that we have seen with, again, the rise of places like Electric Shuffle and Flight Club. So, yeah, this is definitely, while the gameplay may be reminiscent, the technology used, the resolutions of the screens and obviously just the overall social environment is what's changed significantly between then and now.
Speaker 3:Seeing another company throw a new concept of competitive socializing into the ring, and our friends at Social Rivals have released something that I've been waiting for someone for some time to develop, which is a projection mapped mini golf experience. Which is a projection mapped mini golf experience? We've seen a virtual reality mini golf or mixed reality mini golf experience created before. We've seen the first rollout of the projection map. It was an obvious one to do. They are going for the same kind of single bay or single course approach, where the projection and the targets change, but the cups that you're aiming for stay the same in a nice package with its touchscreen ordering and play capability. I'm looking forward to trying this one out. I have one concern, though that projection mapping can sometimes lower the light value of the environment, because projection mapping needs a certain level of lighting to be crisp and effective.
Speaker 2:But again, waiting to see this in action before we'll comment any further yeah, and I will say I've been talking with these guys for actually almost two years now. They they have been developing this product. This is their now, I would say public unveiling of the product. That has gone a long way from where they started. These guys have been running two pubs in the UK called A Putt Above, and so this is now the refined version that they are actually now going back into their existing Putt Above locations and replacing their old days with their newer version of this product that they are now bringing to market.
Speaker 2:So, you know, happy to see that they're finally putting a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this thing. It is definitely an indie development project. These guys are just a very small team and so excited to see this finally hit the market and what they can do with it. I do know that they're going to be looking for distribution here in the US, so if anybody is listening, certainly think about reaching out and seeing where you can offer some help there on that front, excited to see where they go.
Speaker 3:Yeah, hopefully we'll have news of a venue that they can exhibit at to find that kind of distribution in the future. But again, watch this space. And then, finally, a development that again I'm going to need you and Adam to go off and check on the bandai namco booth to see if the product has actually been brought. But uh, bandai namco amusement europe has entered the live play market now. Some of you that will remember the early sound offs.
Speaker 3:I was reporting a lot about live play machines. These are machines mainly cranes and some prize machines that have a live video camera feed to them and you can actually play the game remotely using an app on your mobile phone or on a web browser. These were very well. They still are very big and popular in Japan. A number of companies in Asia and North America have attempted to launch their apps based on this live play approach. These are warehouses full of machines that are being played by people on social media.
Speaker 3:Very popular, though the Sega approach at this, the Taito approach at this and, in Japan, the Konami approach to this, haven't been as popular as the independents, though they've still eked out quite a successful business. Well, bandai Namco Amusement Europe has decided to throw their hat in the ring, and part of their warehouse in the UK has been set aside for a couple of these machines set up with live play. I am of the understanding that this is a unique crane machine that Bandai Namco is selling through their operation, so again, I would be interested to see the crane machine in reality as well, as I've played using their app. The venue and the site is live and it follows the rules of all live play games, but again, it is an interesting secondary or tertiary revenue stream for the operation. Anyway, that's really it from me, unless there's anything else you want to touch upon, brandon.
Speaker 2:No, I mean, I think just you know happy to be here, unless there's anything else you want to touch upon, brandon? No, I mean, I think just you know happy to be here. The next one you know we've already obviously shared quite a bit about everything we saw here on the LBX show that ran a couple of days ago, so if you wanted to learn more about what has gone down at the next vote you weren't able to make it down here definitely go back and check out the LBX show that ran just two days ago on sunday. Check that out, all right. Well, that wraps up sound off number 67 for march 25th 2025, and we will see you on the next one. Have a good one.
