.png)
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.
Join our online community at LBXGalaxy.com!
Proudly sponsored by Intercard!
LBX Collective
The LBX Show #21 - Amusement Expo 2025 Review, Top 10 New Venues, and more!
Sponsored by Intercard!
The LBX Show explores the latest trends and innovations from Amusement Expo 2025 with an insightful discussion featuring industry experts Beth Standlee, Kevin Williams, and Adam Pratt about the show's successes, struggles, and standout attractions.
• Intercard's Impulse Card Reader offers both game card and credit card payment options for high-impact attractions
• Amusement Expo 2025 featured the most floor space and vendors in show history with stronger than usual day two attendance
• Beth Standlee shares her perspective as AAMA President on the success of educational programming with nearly 500 participants
• Adam Pratt identifies Raw Thrills' Top Gun Maverick as the standout arcade game of the show
• Chuck DeMonte provides six essential strategies for capturing first-party data to increase customer return rates
• Kevin Williams reviews the top industry openings including new social gaming venues combining multiple attractions
Join the LBX Galaxy to connect with others in the location-based entertainment industry. Stay tuned for Sound Off #67 with Kevin Williams coming out Tuesday, March 25th.
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.
Tuning you in. Now to the LBX Show with your host, brandon Wiley, 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. This is Brandon Wiley, I'm your host and this is number 21 for March 23rd 2025. We have a great show lined up for you today. We've got guest Gab and what we're going to be doing is getting a group of us together talking through Amusement Expo all the great things we had going on there. We have promo pro tips with Chuck DeMonte, and then he's going to be talking about the importance of capturing first party data and then wrapping with an open and shut with Kevin Williams. We're going to be hopping on together and we're going to discuss, actually, the top 10 trending openings.
Speaker 2:But before we get started with that, we're going to do a little bit of news. You should know all right. So first thing we've got coming up here is iapa is doing research and the 2025 global benchmark survey is still here. You still can. We've been talking about this for the last couple of weeks, but you still can take that survey. The more people that take the survey, the better. Scan the qr code if you're watching it and then just take some time. It should take about 10 to 20 minutes max really to fill this thing out. Might even take less than that. I don't know, but it is worth it for the data that we could have for our industry. So if you are listening, you can go to iapaorg or just Google IAPA Global Benchmark Survey and it will take you right to the link. All right, that's what we got for that. And then we've got the LBX Academy coming up. So we are going to be talking about group sales and growing your revenue through group sales. That includes birthday parties, that includes corporate events, that includes anything that is a group, and how to improve and grow your revenue from those through operations but also through sales. And there are very different ways that you grow that group revenue for corporate events versus birthday parties, et cetera. So we're going to be digging into that growing your revenue with group events at the LBEX Academy. This is April 14th to the 16th, so it's coming up in just a few weeks.
Speaker 2:Adam Dreddy, carting the colony in Dallas. We've got a great faculty. We've got Clint Novak, who's going to be a part of it, kyle Stremi, who's a sales leader, and then Beth Stanley, really excited to have her join as well. She'll be walking us through a lot of stuff on the, you know, a couple of days. So, anyway, that is. I think that is it. I think that wraps up News you Should Know, all right. Well, hello everybody. This is Brandon Wiley from the LVX Collective. I am on the show floor of Amusement Expo 2025 in Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Convention Center, and I'm excited to sit down or stand up and talk with Chris from Intercard about one of their new readers they have here. So flip the camera around here, chris. Tell me a little bit about what we've got going on here. Hey, brandon.
Speaker 4:Chris Mark with Intercard East Coast sales rep. So we are featuring our new impulse reader here. Our impulse reader accepts both game cards from our Intercard tellers as well as credit card payments, so it's a great addition to locations with small footprints 10, 15, 20 pieces with no redemption that you look to put on the cranes and or video pieces Allows for seamless payments. Impulse payments is really what we target. So, as the guests are leaving, if you have a photo booth and they say, hey, I have no more money left on my card, pull out your credit card, pull out your phone and pay for that unit right there. So very, very robust unit, very solid, similar to our other readers as well. Customizable display you can put different images on there as well. It does feature the different credit cards that are accepted. We partner with multiple different payment processors to allow seamless payments on that reader.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is awesome. That is awesome, so one of the ones that we can also read QR codes as well.
Speaker 4:Correct. Yeah, we have a QR code reader as well. That goes along with our IQ system. That eliminates the use of need for cards. You can go towards a wristband with an RFI or a QR code or a QR code slip. We also have a phone text option to allow for the QR code to be sent to your mobile device. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Now, if I already have an intercard system maybe I've used one of your i3 readers or something in the past and I'm used to the swipe and maybe the tap am I able to then upgrade to the impulse? How does?
Speaker 4:that work. Our readers are interchangeable, so you can have a location where you can have, say, four or five of these impulse readers. You can have a location where you can have, say, four or five of these impulse readers. You can have some IQ readers, you can have some tap readers, some magstripe readers so they are, they're completely interchangeable within the system okay.
Speaker 2:So, for example, let's say, I don't want to go through and change out all of my arcade machines and my redemption machines from one of your other readers, but I'm able to. Maybe, like you've mentioned, photo booth, I can swap out and put the impulse on the photo booth. So allow for that impulse purchase from a credit card.
Speaker 4:We definitely like the impulse reader on high, high impact games or attractions. You know if you're dealing with a roller coaster and you have a payment system as the guests approach the turnstile oh, I don't have a card. Sure you could pay with your credit card right at this terminal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like that right. So like if I'm using even like an immersive enclosure like cubix or valor Arena or something like that where it's unattended and I maybe don't have some of my game card and the game card kiosk is far away, I just quickly pull out a credit card as a parent and make that payment. It's a true impulse payment.
Speaker 4:The other thing is the reporting is all done through the same platform, so you'll be able to recognize your credit card payment, as well as your game card payments as well, through the same platform. That way, you're not you're not bouncing back and forth between different platforms yeah, perfect. Yeah, that's awesome, all right Well thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. Thanks, brandon. Thank you.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, I don't know where I went. You can hear me, though, so that's good. All right, so that was. Thanks so much for Chris for sitting down with me and telling me a little bit about the Impulse Reader from Intercard. Intercard is one of our great sponsors, so thank you so much for your support, intercard.
Speaker 2:All right, I'm excited for this guest gab episode and we had a great. We have a great conversation here with Beth Stanley from Train Entertainment and now the growth group, and so we also have Kevin Williams from the Singer Report and also the LBX Collective and the SoundOff with Kevin Williams, as many of you who listen and watch the show already know Kevin. And then we also have Adam Pratt as well joining us. So it's a great conversation, so let's dive in. All right. Well, welcome everybody. This is good to have you all on. We don't get a chance to all be on very often, it seems like just when we have shows. So, you know, it's great to have you joining us as well. Glad to be here. Thank you, yeah. So all right, well, we're going to be talking about the Amusement Expo 2025. And you know, let's just start with going around. How did everybody feel like it went. I feel like it was a pretty good vibe this year, but you know, beth, what were your thoughts.
Speaker 5:Well, I loved it. You know it was a very exciting dual-rolled event for me. It was my first year as president of AAMA, so I had a lot of opportunity and felt like obligation on the floor to make sure that I was out there talking to members and to a person. Folks felt energized. I were excited. They felt like we had more traffic on day two than we normally have. They felt like we had more traffic on day two than we normally have.
Speaker 5:You know, I think you can have a trade show in the last day of any trade show, whether it's two day or four day. That last day we're usually all talking to each other and there are still plenty of buyers on the floor and it was quite, quite refreshing. I thought it was very exciting. We had a wonderful keynote that was very different. It really stuck my neck out there about helping cultivate the power of Dana Monique, and so we had a very inspiring luncheon.
Speaker 5:I thought education was better than the year before and was better than the year before. That we just continued to elevate. We all were paying attention to what was working, what we could have done better. We're hyper-focused guys on just making this event be a must attend event and and that takes a lot of work you know there's a lot of work done up up to it. There's a lot of work at the show and there's a lot of we've got I can't even tell you how many meetings planned next week to make sure that we debrief. In the moment that the give a darn about what we're doing in this space is higher than I've ever seen it, and I've been around a long time, so I thought it was very exciting.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Well, I think it is a testament to you and your leadership as well, and and just the energy and the new, the new perspective. You know, I know we were talking before and Kevin, he's on mute right now. He's actually on the road, but I'll just use his phrase that he used. You're an inclusive person and I think you brought a lot of people along and you're trying new things and that's what an industry that's been around for gosh 75, eight years plus, depending on how you think about the industry and so it's great to have that fresh perspective on everything. And I would agree the second day was definitely busier than a second day at Amusement Expo has been, at least in the last five years, and from talking with the different vendors that were there, they did feel like while the attendance was maybe down, the buying conversations were higher and we can talk about the attendance and what that actually means, but at the end of the day, it's about buyers and getting buyers there and having buying conversations.
Speaker 2:More than just people who are, you get a whole bunch of people that are just kicking tires, and that doesn't do any good either.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that's, that's, yeah, that. That that's hard because you, you, you want to focus and spend that limited time that you've got with people who can make a decision about buying the next thing. I, I, I'm, I'm not convinced that the less buyer attendance and and let's be clear we had the biggest trade show, most floor space, most number of vendors, most number of vendors buying the most number of booths that we've ever had since the inception of the show, and so there was a lot of confidence. I think on the seller side that the show would be a very good show and I believe at least the folks I talked to feel like they got that.
Speaker 5:The attendee side was maybe 8% less, but I don't know. I've asked, I've requested information about what were the entities represented? Because if a buyer brings 10 people from their organization, brings 10 people from their organization, that's a reflection of one entity. And I want to know did we have more entities there? Because I certainly talked to people that I did not know, we'd never met, hadn't seen them at events before I. Also, we had a couple of neat opportunities that we're going to close, we've been talking to at past events and stuff like that, so I think that'll be an interesting number.
Speaker 3:Yeah, adam. Well, thank you, beth, very, very much for making the time available. Obviously, my perspective is from a remote observation of the show, from the social media as well as the trade feedback, and I can attest that it's a very positive mix, especially seeing such a large number of new amusement machines on the floor.
Speaker 2:And I think Adam can give us more detail on that. Yeah, yeah, adam, you want to give us your thoughts from the floor. You, you are all. We crossed, we crossed paths.
Speaker 6:You're all over that floor yeah, yeah it's, it's a little. It was a little weird, because there's a few people that you know I normally saw and I just through texting, it's like are you at the show? And it's like I haven't seen you. But it's like, yeah, I've been around and and like you and I, brandon, yeah, we did run into each other. I, I guess, more times than, uh, you usually run into people that you know, but, uh, it was a lot of fun. And to reiterate what both beth and yourself had said was that, yeah, I was. I was surprised by day two because I remember telling somebody who or she was it was her first show that she'd ever done. And I was like, well, no, just so you know. She was like, oh, yeah, I'm so tired after day one. It's like, well, don't worry, tomorrow will be light and everything.
Speaker 6:And then it's like well anything wrong or up about that and uh because and I was also assuming that just because I'd talked to some people it's like, oh, we're only here for today and everything. But there was plenty of people who, I guess, just showed up yesterday and that's what they were planning. Maybe it's because they were thinking, well, it'll be slower, so I'll go just on day two instead of day one, but then that just bolstered it. But yeah, I've been attending Amusement Expo since 2007, and in my opinion, this had the most new content that I had seen, at least from an arcade perspective, and it was really refreshing and it was good because I always attend IAPA as well, and so anybody who attends both of those it often feels like amusement expo is just kind of like a follow-up call.
Speaker 6:You know where it's like oh, I've already seen all this stuff and everything, and while that still remains true to a degree, it's like there are a lot of updates but then a lot of new things that had been held back in the chamber by the manufacturers, and that's good to create excitement, but also just to see what is going to shape the industry going into the summertime.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, there was a surprising number of new, like brand new, like had were not at IAAPA five months and they were there today. I mean it was. It was pretty remarkable to see that, and and again, that drives energy. Right, it drives energy, it drives excitement, it drives foot traffic and people want to go and try those things. So maybe we can hop in and then we can dive into some of those. You know, Adam, what did you see? For me, Like you've been going since 2007. You, this is, this is the industry, and you follow these things very well. So sometimes I'll see something I'll think, oh, that's new or that's unique, but it's been like out for two years. So I know that, that you know. For me, I saw a number of things that was like, oh, that's pretty cool, that's fresh, Um, but for you, like, what did you actually see on the floor? That was okay, this is new and, um, and this was worth, uh, worth checking out.
Speaker 6:Yeah, so there was, uh, quite a few things that uh, it showed up as mentioned, and so, um, just to making sure that I, let me see if I can share the imagery on this there, that um I, of course, when you came into the show floor, some of the setup was similar to what you would often see with an amusement expo such as Bandai Namco being right there up front and showing off their products. I guess, out of what they had, they probably had the least amount of brand new products that you hadn't seen before, as theirs felt closer to what their IAPA setup was. But even then they still had what's called Gashapon right up front, and let me see if I can share that with you all there.
Speaker 2:While you're working on sharing that, I've got, I thought, one of the you know we can talk a little bit and I know you're intimately familiar with these guys, but Alan one their new soda slam out and so I've got a picture here of that. And yeah, and so the I just thought the soda slam is basically a variant on well, we can say it's a variant on the Slush Rush.
Speaker 6:Well, it's a little weirder than that, so really quick, yeah. So there was an indie game developed by a guy in Iowa called Perfect Pour. He was testing it out for the past almost two years. Somebody at Baytech saw that while it was testing and realized that it was a very fun, good classic-style concept and created what became Icy Slush Rush. And now Soda Slam is essentially an answer to Slush Rush, but Soda Slam is perfect pour, but it's been enhanced for family entertainment centers. It has two players now, but it's essentially the same game, but like a enhanced version of perfect core. So it's. It's kind of funny how that back and forth, uh went there like that, but yeah, yeah very good cabinet presentation, very colorful, um, especially with the led tubes.
Speaker 6:That's something you have to see in person, because when uh, for those just listening how it works is it's kind of like the old tapper by midway, um, but it's more simple. It's a simpler concept and you're just. You have customers arriving at the tap. They put their glass there. You pull the joystick tap handle down, it fills up the cup and then you have to not spill and you have to not underfill it, and then you just have lots of customers arriving in a line and you're just going at it, but when you pull back on the tap, there's an LED tube that fluctuates and it makes it look like there's liquid going through the tube, which is a cool little thing to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the visual representation is really cool and I felt like the action on the actual soda handle was, you know, like the lever was really good, compared to Slush Rush, where I feel like you really have to pull the thing down and up. Yeah, this was just nice because I could. It was just my fingers, I could be moving back and forth and I felt like I could get a better accurate pour and it was, um, I could move a lot faster as well. So, yeah, I did like that. I think the one, um, you know, the one thing that was, uh, you know, with with the cabinet and I gave this feedback to them as well um, you know, is that the big soda cans on the sides are are, like, they're cool if it's a standalone item, but if you're going to, like, have a bunch of other machines next to it, it doesn't work, and so you would need to be able to have a cabinet that you could have.
Speaker 6:you know, basically, get without the soda cans, right, right, it should be available as an add on option as opposed to just like that's the model sort of thing, and so, yeah, yeah, I agree with that. On the presentation, I guess also one thing to note, if anybody that's watching this played soda slam. On day one there was a little bit of latency and that was caused by the monitor. They actually corrected that. So on day two it was just smooth, it was perfectly oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:I know they were. You mentioned they were thinking about doing that. I didn't get a chance to go back and try it, yeah.
Speaker 6:So like I got to play it both days and like it, it played much better. It was more fun and easier to play on day two because of that issue. But again, it was just something with the game mode on the TV, but it was something where you couldn't just hit a button to do it. It was a little strange, but they figured it out and everything so that it wouldn't be an issue there. But uh, yeah, that was one of the fun things. And then, I guess, unfortunately for them, they were kind of way back in the floor space. They weren't by the other arcades so you had to go exploring for them.
Speaker 2:Uh, you know which some people do, but unfortunately it's always unfortunate to me when I hear people that are like, oh, I just go to the things up front and that's it well, yeah, and I think part of the part of the problem where they were, and blue motion games, right, so like the two indie, the two indie, um, you know, game developers, they were on that state, they were on the same row but opposite, opposite ends of the row, so blue motion was on the other, but they were behind the Great Wall of Billiards and so, basically, if you looked down and you got to the billiard section and you got to the gaming section, so like all the casino gaming stuff, you kind of thought that, oh, that's where all the rest of this stuff is. And, yeah, you may not have gone and walked through and found them, so hopefully they will advocate for themselves to be up by the rest of the arcades.
Speaker 3:So yeah, One of the things I used to like at the older shows was that we put the new releases and the first time exhibitors in a certain area that forced individuals to go to at least walk past the new boys and the new blood and put the established people at the back, encouraging people down. Just a quick question for you, Adam which company came first with the idea of the pouring concept? Because it's interesting to see Root Beer Tapper being back as a popular concept.
Speaker 6:Right. So technically it'd be a company called DSM Arcade. He's an indie developer, it's only like two or three guys, but they got together with Alan one after IAPA to to do the soda slam. So, but yeah, perfect pour is the name of the game. It's available already, so that's another thing to like. Technically, as far as production goes, it's already out there before Icy Celestial Resort or Slow to Slam.
Speaker 2:But, Kevin, I know you can't see. I don't know if you can see the screen, but I just in the Alan 1 booth.
Speaker 3:Yes, I can.
Speaker 2:Or no, this wasn't in the Alan 1 booth. I'm sorry.
Speaker 3:This was actually at. We went to spy ninjas on one of the spy ninjas uh classic arcade location?
Speaker 2:yes, I took a picture of the same. They have a tapper uh there at the, so an old, you know budweiser tapper game.
Speaker 6:So if you want to talk about maybe the first, the very first tap game, tap fill game, you know this, that's that's probably, you know, pushing it up there yeah, exactly, um, but yeah, and then, as I was mentioning up front, uh, you had, uh, the arrival of gashapon to the show, which is very interesting and that also ties in with the bulk vending area. But this is one of those things that wasn't in the same area, but it was right there at the front entrance, so you couldn't miss it, unless, I guess, you're just looking at your phone. But if you don't know what gashapon is, it's essentially japanese bulk vending, but what they do is they offer prizes or toys that are far higher quality than what you tend to find in bulk vending, and so things like that.
Speaker 6:They sell their like actual gundam models, like real high quality stuff, and that's why the cost on those things will not be under a dollar. They'll usually be two to five dollars, sometimes even more, and they have a special token that you have to buy. But this has been tested in a limited way out in the US, but now it's available for any operator to get in the US. But now it's available for any operator to get. And with the growing interest in Japanese culture that's come across the United States, I mean this is a fantastic way to tap into that and that's what Round 1 USA already does. But now it's for all that. I've heard so many operators over the years. It's like gosh, round 1 USA, it's making it tough for my business, but it's like now you can have access to little things like that, or like bandai namco has taika no tatsujin and then sega had the new my my dx game, rhythm game as well. These are all these big japanese culture thing, gaming culture, things that now other operators are finally getting access to.
Speaker 3:But it's not just that. So I was just going to say but it isn't just the Japanese trending aspect that's making these genres popular, it's also popularity with the particular audience. I think it's important to understand that the music games that we saw on the show floor not forgetting our friends from Andomero with their music games are now finding extreme popularity. But they're not being sold through the distribution section. They're being sold direct to the operator.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, um, I want to come. I want to circle back to the comment you made, kevin, about having a space for the new, some of the newer operators or something like that. Or not? New operators, the newer um developers, uh, you know, like the indie game developers or whatever, bringing them closer to the other arcade beth is how? How is it set up? Um, how are the different? I know you get to pick your preferred location, but that obviously doesn't always happen. I know that for Amusement Expo, there's an entire committee that does space allocation and is focused on that. How does that process work for Amusement Expo? I've actually never really known that.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so I was not on the show committee in the, you know until after September and so I don't. I don't exactly have the 411 on space allocation. I do know that that there are first time pavilions. I was grabbing, I was trying to grab the app to see how the app may have laid it out, you know, and really all I can see here is an interactive floor plan. But that's certainly.
Speaker 3:If you go on to the web page, beth, they do actually split the categories of first time time new and established. The app is a little bit too concentrated, I'm sorry, please.
Speaker 5:Yeah, no, thank you, kevin, that was my memory as well is that there would be a new vendor pavilion. I'm not sure, and I do not do a good job, just from a time perspective, moving around the floor, to know enough about that. Now I'm mad at myself for not having done that, because that would be a great, great thing to know. I'll certainly work with Brian Glasgow and try to better understand that. What I do know is is that, because we're moving to the West Hall, as we tried to go ahead and reserve space, that option wasn't available yet. So the layout isn't for next year completely laid out yet, and so I'll better understand how that work gets done.
Speaker 5:What I can tell you is Glasgow does. I can't even imagine the amount of work and hours and time that goes into juggling those logistics, but that's a great idea. I've made an immediate note when you said, brandon, about the great wall of billiards, that people didn't get the feel that once you got past that space. Hey, there's still more for me beyond here, and I think that's super, super important, and I actually made that note and would be really interested in any other feedback of that kind so that I can go and help.
Speaker 3:So we have some comments from attendees that are turning up in the forums now, as well as the information that was supplied by our sources during the event. The carpet change for the billiards area as well as for the bulk vending areas you know, the Great Wall of Billiards, as we've seen to have labeled it is imposing, but at least the main Broadway allows people to see the new startups. If you want, beth, we would be glad to try and do maybe a first day walk around with people that are interested and go to the new releases, very similar to how our friends at IALPA do the walk around for visitors to the event to the event.
Speaker 5:That's awesome because we do signify on badges that people are first-time attendees and stuff like that. But kind of, once things get going it's really tough to be that focus and understand so that you can address them in that way. So I think that's a great idea. Kevin, I definitely captured that. That would be a neat benefit. It could even be its own educational section. I do know there's some challenges because you couldn't really take them before the show floor opened because people are still building and pulling it up. But maybe a sneak peek first-time attendees only got to be know. I love that idea. That's great.
Speaker 2:Yeah you, they get to slip in at nine instead of 10. You know, do the whole ribbon cutting and everything else they do at 10 o'clock, but they get a little bit of a sneak peek and then come back out.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I just love that idea, idea.
Speaker 2:So one of the things I was thinking we could do is why don't we talk about the most, the most underwhelming piece, or the most underwhelming thing we saw, and then also the most I don't want to say overwhelming, but like the thing that you, you were really excited about and also the thing that you were maybe excited to see and then and then was like disappointed in, ultimately, when, when you saw it. So why don't we? We go around um and uh, you know, I know, kevin, you weren't there, but you, you have your sources and I'm sure you heard stuff as well. But uh, adam, you want, why don't we start with yours for the most underwhelming? Because we'll end on a positive note, right? So let's start with the, the most underwhelming uh elements that you saw, or the most underwhelming specific one. We'll pick one oh, geez Darn. Or, if you want, I can go while you think about it.
Speaker 6:Yeah, Because I'm trying to and I I don't know.
Speaker 2:So, for me, I was really excited to, to, to see the cyberpunk turf wars, and I was completely underwhelmed by the uh, by the, the, the piece, by the experience, by the gameplay, by pretty much all of it. Uh, frankly, I mean the, the, the, the branding on the outside, all that was really good, I mean. So I mean I love the cabinet design, um, and and so like I will say like, say, like that was good, but even like the, it was a little bit weird to have the camera like split on the screen above and what it was showing was, you know, it wasn't the people playing, it was like the people behind, which didn't make any sense. You're just looking at yourself, um, if you were a spectator. So I'll give, I'll shift over. I think I've got a picture of that. Oh, let's see which.
Speaker 5:Yeah, here so I didn't picture the tv, but above, like you actually have.
Speaker 2:You know it's. It's pointing on you versus pointing on the players on the picture I have on my viewer.
Speaker 6:You can see. Okay, it shows the whole monitor yeah, all right.
Speaker 2:Uh, I gotta pull mine off first and throw yours on. Yeah, here we go. Maybe you can zoom in, but yeah, you've got the, you've got the monitor there anyway. I mean, I thought there was some innovative things with the multi-layered screen, but the gameplay itself was underwhelming, and just the size of the cabinet for what it is. It's so deep, it will take up so much space on the floor. So, anyway, this was the one for me that I I was like really excited to to play and to see. And then I was like, all right, yeah, I played it.
Speaker 6:Once I'm done, I don't need to do it again yeah, and that one, uh, it's where I guess what I'm thinking is I I see a lot of potential there where it, with the right polish, it can become something even better. I mean, as far as shooting galleries go, I think it's one of the best I've ever played, but that's not saying much, because shooting galleries usually aren't that much. They're just like what you said you play them once and kind of forget about it at a theme park. But at least this has some potential to add a lot of randomization there. It's just that's one of the things, like you mentioned.
Speaker 6:That surprised me is that this, the game that this is based on, is an expansive universe. It has a ton of things going on for it and all these missions and characters, and it doesn't really employ any of that stuff, and so it's like if they could dial that in then and add those elements to it and everything, then that would work. But I've already seen from the videos that I've posted of this onto youtube I mean there's a lot of very dedicated fans to this and they're having very similar reactions where they're saying it looks boring, um, it looks underwhelming and all that, and so, um, yeah, they've, I think they've got a little bit of work cut out for them to make this um a hundred percent, especially because it's it does have a very strong fan base to it yeah, yeah, there's a lot of potential with the IP, so hopefully they're able to improve on that.
Speaker 2:All right, so, kevin, what were you hearing as far as maybe one of the things that didn't quite hit the mark?
Speaker 3:So for me Punks.
Speaker 2:Oh, we lost you. All right, we're going to punt over to Beth. I know you didn't get a chance to play everything, but if you have an opinion at all, maybe you don't, or maybe you saw something that you really liked. It doesn't have to be a machine. It doesn't have to be an arcade game either. I mean, it could be something for the entire experience.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, it's for me, you know, brandon, the thing that I'm I'm going to be focused against, because I don't have the time to, or even the expertise to, know one game from the next.
Speaker 5:That probably sounds terrible from the president of the Machine Association, but you know, what I'm interested in is the experience.
Speaker 5:It's what I've been interested in for 20 plus years and and I'm going to be looking at the education piece of it I was.
Speaker 5:I can't even think of a session that I was underwhelmed by. From that, from the sessions that I attended, I will say this the, the laser tag sessions were not as well attended as we would have wanted and they do have a footprint and they've always had a footprint in the show and, of course, there's been a major shift in leadership and so they've been a little bit in our space with us trying to help them make a better home, and I do think that we've made some headway in the last two years and we'll have a much, much better plan for for next year. Good job of messaging and communicating the fact that the laser tag has a home in this space and that they have education sessions available. So I guess, from an underwhelmed perspective, that that piece could have been done a lot better. Um, we have a lot of opportunity there, uh, and we need to message and take better care of that community, because they are part of this overall community.
Speaker 6:I would add to that really quick. I didn't even know there was anything laser tag until yesterday, almost at the end of the show, when I accidentally stumbled across the booth and I was thinking about that the whole time. I was like I thought there used to be, there used to be a lot of laser tag. What happened whole time.
Speaker 2:It's like I thought there used to be, there used to be a lot of laser tag. What happened?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, yeah, and they were, and they were there, right, I mean so obviously, laser blast, you had zone you had laser force right and I mean so like the operators were there, but they definitely they also had smaller booths than they would typically, right, so they had 10 by 10s and 10 by 20s. Uh, laser force had a big one because they had the pixel floor that they also you know pixel games that they they're a um, you know uh, a reseller for. So actually maybe let's um, cause I know we we are running tight on time for for a couple of us here. So let's skip over to the, the, the, the one thing that you really liked the most, um from what you, from what you had a chance to see, can I, can I go?
Speaker 5:first yeah, go for it. Yeah, so of course I, I can't do. I can't do one thing. There's Kevin in the flesh. I love it, I love me some, kevin. I was.
Speaker 5:I was really excited by the. I was really excited by the. I was really excited by the education and, in particular, the, the bold initiative that we took with the keynote and the keynotes at lunch and we did an apps and this band and this rock star, dana Monique, was a finalist on the Voice. One of her backup singers also was a finalist on the Voice, and the care and commitment that she gave our organization to put together really a short. It wasn't us sitting there getting preached at right.
Speaker 5:She, you know her message. She themed it around, powering up, she used our words, she did our home. You know, she did her homework. She's an entrepreneur making her way in the world and her message uh, the thing that consider that that lands on her so much is that the richest place in the world is a cemetery, because that's where dreams had gone to die, and that she didn't want to do that and that that her dream of of being on that stage and making music and and touching people's lives was important to her and and arguably that's what we're all doing too, and just from an inspiration point of view, it was. And, of course, all the dancing I did think I was disappointed. Kevin, you won't believe this. A room full of men like crazy, and me the most eligible bachelorette in the room, had a hard time getting anybody to get up and dance with me. I know, if you'd have been there, surely you would have danced with me.
Speaker 5:It would have been my honor if I had had been there, surely you would have danced with me. It would have been my honor if I had. That was extremely exciting. We had a great AI session. Luke Adams and Jennifer did a wonderful job and Luke was extremely generous in showing us, literally with his company and his business, what he was doing, so people could see it. I'm real proud of Denise Killian, who did a wonderful session with Brandon from Raw Thrills on hiring and keeping the right people, because people are what make up our businesses. Our roundtables we got rave reviews on. I was very excited.
Speaker 5:Of course, I've been focused on education at this show since 2021 and I'm very pleased with it. Aama does their awards. He spends countless hours crafting just the right speech to honor those recipients and that was that. That job was done, just just beautifully. Yeah, I'm. I was proud. I'm proud of our team. I was proud of education we had. I can't remember the number I had it here in front of me but I think well over 400. And what was the number? Brandon? 490. Some odd people signed up for education.
Speaker 2:Education yeah, it was just under 500 for all the different education components.
Speaker 6:What was it last year?
Speaker 5:It was pretty somewhere close to 400, adam.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it was an increase in the education for sure it was a significant increase.
Speaker 3:We are definitely an industry that is wanting to learn, which is a great thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 5:You know, when we think about member value and sustainable member value, networkability and education is right at the top. Foundations did a great job. They had 115 folks. Oh, 478 registrants is what we had officially. There is a number.
Speaker 3:So we know that the VR Summit had 199 members, according to Glasgow's numbers.
Speaker 5:Yes, unique scans, and that was down. You know, bob said that that was significantly down from prior year, and so that's an interesting understanding. But they literally drew people from around the world too, which was fascinating.
Speaker 3:So the numbers are always a difficult metric to use because, you know the trite phrase, quality over quantity is essential, especially when we're talking about education and sales, and I can tell you that a number of the sales executives that are foot sore and liver sore, uh, that have been sending me emails to tell me what what I was missing had pointed out that the quality of leads at the show was one of those surprising points, which is what the whole point of why we're having the event in the first place was missing. Had pointed out that the quality of leads at the show was one of those surprising points, which is what the whole point of why we're having the event in the first place.
Speaker 5:That's right and I would say, on the seller side, that's 1000% true. And on the buyer side, the fact that they got the access to all those great things that we're talking about and that they saw the value of being at education, being at that luncheon, coming to the gala the gala, what had more energy? That the reception had more energy and more and more people. The food was good.
Speaker 2:The the music was great. The saint patty's uh, you know, basically, basically the Irish band that was playing.
Speaker 5:It was great, so the reason it was so popular I wasn't hogging the bar there was
Speaker 2:a lot more gin?
Speaker 5:Yeah, there were, there was more gin left. But and then I would say that my Paddy's Day dress, my dress, was pretty spectacular.
Speaker 2:I did hear I did not get a chance to see it, but I did hear that it was, that it was excellent.
Speaker 5:Oh, I'm sorry that was Monday, but that was. Yeah, it was Monday.
Speaker 2:All right. So I do want to hear, adam, what was your, what was your top piece or top thing that you saw or experienced there? Top?
Speaker 6:piece would probably be Top Gun, yeah, top piece would probably be Top. Gun. Yeah yeah, and I mean that's the moment that I first saw that game on test. It's like that's going to be a big hit. I mean it would be difficult for them to not get that right. And now I mean there was a couple of minor things that I can nitpick about, and I talked to George Petro about this, just on helping identify. You know what to shoot and whatnot, and that was some feedback I'd heard from some other people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was not clear exactly what you I mean.
Speaker 6:You basically just try to shoot everything, Right, right and the first person I filmed playing the game wasn't even shooting. Like somebody noticed that and had to go and tell him. It's like hey, pull the trigger to shoot. And so he's a little confused. And when I played it's like I already had an idea of what I was going to do but there were still like elements where enemy planes would fly in with you as opposed to towards you, and so that kind of threw me off because it's like wait, are those my guys? Am I supposed to know? But despite those minor things, like it controlled well, I think it looks great, it's very smooth and it's just fun to blow stuff up. It has the danger zone music. It's doing everything there to pull you into that experience, be immersive for it, and it's like I can easily see where this is going to be a big hit anywhere where it's placed yeah, yeah, it was great.
Speaker 5:May I interject one quick observation? What I love about this industry and this space is Adam. You literally just said well, I talked to George Petro, you know, I mean my God, this. George won, george got put in the Hall of Fame and he's the brilliant mind right behind the production. And where do where do you get to say I got to rub elbows with with George Petro and give him my feedback, and he's really interested in that feedback?
Speaker 3:Like a great example, beth, this is the only entertainment industry that I work in where you can actually rub shoulders with both the people who do the games, the people who create the games, the people who create the games, the people who fund the games, the people who operate. It is an important part of our industry which is ignored by a lot of people. We touch all aspects of it.
Speaker 5:We do. Well, that's my joy about being the president of this ecosystem because we have my organization has oh, look at the ownership there. The AAMA has the manufacturers, the distributors, the suppliers, the professional services and the end user buyer, and we're all focused on serving those players, those people that are going to come create memories and experiences with each other at our, at our, at our location. So, anyway, that just thrilled me, adam, to, when you said that I was like wait, does everybody know who George Petro is? He got put in the hall of fame. He's the guy that makes the stuff you talk about it so casually. And it's not a casual thing, it's a big deal.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I guess it's because I'm used to it now, but I remember the first time that I went to Amusement Expo and somebody at Rothfield said, hey, Eugene Jarvis wants to talk to you. I was probably. I was fangirling about it because oh, yeah. Why would anybody with a name that's done all these amazing things just want to talk to me of all people?
Speaker 3:so, uh, but you know he ain't over yet, he's still still knocking them out the park.
Speaker 6:That's a great thing, oh yeah yeah, yeah, and I filmed him playing a game, and that and that was another thing I was going to add is that the on top of all that is, the people who make these games. They actually enjoy it? Oh, they do, and so that's where it's like they understand the business, because they have fun doing it. It's not just a paycheck for them, and so that's another thing I also love about the business too. That's awesome, yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, I feel like that's actually a great way, a great way to wrap, to wrap up the conversation for amusement expo. I'm sure over the course of the next, the next couple of weeks, little tidbits will slip into different segments of our shows and sound off and we'll have an arcade corner that Adam will cover probably a lot more of the stuff that he saw on the show as well, at least that's what I hope. So I know we'll get more tidbits out of amusement expo, but we'll go ahead and wrap up our guest gab for for this round. And, guys, thank you so much for for popping on. Adam, beth, it was great to see you both. Always great to get a hug from you, beth, you know absolutely love it. Look forward to it every time I see you. So, and Kevin, I would add a hug from you too, I guess, if you know, but next time we'll see each other soon Virtual hug.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. But anyway, guys, it was great having you on here. Thanks so much and we'll see you in the next one.
Speaker 5:Thanks, for having us, bye-bye.
Speaker 1: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. That's R-A-Y-D-I-U-Sco.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, that was awesome, so I enjoyed listening to it again. So, even though it was already pre-recorded, but that was excellent. And next we have promo pro tips with Chuck DeMonte, and we'll get that rolling right now.
Speaker 1:Hello and welcome to Promo Pro Tips with Chuck DeMonte. That is me, and today I want to give you the top six ways for you to get repeat customers. Now, I'm sure many of you heard of business. A repeat customer is easier to get than a new customer, and that is true, right, it's always going to be easier, more cost effective, to get a repeat customer than a new customer and you're going to make more value on them. A lot of times, new customer acquisition is costly and then every time you get somebody to come back, you're looking at profit, right. So how do you get repeat customers? The most successful entertainment centers have a good repeat customer rate, okay.
Speaker 1:So the way to start this, the first thing that comes to mind for me is make sure you're capturing their data. So what does that mean Really? Just email and phone number Right, and you know the data points you can get in them is great. But email and phone number you have an address Great, you could send them. You know EDDM and postcards Right. But that's not necessarily one of the things I'm thinking of for retargeting. But the top one that I'm thinking of is email, right. So if you're getting their email as a customer, you need to stay top of mind. That is the name of the game. That's the way you're going to get them to come back, right? So, top of my marketing, how do you do that? You stay in front of them with with marketing messages. So, if you have their email, great. Now you're setting up an email, you're sending weekly emails, your you know whatever that cadence looks like for you. Make sure you're sending out those emails and staying in front of your existing right or people in your location. Second is SMS. If you get their email, get their phone number, right Now, they're getting an email from you and they're getting an SMS from you, right? The more ways you could stay in front of them, the more sort of marketing channels you have, the more higher likelihood of you sort of getting in front of them at some point during their day, their life. Everybody has busy lives, right? We have a million things hitting us all at once. Stay in front of them, okay. So those are the top two things email, sms.
Speaker 1:Now, if you have their data, another cool thing you could do is upload that data into platforms like Google and Meta and retarget them right. That's the third thing. That is amazing, right? I'm sure you've all experienced it. You look something up and then you're being followed around the internet with banners and social media posts and all this other stuff. Right, that's retargeting. Okay, you could put that. You could also put a pixel on your website and now retarget them. So if somebody was a customer, most likely they visited your website to see what time you're open your location, wherever you've been, so high likelihood that most of your customers have visited your website before.
Speaker 1:Right, so if you have a pixel on their website, you could retarget them. Ok, if you have your data, you could retarget them. Right, those are ready. Right off the bat is three unbelievable ways to stay in front of somebody. Right, think about if you went to a location and you're familiar with the brand and now you're getting emails from them, now you're getting SMS from them, you're seeing social media posts from them. Right, those are. Those are three channels that you're staying in front of them with higher likelihood of them returning, okay, uh, when they're thinking of doing something on the weekend and you know, hey, what are we going to do this weekend? Or where, where can we bring the kids? Or what do you guys want to? Where you want to go grab a beer, right? Uh, you should be top of mind and the first thing that pops into their head Okay, uh, bonus tip on the emails If you do birthdays, that's a a big sort of a service pillar for you.
Speaker 1:I would do a birthday automation, right, hopefully you can capture that data of when their birthdays are, when their child's birthday is. Set up an automation when they have it out 60, 90 days, they get an email. Hey, you got a birthday coming up. Book a party, right. Hey, you got a birthday coming up, book a party and have some sort of email automation that hopefully pushes them further down the funnel to rebook or book the first. Okay, uh, so that's a bonus tip for the emails. Uh, the fourth thing uh, inside sales Okay, hopefully, a lot of you are getting uh leads and doing group events and field trips and stuff like that. Uh, you should have a salesperson that is keeping your CRM clean and following up those people every year. You know annually when they did the event last year, or you know months before that, a few months before they did it or before the anniversary is coming up Reach out to them Say hey you threw an event at it last year.
Speaker 1:We'd love to work with you again, and here's the ways we can make it better and just hopefully keep that relationship going even throughout the year. Send them emails about events and tips and whatever. Keep those leads going strong and those customers coming back by making them book their events with you again. All right, so that was number four. Number five offer some sort of membership, right, customer loyalty program. Now some people look at memberships and they don't love them, you know. I think if memberships can be done really well where you are, you know, every month you could be positive because your memberships are positive, revenue, right, because your memberships are so high, right, so, and all the rest is you're paying your operating expenses and all the rest is going to be profit for the walk-ins, right, so memberships are a great way to have recurring revenue that you can really build the base on and really solidify your financials. Okay, so, membership's great. And now the number. Number number one way, right, which I saved for last for a reason, because it's the most important one. It'll make all these other ones that I just mentioned even easier.
Speaker 1:Okay, run a good operation. Your location should be clean, the staff is is nice and, you know, knowledgeable and kind and helpful. And you know, again, like I said, the place is clean, it's. You know, you're, you're just you're, you're running a good operation. Okay, if you're not, people are not going to come back, they're not going to tell other people about it, you're not going to get word of mouth marketing. Uh, and no matter how much you do these other strategies I just mentioned, you're not going to get them back Right, cause they didn't have a good time the first time. So, uh, again, to recap the six okay, inside sales, offer a membership and make sure you have a great location. So work on executing those things and I think you guys are going to bring back a lot of customers.
Speaker 2:Well, I absolutely 100% agree with Chuck there at his last number one point when I was running, when I was a CEO of Hound, and we were building and sending promotions to get customers and visitors back in the door for family entertainment centers, location-based entertainment centers, etc. And I say we, we were, they still are. So Hound is still around I'm just not there anymore. But anyway, when I was doing that, our main focus was, you know, again, to get customers to the door. But it didn't really matter if you, if they weren't running, if our customers weren't running a really good operation. It doesn't matter how, like how good that promotion is, which, which medium you're going to target them on email, social media et cetera. If you're not running a good operation, if it's not clean, if your staff aren't friendly, people just are not going to come back in. So thank you, chuck for reiterating that and I absolutely love that. All right, now we've got I joined Kevin Williams here for Open and Shut and let's hop from Las Vegas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, here at Amusement Expo, live from the show floor. It just opened on the second day, so there'll be some traffic flowing here behind me. But yeah, let's dive into it, kevin. What have we got for all the latest openings this time?
Speaker 3:Well, so we've got the new format and, for those of you that want to pause the video, you can see all of the openings, but I'm going to pick on around 10 of the key openings that are worth mentioning. I'm not saying that the others aren't, but there's a lot to cram in and there's just way too many to stretch this session out into the first interesting. Our friends at Gender have pivoted into the poker sector. They've had poker environments in their spaces before, but they've now actually rethemed an acquisition that they've taken on board, geico Poker, where Texas Hold'em is playable. There's also a rest in the kind of competitive socializing environment. So this is an interesting departure. Geico has seen some real good numbers on their same site revenue and gender. Their owners have got some big announcements coming which we hope to report on soon.
Speaker 3:Going through the other openings, brandon, you were in Dubai recently and you were at Little Lions venue, one of the chaos cart sites that is in Dubai. We are now led to believe that Little Lions has done a deal with active games facility out in Dubai and they're dropping in their Puckman experience, which fundamentally uses the same project to set up, but in a smaller space, playing the Puckman experience, which fundamentally uses the same projector setup but in a smaller space. Playing the Puckman game. I'm interested that they didn't do a deal to have this also added to the Chaos Cards, but I think maybe there's some licensing and agreement deals there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, maybe it's a licensing thing. This strikes me as something that absolutely should be co-located with the Chaos Carts, or at least co-located with something. I mean, I think, as I mentioned when I visited the Chaos Carts, the experience itself was a lot of fun, but it was only 20 minutes and so you've driven all the way out there to do that. They had a few other little add-on attractions and like some air hockey and some stuff. That was like trying to just fill the time, but this would at least make it feel like, ok, I did the chaos cards, it's Pac-Man, maybe I went and did another round of starting and it would help to just drive up that time. It feels like these two things should be combined, or again like if they shouldn't stand alone.
Speaker 3:I agree. I think that they're missing an option there. But again there is the machinations of how much they have to pay for the licensing and how they want to water down their karting experience against their core franchise here. Anyway, moving on, we talked about all you need in a previous open and shut. The second site has now opened again in France 50,000 square meters, so a very large facility, second in the chain, and we're really seeing a lot of activity in the competitive, socializing, mixed-use leisure, entertainment and VR scene in France at the moment, jumping on and in Paris again we have Pan Shot Bar.
Speaker 3:No, it's not a place you go for shots, though I'm sure their cocktail bar does do that. This is a clay's wannabe. So this is shotguns, simulator bays shooting at the screen, highly themed bar environment with snacks, interesting. Now we're getting to the point where we're seeing copies or emulations of established brands, and that's kind of the signal, when you're following a trend or a genre, to start seeing that they start to compete with each other. Tells you A that it's a profitable sector because they can afford to compete with each other. Tells you A that it's a profitable sector because they can afford to beat with each other, but also that we're in for some turbulent time as companies vie for their particular version of an interpretation. But it was interesting to see Pan throw their hat into the ring. Yeah, this is interesting.
Speaker 2:I mean, especially given the fact that it almost looks like at least from the design aesthetic standpoint a carbon copy of clay. It's pretty remarkable that they pulled it off. I'm not sure I like the promo image on the right. Just the guy in the middle looks a little bit psychotic, like he's going to take that gun and do something else with it. At least from this little image maybe he's smiling and he's not, like you know, kind of smiling like Joker would Batman, joker would Batman. But yeah, it seems very similar and it's amazing to me how quickly this clay concept has been moving through the socializing space, obviously with clay, with pan, with some other just general simulator bays, and now you have Conductor coming out with their concept as well, and then a number of others which I can't they're escaping me, but a number of other brands we saw at EAG, their products that were trying to offer a clay shooting experience.
Speaker 3:Simways was the company you were asking for.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, we talk a little bit more about this in the sound off coming up, so, but it is interesting all the same to see this happening, and I don't think this will be the only one, because, surprise, surprise, we have ballers. Now. This is an interesting one. We actually do have a ballers with a Z in the UK, which is a competitive socializing, but this is Australia.
Speaker 3:We have ballers, and this really is a mixture of electric shuffle with some bounce the ping pong concept all rolled into its own unique package and rolled out in Melbourne as a competitive socializing hub where it isn't just the private hire area, it isn't just the game experience, it's the live music and the shuffleboard. They even have club darts. We couldn't actually define if their definition of club darts was AR darts or a competition league, a wired darts game experience, all with a very laid back attitude, attitude. It will be interesting, obviously, to see how ballers does. This is going to be the first of what, according to the, the information I have, is going to be a rollout of a number of sites, but I get the feeling that a lot of these new startups are all using that phraseology yeah, this is exactly what we've been talking about, where we're finally seeing all these different kind of socializing attractions blending together into a single environment, and I think this is perfect.
Speaker 2:I mean this is I can't say that their installation or their implementation of it is perfect I just mean the fact that we're seeing these things come together because, again, maybe I want to play a game of darts with my friends, and it's been you know half an hour an hour there, whatever. And then I want to play a game of darts with my friends, and it's been an you know half an hour an hour there, whatever. And then I want to do some shuffleboard, or I want to do that and I'm not. I don't have to have a dedicated time playing a specific game over a two-hour period of time. I can go and have it. Or I have friends that you know want to go play one thing and play another. We get together for some drinks and you know whatever, then split up and mix again, go to do other things.
Speaker 2:So I think this is the the future model of competitive socializing. At least, I hope it is. My only thing here is that they have some branding to really work on, I think, if they're going to have multiple different things. Using a ping pong paddle for their ballers name is a problem, and then also even inside their venue, they're using two different fonts, right, a different font for the logo, different font for the clubhouse internal branding. So they do have some stuff to work through there. But it's good to at least see that they're beginning to combine these different attractions together in a single space.
Speaker 3:As you say, it is proving what we've been shouting from the hilltops about mixed use, multiple entertainments here, and it will have maximum dwell time because not only are there the games but there's live music performance capabilities to build off of as well. We're going to be keeping a close eye on this one, and we're sure that others will be too, moving through the other new openings worth talking about or able to be talked about, because they have trends that we'd like to focus on. We're not criticizing the other openings at all I'm sure.
Speaker 2:I'm sure they're good in their own right. They're just not maybe, you know, leading certain trends we want to call out.
Speaker 3:So you know, that's all right and if they want to come back and fight us to go back and talk about their new openings, I will gladly do that, but time is limited.
Speaker 3:So, uh, our friends at sega japan, uh, we commented in the recent uh sound off about them partnering with a number of operations towards pushing their merch internationally. And then, surprise, surprise, we get the news that sega returning to the facility business, this time with what they're calling Sega Store and opening in Shanghai, china, to begin with Talking about mixed up fonts, their renderings talk about it being a Sega Store pop-up, while their actual physical store is just a store. We're not sure if it's a pop-up or if it's going to be a permanent permanent, but either way, this is very similar to what our friends at Bandai Namco have done with their cross store. It is a mixture of merchandising exclusive to the Sega, tomy and Mitsubishi brands, and they're alluding in the press announcement that they will have some specially handcrafted experiences working with Atlas, a friend of Sega. I am not sure if they're alluding to specialist amusement components or if they're going to have dedicated attractions, but this flagship opening in Shanghai will definitely be one to watch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is. Yeah, it's interesting and you're right. Even the Sega Fave on the left-hand side I'm not sure where that looks. They do have some branding to work through. But you know, at the end of the day people I think for something like Sega, which already has this long, like many-decade, legacy branding, people are less care. I think they can probably care a little bit less about how they're branding your store and more about what's in the store. At this point, people are going to come regardless, for Sega at least, so maybe that's why they just don't give as much of a shit. I don't know.
Speaker 3:I think they're testing the waters in a very target, rich environment which is China. They will nail it down. They will open a flagship store in Tokyo, I am sure, and then we will see world domination. I'm going to stick my head on the chopping block and take a bet with myself I'm not going to throw this open that I wouldn't be surprised to see a Sega store close to a cinema in the future.
Speaker 3:Moving through to the other openings worthy of a quick ponder, our friends at Racing Unleashed. We talked about them planning to open a latest addition to their Swiss racing section, but we knew that they would be opening a lounge rather than just a pure simulation. We've had the first renderings of that facility and they are jumping on board the F1 Arcade bandwagon, creating a site that borrows very heavily from the F1 Arcade style of cocktails and cockpits. Interesting that this facility is actually using monocoque simulators rather than open cockpits. So they're going to have to learn the lesson that many women do not find jumping in and out of a monocoque cockpit as enjoyable as the blokes. But that said, 17 simulators within a 500 square meter facility with a very heavy private lounge and bar component. It will be interesting to see how this one does in the mix of things.
Speaker 3:Then, winding down on the openings, our friends at Home Run Dugout we covered them in our IALPA Orlando coverage. They had a setup there. Their first facility in Texas has 22 bays all lined up along with outdoor entertainment and F&B indoors. They've opened their second facility, and this one's an interesting one. They've opened their second facility and this one's an interesting one actually opened it in a ballpark. So the Bell Diamond in Round Rock, texas, has added a home run dugout simulator setup. There are two simulation bays. There's a dedicated bar within their space. It is a drop-in entertainment. I also think that they've created this as a kind of a private hire component as well as a director's box approach. But it is nice to see that Home Run Dugout is building up the momentum and they're even alluding to in private their third facility which will be going into a resort location. I can't talk too much more about that, but it seems that the momentum is rolling for this sports attainment addition to the mix anyway, yeah, actually, yeah, no, just real quick on home.
Speaker 2:I'm a fan, I love what these guys are doing for baseball and you know, again, like we talked about the accessibility of socializing activities and I think they have done it with regards to batting pages and clearly people are really liking it and it's clear that the franchising model that they've tried to take, or at least the licensing model that they've attempted to take, is beginning to play out.
Speaker 2:My guess is that Dell Diamond is a franchise or licensed location and probably not owned and operated by Home Run Dugout, so that's interesting. I want to just mention one comment on Racing Unleashed. While you were talking about Home Run Dugout, I was also doing some research and just pulled up on their pricing and I just find it fascinating the pricing model. So they obviously have 15 minute, 30 minute races, but they actually go all the way to a 60 minute ride time frame, which to me seems like a pretty intense long period of time to sit there, especially in a competitive, socializing environment. This seems to be much more of like an esports length of time versus, uh, you know, then it would be like just hanging out and having fun with your friends, unless you're all racing for an hour together in some sort of group ride which you can also book as well.
Speaker 3:um, but that just seems like this is an operation that has a duality. They are foremost a esports racing simulation operation. They're dipping their toe in the water of competitive socializing by creating this uh racing unleashed lounge, and I think they're keeping some of their older pricing models there just to appeal to their core audience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it also just seems like it's a perfect for if they're going the e-sports route. Perfect for memberships packages I know they do offer some of those because for a 60 minute race, in conversion to US dollars, it's $100 per race for 60 minutes and look, that starts to get into some pretty pricey ranges. For just spending an hour Again, I could drive to Disneyland, spend twice that much and spend all day at Disneyland. So I don't know. I don't know how much I'm going to enjoy that racing as a result land, so I don't know, I don't know how much I'm going to enjoy that racing as a result.
Speaker 3:Having followed the competitive, social sorry, uh, the competitive racing side of the business, you know the the coin to be fair, I haven't right yeah, the coinage that some of these prosumers and I use the word uh advisedly uh are prepared to spend for their hobby is quite high. They have private rigs at home, they follow all of the racing, they practice well, they enjoy themselves when they're together. It's part of the reason why racing simulation has had such a storied and long existence long before the e-sports explosion, has brought it even to a new generation, and I wouldn't be surprised in the next couple of years that we don't see race simulation or sim racing take on a brand new moniker as e-sports fades and competitive racing grows. But but anyway, closing out with the shuts, uh, and we have a bit of a surprise one here uh, our friends at rmp raceway. Uh, they have a new, or they had a new, york facility. Uh, they're part of a chain of five facilities, and then this week we all wake up to the news that they have permanently shuttered the new y facility, removed it from their web page and focused wholly on their current site.
Speaker 3:Without going into any details, the local media tried to reach out to the operators to get an understanding of why the sudden closure of the carting, bowling and amusement facility had taken place, especially in such a popular location. No information could be found. So at this point in time we don't know why. Usually, when something goes dark this quick, there's usually a contractual reason. But again, we don't know at this point in time. It is speculation, and as soon as we find out the reasoning behind this, if we ever do, then we'll be sure to share it. But anyway, that's the rundown from this week. Anything else to add? Brandon?
Speaker 2:No other than I like the RPM. I thought they did a great job playing on the RPM and then the race play more down below. I thought that was clever. So anyway, too bad to hear that location shut down, but at least they have some other operating locations. I'm sure they'll be back in no time.
Speaker 3:They'll be back.
Speaker 2:All right, awesome. Well, thanks, kevin, for a great open and shut. See you around next one.
Speaker 3:Have a fun one and a safe trip.
Speaker 2:Intercard is the only cashless system designed, developed and manufactured all under one roof. Thank you, 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, just a last thing, I guess, before we head out. I want to remind everybody to join the LBX Galaxy. You can scan this QR code here or go to lbxgalaxycom to join our online community and get access and lots of information to get access and connect with other people in our industry. And also we have SoundOff 67 with Kevin Williams, so that is coming out this Tuesday, march 25th, number 67. That is insane, but otherwise that is a wrap. Again, this is Brandon Wiley signing off. Stay tuned and keep kicking ass.
