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LBX Collective
Sound Off #69 - When Everything is Immersive, Nothing Is
Sponsored by Intercard!
Kevin and Brandon debate how overusing the word "immersive" devalues genuine experiences and creates false expectations in location-based entertainment.
• Different experiences require different descriptors – not everything can or should be called immersive
• Consumer expectations become mismanaged when marketing promises immersion but delivers basic entertainment
• The infamous Wonka Chocolate Experience disaster demonstrates the dangers of immersion-washing
• Dave & Buster's facing significant challenges with 9% same-venue sales decline after renovation missteps
• Universal's Epic Universe setting new standards for theme park engagement with interactive wand technology
• Gel Blaster Nexus revitalizing laser tag with pellets, gamification, apps, and tournament features
• Game Volt's LED panel Glow Court bringing enhanced gameplay to cruise ships and LBE venues
• Minecraft movie's surprising box office success showing continued strength of gaming IP in entertainment
Join us next week for another exploration of the latest developments in location-based entertainment with the LBX Collective.
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, buckle up. All right, well, welcome everybody to the latest SoundOff. This is number 69. We actually know this is the right number now, so we did confirm this is April 15th as well, so welcome, kevin Hello Brandon.
Speaker 1:Definitely 69. Definitely, definitely, all right. And so what are we trying to do? Definitely 69. Definitely, definitely All right. And so what are we trying to do? How are you trying to change my mind?
Speaker 2:Well, I don't think it needs a lot of changing when we talk about this kind of topic, and you know, we're at that stage now where everything seems to have immersion glued onto the side of it. I've never seen the word used so much, and it's a difficult one because there aren't that many other kinds of terms you can use that equally explain the transporting of the guest into a unique environment that has strong emotional draw upon them, if we're going to stick to the definites of what the word immersion means. But not everything can be immersive. Some things can be compelling, some things can be entertaining. But for us as an industry to depend constantly on immersion as the word that defines us is dangerous and we really need to come up, as I say, with a better way to describe what we're offering.
Speaker 2:I feel that this is part of the fault of our industry in not really educating the developers and the operators on the history of the sector so that they can find the correct pigeonhole to place themselves. You know, the umbrella term of immersion is an easy one. So you can call a go-karting course immersive. You can call a laser tag immersive. You can call a roller coaster immersive. You can call a virtual reality version immersive. But I would argue that there are different levels of immersion and in some cases, immersion is being incorrectly used, when it should be enthralling or entertaining as the adjective in use.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, this is such a difficult one for me, right? Because not only can you have an individual attraction, potentially have a varying level of immersion, like you just explained, but then you have your environment that those attractions are within, and I think the environment itself can be immersive, but it could also just be some really cool aesthetics and theming and paints and lights and everything else and not really fully immersive. And yet we want to, I think, because this word has become such a buzzword and we saw some of the early days of immersive attractions. Really. Quote unquote the, the quote unquote immersive attractions, right, the Van Goghs, the projection mappings the.
Speaker 1:Imagineeriums, et cetera, having such a strong consumer draw that everybody wanted to jump on that immersive bandwagon. It's the same thing with VR, for it was the same thing with VR for so long. Everybody wanted to have a virtual experience of some kind, and I think we run into limited vocabulary that we're trying to apply to such wildly varying degrees of experience.
Speaker 2:And it's dangerous, we devalue the word by using it so ubiquitously. I would argue that a cinema film experience is immersive by its very nature. You go into the auditorium, you sit in your seat, you watch the film and you are hopefully transported into the world in which the filmmaker has attempted to render on the screen. But you would argue that most movie theatres aren't very immersive as buildings or structures. You know they are just factories or warehouses for bums on seats and eyes on screen. So again, how we use immersion to describe our industry and our offerings, the things that people are paying to experience, is one thing. The things that people are paying to experience is one thing.
Speaker 2:How we use the word immersive and immersion in our industry needs some level of defining. And this is an aspect of the outer home entertainment industry for me very particular over the many years that I've been involved in it, which is a scared mentality by the industry not to label anything in danger of taking control or ownership away from people who want to steer the terminology in their direction. For example, when virtual reality became very popular in out-of-home entertainment, immersive was constantly used to describe it as well as experience, but no level of engagement was ever given to that how immersive or engaging or experiential was these experiences we were offering. It was never defined. It wasn't like with the theme park industry where we have the E ticket, a ticket, b ticket, c ticket kind of approach where us in the know have a rough understanding of how engaging or immersive that attraction is going to be, based on its classification.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the word and the use of these words. There's a level of laziness to it in their marketing and the explanations of their attractions and of their experiences. It's an easy word to just throw out there that we think is going to get people to walk through the door. But the problem is, if everything is immersive, then nothing is, or the consumer and the guest becomes desensitized to that word when it comes to marketing and now experiences that truly do have a deep level of immersion, that do want to use those words and it's appropriate and they do. Now the consumer has been so desensitized that they just roll their eyes and they go yeah, sure it is, it's not really going to be immersive at all, like it was, like I was promised for these last five, you know, or 10 attractions that I went to that said they were going to be immersive. We need to be very clear in our marketing about what the customer or the guests expectations, in setting their guests expectations when they come through the door, before they come through the door.
Speaker 1:This is the problem we saw with the Wonka chocolate experience and or the you know, I think, the Willy's chocolate or one of those words you can't use, right, but the Wonka chocolate experience, I'll say, and they had. They used immersive all over the place and had AI generated artwork that made it look like it was going to be some candy fantasy wonderland that people were going to go into. And then they walk into a and I know I'm using that as an extreme, but that's the danger we use, or it's a danger we run when we use these types of words to describe run-of-the-mill experiences.
Speaker 2:Well, let me give you the other side of the coin, as it were, from being totally wonkered in a poorly themed warehouse to what we're seeing opening in Orlando with Epic Universe, which has an incredible level of immersion and engagement. And we need to come up with terminology where the guests' expectations are managed, or else the guest will complain because they will feel that they haven't received the correct level of entertainment that they were expecting from our high epurbily, as it were. I am concerned that moving immersion and immersive from our toolbox of terms needs to be seriously replaced with suitable adjectives that draw the audience into our facilities.
Speaker 1:as well as coming back to our facilities, and the last thing I'll say is, when we talk about marketing, if it takes 10 words or five words to explain what your experience is, but you're explaining it in a way that's going to manage those customer expectations, then use those five or 10 words instead of the one, because it's again it comes down to laziness. So it's lazy marketing and it's lazy descriptive writing.
Speaker 2:In a crowded market, marketing is going to be essential, and those marketeers that depend on using that word will cut croppers eventually. But anyway, moving on, it is that time.
Speaker 1:All right, we'll be right back. Increase customer spending, guest satisfaction and boost revenues by up to 30%.
Speaker 2: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 diving straight into the trends in the biz at the moment and I wanted to touch upon the changing audience leading from our discussion of how we encourage the audience into our facilities and how much um the social zeitgeist is driving a lot of the development that's undertaken at the moment and it's not a new interpretation. We're not trying to bring a new audience into the market, we're educating an existing audience to other opportunities. I use an example there from 1982 of the Bally additional screen that was stuck on top of arcade machines additional screen that was stuck on top of arcade machines so people didn't have to sort of look over the shoulder of the people playing the machine but they could look up at the actual gameplay taking place. And the modern equivalent of that would be the pinball x system from jersey jack and creative works that we were talking about in our IALPA Orlando coverage last year. It is important that we have an engagement that is not just interesting for the players but also pulls in the audience, who are naturally possible future gamers being in the facility with our audience.
Speaker 2:But there is a very big danger that we're seeming to go where we're losing control of our terminology, as I was saying about immersion, and we're also losing control of what we're trying to offer our audience.
Speaker 2:And now we see companies like Arcade 1Up who have taken hold of really the history of video gaming and turned it into a home entertainment system through the Arcade 1-Up cabinet systems that have been developed all over the market.
Speaker 2:I was really surprised to see the Nebraska Furniture Mart. Their setup of how they have these consumer arcade machines for your private rec room laid out is a perfect recreation of an arcade that they've actually undertaken there. And it's pretty scary that our industry is being represented in a furniture store by a consumer game sector and we seem to have no control or involvement in this. And you know that is even taken now to funco, where the latest chain or range of funco products now has an arcade machine, a mock-up of a classic arcade machine. The interpretation of an arcade machine used as the kind of stand or display booth in which these Funkos based on popular game characters is used in All of these aspects are our industry's DNA, but they all seem to be being injected into other industries and I'm just wondering at what point our industry is going to try and take back control of its image.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is interesting. I'm just watching some of the. Maybe I'll just throw it up here on the screen real quick, but I'm just watching some of the video from this Nebraska Furniture Mart and you're right, I mean, it's exactly as you were describing it. It's just like an old school arcade. This is live, right out of the box.
Speaker 2:Yes, and this isn't the only one. It is a concern for me, arcade one-ups machines out in the consumer market because both as promotions of classic machines, but also they do kind of take a little bit away from the traditional original amusement machine. It's sort of like going to a car showroom and seeing mini versions of those products, but again, no criticism of them. They're making money off of licenses that they've paid good cash for. It's just a shame that we in the amusement industry don't seem to be benefiting from this free marketing and promotion. Anyway, moving on to other topics and of course, M&A, merger and acquisition is continuing at pace in our sector. This latest acquisition of a theme park chain is well, it's a theme park acquisition but it's being taken on board by a larger chain and we expect to hear a lot more about acquisitions from this particular operation. I know in the next sound off I'll be talking about another major acquisition that was just announced today as we're recording this, so didn't and acquisitions by larger corporations. We were talking about the Palace Entertainment M&A recently and now we can expect to see that writ large in the US sector as some of the fallout now moves through the market, moving on and continued investment, continued investment. Our friends at EVA8 have started quite a rollout of new facilities. We've already talked about, in Open and Shut, some of their latest openings. The company has stated that they've got a Tampa and an Orlando facility, with four other new facilities in the pipeline that they're going to have in this year, and it was interesting in their marketing that they you know they pivoted themselves as saying they wanted to be described as the 2.0 version of Dave and Buster's. The news that we are hearing from Dave and Buster's may mean that they'll want to change that, but it is clear that we're seeing a turf war brewing up regarding control of these large box mixed-use leisure entertainment facilities. Having announced their food hall concept, having also upscaled their branding and their design, it is clear that they are seeing themselves as a major contender to try and grab the throne. Grabbing the throne is something that I think our friends at Universal have done in the Orlando area. I think our friends at Universal have done in the Orlando area from the initial reports of what we're hearing of Epic Universe, from the influencers and guests that were allowed to walk through. They're all being wowed by what they've seen. Wow has been given over to the latest interpretation of the Super Nintendo World development or gate as it has been deployed at the Orlando site. It already is open in Japan, it is already opened in LA and this is the first viewing for the Florida, floridian market to get a taste of it. Florida, floridian market to get a taste of it.
Speaker 2:11 attractions, uh within uh, the universal uh, so the epic universal uh environment. Some people were questioning if 11 were enough for this size of gate uh. But from the looks of it, the level of engagement, audience, audience anticipation and immersion that they've achieved, from the Hogwarts to the Nintendo World, to the horror experiences, definitely shows that this is going to be the bar pushed to a brand new height that other theme parks are going to have to emulate. That emulation allows us also to talk about this kind of level of engagement being brought to the UK with the announcement that the UK Universal Studio theme park concept has been given the green light by the UK government. But, brandon, I touched on the two universal aspects. I know you wanted to touch a little bit more about this yeah, I'm just that, uh.
Speaker 1:well, first of all, it'd be great to visit the super nintendo world where it has actually room to to be be what I think they want it to be, where it has the room to, you know, basically engage in a much more meaningful way in the land.
Speaker 1:The one in LA is so compact and tight that you have really absurd 20, 30 person long queues just to take your little band and like bop a little square. And it was never meant to be a cute experience, it was meant to just be serendipitous and just part of the overall experience. So I think it'd be great to see how this really plays out in a much more expansive environment. And then, one of the great things too, if your listeners are not familiar with this, but the IAPA if you go to their, you know on their fun world page on their website, they're actually, over the last few days, they've been visiting each one of the portals. They were able to get in early and they were filming each one of the portals so you can actually go through and be able to experience. They started at Celestial Park and now they're working their way through the five other lands within Epic Universe.
Speaker 2:I don't think we will ever see the Orlando Super Nintendo World in how it was intended to be seen, because it's going to be rammed and I think it's just going to be a total sea of human beings looking over their heads to try and get the vistas. Those individuals that have gone to the private openings are very lucky compared to the rest of us who are going to have to fight our way through the crowds as you say, queue up just to hit a block. I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo starts rethinking how they are going to get their entertainment experiences across to their audience in a physical manner in the future, and how much of that will be done as a theme park experience, or how much of that could be done as a theme park experience, or how much of that could be done as a gated, location-based entertainment experience but again, I don't want to get ahead of ourselves.
Speaker 2:No word yet that, uh, the uk facility will have a super nintendo world at the beginning, though I'm sure that will be a future gate. There is rumor that there will be paddington and there is rumor that j James Bond will be involved as attraction components and IP for the opening of the facility, which is scheduled for 2031. I think it was the last time I checked what was opening. Again, the drawing, the artwork of what the venue will look like, is open to interpretation. Talking about open to interpretation, and our friends at Dave Buster's have had a Mayor Cooper moment. We have seen the interim CEO throw himself and his predecessor on the sword and admit that they were wrong.
Speaker 1:This came just Did he really throw himself on the sword, or really pretty much? When reading the transcripts from the press release, it seemed like he was throwing the past management on the sword.
Speaker 2:I think it's impossible to throw someone on the sword without feeling a little bit of the barb yourself, but I would agree with you that he fully pushed his predecessor and his team onto the sharpened stake, and May did a fantastic job of dodging it by shouting the words interim a lot. I was being generous, that everybody was taking a little bit of the blame. You know as top management should do if they're part of the board, no matter who is leading. You know to see a 10% decrease in their fourth quarter for 2023 in a target-rich environment, to see same-site sales decrease by 9%. There was something wrong within the structure, seriously wrong.
Speaker 2:To then have them admit about overspending and not accepting that their prototypes were being evaluated correctly, were being evaluated correctly, and also admitting that they had not invested in new and exclusive products for their 140-something chain of facilities, was all very shocking and sent reverberations through the entertainment industry To see the phrase used in the conference call unwind the mistakes. Told us that they had mistakes to unwind and some of the problems that we're hearing about is that the budgets for the stores weren't correctly allocated and they overspent. Excuse me, we're also hearing that the evaluation of the prototype concepts that they were intending to put in and those prototypes obviously were the social bay concepts weren't given enough time in the oven, as I would say, enough time to be evaluated, and they were dropped in way ahead of what they should have been. They should have been addressed better to suit the audience that they were targeting Complaints about the menu being too much focused on sharing, complaints about the pricing models and, of course, as I've said, complaints about how they have not introduced any new games into the store over two years, which has been a departure in their history as a company for bringing in new ideas.
Speaker 2:How they can turn around such glaring errors, but quickly and effectively in a target rich. Sadly, no one took responsibility because the exiting management had left with the usual parachute of plane or pleasure, depending on your point of view if you're a stockholder. I don't know what Dave and Buster's is going to do to rectify this situation and try and get back onto the straight and narrow, but they only have a very short period of time to achieve that before the investors will be looking for another group to throw themselves onto something sharp.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah. This is a tough one, really tough one, to unwind here, but we've had this conversation before. The social base may not be the problem. It may be the cost, what they spent to put them in. It may have been we don't know, we don't know. But what we do know is that they also talked about the fact that they completely pulled back on their marketing dollars as well, specifically on TV, which was a big driver of their visitation and awareness.
Speaker 1:And I would think that, as you begin to do these types of remodels and you're spending hundreds of millions of dollars in remodeling all of your stores and yet not letting anybody know what's in your new locations, this is the problem. This is what we've talked about in the past. Dave and Buster's is an arcade sports bar. That is what Dave and Buster's has been forever. And then when you put in these social bays and you spend hundreds of million dollars to do that and yet don't tell anybody you've done that and don't work on any type of rebranding or at least marketing, then you've basically cut down a tree in the middle of the forest and no one is around to hear it by putting in these bays.
Speaker 2:They didn't know what they had, they didn't know what they were and they didn't know how to tell people that. I would argue that the budget set aside for the television advertising got sucked into the overspend for the facilities and the accountancy started to become very creative. They've thrown the baby literally out with the bathwater in this approach, and now they're going to have to find out where the baby's gone and see how much of the water that they can put back into it, to push this analogy over the edge. But I think that this may be an insurmountable task. I don't want to be doom and gloom about it, but once you have so many new offerings entering the market, who don't have the albatross of debt around their neck? The market, who don't have the albatross of debt around their neck, who don't have the albatross of failing to understand?
Speaker 2:the basics of what their brand is, then they could be superseded quite easily, and the best way we're going to see that is if the current management starts to sell off unproductive Dave Buster's venues to third parties to acquire. If that starts to happen, then we will be in interesting times for the Dave and Buster's brand, which is, of course, a publicly traded operation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this brings me back to the comment you made, or that you didn't make it, but the Elevate founders made around that they want to be Dave and Buster's 2.0. Actually, I think that's a terrible thing to tie their ship to be Dave and Buster's 2.0, I actually think that's a terrible thing to tie their ship to because Dave and Buster's I don't know that I'd want to be a Dave and Buster's right now 1.0, 2.0, or even 4.0. And given their attraction mix, anyway, they should be closer to a main event which is obviously part of the.
Speaker 1:Dave and Buster portfolio. But then they are. Dave and Buster's itself.
Speaker 2:We hear nothing about main event. Maybe the team at main event are playing it smart and keeping their head down and their powder dry and just chantling along. I'm looking forward to seeing the main event same site numbers, which will be reported, I assume, very soon. And if we see a 9% decline, then there's a bigger problem across the whole of the Dave Buster's operation that they're willing to admit. But this is a legendary entertainment brand and if it is suffering as well as we have seen with pinstripes, as well as we have seen with other entertainment brands in the market, then there may be a much bigger fundamental issue that needs to be addressed, which could circle us around again to where competitive socializing fits into all of this mix. Anyway, moving from the business to the tech and again dealing with the numbers and how much revenue can be generated, our friends at Jailblaster Nexus, who are an advertiser in the Stinger Report for transparency but also are a company that has got a get-up-and-go attitude towards trying to revitalize laser tag I'm the one that keeps on calling them laser tag 2.0. But you know, again, we need to be careful there. And, funny enough, they've recently signed a deal with Main Events to parachute their particular brand of laser tag into their venues. It is important to understand that this isn't just laser tag. This is pellet shooting laser tag with full gamification, the full interactive vests and supported by apps, scoring and tournament features. But just looking at the numbers, it's always as I said previously, it's always nice when a manufacturer is prepared to stand by their numbers to show what revenue is being generated from their product. If they're that proud of their product, then they should be willing to drop their trousers to some extent.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to go into the details of the numbers. If you want to, you just pause the video here and look at it. But I would argue that the monthlies are interesting, the gaming hours are interesting, the number of players are interesting, and then it begs the question of how much you charge per game to generate the maximum out of this. I would point you to the Geoblaster Nexus site for those type of minutiae. But from my point of view, laser tag is a strong attraction mix to parachute into any entertainment facility.
Speaker 2:Looking at a certain age group, I would even argue with these pellet games. Using the pellets, you can aim at an older audience than you would normally target with laser tag sites. So pellets for the kidults and turning the system back to laser for the children is a concept that this flexibility of system allows. But also this points towards what level of gamification attractions are going to need to have to keep up, and having the apps and having the tournaments and the competitions are something that is going to drive all of the future attractions that go into our facilities.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had a chance to play the Jill Blaster Nexus in Vegas when we were out there for Amusement Expo and it was fun. Now, we were not in an arena meant for it. It was set up as a temporary installation so that Jill Blaster could give people the experience.
Speaker 1:So we were in like a like kind of like a ropes course area, so the ninja course it wasn't really meant for the ninja ninjas yeah, it was just put into one of the rooms, which is fine and it was definitely a great experience.
Speaker 1:But definitely for older kids, right? So, older kids and up, because the pellets do hurt when they hit your skin. They do hurt. They don't hurt like paintballs, like you're not going to leave a mark, but they do sting and they can be uncomfortable. And if they hit you in the neck or some other parts of your face, then it does get uncomfortable and uh, so anyway, I would just say that in that, in that case, uh, when you're looking at age ranges, a laser tag can go down pretty small. I mean, you have the big vests for the kids, but as long as the kid can wear the vest and it's not dragging on their feet, then they can still go play laser tag and have a good experience. You would not give a gel blaster experience to, I would say, any kid six and under, or even eight and under, potentially.
Speaker 2:And that is the beauty of this system. And that is the beauty of this system. It can be a a level of physicality from their experience, but again understanding that the pellets are not to everyone's enjoyment especially if you sit on your favorite friend and fire your weapon directly.
Speaker 2:But it is also interesting to see that they are marketing and promoting this in such a way that it is getting the eyes on the prize regarding the conventional laser tag experience and now the new enhanced offering. We were talking about the social base at Dave Buster's, and one of the companies that was influential in developing a lot of the entertainment that went into that space is our friends at Game Vault, who are part of Conducta, and they are motoring along considerably with their competitive, socializing and immersive entertainment experiences. And this latest system that they've launched is using LEDs on the floor and the walls of an enclosure, which is an active entertainment sports kind of environment. It can be used for basketball, it can be used for football, it can be used for basketball, it can be used for football, it can be used for ball throwing. Their Glow Court has been launched this month and the first installations of this system surprise, surprise are on the cruise line sector.
Speaker 2:So the Norwegian Aquarius, the Aquarius Cruiser, but the Aquare, aquare, aquare. Yeah, I suppose it is water. Yeah, all right, I thought it was the Aquarius was the ship, but anyway it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:They went really unique with the name of their ship. They just called it Aqua, because it's on the water.
Speaker 2:I'll have a glass of Norwegian, please. The cruise ship has dedicated part of its entertainment area to this active entertainment environment, but this is an environment that is also being targeted at location-based entertainment as well, and I'm looking forward to getting my chance to play on this particular arena.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it looks like this is just I mean obviously new games but an expansion of their arena that they had built for Dave Buster's Similar LED flooring and paneling and technology, but with enhanced gameplay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a bit larger than the restrictions of their original arena which, as you say, they created first for Dave Buster's but now is being rolled out across other facilities. Interactivity, gamification, immersion. Just wanted to touch on some of the news regarding the Universal Epic Universe levels of engagement. Their interactivity is building upon their wand experience and we've now seen the first of the Wizarding World wand systems being utilized. They are interactive. You go to special areas dotted around the particular Harry Potter gate and make the correct motions as per the instructions and physical activities and experiences and a certain signage or show set will take place. This builds upon what was previously developed for the theme park environment but pushed up to a much higher level of engagement, and it is kind of the progression from magic quest that I've talked about in the past, which has been celebrating 30 years of engaging audiences at Wolf's Lodge.
Speaker 1:Now we see that taken to the obvious next progression with what Harry Potter is doing, and I wouldn't be surprised if this kind of engagement is utilized across all of the harry potter attractions run by universal yeah, I do wonder and I'm sure we could find out very quickly just by looking it up online if the wands that somebody has bought at olivanders in uh islands you know, islands of adventure, universal uh will work with. You know we'll work in this similar technology and I could use the same wand. Or if I had to buy an all new wand to use the Ministry of Magic, and I think that would be a miss, I mean if they required you to buy a new wand. But you know, it'd be interesting to see if, especially if the interactions require more technology inside the wand than the interactions that you have at the others- from the press statement I was reading.
Speaker 2:It was a unique wand, purchased especially uh on property to be utilized with the venue. So, uh I, I take a. I'll bet myself a gin and tonic that you have to buy a brand new wand, I'd hate to miss out on that. I'm not gonna get in the way of you. And a gin and tonic that you have to buy a brand new wand, I'd hate to miss out on that.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to get in the way of you and a gin and tonic.
Speaker 2:So I'm talking about immersion. Again, the theme of this particular sound off, and we're marking an interesting anniversary the ninth anniversary of the virtual reality headset that has been one of the most prevalent in the location based entertainment sector. Htc's Vive series of headsets started the ball rolling back in 2016 and was seen as a mainstay system for this kind of out-of-home entertainment application, where other consumer headsets have tried to jump into the market and failed. Htc has had quite some success in that market, from the early mass adoption of VR in VR arcades, as well as the deployment in theme park attractions. We mustn't forget the Darren Brown experience that was created by Merlin Entertainment it was one of the first theme park attractions that used virtual reality to current times, where the ubiquity of the HTC Vive Focus 3 seems to be everywhere.
Speaker 2:But we are at a point now where we're seeing the changing of the guard. Htc has gone through some corporate restructuring, especially after a deal that they undertook with Google to sell some of their technical staff and expertise in virtual reality over to the Android mixed reality operation or XR operation. But we've also seen other headset manufacturers now trying to jump in and give them a little bit of competition, and Pico, especially, as well as Deepoon or DPVR, are now also bubbling to the fray, are now also bubbling to the fray. So, while we're in changing conditions for the virtual reality market, with new pivots towards larger audience experiences and trying to get to grips with the revenue generation capability, we're also now seeing other headsets comparable technology but cheaper price and, you know, offering a smaller form factor also competing. What happens for the next nine years will be very interesting in this sector. And then, finally, the real big news.
Speaker 2:Well, big news if you're in the film industry.
Speaker 2:One of the big surprises a couple of days ago was the box office success for the opening weekend of a Minecraft movie. Not the Minecraft movie, a Minecraft movie. It broke the record that Super Mario Brothers achieved, and the Jack Back lead film based on the billion-selling video game has really caught a lot of the cinema industry by surprise to be pivoting towards IP based on video games even heavier than previously after the success of the Super Mario Brothers game, a film based upon the game. But we also need to be aware of the specter of other attempts in the past where movies have been created based on video games and plummeted quite badly. A lot of eyes will be focused on the latest Tron film that is also coming out this year, but the point I wanted to make here regarding our industry is that the crossover is quite prominent here. You know Raw Thrills with their Minecraft Dungeons arcade release. I am sure that will be getting a lot more play and a lot more interest to be companioned with the success of this film.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I haven't seen the film yet and I probably will end up seeing it, but I'm just blown away at how well it's done it has decimated the competition.
Speaker 2:It's literally pushed the stake into Snow White and, you know, made that the box office disaster that it has turned into, and now a lot of Hollywood is looking at the formula that went into this particular film to see if it was lightning in a bottle, though I would argue that the Sonic the Hedgehog movie series has also done well, and I'm expecting that the sequel to the Super Mario Brothers film will also do very well Surprise, surprise, with Jack Black in it. This is going to be something that the movie industry is going to be looking at very closely, and it is something, as I said at the beginning of this sound off. It is a vehicle that we in the amusement industry can jump on and promote heavily, because we're there now Just to round off, to remind everybody about the conference sessions that I will be doing this month and next month, and that kind of rounds it up.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, that was excellent and loved our immersive conversation at the beginning, so we'll have to brainstorm on some new words, some new vocabulary and build a new lexicon for this industry. So all right, Kevin. Well, as always, it's great to have you and sound off with Kevin Williams. Everybody, we'll see you in the next one. Have a good one.
