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Sound Off #76 - Diversify or Die, the Loss of the Penny Press, Puckman, and more!
Sponsored by Intercard!
On this week's episode of Sound Off with Kevin Williams, we discuss how the LBE industry faces a critical turning point as single-attraction venues struggle with declining revenue and repeat visitation challenges. Topgolf's 12% YOY sales drop signals the urgent need for competitive socializing venues to diversify their entertainment offerings beyond their core attractions.
• Trampoline parks provide a cautionary tale, having evolved into adventure parks with multiple attractions to remain viable
• Five Iron Golf adding duck pin bowling and amusements to their golf lounge concept
• Toca Social experimenting with Sandbox VR partnerships to diversify attraction mix
• The discontinuation of the penny will impact souvenir penny press machines at attractions nationwide
• Formula One partnering with Disney for branding on race cars, raising questions about compatibility
• Top Gun venue coming in 2026 to Area 15, featuring jet fighter simulators, hospitality, and merchandising
• Technology trends showing movement from projection mapping to LED floor and wall systems
• PortAventura introducing mixed reality headsets for roller coaster rides
• Little Lions expanding their Arcade Arena concept to London in 2026
Check out our new dedicated service for the competitive socializing sector - The Entertainment Social Arena - available now for subscription at lbxcollective.com.
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. Let's buckle up.
Speaker 2:All right, Well, welcome everybody to the latest SoundOff for June 3rd 2025. Kevin Williams, good to have you here, man.
Speaker 1:Good to be here. I hope I find you well.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, of course, of course, all right. So, as always, what are you going to do to change my mind? What are we?
Speaker 1:talking about. Well, with the news that is coming out of Topgolf regarding their imminent separation from Callaway, as well as some developments that we've seen from other companies, the question is is a single entertainment offering still viable in the competitive socializing sector I should actually say not just in the competitive socializing, I should just say location-based entertainment sector full stop? For those of you that aren't aware, our friends at Topgolf have seen a 12% drop in sales regarding their facility business, as well as a drop in their group bookings and a group chain, the same site drop. I think that was about 8% if I'm doing off the top of my head, but you know. Alarming enough to warrant the consideration of adding more entertainment on top of the conventional shooting golf shooting range product.
Speaker 1:And in England we've seen them deploy a test concept, partnering with Bandai Namco, for the Topgolf Arcade with amusement pieces, Topgolf Arcade, with amusement pieces and with Greenspan in North America they partnered on adding an outside mini golf component. A little bit telling to add mini golf to Topgolf, considering that the people who came up with the concept of Topgolf went on to launch PodShack. But anyway, I don't know what your feelings are about single site entertainment facilities, though I think I do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I think you do At least you and I have talked about this a number of times. I mean I think this is a lesson that should have been learned many, many times over. This is something that we have seen with trampoline parks. When they first came out, trampoline parks very quickly realized that they were going to be non-viable over a certain period of time, once the initial interest uh, you know waned and they had to add other attractions to their, to their mix, and so they still had, you know, active play components. They were, you know, but they ended up creating adventure parks.
Speaker 2:Even the association changed from international association of trampoline parks to trampoline parks and adventure parks. So it is is they definitely recognize the need for that change. So I definitely think that, especially when it comes to competitive socializing, that you need diversification of an attraction mix. If you want repeat, steady, repeat visitation. Unless your F&B is so compelling on its own and your attraction itself is really compelling that people are willing to come back in on a regular basis, or you're in a high foot traffic area, that's going to be just naturally driving a lot of new people through your doors I think you can maybe get away with it. But if you're in a standard community then you need multiple attractions to get people to come in.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't sit on your laurels, even if your food was fantastic or your game experience was amazing. You always have to evolve and grow, and I agree with your points there. The only issue that I'm having is that some of these entertainment venues were created by individuals that skill set was more on the hospitality and the beverage side of the business, rather on the entertainment side, and having a gun put to their head to improve their entertainment offering may be a mountain too high for some of them to climb, but again, we will wait and see.
Speaker 1:Our friends at Topgolf will be soon parting ways with Callaway and going it alone, and so we will have to see what they're going to do to address this shortfall. Our friends at Five Irons Golf has already started their process of adding a duck pin, bowling and amusement aspect on top of their golf lounges. They won't be the only ones.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, we've even talked about just recently about Toka Social partnering up with Sandbox VR, and they're not merging together, at least at this point, but they're at least experimenting with a venue that has both different, both sets of attractions. Now, whether or not that's going to be successful we'll see, but at least they're experimenting with bringing in, partnering together to have different attractions in the same venue.
Speaker 1:We're at the moment where the spaghetti mentality of put it all in a bowl and throw it at the wall may have worked previously, but now you're going to have to be a lot more specific on how your entertainment experience offering is going to compete with your food and beverage offering. And I wonder how many of these operations will throw the baby out with the bathwater just in a panic to try and increase their revenue. But we will wait and see. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:All right, well, coming up after a quick break, we'll dig into some economy trends. Absolutely All right. Well, coming up after a quick break, we'll dig into some economy trends. Intercard is the only cashless system designed, developed and manufactured all under one roof. They introduced cashless technology to the amusement industry and have been leading the way for over 30 years. Cashless systems from Intercard increase customer spending, guest satisfaction and boost revenues by up to 30%. Intercard is so proud to be serving the amusement industry and if you aren't already part of their global family of customers, they hope you will become one soon.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Intercard. Anyway, jumping into the trend, and let's start with a quick one from the economy and an interesting one here. I'm not sure how many of you will have been familiar with the announcement in America that they will be stopping the production of the penny in currency. It was worked out that it was actually costing them nearly three cents to make one penny, metal prices being what they are in production. So they have decided to phase these out quite a quick phase out as well, because it will have serious impact on the pricing of products, so they want to get ahead of that. Have serious impact on the pricing of products, so they want to get ahead of that.
Speaker 1:And one of the victims of the disappearance of the penny will be the penny press. Now I'm wondering how many of you are familiar with the penny press, the ubiquitous wheeled machine that sits at the entrance of most visitor attractions, museums and science centers, where you drop your penny in, you turn the wheel or pull the lever, and then it flattens that piece of metal into a decorative badge based upon the venue that you're at. Is this going to go the way of the penny farthing? I wonder where we will have to tell our grandchildren about this weird concept in a e-payment future.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know this is kudos to you for coming thinking about the penny price. I had not even made that connection. When I was, you know, I was actually allotting finally the fact that we're getting rid of the penny frankly here in the US. I was actually allotting finally the fact that we're getting rid of the penny frankly here in the US, but I did not even think about the penny press and the impact there for both the manufacturers of penny presses but also the attractions that probably see a significant amount of revenue come from those. Every time I walk past a penny press there is a kid cranking on a penny press and that is 50 cents to a dollar for every single one of those, and sometimes two dollars. Now inflation happens.
Speaker 1:The one that we're looking at is $1.99,. I think it knows $2. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So they've gone up. I mean they used to be 50 cents when I was a kid, but obviously they're $2 now. But yeah, this is an interesting. I wonder if they'll shift to some sort of NFT model. So you know, you get your little, you know your NFT or your POAP when you, instead of your penny press.
Speaker 1:It is a part of the souvenir, the takeaway component to your facility and it is a useful souvenir for people of a certain age or inclination and its loss will be felt, though I don't think many people have made that consideration yet.
Speaker 1:But hey, that's my job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, moving on, and we look at the biz trends and in our regular gender section and I can tell you that this regular Genda section is going to continue to be a regular Genda section, both for SoundOff as well as for Open and Shut. Our friends at Genda have decided that they want to run a public expo. They're going to celebrate the Get Into the Game Oasis environment that they run and they're going to have a special event in June where they'll have live performances and they will have competitions and they'll have merch on sale and it will be a branding and get to know your audience moment and it carries on the mentality of the Genda company in really having a lively and social spirit to the business that they're running. I've got a couple of spies that are going to parachute into this event and hopefully grab some pictures. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't also see Genda release or present some of the amusement products unique amusement products that they're actually working on at the moment. They are really positioning themselves as a kind of Sega replacement in the market.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is really interesting, and it almost seems like too, with the fact that they'll have anime game artists and others there. It's like a little mini Comic-Con alongside an expo too, so be interesting to see what this turns into Pretty cool. We'll keep an eyeo too, so it'll be interesting to see what this turns into Pretty cool.
Speaker 1:We'll keep an eye on that. Staying in Japan, and Konami used to be a ubiquitous name in the video amusement section. They're less international now still pumping out pardon the pun. International now still pumping out pardon the pun B-mania rhythm games, but mainly for their own home audience in Japan and Asia. The company also had stakes in the metal game market, which is the coin token gambling systems, and they also have pachinko interests. That used to be all under the konami amusement brand and they've just announced that they will be separating that brand out.
Speaker 1:Konami amusement will be created or separated into two units the the Konami Amusement and the Konami Arcade Games, and the Arcade Games will handle the video amusement components of the business. An example of the kind of restructuring that we're going to be seeing across all of the companies as they position themselves for the future of where their revenue is coming from. Moving on, and our friends at six flags uh, we touched upon the changes and the restructurings that's going on and things continued. Uh, they've dubbed the next 18 months as the great reset and they're going in and they're streamlining the operation. They're looking at their debt management. They're also trying to hit some targets or goals regarding attendances that they want to try and generate and revenue that they bring into the company. But this is the line in the sands, now the beginning of the reality of the combine that is Six Flags Entertainment following the merger.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean, this is. It's just. I'm just surprised it took so long to formulate the Great Reset. It does seem like this was probably about a year ago. This should have been happening. I am surprised, too, some of the moves they recently made with the removal of all vice presidents from all parks across the board. In fact, even some I didn't say vice presidents, but like park presidents, and some of those were vice presidents as well, like the head of farm and chief executives of each of the different parks.
Speaker 2:So that's one surprising move that they've already made, which means they're definitely going to do more consolidation as far as the type of leadership consolidation at the top.
Speaker 1:They're focusing that they want to be a big player. I think the reason it's taken so long is that they've been charting a path or plan of action is going to be top-down led, so you don't need to have other people in the tent urinating along with you, the issue being that they have a long-term plan.
Speaker 1:The longer it takes for them to activate it, the more problems they're causing themselves, and I wouldn't be surprised that that plan has to be very flexible in the changing market that we're seeing. That changing market is IP driven and one of the interesting announcements Formula One, after the acquisition by an American operation to take on this motorsports corporation, motorsport Corporation, has been a lot of high-profile IP and marketing and branding positioning. We've talked about the F1 drive go-karting side, we've talked about the F1 exhibit, we've talked about F1 arcade. But, going back to the motorsport itself, they've just done a licensing and collaboration agreement with Walt Disney Company where Mickey and Friends will appear as branding on the select vehicles as well, as I think there will be some Formula One streaming relationships through the streaming platforms that the Disney Entertainment operation runs. But this is the beginning of a high-profile IP relationship between F1 and Disney.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, this will be really interesting and I have two thoughts here, one maybe a little morbid, but the first one would just be a venue happening in Abu Dhabi. Also the fact that the season finale of Formula One is the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which happens at the end of every year. So is there some Formula One thing that Abu Dhabi, like somebody put these two together so curious if that's maybe one of the drivers here these two together so curious if that's maybe one of the drivers here, no pun intended. But then also I wonder how long Mickey and Walt Disney are going to be paired together. Once a car crashes that has a Mickey brand on the side and you have a death of a driver or something like that in a Mickey branded car, we'll be very interested to see how those two work through that problem.
Speaker 1:Some people may think that's a little bit too dark, but those are the things that you have to think about when you're taking on a brand into this environment.
Speaker 1:You know, sport is dangerous, especially open wheel motor racing. We've been here before not we have been here, but the sport has been here before. A number of very prominent sponsors pulled out after a very serious accident back in the 70s. Wanda injured Senna, I think, at the time. Funny enough, a film has been made about his career. But those type of things make brands very screamish when they see their logo upside down on fire.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you have to be careful and mindful of this, and I'm sure the Disney marketing team have a plan A and a plan B regarding that. Is this a good fit? I think would be the key question. You know, is Mickey and friends franchise the best thing to stick on the side of a formula one car? I think what you've said about the UAE link may have a lot to play with this, as well as the China link.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure what's been happening with a formula one in China. I haven't been keeping up to date on that as much as I've been following the UAE developments with Formula One. But again, this will be one to watch and I would bet that if Disney has done a deal in the one, that there will be some other deals in the work operations, ip and branding we touched upon this in OpenShut that our friends at Mattel have decided to create a pop-up based on their Uno, and this particular pop-up is kind of I get a casino vibe from it. Funny enough, it is sitting inside the Palm Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The first one we will have to wait and see how the other rollouts of this concept will be but it is called Uno Social Club.
Speaker 2:So there's a lot of hospitality and there is that competitive social vibe that they're going for yeah, yeah, we talked a little bit about this, as you mentioned, on the open and uh and I do think that it has uh, some you know, as we talked about on open and shut, it has some potential to be rolled into an existing facility, an existing venue or something like that, like Mattel-branded competitive socializing environment.
Speaker 3:But yeah, we'll see, we'll see. I like the branding, though I think the Uno Social Club branding has done very well.
Speaker 1:I wasn't that familiar with Uno until recently and it'll be interesting to see how the adults take to it, as well as the children, if they're going to allow children into the space again. That's another question about how social this social environment will be. Ip is king, especially in location-based entertainment at the moment, and our friends at Paramount Global have announced that they will be dipping a toe in the location-based entertainment market, joining the ranks of Netflix and Sony. Everybody seems to be doing it. Lionsgate, the Top Gun venue, is the. I haven't got the final, final name. We just know that it's going to be called Top Gun. Whether it will be Top Gun Experience or Top Gun Live, we're not sure. It will have hospitality dining bar.
Speaker 1:It will have amusement games and merchandising and it will have simulators and this is the interesting thing. There will be a number of jet fighter simulators for people to try out. I'm getting F1 arcade vibes from this kind of approach. It'll be interesting to see which simulators they go, how hardcore or easy soft they go with their simulators. But for certain of us of a certain age we can jump in our memory time machines and go back 30 years and remember something called Magic Leap, which was a simulator facility that had a number of jet fighter simulators as well as a hospitality component to it.
Speaker 1:So popular that Bandai Namco the company then was just Namco had partnered with them and the plan was to roll out 30 or 40 of these facilities.
Speaker 1:Sadly, in the end they only opened about two or three of those sites and the price and the entertainment that they were offering proved prohibitive and they fell by the wayside. So it will be interesting to see how our friends at Paramount and the people that they work with on their location-based entertainment project tackle. You know, being a jet fighter pilot is difficult. That's why it is, you know, top gun. That's why it is the best of the best, and sticking people inside a simulator, an accurate representation of a jet fighter means that they'll be crashing into the ground a lot rather than doing air combat with each other. So it will have to be a very careful mix of simulator and arcade entertainment. You know, if you look at what our friends at raw thrills have done with their top gun, uh inspired arcade product, it isn't a pure jet fighter simulator but, that said, it isn't a pure video game either. It's a difficult mix and I'll be looking forward to when they throw open the first facility in 2026.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it will be interesting. I am curious is it just a ride simulator or is it an actual? You know, am I controlling it? Am I trying to go after some missions? Is it going to be like an F1 arcade type environment where you know they're all going to stand around the simulator and like watch me go and then we're all going to swap out? Or is it me just going and having a ride experience of, like what it feels like to be in a jet fighter?
Speaker 1:uh, that part of that part of the story hasn't been made clearly yet. Uh, and I think there's a very important reason it hasn't been made clear yet is because they're testing to see which one works best. Is it going to be a jump in passive simulator? Is it going to be an interactive simulator, like our friends at d Buster's tried with their virtual reality Top Gun flight simulator? That proved a very difficult pony to ride. Or will it be more, you know, a? Room full of raw thrills, arcade sims.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I also hope that their location works out for them, given the fact that they're at the Strat Hotel. This is one of the issues we've seen with Atomic Golf. I mean, there's a few issues with Atomic Golf, but one of their issues is their location. It's the end of the strip. It is not necessarily a place the Strat Hotel has seen some age to it alongside the other attractions, and so I know they're trying to bring people down to that part of the strip, so I hope that their location isn't a detriment to them ultimately.
Speaker 1:I think they picked this particular locality, a for its availability and, b that the first facility isn't too prominent, so that they can get a handle on what their concept is going to be and then roll it out, because it's clear that Las Vegas won't be the only stop for this venue, but, again, a lot of watch this space there. We'll try and keep our audience up to date once we get more information, though I am looking forward of sitting inside their venue and trying out the experience. I just know that those leather jackets aviator jackets are going to be on sale and they're going to be violently expensive. Going back to a previous sound off and I touched upon the history of Putman and I got some questions afterwards about exactly what I was referring to. So, to add to the 45th celebration, I give you, puckman, the correct spelling of the game yes, it did exist. So those individuals that tried to poo-poo that it was just an urban legend no, it did exist. Try to poo-poo that it was just an urban legend. No, it did exist. The artwork for the original Putman machines is now actually on the internet in the arcade museum wiki to Putman, and there is the original flyer, the most telling component about the story behind the beginning of Putman is Putman's legs. I would put it this way that he was a character that was more than just a disembodied pill pusher and a giant circle. He was a unique character, mascot for the original interpretation, and it was when it came to the West and when Midway made the changes to make it more acceptable for the amusement market of that territory that got the character that we see today. One of the most important things, I think, about this transition is that, 45 years on, we look at Putman as a major success, but we also need to be mindful of the trials and tribulations. 45 years on, we look at Putman as a major success, but we also need to be mindful of the trials and tribulations that went through its creation. It's more about the gameplay than the branding. That is fundamentally what I'm trying to say, and what I mean by that is that the game was inherently addictive and enjoyable, no matter the story behind it, no matter the characterization, and all that happened was that, with proper branding, this game went from being a fantastic success to the mega icon that we know today.
Speaker 1:Looking at the tech trends and again, another blast from the past For you that are not all familiar with Sensorama. Sensorama was a concept, a prototype, that really played on all of the senses. It had a motion seat, it had aroma, it had stereo viewing screen and the concept was the brainchild of Morton Highly, and Morton really came up with a concept which was ahead of its time in the 1960s. This was an immersive entertainment system, even though it was a passive immersive entertainment system where you were looking at a film and feeling the experience through the handlebars and the seat of your pants and the visuals. Anyway, the concept was toured around.
Speaker 1:It didn't find success, but it became a legend and steered many people's thoughts about the future of immersive entertainment, and one of the few prototypes that survives is at the University of South Carolina and they're actually doing a walk around where you can bid to have your chance to actually look at the system, get close and personal with it. I'm not sure if they're going to allow you to ride it. I know that there are a number of people building concepts based upon the original which will be able to tour museums and stuff like that. But you know, it's always nice to look at our grandparents to see where we come from yeah, yeah, uh.
Speaker 2:Well, just a quick point of clarification. It's university of southern california uh so it's all right. Um, and I think I always find it's interesting I mean, 1962 is when this came out the fact that they had haptics and other sensory components alongside video and sound, all rolled into one and triggered at certain times. I feel like that's really impressive, given the lack of silicone right. So transistor-.
Speaker 2:Well, this isn't video, this is film celluloid Film right, I mean what I mean is like, but it's all tied together using very what we would consider archaic technology today, and yet they had all the timing done right and that's pretty impressive.
Speaker 1:Morton, like myself, was an ex-Disney engineer. He was a Disney engineer rather than an Imagineer In the 60s there was a little bit of separation between that but he had worked on a lot of what we call large film. Theatre experiences was his calling, and there's a lot of synchronicity used in large screens. The early days with Selly Lloyd, they had to make sure that all of the cameras were slaved together and were firing at the same time to create the vista, and I'm sure a lot of that experience went into the details of this system. I would love to have a delve inside one of these machines. Hopefully one day we will. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Talking about the application of immersive technology and we have the world's first according to our friends at PortAventura of a mixed reality roller coaster. So you pay your money. Additionally, you're given a Pico mixed reality headset, you put it on and you see the world around you, but while you're doing the ride then there are creatures and activities and elements that are mirrored into the real world, superimposed into your vision through the head-mounted display. We've gone from virtual reality roller coasters that we've seen a number of attempts at. We've now got mixed reality technology being used in the roller coaster. I wonder what next? Those that are interested about the application of mixed reality in our sector. I've just finished an article for the Virtual Arena column that we write in the LBX that looks at the application of the latest mixed reality, augmented reality and spatial reality in theme parks and amusement. Yeah, their video doesn't really give us a lot of information of what the actual experience is like, other than you'll be smiling a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. I mean, how fast is the coaster going? I mean it looks like it's one of their wooden coasters by the look of it, and so you know, if it's just more of a family coaster, then you have a chance to experience some of this. It could be interesting, yeah.
Speaker 1:It will be interesting. How popular with the hardcore roller coaster fandom would it be? You know, I remember right back in the day when our friends at Merlin rolled out at Alton Towers the first virtual reality roller coaster with Galactica. You know that was quite a difficult birthing process. And then our friends at Mackide have taken the technology on further and developed quite a few VR-based roller coaster experiences. But it's still a nascent technology, shall we say, moving on.
Speaker 1:And another nascent technology that's breaking into our sector is the illuminated LED floor and wall technology we touched upon in SoundOff, so open and shut that Lane 7 is embracing the Moment Factory LED floor system that they're going to be incorporated into their facilities. We've talked previously about Dave Buster's using the Conductar system, their arena system in their social bays, and also we have the cruise line industry as well as Manchester Basketball Federation deploying the Conductar Glow Court system, which uses both floor and wall LED illumination, not just illumination, you know, they are a display and they are part of the game experience that is being utilized. This is the future. I do believe that we will be seeing a lot more systems bathing the player within the digital environment, using LED floors rather than projection systems, for the obvious benefits that they bring.
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally agree, and we will see. We'll continue to see more and more companies coming out either evolving their existing attractions that they already have to be not just LED floors but LED walls. So I think again replacing the projection mapping. So we will absolutely see more of this happening.
Speaker 1:Talking about projection mapping against LED floors, and our friends at Little Lions have announced that they will be rolling out a London facility, so this will be number three of their Arcade Arena platform. The first one was in Manchester a permanent site. They've opened up a permanent site in Dubai and in 2026 they'll be opening up a permanent site. They've opened up a permanent site in Dubai and in 2026, they'll be a permanent site in London. This one is a two-sider, so you have on one side the Chaos Cart Arena and then on the other side you have the arena set up to play their Puckman Live experience, or Puckman experience. Again, we will wait and see how they lay this out, but I get the feeling that they are working on more than just these two experiences to put into these venues and hopefully they will have a production line of immersive content using their projection map environment.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean we'll see, see. I mean I want to know what's going into their other new, uh new attraction before I give too much judgment although I can't stand their arcade arena name, um, just partly because there's already an arcade arena out there. It's it's. I know it's not ubiquitous, it only has in a few locations, but there is already an arcade arena out there. I know it's not ubiquitous, it's in a few locations, but there is already an arcade arena by our friend, matt Ames, who's developed an immersive enclosure type of attraction called Arcade Arena. So I think that's one of the things I'm a little bit frustrated about. But also, it's not necessarily depending on what their attraction is, descriptive of their venue.
Speaker 1:Yes, the marketing people stuck a wet finger in the air and didn't do their research if I'm going to be blunt, personal perspective on that and they're going to have to come up with more content. The whole point about immersive entertainment is it's a hungry beast and you have to feed it a lot. Immersive entertainment is it's a hungry beast and you have to feed it a lot. Uh, and you know, expensive puckman ip franchises may not be the best way to go down if you're going to try and feed this. As we've seen with our friends at immersive game box with their projection mapped environment, they've gone down an ip route and that has proven very expensive and you know a lot of hard work, so they're going to have to be mindful of finding a middle ground that works for them. I also get the feeling that the reason they've gone with their arcade arena is because they want to distance themselves from chaos cards. Sorry, with their chaos cards they want to distance themselves from battle cards and the success that they have achieved in the marketplace. But again, it will be interesting in 2026 to see this latest projection mapped environment popping up in London alongside all of the other projection mapped experiences out there, such as the lighthouse and immersion and neon and all of the others.
Speaker 1:Just rounding up some housekeeping for all of you that may not be aware, we've launched a companion to the Stinger Report. The entertainment social arena focuses wholly on the competitive socializing sector, which is blooming at the moment, and we've pulled out most of the data that we would have normally covered in the Stinger Report and put in its own unique dedicated service. If you follow the URL there, you can jump on and get your subscription if you're not already subscribed, but we wanted to make sure that the market gets that part of the information covered. Anyway, that's it from me, unless I've missed anything that you want to touch upon.
Speaker 2:Brandon, no-transcript. Get on it, otherwise, kevin, another great sound off with you and we'll see you on the next one pleasure. Have a good one, bye.
