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LBX Collective
Sound Off #81 - CEC's new Arcade, theme park attendance declines, and more!
Sponsored by Intercard!
On our latest episode, join Kevin Williams and Brandon Willey as they discuss the location-based entertainment industry's paradox of economic uncertainty alongside aggressive expansion, with Merlin and Six Flags reporting 3% attendance declines while Netflix and Universal announce ambitious new venue plans. Chuck E. Cheese demonstrates strategic brilliance with their new Chuck's Arcade concept, targeting older audiences while maintaining brand connection across age demographics.
• Theme parks facing economic headwinds with 3% attendance decline reported by Merlin Entertainments
• Netflix House and Universal aggressively expanding with physical venues despite market concerns
• Golf simulation market becoming saturated with TruGolf planning 40 facilities and BatBox entering US market
• Chuck E. Cheese launches Chuck's Arcade brand to capture older demographic who've outgrown main brand
• Toca Social partners with SandboxVR in their White City London location, demonstrating entertainment co-location trend
• AI entering location-based entertainment with mixed results, creating what the Cambridge Dictionary now calls "slop"
• HTC Vive pivots strategy to partner with large operators like NTT Communications rather than individual sales
Are you on the edge of your seat Because we're about to SoundOff 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, all right? Well, welcome everybody to SoundOff with Kevin Williams. This is number 81 for July 8th 2025. And we are sitting here post-Bowl Expo. So we had a great discussion with Adam at the LBX show for you know, guest gab, and so we're coming hot off Bowl Expo the following week, hot off the fourth of july for those of us here in the in the us, obviously not so much for, uh, for you sitting over there in london. Totally different, uh scenario there, but uh, well, what should we dive in? How you feeling, kevin?
Speaker 2:uh, I'm okay. Uh, happy. Indian saved our ass. There was it. French saved our ass day or is it french?
Speaker 1:saved our ass day. You know, it's just so many of them yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Now let's see. I am in a kind of post bowl expo kind of mood and so my meme would be do we really need to define the differences between the traditional bowling side and the bowling entertainment center business? Because I am especially off of the back of the information that we're compiling from Bowl Expo, that a lot of traditional bowling venues have spent a lot of money upgraded their facilities, you know, added the latest digital, have even gone for including a very high level of amusement and attraction component to their facility, but they haven't improved their marketing and people will just go if you say, oh, jim's Bowlerama over there, and they'll go oh, yeah, jim's, that's where all of the old guys go for their bowling. You know it is much more now, away from the smelly shoes and the smelly socks and the heavy balls. It is much more that we need to promote that bowling is cool again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I think it also depends on what type of gameplay you want to promote. So, are you about leagues? Are you about having tournaments? Is it about social entertainment as well? And so I think a lot of times there's these bowling centers that have a long history of leagues and they want to try to revitalize themselves, change up some of the branding, but then getting some of the league groups upset as well in that transition, because now some of their lanes may have been removed, or now there's people coming in and they're noisy when they just want to have their leagues. And so I think part of that as well is like really deciding what do you want to be a traditional bowling alley center, bowling center or a bowling entertainment center that's going to attract a much larger audience pick a lane yes, pick, pick a lane exactly and just think you're the local league bowling team.
Speaker 2:You, uh, your traditional bowling facility is closed for refurbishment. So you go to, you go through, uh, your trip advisor and it tells you to go to big al's bowlerama, which has bowling, and you turn up to a facility like this, not size bowling lanes, you know, even in some cases oh my god, it's duck pin bowling not even full size bowling. So you know, we really do need to understand number one, that there are more than one type of audience participant that we want to encourage to our facilities and that we need to clearly demarcate our lanes.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, very much so, All right, Perfect. Well, that wraps up our little meme. We're going to take a quick break and come back. We'll dig into the 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 2:Well, thank you, intercard. Let's jump in, jumping into the deep end with a little bit of economy for the start and some interesting news For an industry that's so vibrant and so populous. We're getting some downturn numbers, which we're seeing a 3% decline in attendance during their 2024 numbers ending 2024. They blamed it on a number of things, but mainly on the discretionary budgeting spend of their audience, of their audience, ie the decisions that people, during difficult times or in concerning times, make regarding how much they're going to spend on certain things. And you know, entertainment is important, but they don't go as much when they're worried about, you know, their job or the cost of living or the state of the economy than they normally go out in happier times. And you know you would say, oh, that's just Merlin. They're going through transition. They've had a number of openings, they've been going through development.
Speaker 2:Well, that number has also been reflected through some data that we've got out of Six Flags and out of generally, out of recording attendance. We're seeing a fallback, a ease back. I wouldn't go as bad as saying that this is a depression or a recessional numbers. I would just say that we're not seeing an uptick, we're seeing a flattening and a downtick, which we shouldn't be really seeing here unless there was a much more concerning situation around the corner here, unless there was a much more concerning situation around the corner.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this matches what. This data anyway matches what we've been hearing anecdotally from the theme park industry. I was actually having a really good conversation with a few people at Bowl Expo on Tuesday when we were sitting in one of the booths and a few of us were talking, and we were talking just about the FEC, lbe, bec space, but we were also talking about the theme park space and the manufacturers and suppliers are feeling the pinch as well in the theme park, amusement park industry Because obviously, when we start to see numbers like this, some CapEx projects begin to get cut in size, get cut entirely, but also get reduced as well, which then puts a greater downward pressure on the overall M&S community and market. And so it is an interesting time right now for the theme park industry and definitely need to see this thing turn around soon.
Speaker 2:We're seeing some of the largest number of openings of facilities. I've just had to do a open and shut that was just listing off the latest entertainment facility, opening after the latest facility. And they're not just in Japan and they're not just in Texas, they're not just in Florida, they're everywhere. But the point is, at the end of the day, we are still looking at some impact being felt across the facility regarding the attendance, attendance spend, and also we're seeing the prices for these entertainment aspects. The foods, the power, the staffing bills are also on the rise, and so that has an impact. I am a little bit more positive about the next couple of months for the industry because we've weathered some of the major storms and concerns that we were worried about during the tariff and the standard of living economy problems. But I'm also mindful that we are not elastic and if you whip one end then the ripples will be felt at the other end, and I think we're going to be having a rough ride, if not a total disaster.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I think one of the things to call out here too, at least with Six Flags and Merlin Parks, is that while some of them are destinations, so Magic Mountain is definitely. If you live in Phoenix, six Flags, magic Mountain is a destination that somebody from Phoenix would go to. It's the closest Six Flags to us from a flight and drive time you can drive there. But so many of these types of smaller I'll call them not smaller they're like regional amusement parks, theme parks, drive a lot from the regional. You know basically their area, their community as well, and I think we're just seeing that even the community is not their local community, which normally would hold up and prop up. Some of these facilities are just not coming and doing that as well.
Speaker 2:Agreed. Anyway, moving on to the biz, that is fed from the economy and we have announcements after announcements and growth after growth. So, previous to our discussion over Netflix House and their surprise announcement of a third venue taking place in Las Vegas for 2027, 2027 is going to be very busy because our friends at Universal have announced that, following the opening of their unleashed experience in the Area 15 hub in Las Vegas, they have now confirmed that they will be opening up in Chicago with their next of their all year round haunted experience. These companies that are actually pulling the trigger on other venues before they've even opened the first venue tells you how much that the bricks and mortar, the physical business model, is now being seen in C-suites as a very important future business opportunity for them.
Speaker 1:So Universal has been hitting quite a number of home runs obviously lately. I do get a little bit concerned here that they're maybe moving too quickly with their horror unleashed model and concept, considering that they haven't even opened in Vegas yet. They haven't had a chance to see what works, what doesn't, what throughput, what size, all the things that you want to see before you move on and build the next one. So I do get I'm a little bit concerned that they're maybe getting a little bit too far ahead of their themselves or like leaning too far ahead of their skis.
Speaker 2:If they announced a third facility in the next couple of months then I would, you know, big alarm bells would be ringing. Because they've got their Indian facility that they're just announcing resorts. They've got their work in the UK with the UK project. They have the fallout from the Epic universe and what they need to uh to follow through with that. But hey, I look at uh, their uh, unleash, their sorry universal horror unleash. Bring your own dogs uh facility, and I think of all the amusement machines I could put inside one of those.
Speaker 2:So there's always a good fallback position moving on, and everybody's now throwing their hat in the ring. Everybody's now rolling out plans to expand their facility operation. It's what we touched upon last year, that you know. We would reach that tipping point where everybody would work out that they need to have a dog in the in the fight, a hat in the ring. Our friends at True Golf, who manufacture the track systems that are used by many of these golf swing systems, have been dabbling with their own golf simulator lounges. They have now confirmed that they're going to be opening up one of their flagship lounges. This will be in New Jersey. I'm led to believe that this is for the end of the year that they're going to be opening this up and they are now looking at rolling out 40 facilities in the next two to three years, based upon their interpretation of their lounge site, the golf simulation boys. Just keep on coming.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's about time actually. I mean True Golf. They've announced. This was announced. I mean, I want to say almost two years ago that they were planning to do one of these sites and they've had the same, the picture that you have here on the right. It's literally the same photo that they've been using for the last two years, or a year and a half at least. If you're on the right, it's literally the same photo that they've been using for the last two years, or a year and a half at least. So I'm glad that they're finally opening, I guess, but they really might've missed the boat. They're coming to a heavily saturated market and to try to do their own thing We'll see. I mean, it's going to have to stand on its own with F&B, et cetera, because, again, a golf sim is a golf sim is a golf sim. I know they would probably disagree, but there's a very little differentiation between them.
Speaker 2:I'd hate to do a panel, having all of the golf simulator tracking systems on the dais and watch the fist fight take place. They're very protective of the high level of training that their simulators offer, but I think most of them forget that we're in the entertainment business rather than the simulation business. Another company with another simulation system that has been talked about but is finally now making its entry into the market, the Western market, or should I say the North American market, beyond Mexico. The company behind bat box is a mexican operation. They have a number of simulation facilities for golf as well as baseball open. They are throwing open the doors on their first flagship facility in us, which will be in texas, texas, texas, texas, opening at the end of this year, beginning of 2026.
Speaker 2:So you know, their goal is to have about 15 facilities across North America and they've raised in a Series A funding about $7 million to achieve that. That's kind of shy to open 15 facilities, but I think that is the beginning of a Series A to Series B. This is the kind of thing that a home run dugout is developing. This is the kind of thing that a number of other companies is developing Moonshot and others, where you have the ball launching digital screen baseball system supported by F&B and some competitive socializing in a very nice environment. How this stands out from the crowd is going to be very important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I think it is still somewhat differentiated from Home Run Dugout because of its launch system for the balls. I still am a bigger fan of the Home Run Dugout launch system from a social entertainment standpoint. This is still very much a batting cage environment. It is obviously more digital, they're trying to make it more social, but it is still a more traditional batting cage experience.
Speaker 2:They're trying to make it more social, but it is still a more traditional batting cage experience and it is the nuances of what they're offering, the entertainment experience. You know, seeing the promotional video where they're wearing the full hard hats and the pads, and, you know, looking at a full launch speed ball may be very good for the boys, but the girls aren't going to be jumping in there unless they're the professional women's league. We will see how much of the nuance they have learned from what's happening in competitive socialising, in active sports and yet another artist's rendition that's been doing the rounds. But again we've got confirmation that our friends at pits pin stack, who we talked about in a previous uh sound off, have, uh, you know, turned the key and 2027 we'll see the opening of their brand new uh, competitive socializing entertainment venue. It isn't just going to be about the bowling, it is going to have a lot more. It's going to have bumper cars, rock climbing, it's, you know, it's going to be a full-size entertainment facility in Texas.
Speaker 2:Again, texas is just going to explode. One day, as an individual that keeps an eye on the market, I will be keeping a very close eye on the first of these big projects that starts to fail in Texas, because that will tell us a lot more about what's happening internationally in the market. They have become the perfect petri dish of the success or failure of the competitive, socializing business model as well as the mixed-use entertainment model, business model as well as the mixed use entertainment model. But pinstacks is throwing their hat into the ring with a big facility and also it was followed with the corporate speak of saying that this is part of a major rollout of their brand yeah, such an interesting mix of attractions.
Speaker 1:I feel like at pinstack, I don't, I don't know, I don't know, uh, how I feel about that mix a rock wall, bumper, cars, bowling, an arcade. You know, I don't know how I feel about that mix A rock wall, bumper, cars, bowling, an arcade. I don't know who they're really targeting there.
Speaker 2:It was what they didn't say that was more interesting to me. They didn't give us numbers of how much amusement. They didn't tell us about the F and B. They didn't tell us if they were going to be going with duck pin as well as gravity or if it was only going to be duck pin. It's the nuance behind the scenes. This to me looks like an Evo thing facility. Yeah, and if you're going to compete with the Evos, the Dave and Busters and the main events, you'd better have a USP, You'd better have a unique selling point.
Speaker 1:As far as I, can tell they don't really right. I mean, they've got ropes, they've got some crazy darts, some giant foosball, but you know again what is their USP? I don't know what it is.
Speaker 2:And going back to the previous sound off, when I was talking about the guest experience and having the unique guest experience, I wonder how much of the C-suite guys have walked through the digital version of this facility that they're planning to build and actually perceive what their takeaway experience actually is and actually perceive what their takeaway experience actually is, or is that something where they're going to be running in a consultant at the last minute when the numbers don't meet up with expectations? Branding and licensing is vital in our sector. It seems to be one of the biggest components that is growing alongside the social side of our business and yet another of the what I would call active entertainment facilities Smash Swing. If you haven't seen previous sound-offs, this is the company that has created a digital wall golfing experience where multiple players can play at the same time, launching their golf balls at the screen to play games, as well as having an amusement and social entertainment component. The first Smash Swing facility is planned to.
Speaker 2:I think they're opening their Canadian facility first, if my memory serves me right, but they also have plans for New York and also for Europe, and they've just announced that, along with the big digital screen and the entertainment component, they've done an agreement with Atari, the video game icon, and they've licensed a number of their classic retro games which will be recreated into the digital golfing immersive experience that they're developing for their facilities. That they have only now announced that they've licensed these classic games tells me that we're still somewhere away from the final launch of the facility, unless they're going to launch with B-suite property before they install a suite property. But there is a synergy in their thinking which I'll come to in a minute yeah.
Speaker 1:So those of you who want a little bit deeper dive into what smash swing is doing, you can check out our reveal. So I had sat down with tj sheer, who's the founder of smash swing, and we did a reveal, which is where we go behind the scenes. He gives a little tour of what they've created and then an interview with TJ as well, so you can find that on our YouTube channel. But yeah, I'm excited about the Atari. I'm interested to know if it's the recharged versions of these Asteroids Recharged or if it's an original Asteroids.
Speaker 2:It won't be the recharged versions of these um asteroids recharged, or if it's an original asteroids, and then how would you recharge brandon?
Speaker 1:it won't be the original. It would have to, right. I mean, because you just you can't have just like a little white lines floating around on a big screen, right. So it has to be the recharged uh version. So, um, it'd be interesting to see how they convert those games to be, uh, you know, functional with golf, right? So there's the golf ball, where you hit the golf ball, explode the asteroids and split them apart, you know what does it do there?
Speaker 2:I think we can see it in our mind's eye how that works. It's how centipede works as well. I can see the centipede running around and you hit it and it breaks, and so the ball becomes the, the white blob, being shot from the bottom. That said, it's still going to take time for the content to be created and deployed, but we are now seeing ip content and retro content being added. You know we just talked about our friends at immersive game box, uh, adding the batman property to their list of IP game experiences. You know now the digital active entertainment systems, such as Smash Swing, are now adding that, the same way that our friends at Topgolf have used licensed IP. And they recently announced their latest partnership with Movie Crossover, marvel Studios again, and it's the Fantastic Four film franchise being deployed as a brand within the game experience that Topgolf offers. This press release, this information, was some of the most disingenuous information that I've ever had across my computer no real pictures of what the experience would look like from the player's point of view.
Speaker 2:Lots of renderings, lots of double talk, lots of. I don't like that, you know. As a man that has to write a copy as well as a review product, I want to know what it's like rather than what hype there is being promoted. We understand that previous franchise licenses, especially their Captain American license, didn't really set the audience aflame with interest. As we know, the Fantastic four film is also another film that is looking at a troubled box office launch, uh, for various reasons. So I'm just hoping that top golf aren't diluting their brand by just jumping on every big box office ip that they can get, because it's a great way to empty your coffers and especially as top golf is about to be re-evaluating its expenditure once it moves from Callaway. These kinds of deals that just are vacuous rather than adding something to the experience could be very dangerous to their bottom line. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my, you know this is this is seeing these renderings is very similar to what they also did with angry birds at top golf. So they had all this stuff like visually overlaid over the top of their, their course and the commercials that they did. And obviously that's not the case, right, it's just you hit your ball, you look at the screen and see what the ball sort of did on the screen and how it impacts the angry bird stuff. Right, I think it's going to be very similar. It's not going to have floating orbs over the top of the course, as these things show, right. So I think it is very disingenuous and I think it's one of the struggles that a Topgolf or any of these large open driving range bay experiences have when trying to alter or improve or differentiate their gameplay. They've got physical infrastructure that they have to deal with and they try to do these digital overlays that just really struggle to ultimately have any real impact.
Speaker 1:This is what you see in the bowling environment. Before you had Spark, that actually projection mapped on the lanes. You hit a ball and they have Angry Birds right Now. Brunswick doesn't necessarily have angry birds, but you have angry birds bowling, but it doesn't really. It's what's happening on the screen after you've already rolled down the ball down a traditional bowling lane and knock over some pins. And so this is where a smash swing really has a competitive advantage over a top golf, because they can continually roll out new IP and new experiences, because it's all digital right. They've got the physical ball, they've got the digital screen, and so they can have actual interactivity between the ball hitting the screen and what actually happens on the screen and you see it visually right in front of you and happening in real time, versus hitting a ball into a hole in the ground that then has some impact on a screen.
Speaker 2:That's to your right the logical progression for top golf would have been projection mapping, but again that would be very expensive and that would be a sea change and as their operation is franchised, that was a good free franchisor to put their hand in their pocket and pay for a brand new technology application, even though they may have to to try and bring the audiences back. I've been doing some research into Topgolf and I was amazed by the number of Topgolf copycat operations that are out there that offer the same kind of digital ball tracked system, gamified shooting suites, and all of them seem to be hitting the same problem, which is done that, seen it ho-hum, and what is going to be needed for the next generation of physical golf shooting environments. They're going to have to embrace rather than make it up using faked imagery. Moving on, and our friends at Chuck E Cheese have embraced their brand and we've had the opening of, or the reveal, so we say, of, the 10 first facilities under the brand-new Chuck's Arcade branding, what I would call the reskin, because obviously we talked about in previous sound offs the Fun Spot Arcade chain that Chuck E Cheese had been running in a number of hotels in Florida and some malls and it was a very kind of hit or miss kind of placeholder concept and we all raised our eyebrows saying this didn't seem right. This seems to be you know something waiting for something else to happen. Well, now we know what that something else was.
Speaker 2:Chuck's Arcade is a mixture of nostalgia and updated amusement entertainment aimed at a much older audience, even a semi-young audience, and teenage audience. They build on their nostalgia. They even have some of the animatronics from original sites behind glass, as if it was a museum. They are playing heavily on their branding regarding the merch and the prizes that you can win at this facility, and that is being carried across into the styling and, of course, the Fun Spot. Arcades have all now been turned into Chuck's Arcade facilities. So this is a very interesting entrance into the mall space arcade size facility, what some people many years ago would have called a route size operation. You know, the mall arcade is really where our industry, the video amusement industry, cut its teeth and grew. Chuck E Cheese facilities emerged from Atari. Everything seems to be connected, but from my point of view this is a very interesting branding from Chuck E Cheese and I would congratulate them because it's both embracing their past, utilizing their brand, and bringing it into the future.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and just to be clear, when we talk about the nostalgia, this isn't retro gaming inside of these facilities.
Speaker 1:This is modern amusement pieces, modern redemption pieces and also an elevated or an increased age range. So some of the games that are a little bit lower to the ground for the 8-year-old and younger, or 10-year-old and younger, that you would find at Chuck E Cheese, those you're not going to find at Chuck's Arcade, right, it's going to be adult and teen-sized games, full-sized games basically, in these facilities, and it is a brilliant brand. It does tie into the nostalgia that many of these have with kids. But, as I think I mentioned on the LBX show during our open and shut, what's great about this for Chuck E Cheese, or for CEC Entertainment anyway, is that it takes.
Speaker 1:You have the kids captured when they're young, you get them connected with the brand, you get them connected with the characters and all the work that they're doing with their IP and their cartoons and TV shows and everything else that they're doing, and then keeping the kids engaged, where they don't want to go to a Chuck E Cheese with their little brother or sister anymore, but they can go to a Chuck's Arcade and they can still engage with the brand but then play the bigger games that they didn't get to play when they were younger. So CEC is capturing more of that age growth that they would normally be losing with just Chuck E Cheese. Yeah.
Speaker 2:If I was directing this I'd go one step further and actually block the age groups that you could have coming into a Chuck's Arcade so you could turn Chuck's Arcade into an aspirational entertainment venue. So the kids in Chuck E Cheese want to be able to go to Chuck's Arcade. Then, logically, you would have the Chuck's competitive socializing venue. Chuck's competitive socializing venue For me this is, you know, as an ex-Walt Disney imagineer.
Speaker 2:We have the argument about. You know we capture the audience at seven years old and we have them for life as a Disney customer. Here we're seeing a little bit more of the team at CEC now have had the chance to actually understand what they have and I think that chapter 11 period that they went through during the covid problems has allowed them to do a little bit of navel gazing and that navel gazing has allowed them to embrace their brand. You know this is something that they wouldn't have done a couple of years ago putting one of the animatronics behind glass for the influencers to get their photograph with the merchandising captures.
Speaker 2:All of this Five Nights at Freddy's I am sure has had a little bit of an impact on their thinking of how they represent their brand, but also Chuck E Cheese and CEC has also been able to use their magic making towards upgrading other people's entertainment properties, and so it was announced that the Westgate Resorts in Kissimmee had partnered with Chuck E Cheese and their arcade area had been rethemed and redeveloped. Now is the Mystery Funhouse Arc house arcade experience. We need to have a conversation with their branding team and the, the. It's not just an arcade, but they've also had the pastiche back to the original fun house roots of the facility at Kissimmee, and they've also added a unique food hall component to this, which also carries along the branding and the IP. This really writes large what I was talking about in the previous sound off, about understanding the guest experience that you want to encourage in your facility.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And look, I don't disagree with you. Mystery Funhouse Arcade Experience is a mouthful, but it is. And I'm not saying that this is a cheat sheet, but it is a callback to the original.
Speaker 2:Mystery Funhouse.
Speaker 1:Arcade Experience that existed by the original founder of Westgate, and so I think that's why they went with it Again. I think they probably could have moved on from it and maybe just called it the Mystery Funhouse, but definitely it looks interesting, it looks well-themed, well-branded, and I do like the fact that while they partnered with Chuck E Cheese, potentially maybe to manage the games et cetera, but that you don't really see any Chuck E Cheese branding, any Chuck's branding at all, is very much a unique, one-off element.
Speaker 2:That's important and again, hats off to CEC that they know how to do a light touch, yeah, moving on and a new component to this particular sound off, and I actually had a chance to do some visiting and actually report about it for a change. Westfields in the London area of White City is a very famous and well-known shopping mall, part of the Westfields shopping mall chain that is international. This particular locality is interesting because a lot of competitive socializing activities have launched their chances here or have cut their teeth here. This was the locality of the Kids R Us facility that opened and then closed after, I think, about a 10-year venture there, but also the part of our presentations now seem to be constantly including the Genda moment, and this particular white city is a location of the first of the Genda Europe facilities. It's not really a facility. These are automated kiosks, so there's no human being there. You go up, you swipe your card or pay your money and then you play on the machines and you collect your prizes. But this is part of a rollout. Two of these installations have opened in London and it is part of a considerable rollout that Genda Europe is proposing in the next couple of months Regarding the actual competitive socializing side that has cut its teeth at this high-level shopping mall.
Speaker 2:This is not your average shopping mall. They have a Tesla showroom there. They have high-end property. They have an Apple store, where I actually got a chance to get my hands on an Apple Vision Pro for the first time. I've been waiting for the machine to actually establish itself before I actually did the demonstration. I'd like to thank the people at apple for giving me the chance to do that.
Speaker 2:One of the interesting things here is that the all-star lanes boutique bowling facility is was one of the first outside uh of the northern uh explosion. So really you can look at competitive socializing from companies like all all baranes and from Lane 7, where they were the ones that came up with the idea of the Bootstrap Boutique bowling and amusement and food and cocktail experience and they created an idea which they honed down and was able to roll out in numbers and that has led to the really the competitive socialising explosion we have. Funny enough, the guys behind All Star Lanes were also the guys that were supporting the launch of Puttshack and the first Puttshack to open was at White City and it's still there, still doing great guns, and hasn't been changed that much, which is the interesting thing.
Speaker 2:Usually when I go into these facilities three or four years after their first opening, there are quite considerable changes and evolutions and upgrades made. The putshack here, for good or bad, has not changed. It is still the same lane layout, it's still the same bar. It's just the menu and the pricings that have changed, and they were still very popular. Interesting thing about the all-star lanes here is that they've added more and more amusement components to them. They have the hoops machines and such like. They also have a inner wise cubics machine in there, which they are one of the first in the uk to actually operate that immersive enclosure system. Sixes, we all know sixes, if you follow, uh, what I talk about most of social life.
Speaker 2:Mostly, the issue here is that sixes opened at City and did not get the numbers that they were hoping for for various reasons, and they've rebranded and redeveloped that site and turned it into Moonshot. This is the first Moonshot. So, going back to what we were just talking about previously, about batting cages and digital screens, this is the UK equivalent of what we saw with those other systems, though with moonshots they have just stripped out the cricket systems and replaced them with a baseball system. How popular that is going to be with the London audience is early days. They have put a lot more amusement machines into this space than were originally at Sixers. I think Sixers only had one pool table and that was about it, and maybe one arcade cabinet, but at Moonshot they have hoops, machines as well as multiple tables and such like.
Speaker 2:Moonshot is an interesting one. It is clear that our friends at Sixers wanted to have a fullback position upon those that don't want to just do cricket, and now the latest versions of Moonshot seem to be much more about having multiple entertainment attractions. Thank you, brandon. You know you can now see that their next generation of facilities are not just going to have the cricket simulator, not just going to have the baseball simulator, but they're going to include ping pong, they're going to include shuffleboard, they're going to include amusement and American pool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean, look, there's probably some interest in baseball in Europe, so maybe that's what they're going to get into. But yeah, I mean, look, cricket is. I know they tried to gamify cricket. Cricket's a complex game. I think that you know sixes will really struggle here in the US.
Speaker 2:It could work. It could work handled correctly. If they go down the home run dugout approach, I think that they could take the hard edges off of cricket. But they're going to have to address the batting cage syndrome we were talking about earlier.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly, and Moonshot should definitely update their image here of cricket because it still says Sixers in the background, so definitely want to get an updated image there. Moonshot definitely update their image here, because it still says Sixers in the background, so definitely want to get an updated image there. Moonshot, if you're listening.
Speaker 2:Yes, the guys have received some infusion of funding. I was reading in one of my corporate reports so I'm wondering if we'll see a root and branch update. But anyway, it was interesting to go in. You know, having visited the Sixes now to go into Moonshot, I wonder, if I wait another couple of months, who will be next time? Also in the mall, there is virtual reality and immersion. We have immersion with their 9D pods and their unique ride experiences at one end of the VR experience, and then we have the highly immersive arena-based system from Dive VR at the other end. They have taken over a unit and they have a number of very enjoyable experiences for multiple users to navigate. It is seen as really the obvious future for the virtual reality business is trying to get as many people through your experience as possible, and Dive VR have a strong experience in doing that experience, in doing that. And then we have the latest entry of both the sports taintment launched ball experience and the virtual reality experience with the opening of Toka Social. That was the main reason why I was down White City to attend the launch event for the venue.
Speaker 2:The launch event for the venue, it wasn't really a major press event, it was more of a soft opening stroke celebrational party where all of the executive team from Tokka Football as well as the team from Sandbox VR were showing off this partnership. I'm going to try and relay this exactly how it was told to me by the team. Originally, this was going to be a wholly owned Tokka social venue. It has 24 bays, but it was also seen that there was available space to expand With that expansion. It was suggested that their friends at Sandbox VR UK, the franchise that owns the rights to the Sandbox VR in UK and Ireland I think they also have links with the European team as well, and it was just a discussion over a coffee and it led to the inclusion of Sandbox VR as part of the offering. Here, three arenas of their unique VR experience are set up within the space.
Speaker 2:For me, this is an interesting one because it kind of, you know, verifies my bully wick about saying you can't have a single entertainment experience. But it is also two single entertainment experiences, kind of drawing a line around each and occupying the same space, where I think my dream is to have a little bit more immersion between the various brands where they can share their markets together. You know, from a guest's point of view. The interesting thing also for me this is the fourth Toka Social venue to open. So the first one, brandon and myself had a chance to walk around at the O2 in London. The second one in Manchester oh sorry, birmingham, bullring, I apologise and the third one was in America, dallas. Now we have the opening of their second, london, their fourth facility, and it is clear that they've learned a lot of lessons. Their team training is A1.
Speaker 2:I would like to thank all of those that served me and threw me out of the door when I was fully no, I was in a joke. I'd like to thank all of those that served me and kept an eye on me during the show Very intelligent management team, you know. They knew what I was there for, they knew what I wanted to do and they answered all, all of my questions and they had no problems to do that. I also like to think that the management team there came over Interesting that there's a lot more amusement in the talk of social venues now than compared to what we see at the original O2 venue, and you know, again, the team that was also running the Sandbox VR are a well-oiled and well-polished approach and they were getting people through the experiences during the evening and it was nice to see all of the experiences active.
Speaker 2:I wanted to have other people enjoying the experience so I didn't butt in at this occasion. But I will go back and try the latest of their updated Squid Games software but well-oiled machine on both sides and it kind of underlines the need of having a professional food, cocktail and serving component when you're doing competitive socializing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I remember you were very pleased with the service and the experience while you were there.
Speaker 1:I still think that we'll see how this plays out. It does seem like a very strange arranged marriage between these two different, completely different types of attractions and potentially different sets of guests that we'll be interested in going using each one of them, playing each one of them. So I am a little bit cautiously optimistic for them, I guess, but to see how this plays out. That being said, even with the additional, the addition of this, the three sandbox VR arenas, there's still an enormous amount of empty space in that facility and and I don't I mean I always get really concerned when you have that much empty space, especially near the front. When somebody walks in, if you don't have you're not absolutely packed, then it looks like it's just empty. You can hear echoes and everything else, and obviously I wasn't there. Obviously there was tons and tons of people there because of the press event. But in a normal Thursday afternoon, tuesday afternoon, you come walking in and you can hear a pin drop in the large, expansive lobby. I do think that that is a problem.
Speaker 2:One of the lessons they didn't learn was the segmentation of the space. You know, if you're going to have 24 spaces, then you should have it segmented in such a way that you know someone walking in doesn't see it empty if you're only using four, three or two of the bays. They have a very nice private area for VIPs, as you would expect for VIPs, as you would expect with its own dedicated, unique bay, number 24. I would argue that our friends at Tokosocial need to use the new funding that they've raised to go back and look a little bit more closely at what they're offering, especially with the ambitious rollout plans of 40 facilities over the next three years that they've been throwing around. But it's still a compelling experience. Everybody was having a lot of fun. It's just they need to manage their space and their experience better and, if I had had my way, they need to improve their signage. But hey, nothing's perfect at the beginning.
Speaker 1:No, but hey, nothing's perfect at the beginning. No, and you know, I think, just as an example for those who really want a good example of what we're talking about when we talk about segmented flow for different bays and obviously toka social bays are much larger. The sandbox arenas are much larger than a flight club bay, but flight club does a phenomenal job at segmenting their, their flow, their guest flow and their layouts and the way that their, their different bays and booths are spread throughout the facility. You really don't have a sense for how full or how empty it is because you're in your little space when you come in and you're led to your little space. So anyway, just as an example, if anybody has a chance to go and check out a flight club to really see how a I think a good, competitive, socializing space utilization example is, you should go check them out. Fly Club.
Speaker 2:If you're in Vegas, check out the Fly Club at Vegas. Very clever how they use an unusual shaped space, but you still think that the space is busy, even when not all the bays are active. It's space management which is one of the hardest things to do. Even when not all the bays are active, it's space management which is one of the hardest things to do. Moving back to tech trends and we've been talking about the camera tracks, ball positioning, game experiences we even touched upon the ball tracking systems in another recording we did with Adam, one of the latest entries into the market. Well, it's not the latest.
Speaker 2:Our friends at Neo Experience have had some time selling their standalone ball-throwing camera vision system to the market, but all of a sudden they've kind of had a road to Damascus moment and they're now trying to package these systems in unique colors. So they've now rebranded these the neo one arena systems and we now have an open style, an enclosed style, a large style, a small style. I would say that they've seen what's been going on in the market and they've suddenly worked out that they need to cut their cloth to meet the needs of the marketplace. In competitive, socialising, amusement and FEC. I would say that they've been influenced by what's been happening with our friends at VeloMotion and by what's been happening with the successful deployments of our friends at Innerwise and their Cubix, which has just celebrated its 50th installation, and I'm sure that the boardroom said that they wanted a slice of that pie Moving on and a big announcement for the Japanese market.
Speaker 2:It hasn't been taken up a lot by the Western market and I think that's a missed observation of what's happening in the sector. Our friends at HTC Vive, the people who had served the most headsets to the location-based entertainment and enterprise market, have gone through quite a transition recently. They sold a number of their patents and even loaned out their staff teams to Google towards helping Google's entry into the VR and mixed reality technology. And HTC has obviously been re-evaluating its presence in the market, and one of those considerations is partnerships. Rather than trying to sell products to everyone, maybe selling one product to one large company that has multiple facilities is a much more financially advantageous way to go. And HTC surprise, surprise is one of the companies that supplies our friends at Sandbox VR with their headsets.
Speaker 2:They also supply zero latency with their headsets for their facilities with their headsets for their facilities. So, rather than the onesies and twosies, dealing with the companies with the 70s and the hundreds facility openings is a much better way to go. And our friends at HTC have announced that they partnered with NTT Communications, one of the largest of the telecommunications information service companies in Japan, who also has what I would call a physical business plan. They are looking at creating more facility entertainment and facility information venues within the country towards getting to touch their audience rather than just selling them services but also offering them entertainment and a component that many corporations are now looking at with branding. And it's clear that NTT wants a slice of the virtual arena business and they have signed this memorandum with our friends at HTC towards building that empire. Hopefully, within the next couple of months we'll have more information about what that empire is going to look like.
Speaker 2:And again from Japan, we have another corporation that has started to raise investments towards rolling out their interpretation of arena VR facilities. I see this in Japan as a soft relaunch or reboot of the VR interest in the market. What we're not actually seeing in the Western market we may see bubble up in Europe and Asia, which is the shared reality large audience, vr arena systems that then starts to appear more and more in the North American market. But again, I'd like to go into more detail about this around iAlpa, when we're going to see some examples of the systems I'm talking about, and then the latest and hopefully last new trend to add to SoundOff or else will be a one-day report, and that's AI.
Speaker 2:Sadly, I can't hide from AI's involvement in our sector. It's interesting that the Cambridge Dictionary has now added SLOP to its terminology. Dictionary has now added slop to its terminology slop referring to information gained from ai search engines and artwork. That is crap, wrong, is mistaken, is a mirage. Whatever terminology you want to use, it broken and, funny enough, we were just talking to someone about a company that depends on broken AI information just a couple of minutes ago. It's very dangerous and the word slop is going to be playing a bigger part in our future.
Speaker 2:For those that depend on AI, our friends at Disney you remember the previous sound off I talked about them entering with Universal into a lawsuit. Well, that lawsuit may have been positioning towards their future plans because, at the same time, with their other hand, it's just been revealed that Disney is in negotiations with OpenAI towards maybe using their tools within their entertainment operation Swings and roundabouts. We talked about this in Open and Shots, the first that we know of a venue that has been developed using AI. Well, super Super is a brand-new entertainment venue going into a Montreal retail unit and their press release shouted from the rafters that they'd used AI to create the artwork and the branding for the facility. Taking a look at it, I wouldn't be shouting that loudly about it.
Speaker 1:No, I don't know why they were so excited to promote the fact that they used AI here. I just really don't understand. Maybe it's because they thought it looked like crap and so they didn't want to. They were going to blame AI. I don't know. I'm not sure what the situation is here, but you talk about AI slop. It literally looks like slop on the walls.
Speaker 2:It does looks like slop on the walls, it does. It will be interesting to see how soon it becomes the excuse, rather than the benefit, to blame AI and we have the first amusement product or should I say social entertainment product to also reveal that it is using AI. I know that there is one video amusement product out there that was launched at IALPA that claimed that some of the levels were developed using AI or were generatively created. I think that that was the company in New York that had licensed the Gummy Bear property. Sorry, my senior moment there I can't remember, but anyway, this is the first of the competitive socializing platforms to use AI.
Speaker 2:Our friends at Funk, with their Funk Nexus system, are telling us that the screen, the projection map, screens that the lanes are coated in some of the creations, for those are AI-inspired Fantastic. Anyway, I think we've taken enough of your time with this one. Please remember that you should be receiving the Stinger Report in your inbox along with the brand-new Entertainment Social Arena, and the only way you can achieve that is if you sign up. Excuse me, and anyway, have I missed anything?
Speaker 1:no, I think we've uh, I think we've exhausted these, uh, you know, exhausted everything from sound off today, and so you know what it is. It's now time for you to hit the pub, ke Kevin.
Speaker 2:Yay, bless to everyone.
Speaker 1:All right.
