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LBX Collective
The LBX Show #43 - Guest Gab with Rob Morgan, Arcade News, and more!
Sponsored by Intercard!
On this week's show Brandon and Kevin join Rob Morgan, author of "Storytelling for Spatial Computing and Mixed Reality: The Art of Augmenting Imagination" and lead narrative designer at Wake the Tiger in London for a Guest Gab segment exploring the art of storytelling and spatial computing.
• Shifting from VR to AR storytelling and focusing on how AR makes players the protagonist
• Defining the differences between VR, AR, and MR, while acknowledging that exact definitions matter less than the audience experience
• Analysis of consumer VR market trends, including Sony's PSVR2 and Meta Quest adoption
• The value of location-based shared VR/MR experiences for entertainment venues
• Moving from consumer entertainment to location-based entertainment requires higher standards and more flexibility
• Creating stories where players see themselves in the narrative rather than controlling an avatar
• The challenge of maintaining audience engagement by giving them agency and freedom within the experience
• Drawing inspiration from immersive theater and role-playing to create more compelling spatial experiences
Check out Rob's book "Storytelling for Spatial Computing and Mixed Reality: The Art of Augmenting Imagination" on Amazon or at augmentingimagination.com with discount code DIS20 for 20% off when purchased directly from Routledge.
All right. Well, welcome everybody to the LBX show for September 7th 2025. We've got a great show lined up for you. Today we're actually going to be skipping News, you Should Know, and jumping right into a guest gab. So after that we're then going to roll into a pretty robust open and shut with Kevin Williams to review all the opening and closing trends from the last two weeks, because we actually skipped last week's show because that was in the bottom of the Grand Canyon. And then we're going to hear from Adam Pratt with Arcade Corner. He's going to cover quite a bit of news as well on the amusement front. And then we're going to close out with a promo pro tips with Chuck DeMonte. He's going to talk about combining digital and boots on the ground marketing. So bringing those two things together should be a nice quick power session from Chuck.
Speaker 2:All right, so we're going to dive into the guest gab with Rob Morgan. He's the author of Storytelling for Spatial Computing and Mixed Reality the Art of Augmenting Imagination and Kevin Williams will actually be joining us as well as we talk about immersive attractions and storytelling and design. He's also the lead narrative and experience designer at the new Wake the Tiger in London and has years of experience as a lead game writer, creative director, spatial storyteller across multiple studios and attractions, and so very excited to have him on for this guest gab. So let's do it All right. Well, rob, welcome to Guest Gab at the WBX Show man, good to have you here. Hey, thank you for having me on. Yeah, it's good to see you here as well, kevin, pleasure as always. All right, well, so let's just dive in to it. First of all, why did you decide to write a book?
Speaker 3:Good question. So I got approached by the publishers Routledge a good three years ago now and I think they expected me to write a VR book. So I'd done a lot of VR. That's Fisherman's Tale, which is now you know. It was one of the earliest sort of full length well regarded VR games that won various awards and I think that's probably why they came to me.
Speaker 3:But I'd always been way a couple of augmented reality games for the world's then biggest IP, for Harry Potter, which I co-wrote with the world's most famous author, and I'd been.
Speaker 3:I'd seen these moments where in AR the player and the protagonist become the same person, and I found it so compelling that then I pushed on augmented reality so much that I started my own studio to make augmented reality theater and then in the pandemic we made augmented reality arts activations for the National Gallery and various cultural institutions in the UK.
Speaker 3:I was always really, really interested in the storytelling capability of AR, because the narratives suddenly start to take place not just in a authored world that you, the storyteller, create and you transport your player somewhere else. Instead, you have to set these stories partly in the real world and partly use the player themselves as the protagonist. So I found this really compelling. I've been talking about it publicly and trying to frame out some theories for how this sort of new narrative practice should work, and when the opportunity to start writing came up, I thought right, I'll pitch them on AR, because I think that will be a big deal in a few years' time, and now, hopefully, my decade-long gamble on augmented reality turning out to be a thing may be just about starting to pay off.
Speaker 4:Interesting. Thank you for sharing that. The question that I have really is from you know, being the techie nerd here in the room um, how do you define the differences between vr, ar and?
Speaker 3:mr excellent. Okay, very broadly. Personally, I don't lose a lot of sleep over these definitions. I go into it at the start of the book. But I have been around long enough to see those terms shift underneath your feet and I sometimes shift between those terms, even in the single meeting, because for me the important thing is what the audience expects, what the audience thinks they're going to get and what clients understand by those technologies. So I understand very, very broadly that you can generally say that augmented reality corresponds to stuff that's still happening on a screen, maybe a screen that you hold in your hand, that you're looking through with a camera feed, and that mixed reality very broadly might be defined as stuff that actually incorporates physical motions or physical props in the real world. But equally, you hear some people arguing that augmented reality means mobile and mixed reality means headset stuff. Meta now say everything is mixed reality. Personally, I think if you're confused about the difference between AR, MR and XR, it's because it's confusing.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, it's magic. Why do you care about the technology? Are you having fun?
Speaker 3:And I'm a story guy.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Exactly Of you know it's magic.
Speaker 3:Why do you care about?
Speaker 4:the technology. Are you having fun? And I'm a story guy? Yeah, of course, and you know, with the Disney hat on, you know, if we show the technology, we're doing something wrong, was the argument that was beaten into us. I'm getting a little worried that a lot of people have pivoted from VR, hoping that they can take their VR credentials and their investor money and try and leverage it into something that's actually going to generate some revenue. So we're using the phrase, which is AR glasses is see-through and then AR, that's using a screen or a camera or something like that, is pass-through. So our friends at Amazon made it difficult for the analogy. But anyway, enough about the tech. Sony, can you give me a little bit of rundown about what happened, you feel, with the Sony Consumer PlayStation VR suit?
Speaker 3:Interesting. So I was there in the early days and I moved on from there about nearly a decade ago. So I was there back when we were designing the thing and grappling with the very, very early problems of motion sickness. When I look at PSVR2 as a piece of consumer hardware to help shift consoles, you know, from their excess stock or from a previous generation simultaneously to, you know, getting hot new releases, but I, I mean I think we can all look at the catalog approach that playstation has taken and think well, you know, they had the opportunity to get a lot of headsets into people's hands and I'd love to see more first party and third party games getting made because there's a lot of talent in those studios.
Speaker 3:But equally, like you know, I think they look at the numbers really closely and I think they're conscious that, like it or not, a lot of consumer headsets ended up gathering dust in the cupboard under the stairs. Actually, I think the massive success of Quest 3 has shown that that hardware ended up being a gateway for kids to then get into games, often playing with their parents' own headsets. Although the most recent stats also suggest that a lot of that is new buy as well. I think Sony have missed an opportunity to be the first console for a whole new young generation and for that console to be VR, and instead it's been Quest 3.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I don't believe the 20 million number.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry, interesting.
Speaker 4:So the number that the Chinese are talking about now is nothing to cry about. Nine million units out in the market. Open a bottle of champagne, let's have a nice day. But when you're trying to sell your investors that you've sold 20, and then you have to start using caveats, I get a little uncomfortable.
Speaker 3:Agreed, but I do agree with I do believe the statistic that in amongst all of the different consoles, last year Quest 3 was the best-selling home console of all, which that tells you something.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so what is the real VR market? But again, we're not here to talk about VR.
Speaker 3:Who knows? But again, I'm working right now on a location-based free-roam VR experience that's going to launch in London early next year. I've got a lot of faith in that market. Xcurio and Xroam are both doing really great work. It's an interesting business model and they're managing to make some real money. But that's phase three isn't it?
Speaker 4:we're now dealing with shared reality, which is large scale multiple users doing free roam things, either physically or virtually, and you know you can make the numbers. You still, yeah, sell tickets and you can make it onesie, twosies, just just didn't, didn't really generate the no absolutely.
Speaker 3:But now we're seeing theme park and location-based activations of that kind of technology dream park. We're seeing that stuff being implemented into rides at port of ventura. I'm really, really interested in that kind of shared reality both vr and mixed reality stuff, because it becomes more shared when you're both anchored to the real world and cool digital stuff is happening around you. That's the kind of storytelling that really gets me going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think to that end I mean Kevin mentioned it's just about is the guest having fun? Is the guest having a good experience? Are they engaged with something, regardless of the technology and the platform or the medium in which they're engaging in that experience? And so, from your standpoint I think I know how you're going to answer, but from your standpoint, Rob, what is it that makes it an experience engaging, where they almost forget about the level of technology that they're using, or they don't really care or need to know about the type of technology they're using?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think.
Speaker 3:For me it goes back to that stuff that I was seeing in testing suites in PlayStation in the old days, seeing that when kids could see themselves on a screen or see themselves inside an augmented version of the world, suddenly you're treating them not just as players interfacing with a story through an avatar that they're controlling with a controller in their hands.
Speaker 3:They're actually present in the story. They can see themselves in it, they are embodied and not like in VR where they're embodied inside an avatar. They're embodied as themselves, and so their sensations and their sense of their own identity can become part of their story. If you're prepared to contribute, to allow their, their identity, to allow all of the sensations they're feeling including stuff that might traditionally be thought of as disruptive to immersion like you know, sore feet if you allow your story to be flexible enough to incorporate all those normal human feelings and to give enough space for whoever the player is to be the hero, then you can create a compelling story where the player themselves becomes the center of the story in a way that isn't possible in any other digital media. That's where I get excited about it, but it means you have to have a new, flexible approach to storytelling. So practitioners who are trying to pick up their practices and move from VR to mixed reality, or to pass through or now increasingly to see through, they've got a new storytelling discipline to learn as well.
Speaker 4:I'm seeing a lot of developers now using a phrase that I hadn't heard used before adventures.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, an adventure comes with. You know, good and bad. Adventure can be overrated, and so an adventure is something that happens to you, and I think, again, it's about putting the player. We always talk about putting the player at the center of the experience right, but sometimes that means through a character and getting them to relate to a character. Instead, I think it's the reverse, where we have to find doorways that we can open to allow the player to step into the adventure as themselves and to feel like it's happening to them and happening where they are.
Speaker 2:So question regarding the audience for your book, right? So you know, our audience here for the show is a mixture of both creators of experiences, creators of attractions on the manufacturing supplier side, as well as, obviously, the owner operator of attractions and of different venues. And so who are you really looking, who do you feel like can really engage with your book or should be engaging with the content within your book?
Speaker 3:So it's a. It's a mix of kind of uh content that is designed for people who are budding designers, budding storytellers, who are looking to improve their own skills, whether they're students or career changes. But it's also because I intended and planned and went about writing it in a way to make it as accessible and non-academic as possible I'm not an academic at all, I don't even have an MA as possible. I'm not an academic at all, I don't even have an MA. Like it's written with 20, 25 activities to try and put into practice the kinds of storytelling principles I'm talking about, but to put it into practice with your own storytelling techniques, whatever those are.
Speaker 3:So I hope that people who aren't necessarily on the kind of creativity frontline, writing scripts, making storyboards that it's still relevant to them because it gives a lot of context for what the audience's experience of mixed reality is and how those experiences need to be approached differently, not just in terms of how you write the script, but in terms of how you present and communicate about them to the audience.
Speaker 3:Obviously, I'm going to say it's for everybody, right, but hopefully I think if you're a creative executive and you're interested in MR, then I think it's going to give a lot of context for the history and the heritage of other design practices that are really relevant. It draws a lot on immersive theater, from role-playing and LARP, to show how all of those practices are massively relevant when you're thinking about an augmented reality project, mixed reality project massively relevant when you're thinking about an augmented reality project, mixed reality project and that you know the same kind of thing that we're all trying to do as location-based entertainers or people who create entertainment, that people leave the house to go to that ultimately, that practice of putting the audience at the center of the experience. It's the same in MR, but you just have to approach it from a slightly different angle to figure out how to get them to feel like they're not just a player, but that they're a protagonist.
Speaker 4:What was the hardest part of transitioning from dealing with consumer entertainment users to location-based entertainment?
Speaker 3:I think the sense that the audience can be self-selecting and I think the sense that when you create games, the dream is that it goes on the shelves and that all kinds of different people are going to play it. But I grew up in the middle of nowhere. I grew up in rural West Cumbria in the north of England, right on the border with Scotland, and we went to Blackpool Pleasure Beach as our location based entertainment. Yeah, kevin, I see your face, but hey, I won't hear a word said against Blackpool Pleasure Beach.
Speaker 3:But like, making that transition meant looking at an audience that was going to have a really high standards because they were spending more money, they were leaving their homes and they were going to an experience that they had to commute or travel to get to.
Speaker 3:But also it meant I held myself to a really high standard because I could stand within immersive theater experiences or themed experiences or my early augmented reality theater experiments. I could stand as part of the audience and watch fellow audience members as they had the experience. I could watch their faces as some lines landed and some lines didn't didn't. I could kind of see play testing in real time. I don't care what anybody says, everybody hates play testing because you see all the things that you've done wrong and that you've got to fix. See. Getting to see that in real time meant that I held my work to a massively higher standard, but there was such a massive joy in being able to actually stand and watch my players play. The experience where, when you're shipping stuff to people at home, you might never even meet someone who's played the game.
Speaker 4:So the amusement industry usually has the players engagement for a minute if you're lucky, usually has the player's engagement for a minute, if you're lucky. The location-based entertainment, the themed let's call them the VR arena market, has the audience or their player base the threes, the fours, even the eights possibly. They have them for a maximum of 15 minutes if they're really lucky. And in the large use location-based entertainment systems, the mixed use, we're seeing 45 minutes. Yeah, uh, accurate do, I reckon.
Speaker 3:So yeah, and I'm I'm really interested again. I talked about excurio, the location, the french location-based vr team, and they're able to land really interesting stories beginning, beginning, middle and end inside that time slot. But I think because I also work across immersive theatre, the other thing that I'm noticing is that duration is. You know, we think of duration in terms of linear storytelling and it's easy to fall back into kind of filmic approaches, to thinking of that as a story that you're telling that the audience is along for the ride.
Speaker 3:The real challenge is to get more and more interactivity and more and more kind of sandbox inspired stuff from immersive theater, because I think audience experiences, their expectations, are changing. If you hop into the experiences that have been so feted at venice immersive this year, then those are experiences which are kind of self-directed spatial narratives that you move through at your own pace, often with a non-linear structure, to tell you a story purely through environmental design that you may experience as part of a group, maybe surrounded by strangers, or on your own. I think what I'm taking from these experiences is that duration might be about how much attention you have from the player in theory, but actually it's what you do with that attention, how you hold it and how you keep them interested by giving them the sense of freedom. That is like that, for me, is the really, really interesting frontier of storytelling as these technologies come on stream.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Well, Rob, it has been awesome to have you on a part of GuessGab. Looking forward to future conversations, we can have you on the show again as well. And so again, for those of you listening, Rob has recently published the book Storytelling for Spatial Computing and Mixed Reality the Art of Augmenting Imagination. Rob, if somebody wanted to buy that book and give it a read, where would they find?
Speaker 3:it. You can get it on Amazon or you can go to augmentingimaginationcom where there is a discount code DIS20, all capital letters to get 20% off. You can buy it directly from Routledge with that code or just hop along to Amazon to get the ebook or the paperback. Or grab me at some point because I do a lot of public speaking and a lot of consulting. So thanks very much for having me on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, rob, it was great to have you. Kevin, as always, a pleasure. And for those of you who are listening and want to check it out, go find Rob on LinkedIn. Wherever else that he is. He's at a lot of WXO events as well, so all right, thanks, rob, thanks folks. 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 4:Hey, a big hello to everyone and welcome to this latest Open and Shut. Nice to have you back, Brendan.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's good to be back in my regular hovel, okay. Well, moving from your hovel to a lot of business that's been going on in the sector. As always, I'm going to zip through these because there are a lot more than I was expecting and if you want to pause at the right moment and read the information, feel free. And can you guess what the trend is this time? Anyway, jumping straight in, and McWally's interesting one here, from my point of view, it's one that I can chart from the beginning to the opening, and we're going to be talking about this in the coming sound off, just to give a little bit of an idea of what it takes to actually consider dropping a location-based entertainment facility this size into this particular territory. But anyway, 37,000, not a slouch.
Speaker 4:The interesting thing here is compared with the competition that it's going up against. It was one of the few with a laser tag component, so someone did their research to see what they could offer as their USP in that particular area. But again, we'll touch upon that more in sound off and we'll touch upon that more in SoundOff. Our friends with the Westgate Resort facility the opening of the Funhouse Arcade we now have seen it open. It is open properly. They have allowed us to get behind the scenes and see that it really is a combine of, I think, three CEC kinds of properties. It has its active entertainment component, it has its Chucks arcade component and, surprisingly, it also has sportainment. It has what would be one of those golf systems that can also be converted to play other sports games, including shooting. So this is a very interesting amalgamation and I get the feeling it was a kind of a testbed for our friends at CEC to understand their new approach to the market.
Speaker 2:This one is interesting just given the fact that they've added sports sims. You know intoucks arcade experience and they're calling it chucks arcade, obviously, but it has that feel to it as part of the, you know mystery funhouse arcade model it's a mixture of multiple things.
Speaker 4:I think they're testing out some concepts here. It's a chucks arcade but it's more, much more of a retro and amusement approach, much more than the actual Chuck's arcades are. It has the haunted house element. It is close to its own food element. So I'm sure the CEC guys have been able to see the audience reactions towards what type of dwell time they're spending eating against playing.
Speaker 4:But you know these all the the metrics that go into facilities. And then we have the first of the retro arcade facilities uh game on bar. Uh, in washington dc, 70 machines that's usually the number we're seeing between 40 and 70s going into this, supported by an f and b component with cocktails. And surprise, surprise, we have a very big feature coming up in the entertainment social arena that looks at the explosion and I really do mean explosion, not hyperbole. There has been a total swamping of retro arcade social entertainment facilities opening up across the market internationally. I'm not sure if they're just riding the nostalgia wave or if there is a lot more towards replacing the sports bar with something where you can actually play games while you're there, but it's a very interesting trend and one I've been keeping a very close eye on recently.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and again, this is obviously their fourth location they're opening up, as you've got mentioned here, but this is a pay to play model. So what we've seen in the retro bar arcades that doesn't seem to work well when we look, when we get to the closes, often is the ones that are open play, free play. You pay $10 for as much play as you want, or $10 for an hour or whatever that might be. So this is definitely a bar and then pay to play in the games and seems to be working for them at four locations at this point so far.
Speaker 4:Four locations is quite small for some of these chains. We have chains up to the 10s and 11 facilities that have been going not as long as game on, but again, I would point you to the feature to understand a little bit more of what is driving this interest. We have florida and who would have thought that florida needed more carting? No, my opinion, not the industry's opinion, and an interesting one about fast tracks. This is going to be, or is, now that it's thrown its doors open, the largest indoor track in the state. So it really is telling us that the multi-level karting experience indoors, supported by an extensive entertainment entertainment I would say a mule quality entertainment mix, as well as, obviously, the f and b component that they have here, is driving a lot of investment. And again, something that we've been looking at going into a previous department store and taking it over and utilizing the 62,000 square towards building this impressive entertainment experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm hoping to get out there the middle of September actually to go check this out. I'm going to be in the North Port Florida area, which is just a little bit about 50 minutes 45 minutes outside of Fort Myers, so hoping I can get down there and check this out, just for the sake of the fact that it's the biggest indoor track in the US. That is, if they combine the two tracks, so there's actually two separate tracks. If they combine them into a single play, that it is that makes the longest and that's obviously a trend. We've seen where they have separate smaller tracks to increase their throughput, but then they can combine for larger tracks when needed.
Speaker 4:And we also have the situation with some of the karting facilities in Florida. They have an external track and an internal track, but this one has put it all under one roof, as it were. Yeah, I'm tossing a coin after. Well, depending on how chaotic things are after IALPA, maybe spend a little time in a rental car and go visit some of these new facilities may be an idea. But again, there's a lot going on, moving on and we have retro arcade and amusement being added to the retail.
Speaker 4:So our friends at Ion Blasts they are really a retro and game store kind of facility In Pennsylvania. It's, you know, 11,000 square foot facility and they decided to turn some of this well, quite a considerable amount of this space over to running their own retro arcade. Keep the players there longer and they'll spend longer. The dwell time argument writ large. Interesting, that they pulled in an amusement distributor to actually help them with the installation. Venues like this usually do it themselves, but they decided to establish a partnership with a very large distributorutors in that sector and you know, 30 pinball machines and about 60 amusement machines, that's. That's no slouch. So again, retail tamer and pointing towards a new direction for some retailers to encourage our audience this makes a lot of sense to bring in the retail team and component to your arcade.
Speaker 2:It doesn't, especially if you're not going to have a heavy F&B element, given the fact that it's in a mall. So they need to have other revenue. So why not bring in the retail component?
Speaker 4:It will be interesting to see how they run this. I didn't check to see if they were running this on pay-to-play or on wristband. I didn't do the digging into that. I will try and look into that a little bit more. If they're not doing it as a pay-to-play on some kind of swipe card or wristband, then it's lunacy. But again, that is just my opinion.
Speaker 4:Moving on and we have the continued explosion of the golf lounge or the entertainment facility, this is an interesting one. I just completed an article looking at sportainment and we touched upon some of the expanding golf lounge businesses and I came across a number of companies that were located in Korea and in Japan. Obviously, the market there. They don't have the space for building full-size golf courses, so they have a culture there that has embraced the golf sim a lot more, and one of the largest manufacturers of golf sims is a company called golf zone and they have over 10 000 installations dotted across the international market. Most of these are in lounges, so this is where you buy your golf clubs and your paraphernalia, and there would be a golf simulator where you could practice and also try out. But now they have expanded into the competitive socializing market and they have opened up in the US one of their first of their golf zone social venues, which really is a competitive socializing venue. It is F&B, it has multiple golf areas, it will include some other entertainment 18th Hour Square is quite large for this kind of approach and, you know, along with the service bar, along with the food, along with the arcade machines, along with even a patio area, you can see that they are trying to establish this as a competitive socialising brand that can be rolled out much more distinctively than their traditional golf lounges.
Speaker 4:Moving on, and more golf lounges uh, we have an interesting one here from the perspective of the development of the process. Tap in uh, funny enough, is going into a previous brewery, so I don't know the name is a spin on that multiple uh swing bays, 10 of those. A physical putting green as well. So this is more of the traditional golf lounge, expanded to include f and b? Uh, but they also have thrown in some vr. They have some vr systems uh, in one of the bay setups I don't know if that's just to appease the younger audience that is following Dad in while he's swinging with his mates. The owner behind this is an ex-ESPN Zone producer, creative producer and a lot of his experience from working with the ESPN chain and brand has been applied to the layout and themality of this experience, and I wouldn't be surprised his proximity to ESPN's own if this is not something that has caught the eye of the operation towards possible future involvement.
Speaker 2:So one of the interesting things I'm taking a look at the pricing here. They certainly have some decent pricing for their weekday and weekend rates. They've spread out their pricing based on time of day as well. So it's $55 for a bay, for a premium bay, monday to Friday, but from 9 am to noon, but in the evenings it goes up to 75. So they definitely have figured out their pricing. But what I find interesting is there's no additional cost per player.
Speaker 2:And sometimes I wonder, when you're selling, when you're pricing for your bays or even for your bowling lanes or whatever, and you're selling it by the lane versus by or by the bay versus by the person, I think sometimes you're missing out on opportunities. Now, obviously, your gameplay value. If you have a book for an hour and there's six of you, you're not going to all be able to play the same amount as you would if there's just one of you in the same bay. But you do certainly drive a higher F&B if you can get more players in is say, look, no additional cost per player. You know, come, pay $75, split it across five of your buddies, knowing that those five buddies are all going to then buy a bunch of beer and food as well, once they're there.
Speaker 4:And possible future patrons. So at the beginning of the process you try and be as accommodating as possible to the largest group and then, once you've established yourself, then the drawbridge comes down and the pricing goes up. Very cynical of me, I know, but um, I I get the feeling that that pricing model, when I was looking at it, was much more inclusive, because this is the beginning of the process, moving on and the retro continues and this one would kind of fit into the open and shut component. Where one facility shuts, another one opens. We are at that point at the moment. So we have the VR City X virtual reality arcade closed and now being replaced by new owners with a retro room here in belfast. No numbers on the sizing, which is interesting. I usually get the numbers on sizing here brand new, just open. Just, they've got about 20 to 30 amusement pieces in there. They've also got a little bit of console, classic console gaming in there. I couldn't find that much about F&B at the moment, but I wasn't looking that closely, I apologize.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how interesting right that a retro arcade is going into a VR location so a closed VR location. So it's very interesting how the how the market has been shifting lately proven playability against technology.
Speaker 4:We can talk about that much more in sound off I think moving on and some news from our friends at play Playground.
Speaker 4:not the news I was expecting to hear about Play Playground, but they have expanded. They have decided to take some space across the way from the Play Playground facility, which looks like to me from the photos I was studying, is one of the ballrooms at the Luxor, which is within hail of the atrium area where the structure is, and they filled it with an inflatable rotating attraction. You know the usual ninja warrior kind of duck at the right moment, rotating experience, which they have named Duck, duck, boom, ha ha ha, and you know it's an inflatable arena. Really, what more can I say? At the same time, they have announced that they're doing a major 10% discount on passes purchased to go into both this facility and the existing facility. You know, read of it what you will regarding this process.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this one is a weird one for me. I mean only because Play Playground has does not have typically active play types of attractions, so you know when you're coming to.
Speaker 4:It has two active play the fly on the wall and the swinging axe is, I think, as much activity as you see for the groups.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. And so you're jumping onto the wall, but like that's it right, You're sticking to the wall. I guess what I mean is something that's going to get you sweaty and, you know, going to be rolling around on inflatables, Like that's not typically what you think of when you think of somebody coming to a casino and to Las Vegas. We're typically all dolled up and they're there to play, Even if they're going with their friends, they're not going to be rolling around, at least not during the day. They're going to be rolling around and getting knocked over. So it just seems like it's a little bit of an interesting one. We'll see how it goes.
Speaker 4:But you know at least they're experimenting with different attractions. From the evaluation of the Las Vegas audience, it comes in three flavors the people who doll themselves up and are looking to have a swanky experience. Themselves up and are looking to have a swanky experience. Those that are treating as a stag night or a hen night for our colonial friends. The girls going out for a party before a wedding, that kind of thing. What goes in Vegas stays in Vegas kind of approach. And then we just have the casual family groups that are going through Vegas for what used to be a relatively cost-effective period time.
Speaker 4:Those three audiences the second audience cluster is being supported, I think, by this. Maybe our friends at Playground found that their audience was a little bit too raucous and they needed to have a calmed down environment. Or they're splitting their operation to try and increase their entertainment coverage and be able to cater for a larger audience. When we're out in Vegas, we'll stick our heads in and see how sweaty and smelly their inflatable is, because one thing that they're going to learn the hard way is it's very difficult to operate an inflatable in a space that hasn't been designed to cater for an inflation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I will just make one more comment based on their pricing. So they've priced it at $12 per game for general walk-up guests, but it's also included in their VIP play passes. So if you've gone to the main play playground you pay for the VIP pass. You get the DuckDuckBoom experience as well. But if you get the $12 game for a limited time, guests can actually get a complimentary Happy Thursday cocktail. So there's some value there as well, as well as then $5 off standard play pass. So at that $12, if you're coming in for that $12, by the time you get the cocktail and if you go and get a standard play pass with the $5 off, you basically have made money on the time that you've played at the DuckDuckBoom. So very interesting at least initial promotion that they've got going on.
Speaker 4:Grabbing them and making it obvious that it's a you win kind of scenario. From the operator's point of view, it increases their dwell time yep our friends, uh, typhonia.
Speaker 4:I've always had problems with this typhonia run by typhon in japan. Uh, they used to have three facilities. They're down to two facilities now. Uh, and it was one of the early virtual reality uh, free roaming experiences. It wasn't a massive free roamer, but it it pushed the technology at the time. Uh, and it was a two-player experience normally and they they pushed it on the couples. A lot of the experiences had you holding a lantern together, going through an enchanted castle, so it's not zombie blasting per se. Anyway, the operation has released at one of their tokyo facilities in shizuoka, um floria, which is a, from my point of view, very similar to the kind of the augmented reality experiences that we've seen, where you walk around looking at the flowers and being pulled into a fairy environment. But this one is fully vr rather than mixed reality and, interestingly, they have bit the bullet, implied new technology and they're able to support eight people at a time rather than two people at a time. Yes, there wasn't any very good video of the experience actually being played, it's just….
Speaker 2:This is it, I think right, I mean it has…. This is all you get yeah, I mean, granted, this is looping, but like they just kind of seem to be standing around and you can shoot some things out of your hands and and manipulate stuff and move around, but this is uh this is the experience so yeah, I, I don't want to criticize it without uh playing it too harshly, but they better learn to make it look a little bit more sexy in their teaser videos.
Speaker 4:Though, again, a lot of what's typhorium, typhomium, typho, whatever you want to call it this week, whatever they are called, reality is their experiences were second to none and I was always impressed by the quality of their experiences. Impressed by the quality of their experiences, and that quality of experience, I think, is part of the reason why disney uh puts money in through their incubator uh agreements to uh actually develop this. But again, we're going to talk a little bit more about this in sound off. Um, that's the experience that brandon is running at the moment is their more traditional experiences, which are either soft horror shock with a couple oh darling, it's just jumped out or on the pirate ship oh wow. Isn't this fun kind of experiences for two individuals at a time? The incubator of investment that Disney put into this was around the same time that Disney put money into the Void, and we know what happened to the Void, where Typhonia has succeeded and continued and looks like they are continuing to invest, which is an essential component if you want to survive in the XRC if you want to survive in the XRC Moving on and the retro arcade sector continues and one of the largest providers of retro arcade entertainment is our friends at Barcade.
Speaker 4:They have 10 facilities dotted across the US. They had a New York facility, one of their first facilities. That has been closed down and they've relocated into a slightly larger 5,000-square facility that used to be a Century 21 store. I know exactly where that facility is. I used to be a sucker for Century 21 trainers. I always remember purchasing them, and this isn't a million miles away from the Dave Buster's, which is also in Manhattan. So it kind of shows that the competitive, socializing guys can survive next door to the entertainment sides quite easily. And one thing about Barcade is it isn't just about the classic uh retro arcade machines. There is their tap uh selection of beer, there is their cocktails and sometimes they do live dj performances at their venues.
Speaker 2:So they are very heavy on the social component yeah, and it's interesting, I they're calling themselves the original arcade bar. So and they, they might very well be. I mean the fact that they actually even have the barcade name right. I mean, they may not be the original arcade bar, but you know what I'm saying. Like the formal barcade is, we've kind of have begun to know it in the last, uh, you know, I'd say the 21st century.
Speaker 4:They may be at least one of the originals, at least that's what they're claiming One of the originals in the article which we talk in detail about the beginning process. So I don't go into the history per se because I don't want to get into a fistfight with all of these companies, but Barcade can celebrate last year's 20th anniversary with pride. Last year its 20th anniversary with Pride. It's worded its statement clearly. To dodge around companies like Beercade and OneUp and other companies that I touch upon in the article who have also managed to survive barcade, is that they got it straight away, um, and they've run with the ball literally uh, and established, uh, the retro nostalgia mix.
Speaker 2:But again, I don't want to rehash what I talk about in detail in the article yeah, I thought it was funny, though here and just this video in a moment there's going to be a guy who brings some food and some drinks right here over to while he's playing a racing sim. Like where is he actually going to set it? Like you know, he's on a racing sim, like okay, I guess I'll eat it, yeah.
Speaker 4:So anyway, I thought that was a little bit funny, you should have brought it over to someone playing on the pinball and just dropped it on there, exactly.
Speaker 2:Exactly, but I mean, when you look at it looks like a pretty classic barcade. So I mean they've clearly been doing something right, though, for the last 20 years. So congratulations to them you know.
Speaker 4:Congratulations to them, real nice guys behind it, but also very shrewd businessmen. And I touch upon one of the issues about the explosion in retro games, which is where the hell do you get your machines from? And do do you use these 40-year-old antiques in a social entertainment environment, with your burger sauce all over the Lunar Lander cabinet? Anyway, moving on, and even if you slow down the videos, you'll see, I've zipped past a couple of retro arcade openings that I just didn't touch on because of the time restraint. That was the trend we were talking about.
Speaker 4:But shots, we have passed that moment in our industry's cyclical moment where the shots are now catching up. They're not catching up as much as closing down and disappearing up, as much as closing down and disappearing. You know, they are like what we touched upon with the retro arcade previously, where the facility is now being taken over because that real estate is valuable. Well, anyway, moving into the big announcements that have taken place, and of course, we were promised that Six Flags weren't going to be closing any more facilities, and then we now find out that California, great America and California will be closing down in 2027. I actually get the feeling that it's going to be put up for sale or it could be management buyout of the operation. The news is still pretty fresh as we record this and the details haven't been gone into. We're going to talk about this also in sound off because this also has ramifications regarding some announcements that Six Flags has made concerning its earning numbers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this was a little bit sad for me.
Speaker 2:I spent a few years in the Bay Area and I have a lot of memories taking my kids here when they were very young and you know, hanging out with the Peanuts characters and in the Peanuts area, and so you know this is a little bit wistful to see this go by the wayside, although at the same time you know you do know that this was coming just because of the lease and the land that's available down there. It may actually end up getting completely wiped out. You know we'll see that's available down there. It may actually end up getting completely wiped out. You know we'll see, but just because of the land and the land value in Santa Clara, california, given the Bay Area. And it is disappointing, though, because this is really the only other theme park that is in the northern California Bay Area area besides Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, which is on the north side of the Bay, but it is also a much smaller park than Great America and also a very different park.
Speaker 4:It's its own unique thing. It's very much what I would call a boutique theme park. It encapsulates. It reminds me originally of what Walt's vision would have been for Anaheim Disneyland. So, yes, it's going to be a toss-up between whether they can get code to an extent, whether its historical positioning in the market will allow it to live on. But obviously Six Flags doesn't want that mess on their hands, so they've decided to define that they're going to be closing 2027. But I also get the feeling that there will be a lot of negotiation next year and hopefully I will get the chance to put my family through the experience, because it is a unique experience on, and you know a uh, if you don't invest in your uh bowling facility, then, uh, you know, time tempus fugis, it comes to an end.
Speaker 4:Uh first opened in uh 1979. Yes, if I read my notes I would see that uh, you know. So it has had a long run. I'm not sure if it's the same owners, but you know, here we go. It is now being acquired by a brand new chain of bowling operations. At least the 20th century, let alone the 21st century, improved the god-awful arcade and hopefully the audience in that area will benefit from the increased attendance and entertainment opportunity. So, though it's a shut and an opening in one, as it were, it is an example of this is a healthy industry where we see if you can't play in the game, there are others that will take on the responsibility.
Speaker 4:Yeah, again, another facility that has been going for a very long time 1985 opening for Funplex. It was originally Fame City in Texas and, as we know, the Texas market is a brutal landscape at the moment. It is one of the hardest states to operate a underperforming entertainment facility and it was interesting to watch how quickly the announcement of the closure of the facility came, then followed by the announcement of the closure of the facility came, then followed by the announcement of the auctioning of the amusement equipment in the facility taking place this month. You know, bang, bang, bang. I wouldn't be surprised again if this is a.
Speaker 4:Rent goes up, expenditure go down operating. You know these type of facilities with a roller rink is difficult. Roller rinks need a lot of maintenance, bring in a certain type of audience and need to be brought up to code, especially after some of the changes in code regarding that type of flooring in an indoor facility. Anyway, toss of a coin whether this is going to be leveled and rebuilt into an entertainment facility or leveled and turned into houses, but uh a, uh, an ancient facility has been removed off of the map yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head when you first said that if you're, you just cannot be an underperforming venue in a place like houston or in dallas three area.
Speaker 2:There's just too much saturation, too many new things, really interesting things going on there and well run venues to be. You just have to be on your A game.
Speaker 4:And, you know, maybe it's still with the same family. I didn't go that deep into the the original ownership, but I know when it was transferred from Fame City to Funplex the people came in and they tried to inject some investment into it. Either way, if you aren't in the AAA game I'll even go as far as saying that in the Houston area then you're just left by the wayside and it isn't economic and this land can be turned into other things to generate very high revenue. Interesting pivot here Most of you will remember I've covered the Ocean City Gillians facility. First it reopened after the fire, then it was shut down because the owners were going to turn it into condos and then, attack of the local council, the local council took away the permit for them to turn it into housing. They don't want that and so now the owner, inner Huff, has removed his hopes of turning this into housing and has put up the whole of the entertainment facility for sale. So if you have 25 million burning a hole in your pocket, read into my explanation there.
Speaker 2:I mean, look, there's something to be said for the historical nature of the facility and of the whole pier. I mean, really, it is not just a single venue. Right, you're buying the entire oceans, the Wonderland Pier, the other boardwalk, effectively, but $25 million is a big pill to swallow for something that's going to need a lot more investment to really bring it up to what we consider standards now.
Speaker 4:Yeah, the old mistake I used to make when I walked around the boardwalk in this neck of the woods is that I always called it a broad walk because I didn't hear the joysy boy accent always. Let me misunderstand what they were trying to say until they told me the prices. And it is of course boardwalk because of the boards, not broad because of the width. Anyway, the water park industry is going through acquisition and merger aplenty. A perfect example of what we were talking about previously, which is if you can't get it to work. Example of what we were talking about previously, which is if you can't get it to work, there's someone that will help you do it for you. And the Catfish Benz. I love the name.
Speaker 4:It is not just a water park, it is a water park attached to a casino resort. So a lot to read in there. You know, bring the family and spend all the inheritance kind of approach. And they've been taken over by the Riverside Casino conglomerate that already has about four facilities under their belt already. And then our friends at Ripley's, who don't want to be a slouch and not be left out of this buying and acquisition frenzy, have decided they would like to get into the water park business and so Ripley's Entertainment. They have about 30 entertainment facilities, ripley's, believe it or not. Their museums, their upside down environment, which we always drive past on international during IALPA All of these venues are under the Ripley's Entertainment brand and they're now going to be adding the Hawaiian Falls facility to that mix. In Texas, mansfield to be exact. Seasonal water park relative size, but I think this is a pardon, the pun toe in the water.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, this is not their first.
Speaker 4:Actually this might be their first foray into water parks.
Speaker 2:They've done aquariums, they have near-measles and other things, but this might be. I think this is their first foray into water parks. Very interesting.
Speaker 4:I am led to believe this isn't, but I can't find, uh, what happened to their previous uh entry into this, whether it was a failed experiment some time ago or whether someone is misremembering anyway yeah, I mean, I'm on their site now looking at their different locations and I don't see any water parks.
Speaker 2:So, um you know, I think they have?
Speaker 4:yeah, interesting, but I'm led to believe that this is the first time. So, again, if I get further information, I will bring that to the table. And here, what an advertisement. Hey, well, this LaserQuest facility closed down and then was acquired, and I am not sure if the facility has been acquired for its entertainment or for its land Interesting observation. Back in 2020, the owners of this LaserQuest facility poured 50,000 pounds 500,000 pounds.
Speaker 4:Sorry, I do apologize £500,000. I'm still having problems with this. £500,000 into adding improving the laser tag, in tidying up the facility, in adding a maze kind of escape room experience to this. Jump forward four, five years and we're now seeing this facility sold for 400,000 pound-a-roonies. And you know, I can't get the maths to work and I can't work out whether this facility is going to come back as a LaserQuest facility or if this is just going to be back as a laser quest facility or if this is just going to be leveled and turned into an entertainment space because they have the code of the original facility. Yikes, yikes anyway.
Speaker 4:Moving on, and many people were talking about the changes going on in the VR market. We will touch upon that in SoundOff, but one of the poster boys of the sudden explosion in VR venue development has suddenly gone through some change. I am not happy about what's been going on regarding this. Uh, I will touch upon it in more detail in sound off, but our friends at the park playground have now rebranded themselves the park vr or, in some cases, the park xr, and the two facilities that they opened up in the uk that opened. You'll then closed and then one of them reopened with a new FV franchisee owner. Well, all of them have gone now and no bugles, no trumpeting, no announcements, no information. Just suddenly we got a new branding. Suddenly. The 12 facilities have gone down to seven facilities and the two UK facilities have both gone and I would get the feeling that a lot of the information I was told at last year's IALPA Europe about the reasoning behind that may not have been exactly accurate. But we'll leave it there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we want to watch. Does not look good?
Speaker 4:No, anyway, if you need to contact me via LinkedIn, at last I have remembered to put the QR code up. A technologist not showing his QR code is like a chef not showing his cutlery. Anyway, we have some new entertainment social arenas coming out. We have some new Stinger reports coming out. Please listen, watch, read, send us email comments or any corrections, always welcome. And have I missed anything else, brent?
Speaker 1:We'll see you next time, radius. They use real-time location data and customized marketing strategies to help brands like yours stand out. Radius can boost your foot traffic and build a loyal customer base. Plus, they're offering a complimentary local market analysis to show you exactly how they can help you grow. Curious, visit Radiusco and ask about your free market analysis. That's R-A-Y-D-I-U-Sco. That's R-A-Y-D-I-U-S dot.
Speaker 2:C-O. All right. Well, that was a very robust open and shut. So next up we've got Adam Pratt with Arcade Corner, covering some of the new things that have come out in the last couple of weeks in the amusement and arcade space. So take it away.
Speaker 5:Adam, hey everybody, it's Adam with Arcade Heroes for the Arcade Corner at the LBX Collective. We actually have quite a bit of news to cover for this episode, so I'm going to just jump right into it. First off, roth Thrills has had a busy summer. I mean, well, let's be honest. First off, rothreels has had a busy summer. I mean, well, let's be honest, every single manufacturer is doing stuff during the summertime, while news tends to be quiet. They're usually testing things out there, and one very interesting thing that has been spotted is a non-VR version of Godzilla Kaiju Wars.
Speaker 5:Now, as a small mom-and-pop, so to speak, so to speak, operator, arcade operator, I'm very happy to see this. As cool as I've thought that godzilla kaiju wars vr is, it's just way too rich for my blood and so, uh, it's just like gosh. I would totally grab this game if it came in a cheaper, more or I should say, more affordable cabinet, but it has been spotted out there on tests at more than one place. Now, granted, anything that is on location tests. Don't take it as a final gospel, because the game could fail test or they could change it significantly so they might be using a godlike cabinet, but then the final cabinet ends up being something totally different, who knows? But I would be very surprised if Godzilla failed testing in this regard. Who knows? But whether or not that will be coming soon, rothwells doesn't comment on things that are on test, and so we'll just have to wait and see.
Speaker 5:That will be coming soon. Rothwells doesn't comment on things that are on test, and so we'll just have to wait and see. I should also mention that there is a trade show, or we're starting trade show season. So next week is GTI Asia, china in Guangzhou, and then there's going to be IAPA expo Europe, and then there'll be pinball expo, and then there'll be IAPA proper, iapa 2025. And so could this show up at any one of those shows, sure, I mean sure? Granted, rothrills doesn't tend to use, uh, overseas shows to unveil stuff, but they have been doing that. I'm trying to remember. I want to say I can't remember. That seems like they unveiled something at iapa expo europe, but it's uh, escaping my mind. So never say never with that.
Speaker 5:There's another game that also has been spotted on tests and that is called jackpot racer race to win tickets, and so pretty obvious what that one entails. Now this is testing in a super bikes 3 cabinet. In fact, you can see on the lower part of the image that the has the super bikes three sticker on it there, but it doesn't have those chrome bars that were on the sides. This is one that I would really not be surprised if they end up changing the cabinet a little bit more, although again, there is one big difference here that I guess you kind of forget that super bikes three didn't have dual screens, it only had the single screen, and so that, right there is different too. But uh, yeah, whether this one is one of those where, since it doesn't have a license, I mean I don't know. It'll be interesting to see if they stick with this as is or if they put a license onto it. I mean, I'm pretty sure, if it's earning really well just because it's based on tickets, that it could just avoid needing that, and technically, superbikes doesn't have that either. The very first Superbikes was a Fast and Furious license, but then they dropped that and just did Superbikes 2, bikes 2, super bikes 3, that sort of thing, and so, yeah, those are coming now.
Speaker 5:Speaking of trade shows, sega did this past week unveiled their lineup for iapa, expo europe, and I was a little surprised, wasn't expecting them to come so soon. Now, really quick, for those who aren't aware, sega amusements europe or sega amusements international sorry, also known as kaizen entertainment, or it's really kaizen entertainment owns sega amusements international. The sega amusements european arm is not just a manufacturer, but also a distributor of equipment across europe and the Middle East, and so that's where sometimes you'll see Sega promoting things on their channels that are from technically, their competitors, such as from ICE and from LAI Games, and so that's what they unveiled this week was Ubisoft All-Star VR, and so that's what you see here. So, again, this is an LAI Games piece. This is something that I would expect to see at IAPA 2025, at the LAI Games booth proper, this giant screen that you see on the back here I think they said it was 17.4 feet wide, probably from corner to corner, but it is an LED dot matrix, wall RGB LEDs, of course, and so that just doesn't come across well in photos or rendering, as like what you see here.
Speaker 5:Now, also to note, these are available in two seaters, not just this four seater, but you can link these together and get four player action going on, and this game involves a variety of ubisoft characters from games like assassin's creed, splinter, sail, just dance, and there was one other one that they mentioned, their far cry. I'm kind of surprised they don't have like rayman and rabbits, since those oftentimes are the characters that are the face of Ubisoft. But yeah, sega already has this game listed on their website, whereas LAI Games, at the time of this recording, doesn't have it listed yet, and so it just has different mini games where, from the description, while you might assume where it has this mounted cannon sort of thing that would be a shooting game, it actually has certain times where you're just driving and then other times where you are shooting, and so it depends on the mini game, and I think it was three different events or levels that are based within the ubisoft universe, and so this is essentially ubisoft. Or sorry, lai games follow up to virtual rabbits and so still showing that they're sticking with a little bit of vr there. We also have apex rebels standard, just a smaller version without the motion of sega's apex rebels racing game, which I found is fun. Sega will also have Sub Soccer Arcade and their interactive mini golf there, but that's not all.
Speaker 5:Let's take a look here. So I've been hearing whispers of what's going on with GTI Asia, china. I won't be there, but I know a few people that will be, and so Wallop. They have a few games that are going to be debuting at GTI Asia, china. I don't know who will be carrying these for a while up, because while up sometimes they sell directly into the state, sometimes they have a partner, whether that's Sega or amusement source international it just seems to depend on the product or actually even uh, lai games. They've worked with them before and so it's a little bit all over the place as to who they use. I know they have a relationship with Roth thrills, but I don't recall Roth thrills. It's more of a vice versa thing, where Wallop will sell Roth thrills product into China as opposed to Roth thrills selling Wallop product into the United States.
Speaker 5:But this is Storm Racerer 2. If you've been around for a while, you might recall storm racer, which had actually been sold for quite a while by sega. I want to say about 10 ish years ago that they had that. But this new one it might be a little hard to see from the flyer. Let's see if I can zoom in here and okay, that's better. But this new version of the game uses Unreal Engine 5, so it has cutting edge graphics, and what's an interesting trend that you'll see here from the other games that I'm going to cover, from Wallop is that they're getting rid of the two screens stacked on top of each other which does have a little bit of a black seam there, just from the physics of it and instead they're using these giant 85-inch screens that are vertically mounted. If you want to get really esoteric, in the arcade gamer community they call that Tate mode, but usually that's with like shoot-em-ups and stuff. But so this game and a couple of others are using screens set up like this, and I've even seen a version of Bigfoot's or sorry, of Eunice's Bigfoot Mayhem that does this instead of using the two 65-inch screens, which I would assume that this makes the games a little bit more affordable, maybe easier to move around, and so we'll see.
Speaker 5:But this has five supercars that you can race. It has five different tracks. We don't know a whole lot more about it yet. I saw a video of it online, but it was very, very low resolution, so it almost looked a little bit like asphalt legends. At least how you could attack the other cars was very similar in that regard. But that's not all. We also have storm rider x. So storm rider is another racing game that wallop had created I want to say like 2010, 2011, somewhere around there and sega also carried this as well, and they also carried storm rider 2 where. So this should make it storm rider 3, not storm rider 10, but, as you can see, it also uses a cabinet that has the 85 inch screen.
Speaker 5:It has the swivel bikes. It does not have a motion base, which personally I'm totally fine that. I don't understand why there have been motion platforms added to motorcycle games, because you already are swiveling on the bike already, and to me it just doesn't add a whole lot, other than it adds a whole lot to the price, which I don't care for. So I'm fine with them, reducing costs and such, and it's kind of hard to see. But on the motorcycle wheels here let's see if we can zoom in with them, reducing costs and such, and it's kind of hard to see. But on the motorcycle wheels here let's see if we can zoom in. These look a little bit like Tron, where you don't have the spokes and such in the center there. So that's a cool little touch they have.
Speaker 5:This one also has five tracks, but it only has four bikes, and apparently it also has online play. I'm not sure, just because, uh, the user that's been feeding some information to me about these games, who is based in china, um, did some translation stuff, but uh, only storm rider x mentioned online play, whereas the storm rider 2 did not. And again, that's not all. If we zoom over here we have modern combat by game loft. This is actually translated as modern combat, combat phantom vanguard, and so this cabinet. As you can see, they also have two. I not sure if these are 85 inch screens I think they are. If not, then they're still big. But then they stack two of them next to each other. So you get kind of like the Drakens Realm Keepers by Adrenaline Amusements, which had the 100 inch one by one aspect ratio LED screen. So this is a way to kind of get that, but presumably it'll be more affordable to do than doing the giant square LED screen.
Speaker 5:And it does not have mounted guns. Those are free pistols and they look somewhat significant, like larger than your pistol but not quite as large as a full rifle. We saw some I also saw some footage of this one where graphically then the quality of the footage wasn't great, but it looks like this is also running in. Unreal engine 5 has a lot of call of duty style action going on with it. From this screenshot that we see here sorry, let's zoom in there it almost looks like it's there's an event that's happening in venice. Uh, I don't know how many cities with classic architecture have rivers running through them, quite like that, where you'd have gun battles, and Hollywood and gaming always love gun battle stuff, and so, yeah, there's that to consider. But then that's still not all. We're getting to one last thing, and then I'll be done.
Speaker 5:So what we see here is a screenshot that was shared of a new game by ace amusements. They have been an up-and-coming developer over in china. I've probably put them in third place, right behind unis and wallop at this point. We've seen many different companies here in the states selling their product, namely coastal amusements and amusement source international. Uh, wild Wild West Shootout 1 and 2 is their game. The Coastal Amusements also had the Surf League game, which was developed by Ace, and one of those shooting gun gallery games was by Ace too.
Speaker 5:But this is a hovercraft racing game and, funny enough, I've been talking to somebody not long ago where I realized it's like you know there's one vehicle that we've not seen really used in arcades much as the hovercraft, and I was doing some research into some stuff in that regard, and so, lo and behold, maybe I was just filling the vibes through the ether or whatever.
Speaker 5:However it is, the kids say it these days. Ace has been working on this hovercraft racing game, and so I haven't seen an emotion yet. Obviously, this will make people think a little bit of hydro thunder or h2 overdrive, but, assuming it does full hovercraft stuff, that means you should be racing on land as well as on water, and so that would just put it in its own unique thing. But yeah, so, like I said, there was a lot of news to go over today, and so we'll have a lot more on the next Arcade Corner after GTA Asia China is done with, so stay tuned, and we've got a lot of exciting things happening. So thanks for watching. We'll catch you on the next video.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, thank you, adam for that. And coming up, we got promo pro tips with Chuck DeMonte.
Speaker 1:So let's hear it from Chuck. Hello and welcome to Promo Pro Tips with Chuck DeMonte. That is me, and today I want to tell you about one of the best combinations to success, to marketing success, to revenue success, to visitor success that we really see when it comes to FVCs, and that is combining both digital and what we call boots on the ground marketing, right, so those community outreach things. Right, so digital, obviously we know what that means Meta ads, social media marketing, email marketing right, boots on the ground what does that mean? Right, that means building those community inroads, working with schools, churches, libraries, sports leagues, whatever, right, community groups, family organizations. Right, to really do grassroots marketing, get people to come in. So what are some ideas? How could you do that? One of our biggest selling points as a marketing agency for FECs is we tell owners and GMs, like, let us help you on the digital side, we could do that from wherever you guys focus on that community, grassroots marketing. So this does take an? Uh, an in-person team effort, right? So that's why, a lot of times, we find that it's difficult for uh, fbc owners and operators to execute these things. They just don't have the time Right. But I promise you if you could find the time. These, uh, you know, community, uh, grassroots, uh, marketing efforts are really worth their weight in gold.
Speaker 1:So let me give you one idea for one that I think you could run. That really is. It's not seasonal, it's evergreen and, if done right, it could really make a huge impact. So it's the fun for five playbook, right, and so basically what that is. It's designed to motivate students, athletes, and basically you reward them with play, a ticket, whatever that is at your location, if they complete five goals, right, that they are assigned. So that could be going out to libraries and when they read five books, they get a ticket to your location, right? It could be for coaches when they do five practices or five whatever right, they get, you know, a pass to your location. Okay, so a few things.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about a couple of things you need for this One. It's pretty self-explanatory how and why this could drive traffic, revenue, increased brand awareness, right. So one, just the goodwill of it alone. People are going to love it, okay. So it's not even necessarily the problem of if this works. It's like how do you execute it?
Speaker 1:So let's talk about what materials you need. First, you need the printed card, right, typically we do like a bookmark size, but you need something that, obviously, where people can write down on these printed cards the action items, right, what you know to fill in the slots of what they achieved. The five slots right, book one, book two, book three right, you don't have to write a book, you'll just have empty spots. But you know the act of kindness they did, the book they read, whatever it is, the five things you want to achieve. Have a blank space so they can write that in and turn it into somebody in exchange for the ticket. Right, so you need that bookmark.
Speaker 1:The next you want to have one sheets program flyers, in-store signage right, that you could. A you want to have your staff pass this stuff out. Hey, ask us about our fun. You know our, our fun for five playbook program right, so have in-park signage. Have promo assets that your team can go and hand out and distribute to schools, libraries, community groups right, get the word out as much as possible. Okay, have a contact on that information. So if people have questions about the program, they can call and speak to somebody about the program. Okay, so now, once you have that stuff and you have the information of what the program is, you know, uh, you can have a landing page for it on your website, right. So create all the promotion on the assets to get and provide that information to people, right. And then, obviously, once you are interested, have the asset for them to actually give out to them, to fill in the five slots. So, again, promotion materials to promote it, the asset, so they have it. Okay.
Speaker 1:And now, once you have that promotion material, what you want to do is, you know, and this is a little bit of manual work you want to find local schools and libraries, drive to them, go to them, drop them off to the teachers, the, the, the, the principal, whoever you can get in front of, uh you know, in that school, to, uh, you know, start being a part of this program. Libraries, right, sports leagues, coaches, churches, community groups, okay, try and email them, call them, visit them, do whatever you can to get the word out. Now, this takes consistency. You're going to want to do it over and over and over again, right, that's why it's, you know, somebody's got to be dedicated to doing this. Once you have these and you start distributing them, right, you're going to want to stay in front of people, just emailing them, calling them once is not enough, right, so you want to make sure that you are staying in front of them, hopefully, get people to sign up, keep a log of who has them, of who you contacted with or who's part of the program, okay, and then you know.
Speaker 1:Maybe last but not least, is you want to make sure you train your staff in on this. You want to make sure they know where these passes came from, they know what so many contacts are asked about it. You want to have a really good experience from start to finish, from people getting the pass to people coming in and sort of redeeming the pass. Boots on the ground. Marketing are endless, right, so I encourage you to get creative. Um, we'll probably give you some more ideas, uh, as we go along for this segment. But, uh, that's one idea again. That. That. That five you guys out If you executed properly.
Speaker 2:If you have any questions on it or ever want to, you know, pick our brain about it feel free to reach out and get busy doing digital and grassroots marketing, thank you, and have been leading the way for over 30 years. Catch the system 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. All right, well, bandwidth there is having some issues on my end, but anyway, that is a wrap for this week's LBX show. Stay tuned for SoundOff number 89. We are back with SoundOff with Kevin Williams. It's going to run this Tuesday, september 9th, and you know, right at 10 am, like it always does, pacific time, so make sure to check that out, otherwise.
