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Sound Off #94 - Nostalgiatainment, Brand Licensing EU Review, and more!
Sponsored by Intercard!
Sponsored by Alan-1!
On this week's episode we explore how “legacy” can be leverage, not a limit, and why nostalgia only works when it fuels the next wave of experiences. From Disney’s soft attendance to Netflix House pricing, we break down what’s hype, what’s working, and what operators should adjust now.
• leveraging legacy IP without getting stuck in the past
• nostalgiatainment trends and Retroescapes viability
• theme park economics and Orlando softness
• Halloween supply chain shocks hitting redemption
• Five Iron growth strategy and localization
• Chuck E. Cheese expansion plans in Turkey
• Dave & Buster’s Philippines format and billiards
• Genda x Toys “R” Us retailtainment and dwell time math
• Netflix House anchor mix and price positioning
• VR kiosk pitfalls and LBVR differentiation
• AR‑light momentum and privacy pushback
• AI as tool: ads, commerce, and game dev productivity
• licensing expo takeaways: toys, games, emoji, micro‑arcades
• competitive sports and active entertainment momentum
Keep an eye out for a flood of Stinger Reports coming out over the next few weeks with the build-up towards IAAPA.
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Are you on the edge of your seat? Because we're about to take 11 million. Covering today's latest trends in location-based educators. Brought to you by the LBX Collective, your community to collect age and player. All right, everyone. Let's buckle up.
SPEAKER_00:All right. Well, welcome everybody to Sound Off with Kevin Williams. This is number 94 for October 14th. Kevin, how are you doing, sir?
SPEAKER_02:I'm doing well, thank you. How are you doing, Brad?
SPEAKER_00:I'm doing very well. Doing very well. But as always, I'm uh I'm curious how you're going to change my mind this week.
SPEAKER_02:Well, this is uh a tricky one. I've just come from some exhibitions and not system launches, and so uh this kind of has been ruminating in the back of my mind for the last couple of weeks. Um we are in the amusement sector seen as a legacy brand, though no one really would say that to our face. Um we are a brand that covers quite a considerable uh amount of uh interests. We also uh have a very strong uh historical or retro component as well as quite a thrilling new component to the way that uh uh our technology is being deployed in uh in the sector. Now, when I say legacy, some people's brains may go straight to the idea that what I mean legacy is out of date, and I'm only talking about the retro. Really, when I say legacy, is that we are a uh powerful and long-serving uh historical uh uh operation that we're not maximizing to the most. Uh, I am seeing other companies uh utilizing the uh IP uh and our product image uh and uh making book out of it where we're not. And you know, I will touch upon that a little bit later regarding one of the events I attended recently.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you know, and what's interesting here is that you know, I've been reading a little bit more about this idea of and we've all had nostalgia for our time, but like this is really actually a big component of the economy now is this nostalgia attainment almost. Nostalgia where you're you're you're bringing people back into this is what we're seeing is the the large resurgence of the retro arcades right now, right? That's that concept of that nostalgia. Um, you know, I just talked about on the LBX show uh during my News You should know segment about retro escapes in Las Vegas and you know that whole thing where you can go back and experience the 80s and the 90s and the 70s, even uh, in a themed environment. And so this is absolutely something we should be embracing, this component of nostalgia. And yet at the same time, I think we can't forget to continue to lead people forward into what the future is, so that 20 years from now, people look back to what the new things they experienced, you know, during this time frame, during their childhood now, that they will have nostalgia for 20 years from now. We can't just only rely on the nostalgia from the 80s, and uh, we need to make sure we're we're building that that that pre-like we're almost like pre-inserting that nostalgia, the future nostalgia now, too.
SPEAKER_02:Legacy, uh the closest example I can give you is the automotive industry, where the uh automotive industry recognizes its history and even implies and imparts certain elements and features. You know, the Mustang has uh certain generic components that are repeated again and again, even in the more modern designs. The same thing is uh applicable to our industry, where we have a long legacy of uh uh recognition from our audience group. It's just now we need to apply, not having to learn the lessons again and again and repeat uh developing the wheel, but also building on that nostalgia. And we're gonna touch a little bit upon that uh retro escape concept later on.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. By the way, I do enjoy the uh the AI's approach to nostalgia. I don't know where you grabbed that image or have you created that.
SPEAKER_02:Retro Escape. That's one of their uh deck pictures, which made me laugh about how their AI agent had been uh having fun.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, this is it's a little bit a little bit rough uh around the edges, but that's all right. All right, well, coming up after the break, we will dive right into the economic trends. Power up your game floor with arcades by Allen One. Whether it's perfectly poring drinks in Dr. Pepper's photo play, having official things touched, or defending cities to attempt to make a commander each card. Alan One has something to every venue in arcade floor that will delight your guests. Each game is also an active later. Visit AllenDas1.com to learn more. That's AllenDas1.com. All right, well, let's dive right in.
SPEAKER_02:So the uh economy uh we'll uh start with, and we have uh some reporting from Disney. So we talked about last uh sound off uh that our friends at Universal had reported uh seeing some issues, and we've also talked about Las Vegas seeing some issues. Well, uh the uh cherry on the cake, as it were, uh our friends at Disney have uh not officially admitted, but uh the media services that have access to their numbers through various sources can reveal that uh attendance, especially during the September and uh the build-up to October periods, has been, as some uh like to call it, a ghost town. Uh, I'm not gonna go uh as far as that to say. It is uh off book. This is not what they expected, uh, especially as Disney was or is in the process of rising the price of their tickets and taking away certain um price points on packages and deals. Uh the free car parking is disappearing, certain of the discounting on magic bands, uh links to hotel packages are going away. Uh so it's kind of a double whammy, a perfect storm for Disney regarding their prices. While uh sources tell me that their cruise line business is uh doing great guns. Uh the park site, especially Orlando uh and Anaheim, has been seeing some serious pain.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah, I think everything in Orlando has certainly been hurting. Um, I haven't been to Disneyland in a little bit since earlier this year, although I do hope to get out there in early December to just just to be able to test the waters myself to see how things are. And obviously, we're coming into what hopefully will be some good seasonality for not just Disney but the other all other parks as well, as they take advantage of the Halloween and Thanksgiving seasons, then leading right into the holiday Christmas seasons.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, this is an important line in the sand. If you can't do it during the uh the Halloween or the scare season, then you've got more problems than uh just the soft economy. Uh one of those uh industries in the scare economy uh really is taking a pounding. Uh, our friends in the Halloween industry, the uh costumes, merch, suites, you know, all of the paraphernalia that supports this, uh they've been impacted by the shipping uh situation, importers deciding to halt or to cancel uh container deliveries. They've been impacted also by inventory, they've worked their way through inventory that they had, and now they've uh got no capability to uh no fat to resupply. Uh and some of them have been uh increasing the prices quite considerably on uh the traditional uh acquisitions and purchase. Kind of uh uh uh vibration of what we're going to be seeing around Christmas, unless things seriously change, uh, which I don't expect to see. I I think these type of problems we're seeing for the Halloween boys is also going to uh affect the Winterville Brigade. Uh, and sadly, uh the other impact here is that those increased prices and those difficulties impact the workforce. And some of the Halloween business industries have had to let go staff uh because of uh various issues.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I am wondering if we're beginning to see, as we're seeing a similar impact to Halloween merchandise, Christmas merchandise, if we're seeing the same types of impact to redemption prices and to crane prizes, if we're going to see an increase in those costs and therefore in a change in the economics for both redemption games and and crane prices?
SPEAKER_02:We will be. Uh IALPA, we will be dealing with people suffering sticker shock on things that they've taken for granted. It is those things that they've taken for granted, their uh merch, uh their prize, their supports, and their spares that are going to be impacted by the loss of the postal system, the impact of the trade war and the tariffs. Again, uh, I think we will have to take some time after IALPA to sort of break down the impacts directly impacting us, pardon the uh tautology. The the issues are we need to be mindful that this is a thing rather than just brush it under the carpet. Moving on and to the biz, and our friends at FiveIons UAE. So this is the franchisees operation that runs the UAE and Saudi uh Five Irons. These are the facilities that seem to have jumped the shark and pivoted more towards an entertainment mix as well as uh the golf simulation. They've uh received uh quite a large injection of financing from uh powerhouse capital in the territory, and they have uh decided that they're going to be rolling out a considerable number of the five iron facilities. You noticed I dropped the golf phrase uh from the end of that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. I think it's really interesting where we've actually seen a franchisee who has received an infusion of capital versus the actual franchisor. And I think that's indicative of just the quality of, well, at least what I would assume, the quality of operations that this uh group is running there at their flagship in Dubai.
SPEAKER_02:Uh you don't get to see this cash unless you can show coal tile numbers. So they've got an ROI that's proven that the two facilities that they've opened up uh have uh generated bank. Moving on, and another franchise working with a franchisee. Uh our friends uh Chucky Cheese has partnered uh with a Turkish group, uh PNB, and they have uh decided that they're going to be rolling out in Turkey uh a flagship facility that will be opening in Istanbul in 2026, and that will lead, based upon the bank that they generate from this facility, uh they're looking at 20 locations uh within the uh Turkish diaspora alone, which is a mind-boggling number to consider, but it also tells us how much disposable income for entertainment applications are ripe within the Turkish market.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and you know, look, even if the these majority of those locations are in Istanbul, Istanbul is a is a massive sprawling uh city, and uh there's certainly more space than uh for more than just three Chucky Cheeses in that area. So they maybe they can't uh you know handle 20, uh, but uh certainly can handle more than three. So it'd be interesting to watch how these guys do, especially given the fact that they're gonna cram three openings into 2026, uh, and and having never opened one in that area yet.
SPEAKER_02:It's uh going to be a baptism of fire for the first facility, closely followed by two other facilities in one year, is always uh a high order. But I also get the feeling that the uh CEC team are going to be working very closely with this franchisee to make sure they get it right. Uh, also remember, of course, that Chuck E. Cheese has signed an agreement for the UK uh regarding their plans to roll out. That 20 or 30 number seems to be the safe number you claim when you do one of these kinds of franchisees deals. We're going to open up 20 when in reality we may only see 15 in the next five years. Moving on, and uh, we've touched upon this in open in shut, but we can go into a little bit more detail now. Dave and Busters with their franchisee in the Philippines, and we get a chance to see what I call is the next next generation of the reinterpreting of uh the Dave and Busters mix. So we had the original, uh, we had then the change by the previous management, and now we get to see what a franchisee does with the team towards what the current generation of the renew design of a Dave and Busters facility. As you can see, um, it's a lot more brighter in some places, but in other places they've reverted more to uh the traditional entertainment layout, the uh midway hall layout, uh as well as the amusement layout has stayed kind of the same, though now with more signage and more digital uh future of play. Uh I'm sure they spent a long time with the marketing team on that one. Uh, the social bays that were so maligned previously have reappeared here. Now, again, we have to use a bag of salt here, how much of this is really the Philippines team cherry-picking what they wanted to keep and what they felt was suitable for their audiences against what the Dave and Busters team wanted to hoist upon them. Either way, I'm interested to see the billiards front and center. We touched upon that previously in another recent Dave and Busters opening that those social baits had been parachuted in with uh billiards rather than uh the alternate uh competitive socializing products that they had previously had. Um the artists' impressions and the renderings, it's a bit of a muchness, but you can taste the difference, as it were.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, even just from the colors and the lighting and the layout, I mean, it definitely whether or not this is this is where Dave and Busters is going from their overarching branding for even their corporate locations here in the US, um, or if this is just again the tail wagging the dog in the Philippines market. Um, I think that what is uh you know interesting to me is the fact that they went back to billiards. And this is where I was just like, is this a cultural differentiation where like is billiards just a bigger deal in the Philippines than potentially some of the other things they could have put in that space? I mean, they had darts, they had shuffleboard, they obviously had the arena that they could have put into this space, but they chose to go to pool and just standard pool tables too, not even anything that's augmented at all with additional gameplay. So um I was just curious if this, if we think that this is a uh the direction that they're moving, or if this is a cultural thing that's that's leading the charge.
SPEAKER_02:I think this is cultural to be blunt. Uh, I think the Philippines market cherry-picked the bits that they wanted and uh asked for changes to the bits that they didn't like. Uh, how much of this will now encourage the redesign of uh the US uh facilities? Again, we will have to wait and see. Yeah. Moving on, and our friends at Gender, is that time again? Uh, Gender Americas uh had a couple of announcements, and the latest shoe to drop was their partnership with Toys R Us. So the toy brands, the retailer-gone showroom, uh, the troubled toy brand has now started to roll out its new interpretations of its retail emperor uh uh uh empire. They're going for a much more showroom, a much more try-it-out and play uh approach, the only way to survive in the uh internet purchase age. And with the real estate that they have available, they've done a deal uh to drop in the Kiddleton automated crane and prize system. Uh I wouldn't also be surprised if there's some other amusement being parachuted into this space. But at the moment, front and center, it was the Kiddleton crane systems, uh, and they're going into two facilities. Uh, and we will be hearing how these do and whether these then get rolled out across the rest of the Toys R Us redesigned empire.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, this really is a match made in heaven. I think even more so than when we talked about the announcement Kittleton was going to be installing into some Walmarts. So I think that you you have this where you know the Kittleton brand now is also getting more ubiquitous in the US market. I think that's really important too. So this is a um, you know, we want to like we're gonna begin to see this brand more and more, especially as you get into Walmarts, Toys Rust, where kids are going, adults are going. Um, I am interested. I would be, I would love to understand the economics behind this partnership and how they're doing revenue share, et cetera, because I would imagine that sometimes depending on the things you're getting, you know, at the Kittleton machines, could actually impact some retail sales when people now, yes, is it bringing people in the door potentially? Is it helping to increase the overall per cap as you know guests are spending more or you know, customers are spending more time and more money there? Or is it actually impacting retail sales for them?
SPEAKER_02:It's a dwell time thing. I get the feeling. So someone's got their sharp pencil out and done the calculations of increased dwell time against increased purchase, but you're very spot on that could a successful couple of games on the Kittleton Crane machine stop someone from purchasing something from the facility? And again, early days, we will see how well this relationship works. But I know that this isn't the only retailer that is now thinking about adding a retailtainment component to their mix. An unusual one here came out of the blue and sort of got our industry shaking in their boots and jumping up and down. I know that you've touched upon it uh uh in the uh LBX show. I'd just like to give my two cents uh for for this announcement for those that haven't heard uh a brand new concept for Las Vegas, a back to the future kind of entertainment space called Retro Escapes, which comprises uh about five areas that are dedicated or gates that are dedicated to the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. Um, you know, we we talked at the beginning here uh during my uh meme uh about the uh legacy and entertainment, especially from the 70s and 80s, uh, plays a very big part in this. So we have from the renderings, the AI renderings from this concept, a lot of pictures of Pac-Man and similar kinds of retro arcades. I would expect the 1950s and 60s areas to be heavy and pinball. Uh, but fundamentally, this is Las Vegas getting quite a large entertainment area. I think we can blame our friends at uh Area 15 for the real estate industry to feel that this is a going concern that they can parachute into the area. Um I've put a date of schedule to open 2027. They didn't actually give an official date. There's been a lot of uh off-the-cuff interviews, and they kind of alluded to everything would be done and dusted by the end of 2027. Uh, I will hold my powder dry and say, you know, put a pin in that, I'm not sure. What I would like to see is some real pictures of what they intend to put in there rather than the attack of uh the AIs.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah, certainly. I mean, it does beg the question, are these true concept images developed, you know, with with somebody, or are these pure AI? Um, but uh, but but but either way, you know, I think the the concept of this like nostalgia attainment um is is real. And I think that this has the potential to be successful if it actually does get off the ground. And you know I think one of the things we've seen a lot, especially in the Vegas market, is things like this are announced, and then you just don't hear about them again. So this would be very interesting. I would love to understand uh what they plan to have in each one of these destinations, or are you just walking around and experiencing it, or are you doing different types of attractions that are aligned with those types of with those particular decades? But uh right now it almost seems like they're just putting their toe in the water, just kind of feeling what the appetite is in the Las Vegas market, what the investor appetite is potentially doesn't feel like this has a lot of momentum behind it quite yet.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we're at the beginning process, the um kiss the frog moment, as a friend of mine would uh say about this investment period. Uh, I think that's why we had so much uh heavy uh AI schlopp uh created to try and give uh uh an idea. Though I do get the feeling that the bird's eye pictures are a little bit more grounded in realism. But again, we'll need to hear. We if we don't hear anything about this during our uh IALPA in November, then we definitely know that the investors were not as enthusiastic as the media were to this contest. Uh and again, another one that sort of came out of uh Southfield for me as I was uh closing up the last uh open and shut. My phone was vibrating away with the announcement of Big Popular 2. Um so Atlanta uh is you know looking at a$200 million theme park proposal. Um it's it it doesn't really know what it wants to be. It still seems to be very early days. You know, don't treat any of the artists' uh uh impressions as uh accurate, but just as a taster. I I always feel uncomfortable at this stage uh where you know they've dropped their trousers, pardon the pun, uh, at this point to try and reveal that they want to stick their flag in the ground and own this uh particular concept. But when they've got nothing really to show that is concrete, uh then uh you know we have to treat this with a large bag of salt. But you know, here we are, we're looking at uh you know quite quite a considerable investment towards building a new park. I just hope that they've got a better brand than Big Popular 2 that's behind it. I though I do get the feeling that maybe they do have a large IP involved in this, but they just can't reveal it at this point in time.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, this feels like an America Heartland to me. I mean, American Heartland, you know, the big$2 billion theme park that was proposed in Oklahoma City, or excuse me, in Oklahoma. Um, this feels has that a similar feel, like, you know, is this a boondoggle or is this something that's actually going to come to fruition?
SPEAKER_02:We're gonna have a lot of these. Um, you know, the industry has proven itself to be uh very uh interesting to investments uh at the moment, and investors are looking for bricks and mortar to put their uh money into rather than uh bubbles. And uh you know, we're going to see, I expect uh during IALPA, we'll have at least another four new part concepts uh promoted in front of us. Which ones will survive? Start your betting now. One that has survived the hype phase and is now only a matter of uh weeks away from throwing open its doors, and that is Netflix House. And we're lucky enough, courtesy of variety, to have transparency to the pricing model that the team at Netflix House has decided upon. Each one of the Netflix House, so we have uh Philadelphia and we have Dallas, and we'll have Chicago, uh sorry, we'll have Las Vegas in uh three years' time, but each one of these facilities has a construction of four entertainment components and three hospitality, so food and booze areas with retail, as well as some other secondary repeating concepts. It's a formula uh that I think that they've sat down and done the maths over. We get to see the pricing. So we see that uh for your time on the uh nine-hole mini golf course, you're gonna be paying 15, comparable with the market. Uh, we see that their one piece uh quest for the devil, which is more of an escape room kind of approach. Uh, that's 39. Escape rooms are usually 45 uh in that neck of the woods, but so comparable. Uh, and we see Wednesday's uh Eve of Outcast, which is a mixture of a kind of mission room and amusement products in a kind of fairground experience. Uh, that is about 39. That's the one that we can't really nail down. Is that uh 39 to go into the mission room experience, or is that 39 to be allowed into the whole area and to be able to play on the amusement machines that will be in free play? So there's still a lot of unknowns. The one known is, of course, our friends at uh Sandbox VR, because we already know their price point for their experiences, and we know that uh the systems are being taken locked, stock, and barrel, and dropped in to the uh Netflix house with a little bit of change, only playing the Netflix uh uh Squid Games and uh Rebel Moon experiences for now, and they're going to be charging 25, which is a little lower than what you would normally pay if you went to uh a normal sandbox VR. So I would say these numbers are interesting, they're not going for premium, so they're not blasting it out the part by charging super expensive compared to their competition, but they're also not going super low. Uh so again, it's going to be based on the dwell time, on the response, and remember prices are always flexible. And depending on what type of takeup they see to the opening of their first facility in November, they may write those prices into the stratosphere. We will see.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, look, Philadelphia's putt shack. So we looked at the pricing there for a nine-hole experience at the putt shack in Philadelphia as well, is$16. So, you know, they've definitely done their homework. They've priced themselves within, if not just slightly below, their competition. And, you know, I think that is, you know, that is interesting because they have the power of their IP. And I do think that they could have priced themselves slightly above. Now, I'm not saying they should have charged for nine holes$24, but they could have done 18 instead of 16 or instead of 15 and just squeeze a little bit more of the per cap because you're coming in and engaging with their IP. That is supposed to be, in theory, the strength of the Netflix house or the strength of Sony's Wonderverse. You know, we've obviously seen that, or the strength of any other IP-based um venue that you're going into is that people you have the fans that are wanting to engage with the IP. It does seem like they were almost not quite as confident as they should be about their experience.
SPEAKER_02:Well, we would say playing it safe.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. Well coming. Oh, so go ahead. Go ahead. No, no, no, please. Well, I was just gonna say um, as we, you know, just gonna take another quick break and then we'll come back and continue talking about our trends. They introduced cashless technology to the amusement industry and have been leading the way for over 30 years. Cashless systems from InnerCard increase customer spending, get satisfaction, and boost revenues by up to 30%. Intercard is so proud to be serving the amusement industry. If you are already part of a global family of customers, they hope you will become one too.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you, Intercard. Um, looking now at the uh tech trends uh and the last I think of uh the new entrance into the VR side, uh a Japanese company has decided to go away and create uh a standalone kiosk where you swipe your card, put on the head-mounted display, and can play a selection of games. The company doesn't come from the amusement sector, it is a brand new offering. And uh I think this is you know one of those last rolls of the dice of the kiosk VR concept. I have worked very closely with a number of the companies that have tried over the years to uh uh establish a VR kiosk concept. All of them seemed to trip at the first hurdle, they all found it very difficult. You know, they can't have attendance, uh, they have to have it automated, they have to have the right content available, and having to depend on Joe Almighty to walk up to one of your machines, pick up a helmet and put it on and not throw it into the nearest garbage bin or jump up and down on it is a danger. This Japanese company feels that they can drop the snack VR system uh into retail and Again, I get the feeling that this may disappear in a puff of smoke.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I'm hoping that I eat my words here, but this might be the product that has absolutely zero product market fit. So I will be it'd be interesting to see them actually get off the ground and have any real success uh over the near term, let alone the long term.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Moving on, and that impact in the consumer VR sector is being felt very clearly. The media now, after the Apple announcements, after the Meta announcements, has kind of smelt what the rock is cooking. Uh, and they've worked out that yes, these companies are now pivoting away from virtual reality and putting all of their eggs into the basket of AR. Now, I need to be very careful here. None of the systems that Meta has shown or these other companies have shown is true augmented reality. It is not dropping visuals into the virtual environment. They're more AR-light, or as the media is now trying to call them, AI smart glasses. So these are kind of replacing your smartphone for uh a display in your left or right eye. I am not 100% sold. Uh, the AR market is a product that we have seen demonstrated and bring something seriously impactful to the market. Just being able to have your mobile phone display in your right eye to see when messages are coming in may not be enough to lay down 800 buckaroonies for the pleasure of one of these systems and still have to walk around with a smartphone and a battery pack in your pocket. But we have to be clear, our friends at Apple have decided to pivot, uh, according to well-placed sources, away from their goggles uh spatial computing system towards building their own uh AR light system. Our friends at Meta have also slowed down, if not parked, their future investment into their virtual reality headsets. And there is a rumor going around that Sony also will be parking their uh virtual reality consumer uh systems. It has an impact for us in the market because we still make money from our VR product and the audience still likes playing our VR systems. So maybe we'll be the only game in town where you'll be able to experience this. And again, we need to think about that. If we have uniqueness of uh updating our virtual reality experiences because there's a customer base still out there, we may be the winners uh of this battle, and that will definitely mean that we're gonna get a very nasty letter from Meta. Oh yeah. Uh moving on, and those AR glasses, uh, which are fundamentally uh the screen in your eye and a camera on your uh forehead, uh the backlash has started. We have seen uh a number of universities and uh retailers and even theme parks making statements that they're not going to want to have people wandering around the park constantly recording using these headsets. Uh we had uh university in San Francisco uh, you know, state about their concerns concerning an individual that was using his smart glasses recording capability inappropriately. And that backlash is only going to grow over the next couple of months.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, I do see this happening for the near term and it will grow, but this is an interim problem ultimately. I mean, I think as price comes down, as the technology becomes more useful and more ubiquitous, this will be less and less of an issue, and people will just feel like this is just what happens. And there will probably be, you know, I mean, I could envision some auto, you know, shutoffs, like, you know, I have mine broadcasting that I don't want you recording near me. And so somebody, you know, it puts out a block that you know things automatically shut down. I mean, I think there's things like that that I think will eventually evolve to allow for the ubiquity of these. You know, I don't think that Meta's gonna sit back and stop moving forward on progress because there's some concerns on some college campuses or in theme parks. So I do think that this is a train that people are moving forward on. And I think, frankly, a much better use of their AI efforts and then also of their name. You know, we've talked about the fact that uh, you know, we've talked about this many times, and I've you know shared like my vision and view on what the metaverse ultimately is, was not some pure virtual environment. It really is the ubiquity of connectivity and being able to interact in multiple different ways, both with hands, both vision, and other things, in order to interact with the constant connectivity that the internet provides to us, as well as then the ability to interact in a really unique and personalized way through AI. That is the true metaverse. And I think this is moving in that um direction. And the more we move away from VR, to your point, is a benefit to the location-based VR industry.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, uh fundamentally, it is a blending of technologies to offer a seamless immersive interaction, the fidgetal environment that I keep on going on about. You're quite right. Uh, Meta is going to turn around the same way. Apple will turn around to everybody who complains about the camera and go, that's a you problem. Uh, and uh we will have to live with it. Uh Google Glass wasn't able to plow through the complaints. I'm sure Meta and Apple and Sony combined, as well as uh our friends at um Google uh uh will just make sure that uh these cameras come. Maybe we're gonna have to stick a QR code on our foreheads to say no photographs, please. Who knows? Moving to the AI trends, and we are seeing some real serious pushback uh regarding the technology. Um there have been some recent financial statements where banks are positioning themselves, feeling that there's going to be a uh a reorganization, a restructuring of the value of these AI companies compared against their valuation, compared against what they're actually delivering. Uh our friends at Meta seem to be preparing themselves for that transition. They have changed uh their stipulations uh of their guidelines, and they are now admitting that they have greenlit the ability that if I use an AI search agent uh to look up something or do something, that I will then receive targeted adverts based upon that search. It is fundamentally what they do with a normal search engine. They're now just applying that mentality to Instagram and other tools through their AI. Uh, you have to take that as part of the problem. And that problem is a benefit because our friends at Walmart have turned around and admitted that they're seeing a 20% increase in their business from those AI search-generated smart agents acting on your behalf. You type into ChatGPT that you want a uh brand new bicycle for your nine-year-old, and ChatGPT goes off and gives you some suggestions, and surprise, surprise, one of those suggestions will be a Walmart uh selection. This is the name of the game.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. No, I've nothing else to say. Yeah, I'm just agreeing. Yep.
SPEAKER_02:Moving on, and the other industries that are embracing AI, this is a tool. It is not going to uh change everything at the beginning, and it is not going to be all things to all men, but it is a tool that, if used correctly, can uh address productivity, can lower prices, can increase uh revenue. And one of those industries that sees uh AI as a strong tool to be used in its market is the video games industry. Why have a room full of uh 20 graphic artists when you can have five graphic artists monitoring uh AI smart design tools? And so uh we're hearing now that about half of the Japanese video games industry is uh utilizing uh generative AI tools. And we're even seeing our friends at Netflix for their game division looking to hire uh AI riced about for uh their application.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean this is not surprising and something we're just going to have to get used to. Uh yeah, already, you know, even on my team at IntelliPlay, you know, our team is using um, you know, AI to help assist assist them in their development. They're phenomenal developers, but this just helps increase productivity. And so, yeah, I think this is just a matter of time before this is ubiquitous across the board.
SPEAKER_02:We can't be Luddites about this. We can't stick our head in in the ground and hope it will go away. We have to use this tool. And uh, as many of uh our readers of the Stinger Report and the Entertainment Social Arena knows that uh last year I have embraced the utilization of the tool to help uh speed up uh the process of uh creating a brief uh of what we have in the uh uh the coverage. It doesn't mean it writes the coverage, that is still human beings, but it is a tool helping us the same way that the word processor made it easy for me to stop having to go through typewriter ribbon. The dangers of autonomy, uh uh well, really it's not the dangers of the technology, but it is more the human beings uh impropriately using the technology. Uh, something that I wasn't familiar with is uh something called pyrodromes. These are in China and in India people tying fireworks to be launched from aerial drone systems. So you get an uh aerial drone display, uh, which is also augmented with fireworks. Well, sometimes it doesn't go well, and uh due to various programming errors and ignitions, the pyro drone started falling from the sky on fire while also launching their pyrotechnics. Um we still haven't received official word from uh the Chinese regional uh government there how many people were injured during this process. Uh, and we noticed that a number of the video footage of this quite horrific sequence, people having to use chairs to protect themselves from falling uh drones and the fires that this caused have started to disappear off of the web. So I I think this was a black eye that uh the regional government doesn't want to go into much more detail. But again, this is not something that the Western market will see. I hope. But again, you know, most smart money makes sure that the drone display takes place not above the heads uh of the audience, but a distance away from the audience. But again, uh an interesting uh observation of the uh the future problems that we're now living with. Moving on to talking points quickly, and I was away at the uh brand licensing expo uh in Britain, in London. Uh, this is the second of the largest licensing and brand shows that take place uh of the year, the big one in Las Vegas, licensing expo, we usually attend, and it was nice to be able to have a chance to walk around brand licensing uh to have a look at some of the trends that are shaping the market, because we, our legacy brand, as I said earlier, has quite a part to play in this sector. Um, the big news obviously was uh further developments in the uh Paramount and Warner Brothers uh merger. You know, from the organizers of the show, they must be unhappy because they're going to be uh losing one booth and having to deal with one big booth, so maybe they win all around. I was interested that our friends at Paramount held a very high-level presentation for the attendees at the show where they wanted us all to sign NDAs before we went into the presentation. I'm sorry, guys, I don't sign NDAs uh without uh being able to give them a good read. Uh and so I had to pass on that. But from all the people who broke their NDAs, were telling me uh that it was more about the positioning of the Paramount brand, looking forward towards their future perspective and the combining and merging of their operation, even before they uh admit to the laborious process that the Warner Brothers acquisition will take. Because the you know, the Warner Brothers acquisition, even if it's green light uh lit by the investors and by the boards, will take a period of months to actually uh be resolved through the various government bodies. Jumping on, and it was clear that toys, brands, uh, and video games were all front and center as important tools uh in investments. Uh, Mattel and Hasbro and Lego all had very big showings at the event, and they all had crossover products. Our friends from Hasbro, of course, and Mattel also had bricks and mortar facilities that utilize uh their entertainment that are franchised. Uh, and it was interesting to kind of be able to speak to these people and have them understand the location-based entertainment industry as a viable component to their transmedia operations. Uh, of course, the video games industry was there in numbers, and uh the video games industry was uh living off the laurels of its arcade roots, its legacy, as it were, uh, you know, along with pushing the ubiquitous Pac-Man and Sonic, there was also the pushing of the arcade cabinets and the stylizations, you know, the trendiness uh of uh the uh the retro, as it were, uh going forwards. The video game side is big now, the Capcoms, the Konamis, and the Ubisoft's uh at the shows, and all of these operations are also revealing that they're looking at bricks and mortar representation, either through licensing their products into amusement, as our friends at Ubisoft have done, or through their own uh amusement operation facilities and entertainment facilities that Capcom has done. So, again, you know, our industry is at these shows, but sometimes it is others wearing the clothing that our industry represents. One of the big surprises was our friends uh at Unis was at the show. The uh Emoji Booth uh was promoting uh their brand, and they had a number of examples of the emoji amusement machines there. Our friend Steve and Tam from uh Unis was there, had a chance to chat. Uh, very important. Remember, they also have the Emoji Planets uh arcade facility, first one opened in uh London, uh sorry, in uh Brighton or Blackpool. I can't remember which, I think it was Blackpool. Uh, and the others are opening up in the US in a short order, uh, again, uh helped by our friends in Gender Americas. But here, this was raising a lot of eyebrows from individuals because they were kind of seeing the opportunity of how a brand could then be parachuted into direct uh to create instant revenue generation, not just through the emoji planet facilities, but also through the amusement machine systems. I wouldn't be surprised at uh Licensed Expo next year that we don't see a lot more amusement components on the show floor. Let's hope it's us in the amusement industry driving it rather than the uh franchisers uh just using them as examples of promotion. And then the ubiquity of uh the traditional amusement. We have uh there the picture of the micro amusement machines. These are miniature recreations, perfect recreations of uh retro arcade classics, your Space Invaders, uh your uh Defender machines, uh nice uh quarter scale uh miniatures, even miniatures of uh coke machines uh and coin vending machines for the man that wants to create uh his own personal arcade and doesn't want the big boxiness of the one-up machines. The kidult in us all can now have their own uh arcade machines. These machine, uh these setups actually come with miniature uh rubbish bins and stools and fire extinguishers. It gets out of control. Dolls houses for men. I I didn't say that to the guys there. It was also interesting that the organizers of the show filled the dead space around the arc uh the exhibition hall with uh amusement machines to push that branding and that edginess uh and that image. Uh tells us a lot about where amusement fits uh as a supportative product and brand, a soft brand that can be incorporated into the mix. And then finally, you know, the one takeaway for me, the new trends that are coming, is the competitive sports. Branding and licensing always has a strong representation from NASCAR and from F1 and from the soccer teams and the football teams. But it is clear now that the apparel industry and the sporting industry wants to uh have their brand front and center, the esports racing simulator side side of the business, even to the entertainment active side. And I couldn't get away from it. We even had pickleball on the show floor uh as one of the apparel companies wanted to promote the uh clothing brands that they are selling into uh the sports and activity sector. Any comments there, Brandon?
SPEAKER_00:I'd like that you you paused there after you talked about pickleball, knowing that uh you know, you're just waiting, you're baiting me with pickleball at the last slide.
SPEAKER_02:I wouldn't bait you. No, I wouldn't do that. I I just uh I walked past the pickleball, you know, cast my eyes down, took the photo, and kept on walking. But you know, whatever whatever floats their boats, it was more important to me, the importance of the uh the transmedia nature of entertainment. I'm just wondering how long it's going to be before uh the members of our trade industries wake up to this and actually have space on these show floors.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:Well, anyway, that's it from me. Uh a lot to go through here. Um, please keep up. We have uh a flood of Stinger reports uh coming out at the moment uh with the build-up towards IALPA. Uh we also have uh some interesting developments being charted by the Entertainment Social Arena talking about uh some new developments in competitive socializing and also the fallout from our recent visits to a number of openings. And if you have any questions or if you have any more news that you'd like to pass our way, uh our meet email information is all there.
SPEAKER_00:Perfect. All right, Kevin. Well, another great sound off, and we will see you on the next one.
SPEAKER_02:See you later.
