The LBX Show #52 - Guest Susan DeBottis from Easol, IAAPA Preview, and more!

Sponsored by Intercard!
Sponsored by Alan-1!

On this week's show, Susan DeBottis, VP of Adventure and Entertainment at Easol joins me as we discuss the path from first click to first visit, showing how brand-aligned booking and a single view of inventory turn group demand into profit. Plus: two Arcade Corner segments with Adam Pratt full of IAAPA reveals, Kevin Williams on global openings and closures, and Chuck DeMonte with a Black Friday plan you can deploy now.

• why corporate group sales differ from birthday bookings
• treating bays and rooms as inventory to manage yield
• moving larger group bookings online with confidence
• aligning web, booking, and onsite brand experience
• IAAPA previews: motion racing, micro escape rooms, redemption hybrids
• market shifts: new venues, closures, lease risks, consolidation
• Black Friday tactics that add value without killing margin

Join us at the LBX Collective Speakeasy at IAAPA Booth 4402, Tue–Thu, 4:30–6:00. 

Subscribe and visit LBX Collective for more!

Chapters

• 0:00 Run Of Show & Big Week Preview
• 2:58 LBX Speakeasy Details & Charity Drives
• 4:45 Guest Gab: ESOL Enters Social Entertainment
• 8:20 Why Group Sales Need Better Tools
• 12:20 Inventory, Yield, And Single-View Availability
• 16:35 Brand Alignment From Website To Booking
• 20:20 Closing Thoughts With Susan
• 21:40 Arcade Corner I: IAPA Teasers & New Games
• 33:12 Open & Shut: Global Openings, Shifts, Closures
• 49:56 Arcade Corner II: More IAPA Reveals
• 1:05:12 Promo Pro Tips: Black Friday Playbook
• 1:11:30 Wrap-Up & Upcoming Shows

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:01

Turning you in now to the LBX show. With your host, Brandon Wyatt. What do you buy the LBX collective? Your community can connect, engage, and inspire.

SPEAKER_03: 0:22

All right, well, welcome everybody to the LBX Show. This is the show for November 9th, 2025, and it is a fully, fully packed show for you today. We're going to dive into a really brief news you should know because we have so much else to cover. We're going to roll right into a guest gab with Susan Debates. She's the VP of Adventure and Entertainment from ESOL, which is an experienced commerce platform. They've been longtime listeners of the LBX show. And so we're excited to have them, you know, have her on. And we're going to discuss brand alignment and the importance of group sales for social entertainment venues. Then we're going to roll right into the first of two arcade corners. Yes, that's right. There's two arcade corners with Adam Pratt. This first one he dives into some of the amusement news leading up to IAPA Expo, uh, some of the releases, and then he's going to go through the inner cane, the new inner game magazine uh issue that came out for IAPA Expo. And then we're going to jump into a robust open and shut with Kevin Williams, obviously, to review the latest openings and closing trends from the last week. And then we're going to hear from Adam Pratt again with the second arcade corner as he covers more new releases showcased at IAPA Expo in just one week. It's coming up. It's almost here, guys. I'm so excited. Uh finally, we're going to close out with promo pro tips, Chuck Damonti, and he's going to discuss Black Friday promotions and how to make the most out of this, uh, out of it this time, because that's also coming up, right? So you come right out on IAPA Expo into Thanksgiving, into Black Friday. If you're not prepared, if you're not doing that now, you need to get on it. And he's going to discuss on uh how to do that. So that being said, let's dive into some news you should know. All right. Yes, we have Iappa Expo coming up, and I'm excited because the LBX Collective Speakeasy is returning Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday at 4 30 in the afternoon to like 5 30, probably till 6, till the end of the show floor that day. You know, we're gonna have our speakeasy open. It's in booth 4402. That is where the LBX Collective booth is, 4402. And look, it's a lot of fun. We hide out inside the banner, the backdrop of the LBX Collective booth, uh, there by being the Speakeasy. So you slip in there and we'll have uh unlimited Negroni's pouring, old fashions, and then our very own popular Galaxy cocktail. So definitely come by, hang out, see who's coming, who's swinging by. You know, it'll be a different crew every day, and uh, it's just a blast. So 4 30, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday in the LBX Collective Booth 4402. Gotta be there. Uh, all right. The last thing for news you should know, and that's it. Uh, we're gonna talk about uh want to talk about the um give kids the world charity events. So there is a golf tournament on Sunday. It's not something that I participate in, but you can scan this QR code here or go to gkdw.org. That's give kids the world, right? gkdtw.org and learn more about that um and sign up for the golf tournament. Uh, or you can uh do the 1K walk or 5K run with me on Thursday morning for at Footprints for the Heart at the actual Give Kids the World Village. And the same thing. You scan this QR code on the right, and um, well, I guess it's on the right, yeah, uh, on the right, and then that's the one that you can sign up for and actually join the LBX collective uh team. And anything you want to, uh, you know, your ticket fee, your race fee, as well as any additional donations, it all goes directly to Give Kids the World Village, which is uh you basically they provide cost-free vacations for children battling critical illnesses. They uh partner very closely with the Make a Wish Foundation, and uh, and so they're just an amazing organization and absolutely love what they do. So that is our news you should know. Coming up right after this, we've got our guest Gab. Intercard is the only cashless system designed, developed, and manufactured all under one roof. They introduced cashless technology to the usement industry and have been leading the way for over 30 years. Cashless system to Intercard increased customer spending, debt satisfaction, and boost revenues by up to 30%. Intercard is so proud of the serving the usement industry. If you are already part of a global family of customers, they hope you will become one too. All right, well, Susan, welcome to GuestGab on the LBX show. It's uh good to have you here.

SPEAKER_06: 4:51

Yeah, it's great to be here. Really excited. Long time listener, so excited to be here.

SPEAKER_03: 4:57

Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. Well, so tell tell us a little bit about ESOL first, and then we'll kick into some other topics here.

SPEAKER_06: 5:05

Yeah, that that sounds great. So uh we're relatively new in the entertainment space, but at its core, ESL is uh what we like to call an experienced commerce platform. So we are helping experienced creators with their website, all of their online booking, and all of their group sales management its core through the technology and then through our team as well. And so we have a team of people that really work hands-on to help experienced creators identify opportunities to really grow their revenues and improve operations.

SPEAKER_03: 5:39

Yeah, that's awesome. And you know, when you talk about experiences, I know originally I think it started on like concerts and concert venues and those things, and then just fairly recently moved into location-based entertainment and I think primarily the social entertainment space, right?

SPEAKER_06: 5:55

That's exactly right. Yeah. So ESOL's been around for a number of years. Uh, actually back in uh 2017, the original founders of ESOL, who are still uh in charge of leading the business today, were um festival creators, and they just recognized that there wasn't great technology to be able to support what they wanted to do in their business. So they decided to create their own, got some traction with that, and so have been really successful in the in the festival's music space, destination festivals, and then uh a couple of years ago looked at uh the business as we expanded into adventure travel, and then ultimately most recently with uh entertainment. So uh we work with businesses like uh like Swingers, Crazy Golf, and uh Hygingo, which is an experience out in the UK uh through state of play, really focusing in on um entertainment businesses and location-based entertainment around that social entertainment is definitely our sweet spot.

SPEAKER_03: 6:48

Yeah, awesome. Yeah, I mean, we recently actually just uh a couple of shows ago talked about Hijingo on one of our open and chats. So it was anyone that was opening up and like, oh man, I haven't seen that experience before, definitely want to check it out. It's a really, really unique uh social experience. And you know, when you when you look at so, like, first of all, I I want to actually talk quickly about what adventure travel is. So, like, I'm just because I'm curious, like what is adventure travel? I don't need to.

SPEAKER_06: 7:10

Yeah, so sure. Yeah. So adventure travel being more of like multi-day experiences. So, you know, going to uh a wellness retreat or a multi-day experience with you know, sightseeing out throughout different destinations in in Europe and things like that. There's actually from a technology perspective, there's quite a bit of um similarities with destination music festivals. So that was your the first extension in in the space.

SPEAKER_03: 7:34

Yeah. Well, I find it interesting too that you made the shift to come, you know, the social entertainment side. But then at the same time, I also think like, well, you're maybe doing adventure travel with other people, you're going to you know events with other people. And so obviously, this is where like the group sales, group booking stuff comes into play from that angle. And then I mean it's it's obviously super important to have that type of functionality, especially built into your site for a social entertainment venue.

SPEAKER_06: 8:02

Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of similarities, interestingly enough. I would say when you think about adventure travel and then with social entertainment, um, it's very uh, I would say, via inquiries and a lot of back and forth. And with you've got social entertainment has large corporate groups, uh, adventure travel, they're maybe individuals or small groups that are traveling, but the purchase price is usually pretty high for these. And so a lot of that interaction is handled through a lot of back and forth guest communication. Um, so there's there was already a foundation really for ESL in that way. And then we really identified that you know, this aspect of social entertainment is so important. We're talking with businesses that they do, you know, 50% or more of their total revenues is coming through, you know, corporate social entertainment, larger groups, bookings that are coming through the holidays and throughout the year. And there's not really great tools in place to help manage that in a way that you've got full visibility of all of your inventory. So oftentimes you're having to manage that separate than what's happening through your website, your individual bookings. And so you're flipping back and forth with systems, which is not only annoying, but it actually just limits your ability to maximize the yield in the venue. Um, if you're having to sort of earmark reserve spaces versus having real-time availability, complete visibility on all of the inventory that you have available, actually gives a lot more confidence where you could take group bookings and put them online through your website. So we've seen businesses that have started with, you know, only allowing up to 10 people to book online and then slowly they increase that because they get more confidence to really understand what they can do without the touch of a salesperson. So the salespeople then can focus on larger opportunities that are really never going to be something that are booked online, or maybe it doesn't make sense because you want to do some negotiation or there's you know special requests and things like that.

SPEAKER_03: 9:59

Yeah, I mean, I think that's the the thing about group sales that a lot of family entertainment centers, location-based entertainment, not even just social entertainment so much. They they they don't they sometimes forget or don't realize that they need to actually have somebody dedicated to that type of sales position because they're used to party booking. So like online party booking, it's like a mom or a dad going on, like booking to eight, you know, eight kids or whatever for a party, and like that can be handled online for the most part. Although I would also argue if you really want to maximize your upsells, your upsells, you should be having somebody call and and like actually managing that transaction all the way through to the finish. But group sales, even more so, because there are so many different unique requests that come in, group sizes are sometimes much larger, and so you really do need that human component to it. But one of the things you mentioned is a word that is not used very often in the LBE industry. And I think as we move more into social entertainment, it should be because and it's the inventory word. So you you call it inventory, and I think again, because we the the old family of human center model, it's like, hey, we have this max capacity, and as long as we are bringing in as many people as possible, it's this max capacity, or you know, you're gonna buy session times, and as long as we don't over you know oversell all of our session times, you're gonna go and you're gonna jump on a trampoline or whatever for two hours and then be done. Well, when you've got a social entertainment venue, there's typically, anyway, bays or things that are like dedicated areas that can only hold so much. And like that is what you should, you know, we should really be thinking of as that inventory that you're selling and have available.

SPEAKER_06: 11:38

Yeah, absolutely. You know, I come from the hotel space actually originally, and you know, the idea of revenue management, yield management, because you're dealing with you know perishable inventory, you know, is very very common terminology. And there's a lot of tooling that supports businesses in you know, the hotel space, hospitality space, be able to really maximize that that yield. But it is something that I think is very new, given social entertainment, generally speaking, is you know, relatively new as well. And we find that businesses all the time are are um thinking about these questions, making a million decisions all the time around just the operations. And that's just that next level of like, okay, well, now I've got to think about you know maximizing yield and inventory management and how do I make sure that I'm maximizing the occupancy in the space, but also getting the best revenue coming through for that space at the same time.

SPEAKER_03: 12:32

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and I what I I like as well is that you've got the ability to have, I think you you just said like a single view into all of the inventory that's available that is sometimes like you is disconnected, and you often will have this issue where the group sales doesn't know what the what the regular walk-ins are doing or what the smaller parties are doing. And so you end up with conflicts sometimes. And this happens even at birthday parties. You end up with conflicts like, hey, well, I had this birthday party book at the same time, and like, oh no, the special room is not available now because the inventory and the like the systems didn't talk to each other. Yeah. So having those, um, being able to communicate, and so knowing as I'm the group salesperson behind the scenes, um, I'm able to like just know with confidence that what I'm selling is actually truly available for that time, and that when I sell it, it's now going to come out of the inventory available for the general public or for those that are booking directly online uh for that space. And it's all about that first touch guest experience. And I think this is where we I hammer on this all the time with like the alignment of brand and alignment of guest experience online and having that match the guest experience you have inside. I think so many venues really care about their look and their feel and and their staff and everything else. Like they treat that location and that experience as their baby, and then really do a subpar, uh subpar experience online. And I think those two really have to match.

SPEAKER_06: 14:04

I totally, totally agree. I think that there's so much investment that goes into these concepts. They're so creative. It requires so much capital behind to just get the operations running. And any social entertainment business knows that you know they really have to nail the in-venue experience to get people not just coming the first time, but get them coming back again and again and again. And the digital presence is the first impression. Um, there it's an opportunity to really set the tone. And oftentimes, where I think technology has sort of failed these businesses is that it's just been a complete disconnect from actually the branded experience that these concepts are trying to deliver. So it's you know really common to click on book now and then get sent over into a separate environment where you lose all the branding. Not only do you lose all the branding, but you start to lose the tracking as well. And so you can't necessarily have a singular view of all the traffic that's coming to your site and exactly what's happening. Um, so there's commercial implications of that experience too. But I think from a brand perspective, they're spending on branding agencies, right? They're spending on, you know, marketing agencies. And so to have this beautifully designed website and then the you know, the last mile is into now an environment that you can't control that is unbranded, it's it's um, we see that a lot. And it's one of the things that we've really focused on, you know, bridging that gap so you don't have a disconnected experience between your website and actually your booking experience. And there's so much fun that can be had, I think, in social entertainment online as well. Like it, the idea is entertainment, like the creative things that you can do on your website to draw people in. You can create a digital experience in and of itself. Um, that you know, people are visiting your website, coming back to your website just to see what's new, and then drawing people in that way back again to your venues.

SPEAKER_03: 16:05

Yeah. And the really good brands do that, right? I mean, so you know, I take like Hijinx Hotel, for example, uh, you know, their fun lab out of out of the uh out of Australia, like they just do a fantastic job with their type of online experiences that they do. You know, they do holy moly, hijinks hotel, like and and so online experiences match the type of in-person, in-venue experiences you have. And it's not just from the fact that they have really good imagery, good photos, like good photos of their food, good photos of like people having fun, um, you know, kind of witty creative approaches to the text that's there and their 404 pages and everything else. Like they really think through that. And I think all of those things are important, but also like their overall uh you know experience on the website leading up to like you talked about, that last mile is thought through very carefully. And I think that's something that we often don't pay enough attention to is that, you know, I again I like that term, that last mile of the web experience before you're going to come actually in the door.

unknown: 17:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 17:09

And, you know, I think especially with some of the social entertainment concepts that are trying to branch out into multiple units, multiple locations, or even getting into franchising, like if you're not landing that that well, like, you know, things start to fall apart. It's so important to have that consistency. And I think the digital experience really drives that and sets that tone.

SPEAKER_03: 17:33

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Well, this has been a really, really great uh time hanging out, talking a little bit about easel, getting to know you, uh, you know, getting to know the product, but also just talking about social entertainment and stuff. So it's been it's been awesome. And looking forward to the next time have you on guest cab.

SPEAKER_06: 17:48

Awesome. Thanks so much. It's been great.

SPEAKER_03: 17:51

All right, Susan. See you next time. All right. Well, we are going to roll right into the first arcade corner with Adam Pratt.

SPEAKER_08: 18:13

Greetings, it's Adam with Arcade Heroes for the Arcade Corner. I hope that you all had a safe and very happy Halloween, and that you didn't engorge yourselves too much on your kids' Halloween candy. Uh in my instance, uh my kids generally are more just into the experience of it more than they are the candy, at least, which is uh good for their teeth and their guts at least. Uh, but anyways, um now that it's November, that means it's Iapitime. And with Iapatime means lots and lots and lots of news. Oftentimes, I mean, I guess speaking of gorging uh or overindulging, we get so much news that it can be a little hard to track. And so I'll see what I can do within the uh realm of all this. Um, but uh as a part of that and ignoring the overindulgence or the gorging of how many tabs I have open on the screen, uh, we all do that uh for real problems these days. But uh Intergame Online has launched their iAppa issue, and that includes various ads that will that are showcasing different products that will be at the show, as well as specific previews uh to what different manufacturers are bringing to the show. And so we'll cover these as best I can within our little time frame here. But uh one of the things I wanted the first talk about were these very interesting uh games from Dark Escape Games that are going to debut at the AVS Companies booth. They're a distributor, and they're gonna be over on the west end of the games and arcade pavilion area. So not the west, or sorry, I guess that is the west side of the convention center. And okay, I got that wrong. It they're on the east side of the Games and Arcade Pavilion, which is on the west side of the show floor, if that makes any sense. It's I think it's uh booth uh 1918, somewhere around there. They're on the opposite side of where adrenaline amusements will be. Anyways, uh they have the this Dark Escape Games is lying what looks to be like arcade style, arcade-sized escape rooms, uh, so that something that could go into a small venue. I'm still not a hundred percent uh sure uh how they will work. I mean, it seems like it's almost something like the size of a photo booth that you step into and then you need to escape within a certain amount of time, which is pretty innovative. Uh, of course, we'll have to see how that works in practice. And I am curious if they've tested these out at all and seen what kind of earnings that they have. But still, when I heard about that, it's uh pretty cool. Uh, it does say uh five-minute immersive story adventures, self-resetting and uh staff free with easy maintenance, deliver nonstop guest engagement, high throughput, lasting profitability, and all in just 20 square feet. So maybe a little bit larger than a photo booth. But uh just as long. Uh, I assume if you're an arcade operator like me, the only thing that might come to mind is uh please don't let these be dens of iniquity. Uh like environmental cabinets uh can be. Um, but let's uh keep scrolling through here. And uh you got some other news popping up. Uh Amusement Source International. Um, I know that they've uh it's bounced around what product uh how many of the products they're going to have. I've seen as high as 20. This issue is saying 11. I know there has to be some variance there to allow for shipping delays. Uh so that uh last year that uh caused a few problems at ASI as well as uh at Amusement Expo, where they wanted to have a particular game there to showcase, but it didn't arrive in time. Um but either way, they will have uh quite a few uh new games, and uh I think they have three booth spaces that they're looking to fill out, and so uh that'll have redemption games, videmption games, video games, uh a whole slew of stuff that uh will be available at great prices so that uh you can put some stuff into your venues if you are looking for that stuff. Uh, there's a lot of little bits of news here in this issue. And uh yeah, speaking of Amusement Source International, here's uh an ad showing a little bit more what they got. Rooster and Bro was one of the games that they were supposed to have at Amusement Expo in Vegas earlier this year, um, but it'll be there this time. Uh, Eunice is also going to have um quite a few new games available, and so that will um be also a pretty packed booth. They recently announced uh Monster Jet Riders, a new racing game. They announced a new dinosaur racing game. I think they might have this uh giant trackball, like this thing is uh it's like a beach ball size controller. Uh and uh that that's been at uh some different shows recently, including uh one in Europe, I think the ACOS over in London. And so for Sega's ad, they had I had seen this on test not long ago, the putt it party. And it came in a very different cabinet, but this looks like it's combining the idea of an alley bowler, better known as skee ball, uh, with a putting game. And it has a video screen and everything. Uh, the location test versions did not look quite this nice. It is obviously an early prototype, but uh that looks pretty cool, pretty innovative as well. And golf has never been as popular, I would say. And uh a single player version of the hypercross. Obviously, you could still link those up. Uh MyMai, I'm surprised they don't have the DX on there, and that will be there. That's been shipping here in the United States, and it's been getting a lot of attention as it's been showing up at not just round one USA, but some other venues as well. Uh, they'll have their Alpha Ops VR Strike, which has been out for a little bit. Uh, they're also carrying the SubSoccer arcade. They've got a new Simon arcade uh baltas redemption game and a standard version of Apex Rebels. But uh the one that is definitely perking some interest is the Daytona Championship USA Motion, which as you can see from the design there, it is actually reusing or reskinned the uh Apex Rebels Deluxe uh cabinet, and so you'll have the motion base there. There was a motion version of Daytona Championship USA that came out uh I think 2018 or so. That was the super deluxe model, but it was huge, very expensive, and not very many venues picked that up. And so looks like this is going to be aiming to get that game into more venues. No clue at this point if it comes with any new content. I think that would be cool, especially if they were able to say remaster a stage or two from Daytona USA 2 or even Scud Racer, just uh add something else in there uh to make it stand out from the versions that might be out there already or make it stand out a little bit more. And now I had mentioned uh Raw Thrills a uh earlier on and wanted to focus on them uh specifically uh just because they are they did announce some new games this week, uh or this previous week, such as what you see here, Jackpot Racer, Race to Win Tickets, and a new version of Godzilla Kaiju Wars, which I think I mentioned uh briefly in our GTI Asia China coverage. Um, but let's hop over, let's see where are they at in the slider. Uh oh, that there's a new software update available for Angry Birds Boom as well, which adds a leaderboard. Let's hop over to Godzilla Kaiju Wars Deluxe, as they're calling it. And so this gets rid of the VR headsets, but it also changes the gameplay. Obviously, the gameplay was going to need some adjustment because in a VR game it allows you to look around wherever you want, whereas this has to make sure that the action is always focused on uh whatever is attacking you or whatever you need to be shooting in the instance of a light gun game. And let's uh pop this up and put it on mute so that it doesn't ding anything on copyright. Um, but yep, has still has the two 65-inch 4K screens, but they now have added a lot of extra content to each stage. They haven't increased the number of stages, there's still five, or they say it's five plus a boss battle, it's really six levels. It's just the last level is nothing but fighting giant kaiju, uh Godzilla, and uh, I think another one there. But the uh now there's just more to do during the levels, and so as it was explained to me by Roth Thrills, it's somewhere around twice as long of a game. So instead of being about 15 to 17 minutes, you're looking at 30 to uh 36 minutes-ish, which actually puts it in line with something like uh Aliens Armageddon that they did back in 2013 or Jurassic Park Arcade. And so, yeah, could this be the next Jurassic Park arcade? I think so, just because uh how good the gameplay is on the VR version. Uh I think turning it into this model is something that I've been wanting to see since they first announced the game. And so happy to see that. Uh the pricing is above a Fast and Furious deluxe, uh, Fast and Furious arcade deluxe system. And so those were retailing for somewhere around 25,000. Um, it sounded like it'd be between that and maybe 30, but I guess it depends on your distributors you can ask them. And also, as I mentioned in this trailer, they've added a redemption mode to that. As uh that's all the rage right now. Although uh I imagine with a redemption mode, it's more just uh same gameplay, it's not like a specialized redemption mode that would be super, super short, uh, like say Space Invaders Frenzy, but instead just uh you win tickets depending on your score, is my assumption there. And so that will begin shipping out December time. That's when production hits. And Need to bring up the other brand new game that this one is not uh been unveiled previously, and this is Jackpot Racer. And speaking of redemption, this one is designed specifically for redemption play. And so what it is is it's essentially Superbikes 3, but uh you have four tracks, and the tracks are shorter, they're about a minute, minute 15 seconds long, and within these quick races, the entire goal is to beat the jackpot racer, as it says there. So that's a computer-controlled opponent, and so they will probably be difficult to beat because you wouldn't want uh the players winning the jackpot every single time, especially if it's a big ticket jackpot, unless you put it down low to like 50 or something. But uh that's up to the operator. But uh that's what you do. Yeah, you you race and it's short, and you have to beat that jackpot racer to win the big jackpot. I am a little bit surprised that they use that term just because I know for most redemption games they've shied away from using the term jackpot, uh, and instead say bonus or mega bonus or super bonus, but super bonus racer doesn't really grow off the tongue very well, sounds weird. Uh, or just bonus racer, also just sounds a little bizarre. Um, but uh here are shots of the four tracks. That's kind of pinkish uh character there, that's the jackpot racer that you have to beat. I guess you could call it an AI-controlled player, and but yeah, that is now in production and also comes in at a price around it pretty much the same as Superbikes 3. But if you want the giant marquee and the LED display to detail what the jackpot is, you need to buy two of them at once, which either comes in yellow and orange, they don't have more colors than that available. Uh, you can link up to eight of them, and uh so that is there for redemption play. Um, but that pretty much uh wraps up what we've got to cover this time. Of course, with IAPA is soon upon us, we got a lot more to cover. Uh X Arcadia just announced uh shipping for a new fighting game called Chaos Code Next, and they've actually offered a bundle where they're offering the first game along with the uh second game, uh, or yeah, both the first and second games together there, which I don't recall them doing before. And they'll be at IAPA with a lot of other stuff. But uh yeah, we'll have so much more to cover here in the coming week. So stay tuned. Thanks for watching. We'll catch you on the next uh arcade corner.

SPEAKER_03: 32:49

Whether it's perfectly fine for the plane, I think it's something like every city for the case and it's a command reach card. Allen one is updated. Every venue in our clean floor that is delightful gifts. Is it alone done.com to learn more? Is it allen to ax one dot com? All right, well, so much going on and so much to see at IAPA already, and that's just the first arcade corner. So uh and but before we got it, the next one coming up, we're gonna do some open and shut with Kevin Williams.

SPEAKER_00: 33:38

Well, hello everyone to the latest open and shut. I hope I find you well. Brandon?

SPEAKER_03: 33:44

Oh, yeah, very well, very well. So ready to I mean, there's so there's so much going on still, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_00: 33:51

It is, it is crazy, and that's I suppose something that I'm gonna have to uh face, aren't I? Uh my crystal ball was definitely a little bit murky when it came to that uh observation. So as you can see, we've seem to be back to uh what I would have said were March and April numbers that we uh had seen from facility openings, and there are new as well as uh established names uh still uh rolling through. But anyway, you know the know the process, pause if I zip past too quickly, but the first one out the gate. A difficult one for me here to uh hunt down. I was led to believe that this is in the uh Tokyo Tau, famous tourist uh uh and central location in Tokyo. Uh and the only entertainment facility there is uh the red multi-level mule uh entertainment space. And then we got a report through that uh Oculeep uh had opened a VR laser tag experience. And you know, uh unless they've uh built it outside uh of the building or in one of the retail units at the bottom, uh uh, we have to assume that this one's been installed in the uh tower uh facility.

SPEAKER_03: 35:08

Yeah. Oh sorry. Uh no, no, it's okay. I mean, I was just it's uh it it just seems like they just had some space, some real estate space, and they needed to throw something in there. I mean, it doesn't seem like a lot of thought was given to to exactly to what this was going to be and what the overall experience was.

SPEAKER_00: 35:25

Yeah, I was I was speaking to someone recently about uh the Japanese, uh especially the Tokyo uh VR market, and they were very dismissive, saying, you know, that it is an unusual market and it doesn't really give a uh a reflection of what the uh the global VR entertainment market situation is like. But you know, again, if I'm given this type of information, I'm going to comment on it. Second free roaming arena uh installation, new one that's opened up in Tokyo in the last few months. So they're obviously feeling that there is an opportunity here. Moving on, and we uh have been seeing the growth in immersive uh experiences. Uh, when we say immersive experiences, we're talking mainly for projection or marriage of live actors uh and uh projection immersion type uh experiences. Uh we saw that with the Minecraft experience uh and uh this latest one again based on a video game, uh again, again using uh real actors, live actors, again, again, it is uh using immersive touchscreen and projection mapping kinds of experiences, and again and again and again it's being uh controlled by fever. So I think we really are seeing this as a pattern for that transmedia crossover where a consumer game developer's marketing budget can be thrown at a digital uh experience.

SPEAKER_03: 36:58

Yeah, I definitely want to go check this out. I'm a big DD fan um myself, and so would love to go and actually have this experience, but also just really want to see how they have the mixed media integrated into everything. So, you know, it's one thing to put in live actors, but then to have all the different touch screens and projection mapping and you know live interaction. I really want to see how they pull together. Uh, you know, fever, look, they've done their as an operator, they're a great operator. Uh, they still have some work to go when it comes to creating experiences, but this is obviously not created by fever, but rather just operated by them.

SPEAKER_00: 37:33

Yeah, they're they're the uh overarching operators rather than the content creators. And you're quite right, sometimes it can be hit and miss which company they pick or studio they pick to do these. But uh again, uh hopefully we'll uh the crowded Texas market will get a report back. Uh uh another French installation, another uh French development that uh went under my radar a little bit here. Um, you know, I suddenly found out about 1055. Um, I've been trying to do a little bit more research into the company, as they have seven facilities now uh dotted around France. Uh they have the usual mix of a bit of bowling, a bit of social darts. Uh they have the quiz room experience, which you find uh with most of the French and German facilities. The mules, they usually include a quiz rather than a laser tag for uh various reasons, karaoke. But this one does have a laser tag, and this one also does have a lot more amusement. Uh, I I need to uh need to get someone on the ground there to have a look, uh I need to go for a drive uh next time I'm in Europe or down to uh this particular facility, but it is the growth of this kind of uh adult entertainment experience across the uh the territory.

SPEAKER_03: 38:57

I think the one thing that stands out to me is the addition of the um the quiz games. And I was I'm on their site here, and unfortunately it's not translating for me right now to English, um, but I'm on the quiz games section, but I was just trying to see who the platform provider is, if it's game of a thousand boxes, or if it's something they developed themselves, or they franchise something internally.

SPEAKER_00: 39:17

But they're in the website, no.

SPEAKER_03: 39:19

Yeah, no, it's not. Um, you know, and you can't, there's not very many pictures that would actually give away the the provider because you know, look, the only one that I know of that is deploying uh a like out of the box for inside of an FEC quiz game system is Game of A Thousand Boxes. There are other brands that exist, but they tend to be more standalone where you go and visit the like you know, like uh Game Show Battle Room, for example, is one of those. But uh that's like a standalone experience. They have a couple of rooms, and it's very different than just a quiz game that's set up inside of an FPC.

SPEAKER_00: 39:53

Uh okay, so I jumped to our database, and I can tell you from the European perspective, there's about over 10 European uh quiz platforms, and they come in three flavors. They come in the, as you say, the standalone facility-based turnkey approach. Uh, but there's uh products like Cube, uh, which is uh I think a Scandinavian company who do a uh digital uh quiz game as well as an escape game system.

SPEAKER_03: 40:22

Uh I was familiar with the escape game system, uh, the cube escape game version. I didn't know that they did a quiz game.

SPEAKER_00: 40:28

Yeah, they they just uh all they did they turned uh those screens into a giant uh uh quid uh quiz screen uh platform. It's one of the contents, and there's other companies, but that they are very hit or miss. You know, they uh onesies, twosies uh are of installations compared to uh you know the game of a thousand boxes and uh and stuff like that. Bonkers, one on our radar, four facilities. Um you know, they're going around the territories of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, um uh installing their uh facility. It is pivoting away from the children uh kind of active entertainment facility to adding a lot more amusement and attractions, though uh this re-ad facility seems to be uh following the usual format. Time zone celebrating their 80th, uh sorry, 70th installation in India. I I believe that this is actually the uh uh the TEG India operation celebrating their 88th installation rather than uh the the time zone operation as a whole in Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, and all of that. Uh again, the the press release uh suffered a little bit from translation error. Uh the issues here, going into a mall, proven formats, bish bash bosh. Uh, and that's how they get to 70. They seem to have really cookie-cutted it well. And from the continued growth, I would assume that they know their audience very well in that diaspora. The uh time zone operation has also been pushing in Australia. Uh, you know, my database tells me that there are over 300 facilities, uh, and again, their winning formula seems to be rolling out uh the constant mix. Though I am interested with the time zones in Australia, they're going for more and more uh attractions, uh you know, the bowling, the laser tag, um, the bump cars, uh the uh the VR uh experiences, with the amusement not being as prevalent uh and maybe more focused on uh redemption products.

SPEAKER_03: 42:42

I think the one thing that they've done well, I mean, for having 350 facilities, and look, I mean, guess Chuck E. Cheese is doing the same thing, um, but they are uh they are definitely evolving their uh their design, their aesthetic. They've kept their logo the same for a long time, uh, which is you know they haven't really evolved that, but the interior uh in fit out has definitely evolved to stay current with the times.

SPEAKER_00: 43:04

Yes, they've uh they went through an update to their branding uh two years ago, I think I'm correct. Um, definitely coming out of uh the pandemic and uh all of that. They you know they shook themselves down, readdressed, represented themselves. Their layout, their branding has gone through that, and I think they're sticking with that. Um 303 facilities can't be wrong. A new one, uh a project coming out of stealth. Um, our friends uh at Rivals Social is really it is what it says on the front of the tin. It is going to be a competitive socializing entertainment facility. They came out of stealth mode uh a couple of uh months ago and have been teasing pictures of what they're doing, but they seem to have gone for the proven formula. They have uh augmented uh reality darts, they have uh the uh arena system from conductor uh game faults, they have uh AR, or uh what I would call mid-reality bowling systems using the Spark system. So uh and they and they will be proving that they also have some other uh off-the-shelf uh competitive socializing products. It'll be interesting to see what the final fit out of this uh stealth facility looks like. Uh, and I think we'll be hearing a lot more about this near the end of the year.

SPEAKER_03: 44:31

Do we know, is this actually a like on do we know the ownership group here? Because it seems like this is a conductor, um, like a you know, basically a conductor showcase. I mean, it almost has everything in it is conductor.

SPEAKER_00: 44:44

It is a showroom for a company, but I'm not sure if that company has revealed their involvement yet. So yeah, I would say watch this space.

SPEAKER_03: 44:53

Well, and the reason, the reason I I just am even skeptical of like, or I'm not skeptical, but like curious is first of all, there is another company out of the UK that is developing uh like augmented reality mini golf uh game called Social Rivals, as you know, and we've talked about this before, whether it was on sound off or on open and shut, I can't remember. Um, and the logos, the there's some similarity even to the logos that we pointed out between the two. So you have Rivals Social opening up an actual venue, and then you have social rivals, who is the you know manufacturer of projection mapped mini golf games. And so, anyway, it just seems like if this is conductor doing some of this work, it is definitely a shot across social rivals bow uh in trying to basically establish themselves in both branding and in a physical presence.

SPEAKER_00: 45:40

I I didn't mean to be so cryptic with the slide by not including developed by. Uh it's just that uh I I did remove it at the last minute when it was made clear to me.

SPEAKER_03: 45:50

It does it does a vegurio, developed by.

SPEAKER_00: 45:53

Delete, and I didn't go the whole hog. Uh we we will, I think after I'll probably be in a better position to uh to give a rundown. Hopefully by then I will have visited the site as well. But K1, and then we jump to uh our friends at Flight Club. Uh you know, up to 27 facilities now internationally. Uh, the latest one in Newcastle. I think this is uh uh an addition to the Newcastle area because there is also some other competitive socializing uh operations there as well as in Leeds and around the UK. Um but they're celebrating 10 years in business, uh, and we will be touching upon uh some development. Well, I think we've already touched upon some developments that have hit the the owner of uh the operation as they have uh improved their management team and uh turned some new investment. So I think the machine keeps on trucking here.

unknown: 46:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 46:51

And then finally, uh, well, semi-finally, uh we have Strike R. Uh again, uh one that uh appeared out of nowhere on my uh uh search engine when I was doing some research, uh, based in the Netherlands, and it is both a new facility and the launch of a new uh entertainment concept. So uh move over mini golf. Now let's uh use your feet to play football adventure golf. Um it looks interesting. Um, I wonder how it plays. Um I haven't got that much information uh about this other than the new facility and that the company has entered the market. Uh, I'm going to try and throw one of our sources in the Netherlands to actually get some video of it in action because I just want to see what multiple people trying not to totally welly the ball, kick the ball into uh around the facility, but try to do very detailed uh football uh shooting action to get it into uh the hole, uh, and how that will kind of work itself out with the target audience that they're looking for.

SPEAKER_03: 48:05

Yeah, this one's interesting because um, you know, here is a uh that they must have done like an initial concept launch in um uh you know outdoors because the one you're showing obviously is an indoor version. So, like probably much more of a social entertainment venue they're trying to make out of this. Um, this is done uh so you can see just some. Here's a version of the outdoor. So, you know, it's interesting. Um, this one obviously is themed to more align with the nature theme, where the other one is much more like again that social entertainment vibe. Um, I I'm I'm always open and interested in discovering or or seeing new use cases here. Uh, I do worry though that like, you know, I know what my kids do when we go mini, well, when they used to do when they were younger when we went mini golf, uh when mini golfing, and they would just like wind up and just crank that ball as hard as they can, and the ball goes flying and bouncing. I could see kids coming up and just trying to just crush that ball. And uh, you know, there's not a lot of the the berms aren't that high. So you have to be really careful and uh you know with your touches that you are doing with uh with the football. But it is interesting, right?

SPEAKER_00: 49:10

To be blunt, I wasn't interested in the outdoor version for obvious reasons because it isn't a uh a a hundred percent original concept for an outdoor variant of football. I saw one uh many, many moons ago that used a mini ball, um semi-solid ball, uh, where you kicked it around rather than used uh a golf club. But I was more interested in the indoor variant of the system, which uh I think is on a different page.

SPEAKER_03: 49:40

Uh yeah, I was trying to find the indoor version, but yeah. Um it's developed by this, you know, this uh leisure group, the store leisure concepts group. But uh yeah, interesting.

SPEAKER_00: 49:50

Uh moving on to the last, and uh we talked about uh the pop-up uh immersive uh fidgetal uh experiences. Uh and one of the things we've touched upon in sound off is how our friends at Merlin Entertainments have been uh expanding uh their rollout of their own proprietary uh products and trying to uh establish uh you know kind of uh their own rolling uh attraction kind of experiences. And OneDar uh has uh just uh opened up in Illinois and um it's it is what it is. I I'm uh you know I I've seen uh the website obviously, but I've also been looking at a walkthrough video uh that an influencer set up, and uh I didn't have uh it it it it looks like uh a standard projection mapped uh Gosmore uh and uh Figital uh experience, no MR glasses, so maybe a good thing, no, only joking. Uh but um the interactivity seems limited uh and the experience does seem high priced. Funny enough, our friends at Fever are operating it, but Fever and Merlin have always had a very close.

SPEAKER_03: 51:16

Yeah, I always find it interesting when Fever is operating, when that's really what Merlin is known for, is their operations. But uh, you know, look, they are also not known for doing these types of really small location-based entertainment experiences. So um I think it will be interesting to see how Merlin succeeds or fails here because this is their first foray really into like a small um footprint, you know, experiential location-based entertainment experience. Um, and that is uh, and yeah, I mean, we'll see. I mean, Fever at least knows how to operate those.

SPEAKER_00: 51:49

And it's interesting that they've launched this in America, where you would have expected maybe Merlin to have maybe uh put some training wheels on this in a UK opening. Um I think there's a lot going on here and uh in the post uh Lego Discovery Zone uh market for Merlin, uh they they have a lot to prove that they can do this type of thing. Moving on, and to the uh news in the markets and the changes, the shakes up, the mergers, the acquisitions, and and all of that stuff, and uh our friends at Oxygen uh have acquired the uh ownership uh and the rights to uh Ninja Warrior UK, which is a TV series, which then migrated into uh creating facilities. And they have five ninja courses, what you would have expect from a uh ninja course based on the TV show timing, uh lots of activities, lots of skill uh and physical involvement. Perfect mix for a company that's in the trampoline and active play market, a logical acquisition, and uh our friends uh Oxygen now move into 18 facilities. Uh and uh I'm sure this is not the only new opening we're gonna be hearing from them. One just you know, putting my Disney, uh my battered Disney hat on. Uh I was always interested when Disney steps into a space uh that's been run by another company uh to see how well uh the Disney magic, the Picty Dusters, can actually uh handle uh the bricks and mortar and the control of a business. Uh in Disney Springs, we'd uh always had uh within uh just outside the Disney resort, uh there was always a very successful Starbucks. Well, surprise, surprise, that success. Disney raised its uh heckels to, and one day the Starbucks was gone, and then suddenly uh Disney Run coffee uh uh facility opened up. Uh and you know, this is part of uh 80 million food hall development, you know, Disney ushered out the original uh proprietors of the food hall and uh the coffee suppliers from Starbucks and all of that, and they replaced it with their operation, and it's closing after just under 12 months. If you can't sell coffee to park uh and uh uh entertainment goers, then you really do need to look very closely at your navel to see what's going on there. Just uh I thought I'd bring that up. Uh you know, coffee for many people is entertainment. Uh if you've got uh uh a Saudi Arabian uh facility, uh I was always led to believe that they were a license to print money. Well, um it seems that uh one of the larger of the parks that's been going for about 40 years in that neck of the woods uh has decided uh to close down. No information on the reason behind the closure, but with within this territory, uh information about failure is always uh you know monitored quite closely and it doesn't usually uh appear in the circles that I uh uh move in. Whether this is going to be acquired by a larger corporation or whether the space is going to be redeveloped, I can't say. But again, it's now on our watch list to find out exactly why Happy Land uh has gone after 40 years of business.

SPEAKER_03: 55:24

This one is certainly super surprising. I mean, you just don't again hear something like this that has this type of legacy shutting down in uh you know in a place like the uh like Saudi Arabia. Um I mean this is what they are trying, you know, they're trying to diversify when you have something that's been around in theory successfully for 40 years. Uh it doesn't seem like it's something you shut down unless there's something uh that they intend to use the land for that they expect to drive even more revenue.

SPEAKER_00: 55:50

We will watch this space with interest. And if you've got three million burning a hole in your pocket, there's another UK facility up for sale. Uh this was uh another surprise again, been going for uh you know some time, uh opened up in the 60s, uh, nearly as old as me. The uh the the facility, I when I first saw this, I was thinking, oh, have we talked about this one before? You know, uh, but no, yeah, another UK old venue that seems to from the you know doesn't even have a really a proper web page, to be honest. Uh and uh suddenly uh the local media is reporting that uh they're going to be closing down and also up for sale. Again, we'll keep an eye on this, but I think it is uh you know a sign of the times. We've reported on this, especially this year, a number of occasions of this kind of Wales or UK Middle Northern kind of entertainment facility, just finding it too uh this is too difficult uh uh a market for mom and pops, and you really have to be professional about it. This is not saying that the market is hurting, on the contrary, new facilities are opening up, major investments are being made, and we're seeing some very strong returns for 2025 tickets. But the the smaller venues off the beaten track that maybe don't have the marketing budget uh and social media chops uh are getting the chop.

SPEAKER_03: 57:25

Yeah, we've seen so many of these that really in the last year of this this type of like small regional uh amusement park targeting kids 14 and under, uh, you know, kids obviously families with those kids.

SPEAKER_02: 57:37

Just uh we've seen so many of these things either going up for sale or just shutting down permanently, and many of them have been around for that 39 to 65 year mark. And it's uh definitely is something to be watching more closely, especially if there's one in your area or you are an operator of one in a regional area that that really relies on your local community, uh, because they don't seem to be doing well and uh are certainly not sustainable.

SPEAKER_00: 58:03

I I would if I was running a regional, I would be, you know, going through the process of doing a market evaluation and an overview to make sure that uh you're not hole below the waterline or you're about to have a surprise uh regarding your there's nothing wrong with running a regional entertainment facility uh in this market unless uh but again we're talking about older facilities and maybe family groups uh uh given offers maybe to move on, or they see one facility put itself up for sale and they think that they can uh make a killing. But I I would say that three million seems a low, uh a low kind of bid for something of this size and uh leniency. But anyway, uh and again, you know, you have your entertainment facility in a large complex, and then suddenly you wake up and you find out that your complex is for sale. The owners of uh the Battersea Power Station are very swish uh redevelopment. It took a long time to be redeveloped, many decades went past uh for the Derelic site to be turned into a hub of uh social entertainment, retail, uh dining, cinema inside there, and a number of competitive socializing entertainments. Bounce, for example, has uh an operation inside there. Our friends uh at DNA VR have a facility uh within the complex. And now they are about to uh uh have a brand new owner of uh or uh tenancy ownership. Uh and you know what that means. Uh strong possibility of uh your rent going up. So again, uh the the issues of being a franchise operation within someone else's space.

SPEAKER_03: 59:46

Yeah, one of the biggest concerns here is that they obviously cancel leases, not even just raising rent, but you they may have a decision that they, hey, they want something different, they want a different mix of hospitality, entertainment, food, etc., in their in their space. It's now theirs and they can choose to not renew your lease or just cancel it, depending on the terms that you have put in there. So um it is definitely and one of these ownership changes is always something to watch, and you want to be very careful when you're signing those leases that you have the ability that that lease is assigned, you know, to the new owner that you continue to have that lease. A lot of these buyers of these leases, they want those longer-term leases. It's part of the reason why they're doing it, because they want that consistent income. But sometimes they have a different vision and what they want the their new property to reflect.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:33

It is the sort of damage leads over your head when you sign those leases, but sometimes uh the foot traffic is seen to be worth the risk. Uh I'm, you know, I went to the launch of the bounce uh ping-pong social entertainment facility in there. I still scratch my head uh how bounce fits into the competitive socializing market, but they seem uh to still be opening facilities and still uh rocking along. So uh we will have to wait and see how the dust settles here. And then pinstripes, remember pinstripes? Well, uh we were promised that no facilities would close, and we were promised that staff would keep their jobs, and we were promised uh that the moon was made of cheese. Well, sadly, we now find out through the uh some of the local media uh journalists are doing a little bit more digging that um a number of these sites are closing. To be blunt, only eight facilities of uh the 18 are going to survive uh from the pinstripes uh operations so far. And you know, we're watching very closely those eight to see if they are just uh uh the you know uh going to be the uh outliers for the next major restructure. Anyway, uh this particular facility uh South Barrington only 18 years it's been going. Well only, but uh 18 years it's uh established itself. Uh it was a going concern as far as we know, other than the problems inherent uh with the brand. Uh, but yeah, it's it's being shuttered uh along with uh another 10. Uh and then we're going to be learning a lot more, I think, in uh the next few weeks with the new situation following the chapter 11.

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:23

Yeah, I don't I mean, I I I certainly wouldn't want to be the one to pick up these guys, but um, you know, we'll see we'll see how it all turns out for them. This is what I've been calling we've been calling for a long time.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:34

Yeah, I hope to have a funny story in a couple of weeks to talk about uh this uh but uh uh I feel for the people that are losing their jobs, but uh I also hope that their experience means that they can parachute into one of the other facilities that uh doing guns. Anyway, we've zipped through uh uh another large selection. If you've got any information that you want to pass on, or if you want to correct me uh on any of the multiple mistakes I'm sure I've made, uh uh please drop us uh an email or contact us through LinkedIn and please keep up with uh the latest issues of both the Stinger Report and the Entertainment Social Arena.

SPEAKER_03: 1:03:18

Awesome. All right, well, we will see you on the next one. Have a good one, everyone.

SPEAKER_07: 1:03:31

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SPEAKER_03: 1:04:04

All right, well, that was a great open and shut. Next up, we've got the second arcade corner with Adam Pratt as we dive into some more IAPA Expo planned releases.

SPEAKER_08: 1:04:26

Uh week of November the 9th, uh, the calm before the storm, so to speak, uh, the week before Iappa 2025. And um as I record this, um things are getting spicy as far as flights go. So hopefully I uh actually make it because I'm not driving 33 hours to get to Orlando uh in the event that uh I can't fly in. But um assuming everything will work out, um, and for those uh, or if it doesn't, for those who actually still make it to the show, um, this has been a very, very, very busy week this past week as far as new equipment has been announced. And uh there's more that I won't get into, be able to get into here. So um let's just jump into it and see what I can get done in our allotted time. Uh, first off, as you see here, um, apologies for the uh lousy uh PDF slideshow here, but uh Touch Magic has three games that they're going to introduce to the show. And what's interesting is they're uh with these, they've moved away from any sort of video screen. Um in the past, they've always done a lot of stuff with that, and um they've done some innovative things at times uh with projection mapping. Um, but these are all pure electromechanical redemption games uh with the treasure chest where you're dropping pinballs, and that actually um uh was uh Apple last year. Pickleball toss, which is based on the carnival midway games, and then boxed up is actually a merchandiser where it's like a forklift themed uh merchandiser where you're trying to get the either small or large prizes there. And next up, um, Sega was very, very busy this week. They've done a kind of a staggered release of their news, and they have a lot of different redemption items there, lots of cranes. Um, that's a little bit of the uh theme that's going on. Plenty of cranes because of all the claw arcades or clawcades that are popping up out there, but they have more than claws, fortunately. Uh Pudtit Party is an innovative uh blend of mini golf putting and um Alley bowlers, better known as Ski Ball. Um, not uh not every Alley bowler is Ski Ball. Ski ball is the brand, it's kind of like calling every tablet an iPad sort of thing. But either way, um this one you get to uh putt into the targets there, goes up the little ramp and you try and get it into the targets that are set up just like an Alley bowler, has a video screen, six different characters. Now, what they sell these in twin units, so it comes with two stations each. And so you can, as the photo shows there, link up three of them to have a maximum of six players. I imagine that's what they'll have at the show. Also has a micro LED billboard on the top, and so just overall looks um pretty neat, and I'm sure it'll be played a lot, and I'll be giving it as my uh a try myself. Uh, also they announced Simon Arcade based on the Simon says toy with Hasbro, and they got the license and everything. It's a ball toss game, and you're supposed to toss the balls into the uh lit up targets uh twin points. Um maybe it kind of sort of like the tic-tac uh toe basketball or or tick shack toe, maybe that was, but uh basketball component, but going for certain targets there is where I'm thinking. And then on Friday morning they announced the um Daytona Championship USA is coming back with a new model. And this is a champ, it's still called Daytona Championship USA, um, but it'll be the motion deluxe version. Uh years ago, Sega did do a super deluxe version of this uh game, which had some motion on it. It used a pivot motion system, which uh Sega Showdown Super Deluxe had also used, where it's more of kind of a sliding motion, uh, but it wasn't a full like hydraulic or electromotor or uh the air bladder motion system, whereas uh what is being used here, these are the same cabinets that was used with their Apex Rebels. And so if you played that deluxe version, uh the motion would be the same as what you get there, just applied to Daytona. And as far as I'm aware, the software is the latest that Sega had developed for the game, which was the new season edition, which featured better handling as well as graphics uh improvements and things of that nature, which unfortunately not everybody gave a chance. I saw plenty of players out there where they played an earlier version of it, which wasn't as good, and they just kind of wrote it off and never gave it another chance, whereas uh they should have, at least with uh the new season edition, as it did improve on things quite a bit. And then um we learned some about uh this game at the bottom here, the motorcycle game Speed Rider 4DX. Now, Sega had initially put out a release saying that they were carrying the game, however, they kind of just quietly removed it. And it turns out that they picked it up for European distribution, and then Bandai Namco Amusements has picked it up for North American distribution, and so this will be at the Bandai Namco Amusements booth. Um, so far, with all the re uh with all the previews I've seen from Intergame as well as the Reclay magazine. Um, I haven't heard of anything else that Bandai Namco is bringing there. They won't have Resident Evil arcade, uh, the Resident Evil 2 arcade game that was seen on test earlier this year, unless there was just some sort of big surprise that they were holding back. But given that that's not going to be happening, probably for another year, um, it's just probably not happening. Apologies about the uh bird, uh, which I used to not have a bird on the uh uh stream here, but uh can't really tell a bird to shut up. Uh they don't listen. Um team play. Um, they've announced a new Ghostbusters uh will game where it appears to me that it's not actually spinning, where they still have the curved display with the different LED panels, and so it's uh just like say the other um digital rollers out there like Monopoly Roll and Go or um Wizard of Oz, um, where it has a display, but instead of putting like say two LCD TVs uh next to each other, this is all the LED panels like you'd see in the Carnival Wheel. And so I assume that would help on cost with this one, as well as the size, comes with two of them like that, has mini-games built into it, although it isn't clear how those work exactly. And uh redesign handle lever uh compared to what was used in Carnival Wheel for better reliability, I would assume. And um just yeah, has uh licensed Ghostbuster stuff, which seems to be one of those licenses that spans the generations. Some things younger kids don't care about what uh at all whatsoever. Um, there's plenty of things that I could tell you that my kids just don't care about that I grew up with. And I think that's where sometimes the arcade industry keeps missing the target, or like Hollywood keeps missing the target. Like recently, Tron was a major, major bomb for Disney. And um part of that uh comes down to it's just there's no appeal to Generation Alpha or Generation Z uh with these properties that were something in the 80s uh for most of the time. But Ghostmasters is one of those that seems to have been able to uh uh get around that problem, I guess. Anyways, rant over. Uh, we don't have enough time to be ranting. All right. Uh Atari Pong, uh the electromechanical units are coming back thanks to Allen One and Atari, and so they will have home units, which uh include the um stools, as you see there. Um, these are very limited in quantity. They're supposed to be shipping in time for Christmas. Um, there will be one at IAPA at the Allen One booth, and uh then they've mentioned that they will be bringing out a commercial version, but there aren't any details on that yet as to how that will look, if it would be the same thing that Unis released or which model of the Unis ones it might be and such. Um but um I've heard I've actually had people on my own channels before asking, hey, uh have you heard about those uh Atari Pong coffee tables? And it's like uh until now I haven't, but uh now they're available. Uh LAI Games also released a bit of information this past week as to what's coming to their booth. Uh, you have Phantom Vanguard Modern Combat, which is a Game Loft game. And so this was seen at GTI Asia China Expo where it debuted, and it puts, I think that's 285-inch screens, might be 275 or 65 inch screens that are vertically mounted next to each other to create kind of a one by one, or maybe that's a five by four aspect ratio. Um, but this light gun game has an interesting innovative change to it where the guns you can holster them, and when they are holstered uh or mounted, they act as heavy artillery in the game. And when you pull them out and use them as free guns, they act as a machine gun. And so it changes the mode. But I think the game will tell you when to put the gun into the holster there. And also sort of a gun game, but also driving gun hybrid mix with VR is uh the Ubisoft All-Stars VR, uh, which has uh various uh Ubisoft characters blended into it with a unique experience designed just for arcades and three different uh ride levels, but it's all interactive. And so uh if you recall, LAI Games pioneered things with the virtual rabbits concept, but that one wasn't interactive except for uh there was some slight interactivity added with a later update. Um, but this uh has actual control, and the controller is a mounted item that's almost seems like a yoke slash mounted gun sort of thing that's supposed to give you a more uh full control over the scenes that you're encountering there. Um they also have a new version of Kaiju Rampage called Kaiju Rampage Unite, which offers up to four players as an upright game and has pistols instead of the mounted guns. Uh Kaiju Rampage debuted last year at IAPA in the environmental deluxe cabinet. Um I thought the effects on the mounted guns themselves was pretty neat with all the LEDs that they had in there. Um, but these pistols would be a little bit different. But I assume that the gameplay would be mostly the same. I mean, sometimes you do have to make some adjustments there uh when you're changing the format of the hardware and everything. But um, they'll also have a new coin pusher called Cube Clash, uh, which has been designed uh in conjunction with uh a Chinese company that has uh done a lot of their other coin pushers. And then they also have a new concept, I think this is out of India called Hypergrid, uh, where it has an interactive uh LED squares that uh are on both the floor and the walls and a variety of mini games there. So that'll be interesting to see. Definitely one for the FECs on that side. Um, and then um looks like I was able to rush through and get everything uh here that says this is our last item, and that would be uh The Walking Dead Remastered was announced this week. And um always surprises me when uh companies uh like Stern and such or pinball companies can't make Halloween. It seems like that would be the best time to announce uh a horror-themed one. Uh, there's another company out there called Spooky Pinball, they call themselves Boutique Pinball, which is a fancy way of saying they're an independent or smaller uh pinball manufacturer, um, where they also have teased a Beetlejuice uh pinball machine. What's interesting about that Beetlejuice one is that it's apparently voice activated. So you actually have to say Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, and then it does something in the game, um, which is uh pretty neat. And I guess speaking of that, uh voice activated stuff is uh making a comeback of some sort. I mean, we've seen them in uh uh there there have been a few things here and there with voice activation in our case, but not usually. Um, but not sure how well this might show up. Looks like it's not gonna show up at all. Uh on my oh, there we go. Um, Smart Industries also has this new redemption game where kids are supposed to scream into the giant ear. Where I can see that, but uh there's I see one side that's pretty innovative. Uh on the other side, it's like, I wonder how many operators want to have kids incentivize kids screaming. Um, but uh that that is a neat little concept. It's called Scream and Win. Champion, I think, uh, or champion scream and win. Uh and that'll be at the Smart Industries booth. But, anyways, that was another sidetrack tangent. So uh Walking Dead remastered. This is a remaster of the 2014 Walking Dead that Stern did. And um so I've seen some people really complaining about the colors on this one, some not happy with the layout. Um, personally, from the video that you can find out there on Stern's um web uh YouTube channel, I thought it looked fine to me. And I know this was a highly rated pinball machine, and so with new hardware and such, it seems like a pretty good IP to be going with, as it's also one of those that's relevant to uh most people these days. Zombies never seem to die, right? Never seem to go out of style. But uh that's our mini Iappa preview. Um, expect even more um this uh next week is uh we'll be um right on at IAPA's door uh next time. And uh plenty to be talking about uh for the coming month or two after this show, I would imagine. But uh thanks for watching. We'll catch you on the next arcade corner.

SPEAKER_07: 1:19:11

Hello and welcome to promo pro tips with Chuck DiMonty. That is me, and on today's segment, I want to discuss Black Friday. It is coming up. Hopefully, you'll see this video in time to potentially help you create some promotions. Uh, but obviously it was a big promo day, not just for retail and and e-commerce and stuff like that. It's people are looking and ready to spend money and looking for deals, right? So, how can FECs uh make the most out of this, you know, time when customers are ready to buy, right? They're trying to buy for you know uh uh their holidays and get discounts, and people are just trained to purchase at this time, okay? So, how do you make this the most successful as possible? I think you want to start off with what's your objective? What are you trying to accomplish, right? Do you want to get more birthday bookings? Do you want to get more members? Do you want to get, you know, what what is it that you are trying to accomplish so you could create something that'll move the needle with that objective, right? So that's first and foremost, really understand what's gonna move the needle. And you obviously want to keep it something in mind that you know that consumers gonna be interested in, right? It needs to be value. People are used to having really deep discounts and really val, like really big value on Black Friday, right? So how can you help create that? Okay. So first and foremost, find out what you want to promote, find out what that discount is, right? And so, you know, again, it could be uh discount of birthday bookings, discount of arcade cards, right? Uh bone the the the gift cards are very common when you, you know, you buy a hundred, you get an extra$50, right? That is a very, very common thing, especially because people like to use those things as stocking stuffers, right? And buy them for gifts for their kids, their friends, family, you know, their their nieces, nephews, whatever, right? So find something that has a lot of value, okay? You know, and get creative here. And you don't necessarily want to give away too much. It's it's really cool to like figure out ways to add value on while still getting, you know, a lot of the the the you know, keeping this sort of core offer of what you offer not discounted too much, right? So for maybe birthdays, it's like you add extra food for free or you add extra jumpers for free. So you're really still keeping the value there, okay? Um, and not discounting what you offer tremendously, right? So uh, you know, gift cards, membership promos, birthday promos, right? All that type of stuff. Keep it limited to a certain time. You know, make sure you you want to get these people to come back and use it as soon as possible, right? Um, and get them in there and then upsell them, whatever, right? So uh really important to focus on what the deal is. And again, add value. Don't don't discount your core offer too much. Try and add more value to it. So people go, oh, that's a great deal, right? It was$400 for only X, Y, and Z, but now it's$400 for you know all these other things included, right? So find ways you can add value that have a perceived value increase, right? But maybe don't cost you as much uh to deliver it. Okay. Uh so try and find what that looks like. Now, once you have sort of the offer and you know what it is, start promoting it as early and often as possible. It has become very common now. Black Friday isn't just Black Friday anymore. It starts two weeks early, right? And goes all the way to the end of November, right? So figure out what's a good time frame for you to run it, right? And again, you want to get there early. You know, the more you know, people have a limited amount of dollars to spend, right? So the earlier you can get this and get them spending dollars with you, then they're not spending dollars with a competitor somewhere else, right? So promote it early and often. Again, I would suggest promoting it, you know, even you know, a week or two weeks, even before Black Friday, right? That's what a lot of people are doing now. So you kind of just got to go with with you know the comp what the competition is doing and uh you know what other people are doing. So uh again, because it's a limited marketing dollar, limited consumer spend, right? So you you want to get some of their the those dollars they're gonna be spending. So again, promote it early and often where do you want to promote it? Make sure you have your normal channels, right? It's nothing crazy. Email, SMS, meta ads, organic content. Um, you could even do on Google Ads, right? Do like a call out extension, right? So you want to make sure you're promoting it on all those channels and and and aggressively, promote it a lot, right? You need to cut through all the noise, right? Don't be afraid to over-promote this. You want this to be a big revenue day for you, right? A big revenue month because of you know, for all the deals you have going on. So uh don't be afraid to overpromote it, right? Really important in-park signage, right? Make sure you have in-park signage everywhere and that people know what the deals are coming up. And even if you don't want to promote the full deal, maybe even tease it, start teasing it now, right? Like, hey, keep an eye out. Black Friday deals launching on November 14th, right? Or whatever it is. So keep that, you know, keep that momentum going, right? And keep people, you know, hopefully waiting to see what the offer is, right? So again, promote it early and often uh as much as you possibly can, okay? Um, so you know, I would also make it look as nice as possible. Make it very simple to understand what the offer is, very simple to uh redeem the offer, okay? You got to think about the operations piece of this. So again, figure out what what your objective is and what's gonna move the needle and what you want to increase and do in your business. Stop promoting it early and often, right? Tease it out, promote it early, go on all your channels, your email, your SMS, your meta, your organic, right? Your in-source signage. Please do not forget in-store signage, okay? And then figure out, you know, how do you make it run smoothly and easily, right? If somebody tries to redeem their offer and it's just a very complicated, uh not user-friendly process, it's going to impact your sales, right? Uh, and then again, try and create as much value with the actual offer as possible without discounting too much, right? Um, really make perceived value really high. So get out there, promote your Black Friday ads, make it a huge, huge month. Uh, and if you have any questions, you can always reach out to me.

SPEAKER_03: 1:24:46

All right. Well, that was, I told you, going to be a pack show, and it was. Um, but uh, you know what? We've got another pack show next week, along with another special guest, Gab, uh, that we'll obviously announce at the beginning of the show. And then uh sound off number 98 with Kevin Williams is this Tuesday, November 11th. So make sure to capture number 98. We'll have number 99, the week of IAPA, and then the big 100. Very excited about that coming up, and we got some plans for that. So, anyway, without further ado, let's go ahead and just wrap this shit up. Uh, so we get to wrap for this week's LBX show. I'm Brandon Wiley signing off. Stay tuned and keep kicking.