The LBX Show #54 - IAAPA Expo 2025 Review: The Trends, Hits, And Misses

Sponsored by Intercard!
Sponsored by Alan-1!

On this week's show, Brandon, Kevin Williams, Adam Pratt, and Clint Novak unpack a packed IAAPA Expo 2025 and discuss mini escape rooms with auto reset, LED floors evolving into real game platforms, and competitive socializing plowing ahead with arrows, hoops, batting, and smart seating. We call out winners, caution flags, and the IP choices that miss Gen Alpha.

• highlights from Dark Escape’s enclosed puzzles and Creative Works’ open-air stations
• capacity math, pricing, and replay questions for five-minute attractions
• active floors moving from pixels to full LED animation and projection hybrids
• Lasertron’s Krazy Arrowz as a clean, turnkey competitive socializing anchor
• Big Hoops spectacle versus footprint and session-based revenue
• batting suites: hardball simulators versus gamified soft-batting
• redemption notes on Putt It Par Tee, Perfect Pump, and merch that actually moves
• cranes with trend-led prizes, including Butts On Things, driving real pull
• attendance shape: more buyers, fewer VR novelties, international gaps
• 2026 outlook with West concourse expansion and a larger pipeline of innovators

Catch Sound Off with Kevin Williams Episode 100 on Tuesday, December 2. 

Subscribe and visit LBX Collective for more!

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome, IAAPA Setup, Speakeasy Recap
• 3:32 News You Should Know: Awards And Accessibility Grant
• 6:00 Sponsor Spotlights: New Games And Payments Tech
• 8:31 Panel Opens: Best-In-Show Picks
• 10:34 Mini Escape Rooms: Hype, Ops, ROI
• 18:40 Creative Works’ Open-Air Puzzles And Randomization
• 22:48 Mission Rooms And X-Cube Landscape
• 26:12 Claw Machines, Pixel Floors, And Kiosks
• 30:15 Active Floors To LED Arenas: The Trendline
• 36:04 VEX Party Dash And Accessible Difficulty
• 41:18 Human Crane And Show Floor Crowding
• 46:05 Attendance, Buyers, And International Gaps
• 53:40 West Expansion, Waitlists, And Tents
• 57:30 Standout: Lasertron Crazy Arrows
• 1:01:20 Competitive Socializing Takes Center Stage
• 1:07:40 Big Hoops, Batting Suites, And Footprint Math
• 1:12:35 Pickleball Bay: Promise Vs Playability
• 1:16:08 Putt-It-Party And Redemption Placement
• 1:20:38 Perfect Pump: Fun, Price, And Design Gaps
• 1:28:20 Ride-A-Zebra And Chinese Manufacturers’ Rise

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:02

Tuning you in now to the LBX Show. With your host, Brandon Wyatt. What do you buy the LBX Collective? Your community to connect, engage, and inspire.

SPEAKER_09: 0:23

All right, well, welcome everybody to the LBX Show for November 30th, 2025. I'm your host, Brandon Wiley, and uh I hope all of you, all of our US-based listeners anyway, had a phenomenal Thanksgiving day this last Thursday, and you've worked off all of your food comas and made all of your Black Friday purchases because we have a packed show filled to the brim with IAPA headlines lined up for you today. So first we'll dive into a brief news you should know, just to cover a few things that we don't talk about a little bit later on the show. And then after we hear from our sponsors for their special IAPA edition um segments, we'll roll right into our now infamous, we'll call it infamous, post-IAPA review guest gab with none other than our usual guests, Kevin Williams, Adam Pratt, and special guest Clint Novak. So without further ado, let's dive into some news you should know. All right, well, yes, we are back for my Appa Expo. It is oh man, I am finally have my voice back. I think I got it back. Well, sort of it's not 100% there, but I finally got it back for the most part, like just two days ago. So very, very excited to man, just review everything from the last week. It was so good to see so many people, both longtime friends and making new friends, meeting new people, seeing everything new that was on the show floor. And it was just a whirlwind 10 days that I was out there in Orlando, whirlwind week of IAP Expo, from all the conferences, you know, all the conference sessions to the trade show floor to run in booths and everything else that was involved. It was just absolutely phenomenal and exciting and uh and exhausting and everything else in between. So uh anyway, that being said, the LBS Collective Speakeasy was an awesome, fun success. So, you know, there's a couple of different photos we had, some great drinks poured, and we had a point where we're like we couldn't fit everybody inside the speakeasy. So people were cycling in and out and hanging out in front of the booth as well. And uh it was just a really good time, people getting to meet other people who didn't know each other, and that's exactly what we want to do with the LBX Collective here, right? Is not only to provide this type of information and news to you, but also provide opportunities for you to meet other people that in the industry that love everything about this industry. And so, you know, as you can see, just scrolling through a bunch of different pictures, had a phenomenal time meeting all of you. Some of them are friends that have been listeners, others are listeners that I've never met before and have now become friends. And uh, it was just an absolute phenomenal and fun time. So, thank you guys so much for coming out and supporting the speakeasy and hanging out with me every time. And we will definitely continue this whole thing the next time. And also had a chance to hang out with all my former FEC committee uh at the on Saturday night before the expo started. And it's uh like our little alumni night, and so always a really great time to see both people I had a chance to work with and then also people who were on the committee before me and committee after me. And so it was a really great time as well. So thank you so much for putting that on, Monica. I really appreciate the uh you know the initiative there. All right, one other thing, you know, because I you know, I don't uh I don't talk about Intelliplay too often here, but I am the CEO over there, and uh we were uh awarded a best uh an app a brass ring for best new product in the applied technologies used by facilities category. And so that was a pretty cool thing that happened on Tuesday. There's some press that went out about it. Uh, it is hanging out here right behind me for a little bit before it goes to our headquarters when I visit it our headquarters in Columbus, Ohio in January. But uh yeah, it gets to hang out with me for a few weeks in between now and then. But uh anyway, that was pretty exciting. So if you're not familiar with IntelliPlay, you can check us out. You can find us, Google IntelliPlay, learn all about it and why we want a brass ring. All right, the next thing, um last thing I wanted to talk about here on the news you should know is the uh there was an announcement made on Monday or Tuesday. I think it was Monday before IAPA Expo started, and it basically was from the IAPA Foundation. And the Ripley's Believe It or Not World Entertainment grant was created for people with disabilities, and it's designed to support and facilitate successful professional careers for people with disabilities throughout the global attractions industry. And it was being awarded through the IAPA Foundation, and it comes from a grant that was funded by Ripley's Believe It or Not World Entertainment. Uh, it's a$50,000 donation that they put in to start this grant and to start this area. And basically it's designed, they say, to remove barriers and enhance professional integration for both individuals currently working in the attractions industry and also those seeking to enter or re-enter the field. Uh uh it will be used for primary three primary areas: the purchase of necessary tools, resources, and equipment, the creation of essential physical accommodations in the workplace, and specialized training, which may be for the individual with a disability or for the people who work with them directly. So pretty cool thing. Um, awesome that Ripley's has stepped up to put forward that donation. And so if you know anybody or you are somebody who has a disability and is interested in learning more about the grant, or your facility that works with those people or want to be able to accommodate uh that more, reach out to the IAPA Foundation, go visit their website and learn a little bit more about how you can apply for that grant. Well, that wraps up our news you should know. Uh coming up next, we've got two quick back-to-back segments from our sponsors, specifically talking about some of their new products they had on the show floor, and then we'll go right into a very, very robust IAPA Expo Review guest gap.

SPEAKER_05: 6:14

Brandon, we appreciate it. Appreciate all your efforts and your help with number one. We're number one, I'm James Anderson, CEO and co-founder. We're here at my app. Last year we won the bronze ring for the most innovative device. We have something of the major league e-sports and the motherfucker games. Liquid data is our newest game as well as Mr. Commander, which is the motherfucker. This is real fees, we are the biggest weird face, too. 50 cents, please. When you get to them, rubber ducky craze. I promise you, love buttons, something little something that has a little button everywhere. Thanks for my help, Brandon. FPCs, keep keep keep working hard, making fun, building fun.

SPEAKER_02: 7:40

Hey everyone, welcome to the last day of my app of 2025, and thank you, Brandon, for joining us at the Intercard booth. I'd like to feature our new Impulse Plus reader that just came out. So this reader gives you the ability to put it on games, and then and these games will now take RFID, Mag, or chip credit card. The great thing about this reader here is it does not require a transaction server. This gives you the ability to put it on the cranes and other high impact attractions in your facility. The great thing about this reader as well, it does not require a teller. So ask your sales rep today on how you can help with the testing.

SPEAKER_09: 8:29

Yeah. All right. So we're all like still recovering, I think, from a crazy week. At least it was uh it was uh crazy for me. Um, and uh, you know, probably burned the candle on both ends a little too hard uh over the course of the week. But uh, you know, that's that's the way it is at IAPA Week. So uh but we're we're gonna dive in and talk about everything, obviously, that we saw, the things that stood out to us, maybe some of the things that uh we feel like maybe were released a little too early, um, or or whatever, just to get some sense for it. But uh let's start with the the good stuff. Like, what was the one, maybe two things that really stood out? Like I know there was a ton of new stuff, but uh actually, especially in the arcade amusement section, but like what was like one or two things that really stood above the others that were new, innovative, that you really thought um was was doing some cool things. Maybe we'll we'll we'll just go around clockwise here. We'll start with you, Adam.

SPEAKER_07: 9:24

All right. Uh the one that uh came to mind was the uh Dark Escape games over at the ABS Company's booth with the miniature uh escape rooms. And um uh when I first heard about those, I was kind of like, okay, uh, I mean, I had actually never been in an escape room before, but uh by what I understand, you know, they usually don't have good replay value. But while standing there and hearing them or hearing uh Keith from ABS talk about the response was it's like, oh, these make a lot of sense in any area that has a lot of tourists who aren't big repeat customers, anyways. And since it's an experience, it's very memorable, uh, that'll tie memories to whatever venue where it's found, uh cruise ships and um other touristy tourist trap spots. And so um yeah, I I had fun with them. I didn't solve the uh the mystery or the puzzle, um, but uh I was impressed with the presentation and just uh overall it was like it was like hey, this is really nice innovation to see out there. Somebody trying something different than the the norm of guns and racing games.

SPEAKER_09: 10:37

Totally. So this was actually one of my top two as well. Um, so I had a chance to go and do the clown around with my son. The pyramid scheme one was um, you know, one of the that's King King Tut's uh tomb that had some servo issue or whatever, and so they weren't able to run that one, it wasn't running, but you could like open it up and look inside.

SPEAKER_06: 10:55

The clown around game when I got a chance to play it.

SPEAKER_09: 10:58

So that's okay, yeah. So something must have broken because when we did it, it you it wasn't working. But clown around was a lot of fun, and um, you know what, like both of us fit in there, like they say they could fit three, but that would be pretty tight inside um three full-size adults. But um, you know, the clown around was a lot of fun. We did end up solving it, but we had an extra person there helping, and I won't give anything away about it, but it was uh there's a nice little surprise at the end as well when you do solve it that I thought they did really did a great job. But you hit the nail on the head, Adam. Like my immediate concern was in was repeat playability. This isn't like a typical redemption or amusement game that you just play over and over. Um, this was something that's a one and done, and so it has to be in high traffic areas, boardwalks or tourist areas or FECs, or if you got a little corner, right? It's like something that's gonna be, you know, higher price attraction, slightly higher than a typical game you might play. Um, I think he says like they were they're pulling, you know, where this is being test run, it was like eight dollars, I think is what they were doing. Um, seven to eight dollars for a play. Um it's about a five minute, it's about a five-minute experience. Um, but uh yeah, so it sounds like both uh Kevin, you and uh you and Clint both had a chance to play this as well.

SPEAKER_03: 12:07

Yeah, I uh I uh had a chance to do it on the last day. I think I was the last person to play it because it was like I walked out of the booth and they were like, ladies and gentlemen, get off the trade show floor. But uh get out of here, yeah, yeah, exactly. Um, you know, the replayability obviously was the first thing that I thought. I really enjoyed it. Uh I I had a great time, I solved it, uh, and I still had like 30 seconds to spare. Um, you know, the thing that came to my mind though is how do you make enough money uh for the attraction if you can only do one or two people every five minutes? And so if you're doing it at$8, uh$8 a play, uh that's maybe 10 plays an hour if you're if you're lucky, if you got a really good operations going. Um, so you're looking at uh you know the possibility of making a hundred bucks an hour. Uh, you know, for for something that expensive, it's gonna be really hard to uh get that ROI. So uh really looks cool and I enjoyed playing it, but uh that would be my main concern if I was thinking about putting it in the FEC world or you know, uh into an arcade.

SPEAKER_09: 13:08

Yeah, I mean, and that's assuming that it's being played constantly non-stop. Yeah, the other issue here, I mean, then and the skip rooms have this problem in general with some of their pricing, depending on the way that they price, but you know, you're getting it's eight dollars per play, and if you're squeezing three people in there, then your price per person is actually a lot lower, right? Instead of like one person going in there and playing. So you're not extracting the value that you could or like they're they're you're not extracting the revenue you could for the value delivering for the number of people playing that experience.

SPEAKER_03: 13:40

And the only other thing I could think of was if you were doing some type of reservation system for because someone said like a cruise ship. Well, I mean, if there's three people standing in line for it, that's a 15-minute wait. And so uh, you know, that uh you could do a reservation system, but now then you now you have to man it, and so then you have to have somebody there. Uh oh, uh up next Clint, or you know, you have to have some type of system where people understand and and can get in there. So uh I I really like the product though, it looked great and it played well.

SPEAKER_07: 14:07

So yeah. I kind of wonder if they could find ways to add additional monetization. For example, let's say if they had a way to pay inside the machine, you could buy another hint, uh, something like that. Uh, you know, just it wouldn't be a lot, but to some way to do that.

SPEAKER_04: 14:26

I'm not sure how, other than buying it's a set of buying extra time, yeah. Set experience out of it. It would be difficult to, especially if you've got people waiting for the experience to come to an end outside. Right. So that that was one of my two uh products uh that fell into uh the interesting section. This isn't the first time that we've seen an enclosure uh uh escape room concept, but I think this was one of the most attractive. So fundamentally they have two products now. They have a third one in development, which I don't think we're talking out of school to say that is a sci-fi-based concept. Uh I was concerned about the three areas of operation, security, you know, what the hell's going on inside that room, and how easy you gotta have. Yeah, yeah. Used condoms found over all of the uh the clues at the end of the uh event. It's not something that we really want to enjoy in our industry.

SPEAKER_06: 15:21

So the new Maya High Club.

SPEAKER_04: 15:24

It needs to have an extra uh an audience screen or screen that you can see what's going on. There's no way that that is going to uh uh to get away with just being uh they go inside and then a couple of minutes they come out.

SPEAKER_06: 15:38

I thought Clown Around has that, or am I mistaken?

SPEAKER_09: 15:41

Yeah, the clown around did, um, but the other, but the the King Tut one did not, right? So Clown Around has the screen here, and it's all built in actually to part of the uh the viewing or you know, part of the the aesthetics. So um, you know, and yeah, it's you know you can see what's going on in there, but well, you can see what's going on at the top level anyway.

SPEAKER_04: 16:01

Yeah, we we don't have enclosures in the amusement sector or the attraction sector where you go in and nothing and no one knows what's going on inside. So that is something they're going to have to look at. Uh they're they're missing the obvious of a takeaway, uh a souvenir photograph grab. Uh but we we made some suggestions to them and they're they're prepared to listen to some of those. Uh I would argue that uh you know my main point of being at iAlp is trend watch. So I'm there to see what is trending. And it's clear that the escape gaming component of the industry was uh was trending very heavily at this year's show. Um, because my second product that I would have put down there is the Creative Works uh escape uh amusement product uh as as being uh an opportunity for uh our industry to uh bite uh a little bit out of the cherry of escape gaming without having to go in the whole hog.

SPEAKER_06: 16:56

Do you got more info on that? That's unfortunately one place I didn't get it, I saw it, but I didn't get a chance to visit.

SPEAKER_03: 17:02

I uh I had a chance to play a little bit of the Creative Works one. I really like uh the aspect of it. Um the you know, basically it's a uh, you know, like a what would you call it, like a station uh that is you know in the middle of your arcade, uh you play all around it, you're not in a box, um, and it's what 10 minutes, I think, is theirs. Um and you can have multiple people playing it at the same time trying to solve the clues together. And I like the way they're the the clues, you know, I like the clues and I like uh the difficulty level. The only downside is everybody can watch you play it. So if if you're standing in line to play the game, you're literally watching them solve the puzzle, uh so it becomes less complicated for the next group.

SPEAKER_04: 17:48

Um and again, uh it's it's developed by uh two guys that uh come from the escape room market who don't come from the amusement market, and we had a long conversation about randomization, where those those um uh uh experiences that you have to solve uh need to be randomized so it isn't the same number always. And that is something I think the testing is going to bring up.

SPEAKER_03: 18:15

Yeah, and I think uh you must have talked to them before me because when I got there, they were already talking about how they were gonna implement some of that. So uh, you know, they they they already uh see some of those challenges and are looking at fixing it. Uh again, I thought it was a really solid piece and they they said they were selling, and so that's great.

SPEAKER_09: 18:31

Yeah, yeah, and I think one of the benefits of both I was gonna say one of the benefits of both the Dark Escape games and the Creative Works is also that they auto reset. So it doesn't require an attendant to go in, put things back in place or what you know, do any of that. It really all just goes back into place on its own. I think that's an important thing if you're going to have this like turnkey, sort of like self-guided automated system that's sitting on the on your game floor.

SPEAKER_04: 18:56

It's interesting that we can see so many of these kinds of approaches. We had the Creative Works product, uh uh, we had uh the uh Dark Escape product, we also had the X Cube uh at uh at the show. So many people got a chance to see uh that digital escape room and mission room approach, and there were other examples there.

SPEAKER_03: 19:17

There is one move that had escape rooms and a box, like there was just like a box, and you had to solve all the puzzles uh just like at a table. So it was uh interesting.

SPEAKER_09: 19:27

Yeah, and I was surprised though that the as far as I know, well, at least as far as like somebody where you actually could go in and try. There were a couple of other places that were advertising their their adventure or mission rooms, but I was surprised that Xcube was really the only one that was there promoting their specific model, right? Of of mission rooms, their whole set, right? Like XCube, I really see as a competitor time mission, like almost a direct competitor. They're really trying to sell their product versus like try to build their own thing, like a level 99. Um, and so uh I was I was surprised that uh Xcube was really the only one that was there. Uh Clint, what was uh well go ahead, Kevin?

SPEAKER_04: 20:03

I was just gonna say many others wanted to be there but couldn't be there, but that's something we can talk about.

SPEAKER_09: 20:07

Yes, certainly yes. We'll talk about capacity and and everything else as well. Um Clint, what was uh what was something that stood out to you?

SPEAKER_03: 20:14

Uh I was really boring. Uh I was uh since I run a uh a claw uh arcade now, I was looking at claw games, uh which different ones uh you know were out there that had marquees on them that uh interlinked. Um, you know, uh who was it? Uh Elout had uh they actually they had a game, um uh a claw that they enclosed into an inflatable room on the trade show floor because they didn't want people to steal the idea of what they had. Uh and so you had to get permission to go in the room to look at the game, which uh was really on the high end of claw games. Um it was very interesting. I I don't think it really stood out in the sense that I think a lot of the things that they had people already doing, except for maybe some of the AI and some of the programmable stuff, but the look and feel of the machine uh wasn't much different than some of the machines that you could see out on the trade show floor. Um so uh I got I got one uh that was like the cool takeaway, and then one very nerdy takeaway. Um, the uh pixel floors are something that were popping up all over. Uh, not a new concept, it's just a lot of people are uh putting their spin on it. And so uh, you know, this is probably year two or year three of the pixel floors. Uh, this is Delta Strike's version, which they included a wall. Um, so I just thought that these are very interesting.

SPEAKER_07: 21:33

Um, and then the very I saw at the show I kept coming across and was like, wait, another one?

SPEAKER_03: 21:41

And uh my very nerdy takeaway is uh this kiosk at Amusement Connect. I have Amusement Connect, and if you've ever seen the Amusement Connect self-serve kiosk, it looks like um like a scale that you would find in the bathroom. Like if you were going to the bathroom, there's a scale that's like put a quarter in and it'll tell you how much you weigh. Uh, that's kind of like what their kiosks look like. They had a a footstand so kids could stand on it to touch the screen and make a purchase. Um, what's that? Guess you're weights. Exactly, exactly. This is so much liquor and looks amazing. Uh, you know, and I'm I'm a little upset because we bought our kiosk two months ago, uh and then they can viewed this, and I'm like, I want that trade in what I want. Um, but you know, they have the monitor on top, so you can put your own media on there. Uh, you can load, reload your card. Uh, and they got rid of that step stool. Uh, I assume because kids don't make purchases, adults make purchases. Uh, so it just looks really slick. So uh, you know, my next location, uh, if we have Amusement Connect, I will have that kiosk.

SPEAKER_09: 22:45

Yeah, yeah. Um, so Kevin, you know, you mentioned you saw like the escape thing. What was something else that stood out to you?

SPEAKER_04: 22:54

Well, so you know, I agree with the uh what we call active entertainment, the floor uh-based uh active floor system. So the the Internesign War has started. I'm interested, it's a laser tag company that then uh acquires and rolls in a active floor system. So we have the Laser Force, we have the Delta Force uh systems. Uh we also had uh fog from India uh being represented uh on the show floor by LAI. Um so ActiveFloor works. I am very interested where Pixel Games or with their Pixel World uh experiences are going. It is definitely a trend, and it is appealing to the same audience that likes the trampoline and the laser tag uh kind of approach.

SPEAKER_07: 23:43

Looking a little bit, please. Uh just really quick, I'd also throw in if you guys saw the Vex Party Dash, that what was interesting to me about that was it was essentially implementing the same ideas, these Pixel Games ones, but because they used actual LED panels, they're able to have everything fully animated. But when I first came across it, they were playing a game that was exactly like what all those pixel floors were doing, like hyper grid and Delta Strike, you know, go and touch the blue ones as diamonds, uh, avoid the red squares, uh, step on the green ones, exactly the same, but actually had detail to it almost like an old NES game. Uh but then it has that extra versatility thanks to all this stuff. And then so that's another thing that's interesting to me, but also interesting in the fact that it's uh being able to step up with what these other Pixel games or or LED Pixel games are doing.

SPEAKER_04: 24:39

Yeah, and that's I but that's the point that Clint was making, which is you know, this is the third year of this type of technology being on the show floor, so we should be looking not at the tech but where it's going. Our friends at uh Pixel Games have now added uh licensing and IP to it. They had their Pong game uh on the show floor uh operating that. That's fantastic, but really what you've touched upon, Adam, was where I was gonna go next, which is where is the uh the trend going next? And the LED display and LED floor was something that really is going to be a part of our future. I don't believe that the future applications of these products uh going forwards will be these big blocky games. I think we were gonna see a finer and finer and finer pixel count, you could say, towards we're having a full display on the floor. And we had products from other companies um that weren't at the show but were being exhibited. So, you know, our friends at Conductor have their uh their already their interactive floor system that we were uh playing with uh at the day from Busters, and we also have Moment Factory with their interactive floors, again, products that should have been at the show, but due to various reasons, couldn't have made it, but points towards our future.

SPEAKER_09: 25:56

Yeah, completely agreed with that. I mean, Vex, their their party dash is really, I think, the direction where things are going. Um, same thing, you know, with the augmented games, you know, Moment Factory's augmented uh games, and then uh conductors arena. And like that is like what you can do with the gameplay, what you can do with the visuals, uh even when you're not playing, uh, is so much more alluring and enticing, too, because it can bring you on to the floor versus these games. Uh you know, I think what Pixel World was trying to do is they're trying to take their same technology and just apply it in different formats. The Pong game was really difficult. The the reaction timing was not good. Um, I've played Moment Factory's augmented games before, um, and uh and they have a pong version and it's super smooth, very easy. The thing scales, and the or with the pong, you're moving and it's like uh delayed, and then the ball is you know coming at an angle, and people were missing it on a regular basis. The other one that they that they introduced was the this side slope they call the pixel slope. I played that one. Um I I thought it was one of the worst experiences I've ever had.

SPEAKER_07: 27:06

Um that's the uh insurance problem to me.

SPEAKER_09: 27:10

Oh my gosh, it's gonna people are going to roll their ankles. I'm in pretty good shape, and I felt when I got off that I was like, oh my gosh, my ankles are sore. My son liked it, so maybe I just need to be like 30 years younger or something. Um, but uh he because he had a lot of fun, but he was like felt like it was like kind of doing parkour, he was jumping around. Um, but uh I definitely didn't uh enjoy this, and I think it is going to create insurance issues.

SPEAKER_04: 27:35

While while I was standing there having the conversation with the guys, we had two people go in and come out hobbling. So I don't like uh that uh what they are doing is they're emulating a product from another company that has that kind of sloped environment with lasers, and they have carpet in their environment uh rather than uh melanine floor to bounce off of. Uh, I think that one needs a little bit more time in the oven if they're going to do that. Their shooting gallery version of their concept wasn't operational, so I have to really focus on what they did have there that worked. Uh, I think they're gonna have to work a lot harder to stay relevant in this uh ever-changing warscape.

SPEAKER_07: 28:20

I think the only next uh to complete it is to have the VR Planck stuff back, but with LED tiles, and so you have to jump from plank to plank and try not to fall over and die.

SPEAKER_09: 28:29

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04: 28:30

Well, we do have that. We do already have that. Fallow arena gives you that experience if you want. True.

SPEAKER_07: 28:37

But I guess that does bring to mind that uh you were talking about the trend and where things are going. I think cubics or sorry, InnoWise with their cubics platform has really been ahead of the curve on this because it's a very similar idea, but they use by using projection mapping are accomplishing the same sort of thing, but in a much more gamified, much more detailed way. And I could see them down the road. Uh, that floor that they have, it doesn't move, it rumbles, but like could easily integrate like the Vex style uh LED panels inside of it at one point, and then probably do a ceiling too, and then they have a fully immersive game room like that, uh, that is able to work without the shadows and things like that. So I I could totally see it going in that direction.

SPEAKER_09: 29:24

Yeah, there's a lot I like. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm just gonna say there's there's a lot I like about the cubix arena. Um, but the the one limitation I think they're going to have in the future, unless they change their gameplay, is that you are you have to hold those paddles, and so their gameplay is is restricted to whatever you can do with those paddles. And then there's a proximity issue sometimes. If you don't hold the paddle close enough to the wall, it doesn't pick up the sensors. Um, but I I I'm a big fan, I've been a big fan of theirs since they first came out, and I do enjoy the gameplay and their new ice cream one that you could like catch the little ice cream things. Fallen down was super addictive. I can play that over and over.

SPEAKER_04: 30:04

Immersive immersive enclosures, we've been promoting since really the time of cubics moved into this section. So we've had Cubics move into immersive enclosures. We had our friends at Fallow Motion move in. Both of them are sort of going through the growing pains of understanding what the audience wants. I can tell you from the information from the show that there are another six different immersive enclosures, some not using projection, which is going to be interesting, that are going to be uh hitting us next year. And then that part of the market, I get a strong feeling, are going to usurp from another part of the market that we can talk about uh in a minute.

SPEAKER_09: 30:44

Yeah. Um I will say one last thing before I want to share what with uh one thing that stood out, or one of the things that stood out to me, um, is with Vex Party Dash, the thing that I really liked about it, besides the gameplay, I thought was really good. It was visually appealing. It doesn't actually take up that much floor space compared to some of the other uh floor games, which was you know, you know, you're squeezing four players in here um in quite a small footprint, which I thought was really interesting. But I love the different levels that you can pick and that they even have kids' levels, and so they they increase the gameplay based on whatever level you want to set. Um, and so you know, like you know, depending on who's playing with you, right? If you're playing with a bunch of you who's played this many times, you're gonna set a higher level, but that that they even had kids' levels. Um, so that tells you that they really simplify the gameplay. We talk about accessibility all the time to make sure your game can both provide the level of difficulty to keep chat to keep things challenging, but also allow for me to be able to play with my three-year-old, right? If I wanted, I don't have a three-year-old, but like I could bring my three-year-old and play if I wanted to, this game, and they could have fun.

SPEAKER_07: 31:48

And I saw that when I was there filming it, there were kids that were jumping on it, uh, you know, and and that was good that the staff was willing to quickly jump out and let somebody else uh like that jump in. But uh yeah, it was very approachable in that regard, thanks to the color, thanks to the games. I I got to film one with uh that was like the Ubisoft Just Dance where you're supposed to mimic the moves of the dancer and such. And so, yeah, I think that one is another one that's uh has really great potential.

SPEAKER_04: 32:21

There's there's a question I have to ask Clint though. Um, going back a little bit about your uh addiction to cranes, why weren't you running out to buy the human crane machine that was on the show floor?

SPEAKER_03: 32:33

Um, I mean, the the human crane machine is not new, and yet I I felt like everybody was like, Oh my god, have you seen the human crane? And I'm like, it's been out there for years now. Um, yeah, I want to say at least two, maybe three. Uh, I know Mall of America has it, I know some FECs have it. Um, I I I like the concept, but again, it's like, okay, it's expensive for the uh participant, so you have to charge like$10 to$20 per play. Um, it takes time, you know. I'm gonna say three to five minutes per player. You can only have one player, and then all they're winning is inflatable junk. It's because like no matter what, they're gonna walk away a winner. So your play ratio has to be, well, okay, what can we what can we give them that's big in a two-dollar price range? And that's gonna be something inflatable. Um, and so it's gonna be very rare that you're gonna see plush in there or good plush or big plush. Um, and so it's just, I mean, it it's fun kind of to watch. Um, but I I don't I've it's already been done. I mean, uh people have been doing it for a while now.

SPEAKER_07: 33:39

So I know what the solution is. Uh, you combine human cranes with escape rooms, and there you go.

SPEAKER_09: 33:48

And then and then you have a picture floor on the bottom. Yes, exactly. Yes, yeah, put it all in there.

SPEAKER_07: 33:53

Just get some.

SPEAKER_04: 33:54

We had a version of it where you had drinks at the bottom, and so there, you know, you try and get as many drinks in as you're uh skating over.

SPEAKER_03: 34:02

A friend of mine, uh Ed has uh has a uh human claw in his uh uh facility and he wraps it into birthday parties. So really it's like the birthday child gets a free play, so it's really their birthday party seller, but again, it takes up a lot of room. Uh, you know, you could do two arcade games in that space, probably two arcade games would make more money than that would. Um, but they're not gonna help you sell your birthday parties. So I guess you know that's that that's your trade-off. Um, you know, I would really if you're gonna if you're gonna buy a human claw, make sure you're talking to a lot of people, uh, pros and cons, and make sure uh it's a good decision for you.

SPEAKER_04: 34:38

So and that yeah, and that kind of brings us to the the elephant in the room about I Alba this year, which was there was big cues to uh try the human crane, there were big cues to try a lot of things. There were a lot of children in the show this year.

SPEAKER_07: 34:55

Yeah, there was a lot more than I think I recall seeing in the past, which yeah, especially because we have all these kid games, and I'm trying to film them, and it's like I'd rather film one with a kid playing it than an adult playing it.

SPEAKER_09: 35:06

Well, again, that's true too. But you know, I think we've historically seen kids come in Thursday, Friday, but they seem like they were there pretty much all week long. Um, and yeah, definitely a lot. Um, you know, we had a conversation at a committee meeting Friday morning. It's like a debrief for the MS committee. And, you know, one of the things we actually were talking about was even things like college students coming in early into the, you know, into the booths instead of waiting until like a Thursday or Friday and taking up uh you know time, uh, you know, salesperson time on the on the show floor. And so definitely something that they're gonna have to work through and figure out how to manage um, you know, kid guest passes. And is there a way that you can do that, you know, for Thursday, Friday? Um, you know, I know that I've had my family out when they were young back in 2019. My kids, they were pretty young, but they came out on Thursday and Friday, right? And they were uh they're going around with their mom, uh, you know, and so they were supervised as well. Um, now I let my 18-year-old son run around unsupervised now, uh, but uh, you know, he's you know, he's their target demographic, so you want to get his feedback anyway.

SPEAKER_03: 36:12

So one of uh my past roles with IAPA was uh part of the media, and I would go cover all of the unveilings and all the different things that would happen, uh all the announcements that happen on Tuesday. And uh I know that a lot of people in that media uh uh uh area were upset with the amount of media that's allowed to go in uh because it's impossible to cover any of the events now because there's so many people uh you know uh fighting for space on the trade show floor to get close up to you know a roller coaster unveiling. And I think it's funny because it's like uh I saw Dollywood's live feed of their booth, you know, or of their ride being uncovered, and all you could see was is this because somebody else was standing in front of them with their phone, and so they totally lost their vantage point. It was their it was their unveiling. Um, and so I know that that's something uh I also got a problem, Clint.

SPEAKER_04: 37:08

We we know they've got a problem across the board regarding registration, you know. Uh they're covering their butts now by saying influencers, because you know, we've got certain people who were in the press room who have no uh credence or credibility there, and the poor old media girl is feeling very embarrassed that her bosses have now forced her to do uh to go down this route. We also had going back to the kids problem, we had certain exhibitors that had to put up makeshift signs saying by invitation only, where they would not start doing demonstrations or giving promos to uh individuals that couldn't be proven to be a member of the industry. And if Ialpa really does need to bulk its numbers by inviting uh the local high school down uh to uh to come in and uh have a quick time on uh IALPA, especially with what's going to be happening next year, um, we we really do need to have a conversation within the industry about what we need out of the show rather than just generating numbers.

SPEAKER_09: 38:10

Yeah. Well, just you know, I do want to talk about um one thing that stood out to me, but as long as we're talking about numbers here, um the numbers that they did report, just for those who maybe didn't get the press release from them or or whatever, is uh there's 38,500 verified attendees. There was a total of 43,800 registered participants, but obviously they don't all show up, right? So about uh but it's a verified attendees. And out of those verified attendees, 28,500 were qualified buyers from 20,000 buying companies. Um, you know, and so they talk about 100 countries. Okay, well, whatever. Um, you know, that's that could be like one person from Nigeria um walking the show floor, and that's a country, but um uh but you know, so there's you know five, there's 1,100 exhibitors on the show floor. Obviously, for those who were trying to get on the show floor and couldn't, um, it was a sold-out floor um by like June. Um, so it was really early sold out, actually might have been sold out by May.

SPEAKER_04: 39:08

Um perspective, they're saying uh 37,000 uh uh verified attendants. Uh sorry, let me say that 38. This is against 37 last year. So uh to be exact, 38, 520 against 38 and 6. I wonder who that six was. Um this this is interesting numbers if you would see the major uptake, but we're not seeing that major uptake other than that's what we're discussing now, which is too many children on the show floor. So again, we've got serious questions about their uh validation process, especially as some of us were getting double dipped with uh our our cards being read more than once going in and out of uh the operation, which is interesting because how you know you you understand how people come into the show, uh, but there's no badge scanning apparatus uh there. There's no member of staff standing there counting, you know, if you go to Amusement Expo, there's a member of staff that will actually uh try and grab your ticket going in and coming out. Here, you just walk through the door after you purchased your ticket. So how are they how are they defining the verified against the people who registered?

SPEAKER_09: 40:28

Yeah, my my uh my understanding is that the verified are those that have been printed versus that they that they were actually picked up at a counter. Um the I think the important one though for the vendors, the important number really is the 28,598 qualified buyers because that's far more important than verified attendees. So, yes, there's 10,000 attendees there. Some of them are going to be vendors themselves, some of them are gonna be guests of vendors, they're gonna be the kids, they're gonna be influencers in press and media, et cetera, right? So you have 10,000 fluff, I would say, that are gonna just help make the show floor feel full and busy, but then 28,000 buyers is really the number I think is important. And uh that was a slight increase from last year, um, but it definitely wasn't, you know, it's I think it actually is an okay number given where we've been seeing the economy go. Clearly shows that there's still an interest to make purchases, an interest to buy. The fact that there are vendors who were turned away, uh, you know, and there was a wait list of over a hundred vendors that wanted space um that uh that they couldn't go. Um, and so I think that also says that this, you know, the industry is still strong as a result.

SPEAKER_04: 41:37

The the elephant in the the elephant in the room, though, is international uh attendance. There was a major lack in some areas of international attendance. People that we had seen at IALPA Europe didn't make the trip over. Um, a number of Canadian major attendees didn't make the the trip over uh to this. So I think that's the the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about, which is the one impact away from the uh financial impact that we're all experiencing. They could actually chart that there was an impact uh from international attendance.

SPEAKER_07: 42:14

Yeah, because I had heard, I mean, I spent a lot of my time, pro uh most of my time in the games and arcade pavilion and talking to a few vendors. Uh a word that was constantly used was weird. Uh and it was because of how the packs of people seemed to be moving through the show. Because uh, at least uh I was standing in the Raw Thrills Betson booth when the show opened, and usually that's the first one of the first booths to just get absolutely jam-packed with people, but it didn't uh instantly, it like it took it some time, like it was a slow curve up. Um but uh I had several people commenting how it's like it seems like there's just these big packs of people just kind of moving through the show and these odd things, but I'd also heard about the international side, although the one the only one that I had heard really brought up was uh Middle Eastern customers seem to be lacking uh this time.

SPEAKER_09: 43:09

But seemed that way, yeah, anecdotally, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_04: 43:12

Yeah, I I was surprised how many Asian uh uh operations actually did make the trip to uh the shows room. Yeah, uh you're quite right, Middle Eastern or uh uh Malek, uh Middle East and uh North Africa. Uh definitely we saw some European and Asian. The reason for the weird flow this year, uh that many people didn't realize, is that the actual gala launch took place in the North Hall, so everybody was perk percolating down from the north hall rather than on previous years. The gala reception start is always at the south hall, and that caused confusion and having to have us walk through the whole of the exhibition floor before it's opened to get to the gala. Someone hadn't thought that through. There are a number of uh, so we say rookie errors uh made by the the current team, and uh I know there's going to be a lot of uh soul searching and navel gazing, especially with what's going to be happening next year.

SPEAKER_09: 44:12

Yeah. Yeah, obviously, next year being an expansion to do the West Concourse, there's a lot of logistics that are going to need to be ironed out there. Uh, but the one benefit to at least the vendors that want to showcase is that they will likely be able to get in. Um, and I, you know, typically it's not the old dogs, right, that are not getting their space allocated. It's the new ones who are creating new things, bringing new ideas and innovation to the table. They're the ones that are being left out of the show. So I am excited for what we are potentially going to see next year, in that I think we'll see a lot more new products, innovative things coming into the show floor because a lot of these companies that have just been relegated to wait lists or outside, where IntelliPlay, my you know, the company I'm with now, um, you know, was outside, you're relegated out there where your traffic is about you know a fifth of what you would normally get if you were on the show floor.

SPEAKER_07: 45:06

Um I'm actually surprised that uh because like you we all remember before the pandemic they had tents and they were greatly expanding the tent space outside to accommodate this. Um and I I'm kind of surprised that they didn't do that this year just because of that huge demand, yeah, money.

SPEAKER_09: 45:23

But yeah, I mean we had to build, I mean, like would have loved to have had a tent, but we actually had to build a canopy over the top of ours, uh, our booth just in case it rained, and we had a raised floor again, just in case it rained, so that we could keep people now. The canopy in it being a benefit because of the sun was just beating down, it was incredibly hot this year um for Florida at this time of year. But um, you know, look, uh it was a great show for us. Uh, you know, not gonna uh disparage it, other than the fact that I'm looking forward to the expansion of the West Hall, as difficult as it will be logistically, um, it will be a better opportunity to bring new things to the show floor that we haven't been able to see because they've been on wait lists, right?

SPEAKER_04: 46:01

Um buy scooters, buy scooters for the next one.

SPEAKER_09: 46:05

Hey, hey, yeah, exactly. Um, and then just uh hop off of them when somebody tells you not to ride it on the show floor and then turn a corner and hop back on. All right. Um so the uh one thing I wanted to talk about because um I really, really enjoy this. Like I've been a fan of what Lasertron has been doing um for uh with with their crazy darts. Uh they they started with their axe throwing, then they went to crazy darts. Now they have crazy arrows. This thing was a fucking blast. This thing was so much fun. Um, I love, you know, I've I used to shoot bow and arrows when I was younger um in archery, and so I got I was into it. Um, I haven't done it in a long time. These are not fancy, amazing compound bows or anything else, right? They're they're fairly recreational. They've definitely done the right selection, but the gameplay was great. If once they taught you how to a quick little overview, they taught you how to uh you know pull the string back, but then where to site. Once you site, it's pretty right on. Um, it was uh it was pretty fun, and uh, you know, I really enjoyed it. And it's uh they've done they want a brass ring for it, which they deserve. So here's the full if you back out, you know, here's the full space here. Um, you when you buy the system, as in you the same way their crazy darts, same way with their uh crazy axe, um you get the all the seating, the tables, and everything else, like it comes like fully you know competitive socializing ready, um, which is great. You're not just buying the single attraction, um, you're buying the whole system to allow you there's a there's a fuller view, right? Um, and there's actually a table behind me that's included as well, like a like a bar top table for you to a standing table. So it's all that you see here, plus another table, so you could accommodate like 10 people playing, you know, at once. So this was what stood out to me as far as you know, really innovative. We've seen nerf arrow things before and other like foam dart things. Like there's the one that it wasn't on the show floor this year, but the one where you like are shooting the arrows at each other. Um, but they're but it's like foam darts. Um, not yeah, that's obviously why it's not on the show floor anymore. Um, not a not appealing. But yeah, this is phenomenal.

SPEAKER_04: 48:12

This is definitely uh act throwing 2.0. This this has a strong ability, but it also points to a trend, the other major trend that we saw on the show floor this year, which is competitive socializing. It was writ large now. I know there's certain members of the trade association that balk at uh us even discussing competitive socializing, but they can't hide from it. Um laser, uh laser tron, pat on the back as always, they have worked out the best way to offer a competitive socializing turnkey solution, and many others are now following their lead by including the seating arrangements and the touch screens. Uh, we had uh, along with, shall we say, the um axe throwing and the darts, uh funny uh our friends at 501 weren't uh actually on the show floor, they were off the show floor. But we also had the uh the battle of the baseball. Uh we had uh Batfast, and we had uh our friends from uh Bat Box and all, you know, and uh must have home run dugout out in in the sun next door to you guys. Um we we really did see competitive socializing writ large as a major business, and that was doubled down on by our friends at Triotech.

SPEAKER_09: 49:30

I was just gonna say trio the fact that Triotech now they didn't have it available to see, but they announced three new competitive. Well, if you uh you could argue that the carding, that their immersive carding is competitive socializing, but um, you know, it's in that vein, right? It's it's the lower speed carting, it's the more social carding experience um that uh chaos carts and uh battle carts have been doing for a number of years. Um but uh but yeah, triotech, three new products, all competitive socializing introduced or announced at the show.

SPEAKER_07: 49:59

Did you guys see that big hoops setup? Yeah, I did, yes.

SPEAKER_09: 50:07

So I really I've got a picture here, I'll pull it up. But um, I liked what they were doing. I thought their mechanism for their big hoops was really uh really impressive. The problem is, uh, my issue with the uh with the big hoops. Uh man, I wish I could find it here, is the footprint that that system has. And I asked if the footprint here it is.

SPEAKER_07: 50:28

Um this makes it look small. It's not. It's not.

SPEAKER_09: 50:34

It's I mean, look at the two people sitting side to standing side to side. Um, and I asked the the guys uh if they had it in a smaller format or were planning to do it in a smaller format, and uh frankly, they were I was they were super dismissive of it. They said, Nope, this is uh we're only willing to sell to people that have the space. We think our product can justify the the square footage, and this is all we're gonna do, we're not gonna be interested in anything smaller. Um, I wouldn't be surprised from now.

SPEAKER_04: 51:00

It's way high and it's way wide. Uh it's the installation. So if you uh look at the pictures we were just looking at of the Laser Tron setup, if you took two of the base laser tron, that would eat it up on a little bit more. Uh, it would also be much higher. These guys have installed the system at funny enough, uh, axe throwing facility that removed three of its axe throwing uh lanes and put one of these in and seen great numbers. This machine has great curb appeal, it is quite fun to play, and it fits perfectly into the competitive socializing area. My arguments is would be that it is a little bit too big to uh maximize the experience, and that funny enough goes for some of the batting cage experiences. If you look at what our friends uh Dugout have achieved, they've created a soft batting experience that fits within a much easier package and is much more gamified rather than creating a batting simulator, an accurate hardball batting simulator, and then trying to squeeze that into entertainment. And by the bruises and the tired nature of those people playing the realistic batting cage machines, you kind of gauge the for entertainment applications, you need something a little softer.

SPEAKER_07: 52:19

I know for people that um are just seeing the photo of this big hoops here. What makes it extra impressive is that the um the hoop system, the backboard, which is on that gantry, I think that's what you would call it technically. Um what happens is every time you make a shot, it changes its physical position, and that can be at an angle, it can be uh back and forth and such, but also it has two backboards and they will spin around. And so one side has a larger hoop, which is easier to make shots on, and then the other side has a regulation size hoop, and it's very impressive to see that when you make the one hoop, it spins around, moves to a different spot, and now you have to uh use your skills to hit that other one. And so, for people who are really into basketball, really into that competitive aspect of it, I mean it it's a fantastic draw. It's just uh I don't know what the price on it was. So I figured it was among those uh if you if you have to ask, you can't afford it, sort of things, in addition to if you have to ask, you probably can't fit it in your facility. Uh, but still for those places that can put one of these in there, uh I could see where it's uh just massive, massive appeal. It's something that could draw people to come back.

SPEAKER_03: 53:36

Yeah, but I'm uh standpoint, uh, you know, looking at this, and I'm like, it's it sounds like a fun experience, but again, you could put four basketball games next to each other, which would take up the same amount of space four people can play, and you're gonna make way more money with just those four than you know you would with the the the giant, you know, uh uh skilled-based one. And so it's like what what is the market? Who is who is it that uh it wants to buy or or or use it? Because uh I feel like uh you know Dave and Busters or main event and stuff like that, it's gonna be harder to justify the space for an experience that you can get on a you know a much uh a much more compact and um a much higher uh throughput.

SPEAKER_07: 54:23

So does that NBA experience still exist at Disney Springs? Because maybe that's who it was for. A little too late.

SPEAKER_04: 54:30

Uh we were talking with the team there about that. They don't feel that they need IP on it, but just to reiterate, the NBA experience at Disney only lasted 11 months, and that's been replaced now by a le in the level 99 facility, which we never got round to visiting because you know we were just too busy at the show. Competitive socializing Clint offers three bites of the cherry. It offers the players playing the experience, the players sharing drinks and food while playing the experiences and the audience appeal, which really the amusement equivalent to that. And I argue that there's some uh especially from Eunice, they've got some really good digital uh hoops games machines out there, they don't have the same panache, the same curb appeal.

SPEAKER_03: 55:14

So this this is like axe throwing in the sense that you're buying it for a half hour or an hour and playing it consistent. Okay, never mind. So it's like a top golf suite or something like that. So you got it, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 55:28

Yeah, and so you know, we're talking about competitive socializing. The one thing I'll just touch on was the uh pickleball that was there. So it was a pickleball bay um by play count, uh play count, play play count, play. I think it's play count. Um this this was you know, I I I I uh I appreciate what they're trying to do with in you know introducing a pickleball mechanism, um, you know, but the the actual they need to work on the gameplay still. Uh it was really difficult. And and I play pickleball every once in a while, so I'm not uh amazing at it, but I'm also not a novice. Um, and it was really hard to hit the target. So she's showing here an example of what it is. So basically the ball comes out and you come and you hit the ball and you try to hit one of these targets, one of these numbers on the spinning wheel. Um, and there was uh you know you can do side by side, you can do two-player mode, and uh it was really difficult. So the ball would come out, kind of bounce. Now, to be fair, maybe it's because it was on carpets or the ball wasn't bouncing as much as it would have on a harder surface. Um, but the bounce was really low, so you had to come in really low to try to get it up. And as you're coming in low, you just can't you can't aim and target. So like balls were going everywhere. I think you know, I was watching two other guys play it as well, and I think they maybe hit the target one time out of 15. Um, it was uh, you know, the balls just kept going. And then if you didn't hit the ball well, then they just rolled everywhere. So you also have to make sure that you're in an enclosed space so that the balls aren't like flying everywhere and rolling across the floor. So, you know, I think it's an interesting beginning of a concept, but but probably too early to drop into a space. Um, and uh, you know, again, like because it's pickleball, it's accessible. So if you talk about accessibility, competitive socializing, anybody can walk up and swing a paddle and play, but the gameplay has to be um, you have to at least be able to you will you'll feel unsuccessful at the current iteration.

SPEAKER_04: 57:25

This is this is a company sharing a booth with another company that also does ball tracked large screen systems, and uh I get what they're trying to do or bandwagon, they're trying to jump onto it, but this product needs not just more time in the oven, it needs more time in the ingredient stage. Uh good uh again, uh, you know, I held up my hands with my love affair with pickleball. Uh, I I I wasn't enamored by this, I was much more enamored by some of the other ball tracked experiences that were either at the show or that are in the works of being developed at the moment. But hey, uh a good C minus for effort. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 58:07

All right. So let's make a quick shift here to some of the arcade and amusement pieces that we saw. So, you know, this it includes you know any merchandisers or whatever that you saw were interesting. Um, I know for me, I wanted to check out the putt-it-party experience. Um, and you know, it was interesting, right? So it's basically taking skee ball, but making putting a putter and a ball in your hand. I think one of the things that I appreciated about it was the auto uh shoot of the ball. So the ball popped out, came, and you could then you know roll and hit it. And so I did appreciate that. Um, I took a swing as hard as I could at the ball just to see what it would do. It seemed to be just fine. Like it went inside the glass and bounced around quite a bit, but it didn't seem to like have any impact or breakage because you know that you know immediately that's what's gonna happen. Um, people are gonna come up there and try to swing as hard as they can. Um, didn't it seem to hold up okay? Um, you know, like I think it's interesting again. You know, do we put this in instead of skee ball? Do you put it alongside skee ball? Is this an alternative? Um, I'm not sure what what where it's trying to fit in the overall mix. This isn't competitive socializing, this is a pure redemption game. Um, so I would love to get your thoughts on it, guys.

SPEAKER_07: 59:24

I've got a photo from another angle there if you want to show that.

SPEAKER_04: 59:28

But uh so that that metal bar is there for a reason to stop the super swing uh nutter uh killing the people behind them. Right. Uh the the concept works, it's feasible. Is it any better or worse than skee ball? Don't know that is it gonna have better eye candy because of its digital screens? I think so. Will it work in competitive socializing? I could see this working in competitive socializing reskinned, but fundamentally at the end of the day, it's an interesting. Interesting approach to a problem that we didn't have because skee ball's still popular. But one thing about this machine is it's much smaller than a regulation skee ball system.

SPEAKER_07: 1:00:10

Yeah, yeah. I liked it. Um it's just I know there's supposed to be multiple characters and stuff. I had a hard time really paying attention to that because I was focused more on the the uh putting and and getting that all set up correctly. Um it did feel like uh you were kind of violating the space of the other person, uh, is the thing where it's like it would be nice to have maybe a little bit extra padding there. I understand that you don't want to do that too much because real estate's always uh crucial. Uh but at the same time, it was just some maybe it was because at the show everybody's got backpacks on too, but it's just sometimes I felt like I was standing within somebody else's breath, you know. Uh, and then uh just the other thing you mentioned, Brandon, was uh the ball would bounce around a bit uh sometimes, and that's where it's like in an arcade, you're usually not wanting to use finesse. Uh, you know, you just want to go at it and uh slam the thing in there. And uh, you know, uh I I guess it's like with air hockey, people want to treat it more like baseball than they do uh the actual sport of whatever it is, but I still uh appreciate uh all the positives that it has, that it is something innovative, uh, it is something that looks great. Um, I don't know what the price is on it, and and it also ships out in two models, so basically a twin model as we call it, and you can link up to three twins to get the six players.

SPEAKER_09: 1:01:45

So another one that my son just absolutely loved, he ate this thing up, was the uh perfect pump. So this is uh, you know, right after the perfect pour, um, right kind of concept, but it was actually just a straight shot uh single redemption game. Um, so this is him like he he he said that this was his favorite thing on the shelf floor, um, as far as redemption game, right? Because you could you could really he's all about what figuring, so he he plays Pac-Man, he figures he know he memorizes all the pathways and everything else. So he's like about figuring out the the concept, the gameplay, the best way to maximize everything. And he said he figured it out pretty quickly. He said, like it could be more difficult. Um, he said, but uh anyway, basically for those of you listening, uh, this is uh a really ugly cabinet, frankly. Um, but it is a basically a gas station pump, and you literally have a pump handle that you hold and you squeeze that trigger down, and you're trying to hit the target amount, uh, the target sale amount. So you hold the trigger down until you're within basically uh you know, you get different points based on how close you are. So 25 uh tickets if you're like 25 cents away, and you get the most tickets if you are like five cents away. And if you hit it exactly right on that amount, then you get the total bonus tickets that are up at the top, whatever that amount is. Um, and so you know, I I consistently, or somebody who doesn't play these things very often, consistently got within five cents of the total target sales. So I was maxing out on the tickets other than hitting the exact number. Um, so again, like it's probably could be a little bit easier. And the other thing I'll say about it, and then I'll get your thoughts, is there are three different, if you look, you know, I'll scroll in here, there are three different levels, and it's basically like this uh it increases the cost of the game. So I could, it's sort of a little bit like um playing a casino or a slot machine. So I could hit one, I could hit two, I could hit three. I know, I know I use that dirty word gaming, um, but uh but it is uh skill, it is a skill game, I will say. So this is not a random game, but you can increase the amount. So if I want to pay two dollars versus one dollar, I can hit the green, and then that actually multiplies my payout depending on how well I do. So I'm paying more for it, but I'm also getting a higher payout um if I can actually get it uh just right.

SPEAKER_03: 1:04:05

Did they explain how that works on a card reader system? So if you had a card reader, do you swipe and then select? And then how would it take off the right amount, or do you select and then swipe?

SPEAKER_09: 1:04:15

That is a good question. My guess is like a gas station pump, you're gonna you're you're gonna well, I guess technically a gas station, you pay, you you swipe a card first, and then you pre-authorization.

SPEAKER_03: 1:04:25

Yeah, yeah, you you pre-authorize, but I don't think I don't think play cards do pre-authorization.

SPEAKER_04: 1:04:30

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. They do not, they do not.

SPEAKER_09: 1:04:34

Yeah, yeah. So my guess is they did not explain that because it was on free plum free play mode. You can see the button there. My guess is that you would want to hit and select first, so then it increases your credit amount on the card reader, and then you swipe.

SPEAKER_03: 1:04:45

That would be my I don't think card readers work that way either, but I think that's gonna be their uh they're gonna that's gonna be their their big issue is just how do you how how is that going to work? And they probably already have it figured out. Other otherwise, I mean 90% of these games are probably gonna have card readers on them, so it's gonna be uh something that uh that's gonna figure out. I I can't I can't tell you how many people on the show floor said, Have you seen Perfect Pump yet? And I was like, uh, you know, the first thing that came to mind is I bought an electric car so I never have to pump gas again. And now they literally have a game where you're pumping gas. And then the first the when I saw it, I was like, Oh, it looks cool, it's fun to play, but nobody pumps the gas back into the pump. So I was like, I don't understand why that is where you're pumping the gas, but uh uh the gameplay obviously is is fun enough that uh you know everybody was playing it, so it's missed the point.

SPEAKER_04: 1:05:39

It's a good concept, you can see where they're going down, but they should have gone for the nostalgia, it should have been a 1920s all-style.

SPEAKER_09: 1:05:49

Yes, totally, yes.

SPEAKER_04: 1:05:55

So the adults could have a little cry as they're they're pumping uh the the uh the the fuel, uh uh sorry, the gasoline uh at the prices of the 1920s. Right, so the lists are number one, its design is butt ugly. Sorry, sorry, as a designer, it's butt ugly. Number two, they hadn't worked it out clearly how the payment system works, and number three, fundamentally, uh as Clint has hinted at, it's the wrong way around. You should be pumping into a Corvette next door to you or something like that. But sorry, Adam, go go for it.

SPEAKER_07: 1:06:32

Uh the fourth one I would bring up that this really shocked me. And now maybe you guys can correct me if you're wrong, if I'm wrong, if but I heard that the price on this was 16,000 for a single unit. Wow, which to me, it's just like so. Like the one thing that we haven't brought up yet that is a problem uh at the show is the the amount of Chinese product that was there, it was almost overwhelming. And to me, it's almost like Bay Tech's missing the plot when you make something like this where it's so simple and so easy to copy, and then you charge a price like that for it because it's like this concept exists elsewhere. I remember uh space race by Zoom Studios, same thing, it's just a space thing. Uh, I agree that perfect pump is done in a better way, it's a much more relatable way. This is perhaps the most relatable way because you know, we've all pumped gas. Of course, that I guess could be number five is it's like, does this really appeal to kids? You know, how many kids pump gas? Uh, I hope none, you know, but uh um but yeah, that like when I heard that price, I was just like, are you sure that's not uh like the the double version with gold bars on it inside of it or something? Um so hopefully they can bring that down because it's like anybody looks at that and you're like, there's no way that there's this much cost in there, and how did it cost them that much an RD to put into that? Yeah, so I I don't know, but uh I mean, yes, I I do enjoy the um the application of the idea because it's like I think we've all done that ourselves when it's like oh I should only spend 20 bucks on the pump today, and so it's like I I get that. Um, but it's like also like Kit Clint brought up, there are fewer people now that are going to be relating to that than there used to be.

SPEAKER_03: 1:08:25

Uh another thing, and this just came to mind is uh New Jersey and Oregon don't even allow you to pump your own gas. So it's like you got two states out there where uh I don't, you know, are people gonna be excited? Like, have they ever pumped their own gas before? I mean, maybe, maybe it's like, hey, I can finally do it legally, you know, and so well I when I go to New Jersey, it pisses me off because they won't let me pump my own gas. I'm like, I do not want to sit in line and wait for somebody to pump my gas. Like, I do this everywhere. Okay, well, actually, now I have an electric car, so I don't pump my own gas anymore.

SPEAKER_04: 1:08:58

Oh pumping electric cars. There's an interesting concept. We we look forward to seeing how it gets re uh redeveloped based upon all the free feedback they've just got off of the show floor, uh, and also uh uh where they're putting all those gold bars inside. Hopefully they'll find another machine to put them into.

SPEAKER_09: 1:09:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 1:09:17

Liquid gold.

SPEAKER_09: 1:09:18

So one of the I'll say one of the uh most absurd and like funniest uh things on the show floor that I saw was uh was the uh the zebra. Um so you know you ride the you ride the zebra, and I don't know why it's now I'll turn off the audio there. Um the game mechanics guy was absolutely absurd. Um, you basically ride these animals around. Um, it was it was a lot of fun, it was tiring. Um, again, my son said he really enjoyed this one as well. Uh as you can see, he's getting into it. Um you have to shoot to make the animal move, and then you lasso another animal, and then it pulls you forward to the next one. So, some really interesting gameplay. Um, and and actually the visuals were pretty solid as well. So, anyway, I could see this being just kind of an absurd, funny one on the uh you know, to add into your your game mix. What were your guys? Did you guys get the chance to try this one?

SPEAKER_04: 1:10:16

No, I I watched a lot of people doing it. Uh, horse racing game from China, number 23. I think I have to put this down. Uh, you know, great ace. Uh they they always have their finger on the pulse. They've looked at all of the Chinese horse racing games and they've compact compacted it into this model. Uh, whether it will work within our market will be an interesting uh interesting one to see.

SPEAKER_07: 1:10:41

It was at Iapa last year, uh, and it also did capture a lot of good attention. Uh, and so yeah, I think it's a great piece, just uh with ACE in mind, uh, because they've been, I'd say they're about number three at this point. You have like Eunice, you have Wallop, you have Ace now, as far as the hierarchy of Chinese uh companies and quality goes, uh, because Ace has a lot of their games carried by other companies, such as Coastal Amusements and uh Amusement Source International. It's just as I was standing at their booth and just kind of observing, uh, it's like that they still the one problem Ace has is consistency. Uh because yeah, just standing there at their own booth, uh, they had their Cruis and Blast Fast and Furious Clone Racing Extreme there, where graphically it was fantastic, it was almost spot on with what Roth Rields does, not quite, but like 60 frames a second, didn't look janky at all. And then next to it was their biking game, which I noticed was running just a little bit slower, wasn't quite as smooth. And then they had their Dragon Kingdom game, which looked almost like a slideshow. Yeah, uh, and so it's just like you guys gotta. I don't know if they have different teams, if they have like high schoolers for team one and then experienced guys for team two. But it's like you guys gotta work on getting that consistency figured out. But then, of course, there is the you know, the other elephant in the room of um how much of this is undercutting uh bigger established manufacturers like Roth Rills and Bandai Namco, and of course Bandai Namco, who's uh I've got part of their booth behind me here, um leaning very hard into uh Chinese games at this show for the first time, as opposed to relying on their Japanese uh development teams, and so it's an interesting shift in the trends.

SPEAKER_09: 1:12:37

Clint, I see you've got something on cue here.

SPEAKER_03: 1:12:39

Uh what was uh you uh I would say that okay, I'm gonna go backwards then. Uh, this was a game that I was looking forward to when I saw like it was getting they were a back to the future game was coming to the show floor. I was like, yes, and then I played it and I was like, okay, this is just fidget spinner, uh, you know, with uh with the back to the future overlay. And I think they even missed the mark on the back to the future overlay because they just had like a generic voice being like, nice job, or oh, you went too fast. And it's like, why do you not have like Doc Brown, like Reg Scott, and all that like little classic lines that you would hear from the movie? Um, I didn't see it in person, but I did see it in somebody's video that when you did get on the bonus, there was like a bonus video uh that played uh showing you like a scene from Back to the Future uh of the DeLorean in the mall parking lot or something like that. Uh so I think it looks really cool. And if you're a Back to the Future fan, you'd get excited about it. But I I really think it could have been you know much, much better, especially since it even says Doc Brown's on the bottom there. I just noticed that now. So why not? I mean, uh Doc Brown's 88 mile per hour challenge is what's yeah, why not why not take some uh clips from uh from the movie and just you know play those?

SPEAKER_04: 1:13:51

It's very minimalistic, very minimalistic branding. And it raised questions, and it raised questions.

SPEAKER_03: 1:13:58

Uh there was uh a couple, and I didn't get any good pictures of these, so I don't have them here to put up there, but uh some of the coin pusher games, there was a Spider-Man one where you you were flinging the coins, so it was like your webslinging the coins. I I thought that was kind of fun, and I did end up spending way too much time just playing that game.

SPEAKER_04: 1:14:14

Um that was Andamira, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_07: 1:14:18

So Andamira has Spider-Man and they have Star Wars.

SPEAKER_03: 1:14:22

Uh I would say some of the coin pushers uh get too complicated in the sense that like especially if you're building towers and stuff, it's like sometimes, and I even seen like uh some of the uh gamer, uh you know, the arcade people online. Uh-oh, power's going out. Uh some of the game people online to get you, Clint. Um, some of the gamers online were playing some of the coin pushers, and even them, after spending what I would say is 20 to 50 dollars of free play, still didn't really figure out how to play the game. So I think uh some of the uh some of the companies are getting too complicated in how if you can't spend like five dollars and not know exactly how the game works, nobody's gonna read all of the stuff. So you're never gonna you're never gonna get that. Um but I will say, finishing off, I my absolute favorite game uh that sucked me in and I ended up playing like 10 times uh was the the puck game, uh the Hot Wheels puck game, uh where it would deliver a puck and you'd you sling it down to try to get it, and you're moving your car up um as you're as you're doing it. So uh, you know, kind of it's a spin-off of old classic carnival game. Uh and I think they did a really good job, had a great presentation, um, and not a crazy footprint. So I think uh that would be a fun one. And they win a brass ring, I believe.

SPEAKER_09: 1:15:40

It did win a brass ring, yeah. And and you can connect them together, right? So that is like when you talk about the midway carnival games, like you can connect them together and have uh like a midway carnival game type experience uh as well. Um so yes, uh definitely enjoy that game. Um the one that I I another one that we tried out uh was the Spin City. Um basically uh almost a direct ripoff of Sissy Fox, uh, this experience, except for the fact that they totally missed the mark. It was way poorly implemented. Sissy Fox is way better implementation. The big one was the was the fact that the ball was like rock hard. Sissy Fox is like actually like a bouncy, like rubber ball. So it's like you know, you can really slam it and roll it and move it and everything else. This was really hard. It hurts your hands to hit it and roll it, and it was hard to really move because it was so much heavier. Um, so definitely trying to be like a redemption element or redemption piece where Sissy Fox is more like active play, they they haven't really created that redemption element, they're more like CSE type, uh, type active play experiences. Um, but they were trying, I think, to redemptionize here with the with the Spin City, but I think they missed the mark on this one.

SPEAKER_07: 1:16:50

It was an extra game when I played it afterwards. I was like breathing heavily. It's like, oh my gosh, that was uh tough and to have to play. I'm surprised they would do that for kids.

SPEAKER_04: 1:17:01

Yeah, luckily, luckily, Sissy Fox has uh got their own other products in the market. Uh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_09: 1:17:08

I really like a lot of what Sissy Fox does, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 1:17:10

Yeah, I I I was very uh unhappy with viewing this when I saw that product. Uh um but did you see their jump master? Yeah, yeah. It's it's it's it's not the way to play the game, guys. I mean, you know, I I I understand that it's a business and you want to try and jump on the bandwagon as fast as possible, but you know, don't don't borrow directly so so so blatantly, or else you'll have a visit from the IP police uh from uh I Alpha. Did any of you see the G.I. Joe game?

SPEAKER_07: 1:17:45

Yes. Yeah, and actually uh that that was one of the more talked-about ones. Now um I unfortunately don't have any photos of it here. Um yeah, the just the presentation of the cabinets uh certainly drew attention uh since we don't have a photo of it here. Um imagine a giant artillery cannon attached to a seat uh in front of an arcade screen. Yeah, it's taking up space, right? Right, but stops people in their tracks. I mean, overall, for a twin cabinet, the footprint doesn't seem to be that bad. Um, but the problem that they're going to have there were my concern about it is that uh they obviously just I think they just got the license for G.I. Joe a week before the show. So the software was actually something else, like the original Chinese game, yeah. Right. And so like the gameplay had nothing to do with G.I. Joe. Now, what I'm hoping is that they do more than just slap some G.I. Joe characters on there because in the gameplay, there are some elements which could be G.I. Joe. Granted, I haven't seen G.I. Joe in like, I don't know, 35 years or something since I was a kid. But um that still, there I don't recall there being dragons and things like that in uh G.I. Joe, and the get software was buggy on top of that. I was playing it in the middle of a boss battle, it just suddenly pops up with the screen, and then the boss disappears, and then I'm playing in the middle of a level again, and then it's kind of all over the place. So, really hoping for some polish there because I mean, there was a good bit of attention brought to the IP. Um, and I mean, it just even if a kid doesn't know it, then the it's appealing to them because hey, that's a huge gun. I could thus shoot it. Um, and just like uh Jet Game, uh sorry, I guess we didn't say this was at Jet Games' booth. Um it just like their other games like Mega Shot, Quick Shot, um and the new GigaShot that was there, um, they always have it's all powered by an air compressor, and you have different modes, such as normally when you're firing, it's firing the big artillery shell, but sometimes it turns into a machine gun, and so that's a little bit of a surprise. Uh overall, a better uh thing than I got out of back to the future, just like you were saying, Clint. I I'm glad I kept my expectations low for Back to the Future. Uh, but but that was another thing that came to mind with this show as far as licensing goes, is it's like our industry is still a little bit it's I think missing the mark because we're trying to appeal to kids, and we keep making these games that have no appeal to kids at all. No kid cares about Back to the Future. Us Gen Xers, millennials, sure, we all know what that is. Uh, but I just can't imagine a kid like I have a nine-year-old daughter, she doesn't know what it is. She, if she was to go to an arcade, she wouldn't go to that. But it's like our industry is not chasing IP that's relevant to the youngest generation. There's nothing from say Bluey or Roblox or Labo Boo or any of these things that are really relevant to them. And maybe it's because uh those who are designing the games are just like, I would have liked to see this when I was a kid, but it's like that's not how we're supposed to really be going about it if we want to stay ahead of the trends.

SPEAKER_09: 1:21:22

Yeah, it's like the Wizard of Oz wheel we saw at Amusement Expo, right? So they they didn't even go, and granted, look, there it's price point too, right? Kevin, you alluded to that, right? When you held up your fingers, yes, um it's it is price point, but you they could have done wicked instead of Wizard of Oz, uh, and that would have been much uh more aligned, but more expensive IP, right?

SPEAKER_04: 1:21:40

Yeah, so that's the the old man we're we're suffering the old man syndrome. We keep on talking about it. We had some very deep discussions at the show, the old man syndrome, who is involved in the design, development, and commissioning process for the current gen of amusement. With the GI Joe, no uh old man from the Western amusement industry was involved in that, other than the IP, because this is a Chinese product that they should they saw when they went to AAA show a couple of uh months ago. They liked the look of it, they worked out how they're gonna bring it over, they brought it over, it played well, then they had to think how they're going to wrap it. And this is a problem that many of us are worrying about in the sector, which is we have a good product, but we need to wrap it with something because we don't think the current game design is suitable for the market. And the old man syndrome is oh, I know, uh let's wrap it with um Simon, let's uh uh uh wrap it with uh Back to the Future. Uh uh and you know, you you look at the uh the Wizard of Oz and you grab him by the shirt tiles and go frozen or uh or anything else other than uh the wizard of oz. What's wrong with you? Oh, but it worked for Stern, yeah, that's a pinball, that's not redemption. And now certain investment companies are asking the questions who are the RD teams within these operations? Because if we're gonna give you enough rope to hang yourself to use a very expensive IP, who are the developers here? And now we're beginning to see. I'm not sure how many of you are aware that certain RD teams have been broken up and uh have taken on new executives recently with some of the.

SPEAKER_07: 1:23:24

Well, Brandon, I have something on my screen that could be relevant to this. Uh, because there is one company, so Alan One did uh get this right, I think, uh, at least from the impressions that I heard at the show. When I was standing at their booth, there was one of those college students that was mentioned previously who came across it and he was so happy, so excited. Now I had never heard of butts on things, uh, but apparently it's an artist from 2016 who was working at Starbucks, started drawing little butts on other items like pineapples and coffee cups and stuff, and he's turned it into a big business and he's licensed it out. And so Alan One uh working with Unis has rebranded their toy box cranes to do butts on things, but on top of that, they actually have the uh toys, and so this is the same material that's used to make rubber duckies, but uh now you can get the butts on things drawings as an actual item that you can collect. I think they have 17 of them, they'll probably have more. They're also supposed to have larger versions coming out next year. Like, here's an example of one that's a roll of toilet paper with a butt on it, and even if you squeeze it, it made a little fart. Uh, but uh then you also had it here was inside the machines all the different items, like uh thing of s'mores, mushrooms, hamburgers, watermelons, uh donuts, all that stuff. Yeah, and so it's like might seem silly and immature to those of us who are older, but for kids, I mean, I saw multiple times, I wasn't over there a whole lot, but every time I was there, there was some kid that got drawn in by that uh and was happy to see it.

SPEAKER_04: 1:25:09

And so it's like that's something that accessibility, attainability, fashionability. This is what the merch is now. I know, you know, going back to Clint's comments about Elon, you know, they had the security guards outside, their inflatable uh what is it? Uh uh Castle of Solitude that they have to create uh to sorry, Fortress of Solitude, thank you, to uh to show off their new concept. Oh, sorry, Kevin, you can't go in there because we need you to sign an NDA. Goodbye. Uh, and you know, and then suddenly someone shows me the picture of what it was in there, and I'm going, are they are they joking here? What it is is they missed out on the current. Yeah, you got the you got the flyer. Oh my god, you showed it. Oh if they try that, if they try to hide it at EAG, I will print that picture and drive it past their booth. The issue here is just because you missed where we're going now with the new generation uh uh crane machines, and that was a big talking point at the show. How many people are looking for the latest crane machines with the latest collectible merch? That is our future. But our industry is a little bit unhappy that it's missed the uh the wheel on that one, and I think we're in a point where if they don't catch up and play nice with everybody, someone's gonna eat their lunch.

SPEAKER_09: 1:26:40

All right. So I want to go around one uh one more cycle around, like a hot take. What you know, one one last takeaway from the show. Um, you know, as we as we kind of wrap up this uh guest gap segment here. So uh we'll go in reverse this time. We'll start with Kevin and then we'll go Clint, Adam, and then uh I'll finish off.

SPEAKER_04: 1:27:01

Uh the thing that I take away from the show mostly is that the only VR that was at the show was the Chinese stuff and the other stuff, and the other stuff was only there because it had proven itself. So that novelty value for VR has flown out the window. We saw also a lot of Emma at the show, and we can go into a little bit more detail about that at another time.

SPEAKER_09: 1:27:27

All right, Clint, what's your what's your last what's your hot take?

SPEAKER_03: 1:27:30

So if you uh go ahead and share my screen, uh I think you'll you'll see uh what I was concentrating more on than uh games and plush, and that is people uh connecting with everybody. I love uh seeing uh you know getting getting in touch with everybody, taking selfies with everybody, seeing Kevin, seeing Brandon. I missed Adam, sorry, but uh just getting a chance to see everybody at the show. Uh that's that's the thing that I uh really enjoy about all of these things, whether it's this or the FEC Summit or or uh Amusement Expo or Amusement 360 is just uh getting to network with everybody. So I was I was buying claw games, so I was immersed in all of the you know uh different aspects of claws, whether it's merchandise or the claws themselves.

SPEAKER_09: 1:28:15

So awesome, Adam.

SPEAKER_07: 1:28:20

Yeah, for me, um, I was mainly in the games and arcade pavilion almost the entire time exclusively. Uh there was a lot of product to see. I don't recall seeing quite so many new products debuting at the show. As Kevin mentioned, there was a very noticeable decline in VR, and I think that's being replaced by other items that are more affordable and uh better potential revenue generators. And whether that's crane machines or even kitty rides to a degree, interactive kitty rides are slowly making their way up there. Uh, but when it comes to the arcades, which I is what I usually focus on, uh I notice that they're still looking hard into the simulator style experience, something that you really cannot reproduce at home, which still is just as important now as it was when we really started doing that back in the 90s, uh, and just finding new ways to apply that, uh, whether that was through uh motorcycle racing games with new mechanical parts to them, or Roth Rills doing the Godzilla um without the VR aspect to it, and just making that a big spectacle. Um and yeah, just all of those things packed together. I I'm looking forward to 2026, and I think there's a a lot of good things that can happen there. Sure, there's always variables of where things can go awry, but uh you know, we just always do the best that we can and uh ride the wave.

SPEAKER_09: 1:29:55

Yeah. Well, I I was blown away. Know we kind of knew going into it, we've been talking about the level of uh how many new things there were going to be on the show floor this year compared to last year. Um, but just I was I was impressed and or maybe not impressed, but excited about the level of experimentation that is happening on uh the show floor, but happening within these different products. And you know, you're seeing legacy uh products, uh you know, attraction manufacturers, people like amusement products, or all the laser tag uh groups or creative works or what you know attack, right? These are legacy, they've been doing the same types of attractions for the for years, decades in some cases, and they're beginning to make shifts to more social competition, more active play, and other things that they they're just beginning to experiment in different areas. Um, there's a lot of Me Too that's happening as a result of that, right? We saw how many different um you know pixel floor type games going on, but then through that competitive pressure, every once in a while you see something unique that comes out, like the Vex Party Dash, or you see, you know, the type of floor that Augmented Games is doing with Moment Factory. So you're seeing these trends and things moving, and I do like the level of experimentation that's happening across the board, um, not just at the amusement um and redemption and merchandising level, um, but also at the you know larger attraction, larger footprint model. So um I am encouraged for 2026 and I'm encouraged for our industry. There's clearly uh people are you know see of value in creating new things here. Um, otherwise, they'd just be doing the same old thing. And they're uh definitely uh competition is driving that differentiation and innovation, and I'm a big fan of that. Um all right. Well, guys, this has been a phenomenal guest gab. Already looking forward to 2026, and uh we'll see you guys in another one. Thanks for having us.

SPEAKER_06: 1:31:52

Thank you.

SPEAKER_09: 1:32:02

All right, well, that wraps up our show. Hope you all enjoyed leftovers this week and really hope you'll catch sound off number 100 with Kevin Williams on Tuesday, this upcoming Tuesday, December 2nd. It is number 100. We got a lot of stuff to cover in that sound off, and uh, we have a fun little um change your mind at the beginning, too, that I think you'll really enjoy. So, with that, that is a wrap for this week's LBX show. This is Brandon Wiley signing off. Stay tuned and keep kicking out.