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Sound Off #101 - Clawcade Standards, Social Entertainment Differentiation, & More!
Sponsored by Intercard!
Sponsored by Alan-1!
On this week's 101th episode of Sound Off, we argue for bringing clawcade operators into the fold with clear standards. Then we survey UK competitive socializing, M&A signals, and why content-led, gamified spaces are setting the pace. VR gets a reality check as Meta steps back, while projection arenas, trampoline gamification, and live game shows rise.
• oversaturation risk from the clawcade boom
• associations versus education for best practice
• mall lease strategy and non-compete clauses
• Black Friday signals for guest spend and value
• UK competitive socializing growth and definitions
• Tenpin acquires Fairgame and rollout strategy
• Gravity’s brand architecture and expansion signals
• Five Iron Golf’s UK entry and differentiation needs
• Wonderworld funding and per-cap challenges
• live game show formats as social anchors
• projection mapping arenas and fidgetal content
• trampoline gamification product landscape
• Little Lion’s Arcade Arena portfolio strategy
• Meta’s retrenchment and XR hardware choices
• AI avatars as greeters and service augmentation
• the immersive entertainment torus as a strategy lens
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Are you on the edge of your seat? Because we're about to speak with Kevin Williams, covering today's latest trends in location-based entertainment. Brought to you by the LBX Collective, your community to connect, engage, and inspire. All right, everyone, let's buckle up.
SPEAKER_03:All right, well, welcome everybody to Sound Off with Kevin Williams. This is firmly implanted into the triple digits number 101 for December 9th, 2025. Kevin, how are you doing, man?
SPEAKER_00:I'm doing fine, thank you. How are you doing, brother?
SPEAKER_03:Oh, doing doing great. I you know, I love the holiday season. You get you give me you feed me American Thanksgiving, and then we roll right into the holidays. It's uh it's awesome. I love it.
SPEAKER_00:Ho ho ho.
SPEAKER_03:All right. Well, uh, how are you going to change my mind this time around?
SPEAKER_00:Well, um, I feel that we have a problem on our horizon. While we were walking around IALPA, it was obvious that uh new wave uh crane machines were popular. Even the established names in more traditional crane machines had even pivoted uh towards trying to embrace the new wave crane machines, and these machines are feeding the plethora of uh clawcates that we have out there. As an industry, we can sit back and allow the Wild West to happen, or we can try and act a little bit federally and try and offer protection and an environment for these operations. I've been having this kind of discussion uh with the trade associations regarding other aspects of trends that take place. Uh we're speaking with one particular association about trying to reel in all of the immersive entertainment boys and calm them down about what are create some bylaws, create some rules and regulations so everybody's uh understands and doesn't make the same mistakes. We've talked about the laser tag associations and what's happening with uh them under the current changes that they're going through. And I'm wondering if uh the clockade industry needs to be welcomed into the tent uh uh and embraced uh towards uh ensuring that we don't have to suffer a boom bust. My concern is that they'll all open up, they'll all undercut each other, they'll oversaturate the market, and then they'll implode, and their implosion could be detrimental to the rest of us in the amusement and location-based entertainment sector. So my my argument is uh we need to pull these guys into the tent rather than allow them to continue urinating outside of it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Um, and is this so you know, obviously, it sounds like the bigger concern is on oversaturation and then the subsequent collapse versus any potential concerns, and maybe you have those concerns as well, but like, you know, as far as it relates to this particular uh change my mind, is less about you know regulation around um you know the the the skill versus luck you know component of the clockade boom. It's more about oversaturation and are we just going to have so many of these everywhere? Um so I'll maybe that's that's question that's maybe question number one. And then question number two is um, is this concern around all of the independent clockades we see pop up uh versus obviously the big bad genda of the world? I don't want to call this big bad, but like the big 800 pounder gorilla genda of the world that's you know buying up multiple versions of of these clockade facilities and other amusement enterprises and chains that are rolling out their own clockade brands under the overarching genda parent.
SPEAKER_00:Well, the answer to your your two questions is yes, um, but uh to get them into a friendly mood, I'm not going to be able to start prodding them to ask about their legality and the entertainment offerings, or else they'll all run away and go and hide. Uh so what we're going to do is we're going to have to give a carrot and stick approach, and we're going to have to encourage them to feel that there's a benefit to avoiding oversaturation and increasing their uh their bottom margin. And once we've got them in the tent, we then have to pull up the uh the hood or the bonnet, depending on uh your territory, and look at the engine that runs these things. I am very much concerned how much skill is involved, not just at the smaller venues, but the larger venues as well. Um, I am also concerned on the quality of the machines that they've imported from China regarding how they're going to hold up uh against the rigors of constant operation. The last thing we want to do is see this go the way of the sticker machine, where it was an incredible boom. People made fantastic profits and then it disappeared in a puff of smoke and pulled down uh a number of independents. The future will be that uh 80-pound gorilla in the room buying up the uh the most profitable of these sites. I wouldn't be surprised in 12 months if open and shut is full of, oh, and another site has been taken over by a large group, oh, and another site has been taken over. But then I don't think I would be talking about them in open shut because they may be more insidious, that kind of thing. Either way, we haven't seen that happen in the laser tag market. Most laser tag operations are either part of an established uh facility or chain. There's not that many standalone laser tag operations, and those ones that exist are uh few and far between and part of a uh a longer-aged uh operation. We are the the closest equivalent I can see is the escape room business. And even the escape room boys worked out a means to understand each other and work out the best practices themselves. It's a very interesting example of how an entertainment industry self-policed itself uh and has been able to keep its independence. Um, and and maybe that will happen here with the clawcade sector, but my my uh spider senses are tingling a little bit.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Yeah, I think the last thing I'll say is, you know, it may not be just on the associate, you know, the back of the associations for you know the amusement trade, but also even the retail associations, you know, the retail federation, national retail federation here in the US, for example. Um, because I was just recently uh for uh not because I wanted to be, but I was just recently at the Arizona Mills Mall, um which a large mall. It's operated by Simon Properties, which is a large uh they they they run many, many large format malls across the United States and in other countries. Um, and there were two separate clockade instances in the mall. And this is, you know, when we talk about oversaturation, uh, this should be something that the mall should not allow, for example, right? Or you should have a stipulation in your lease if you are going to go into a mall that you don't have any other competing entertainment um specifically related to clause in the you know in the surrounding area. So um it is an issue for the retail federations and the retail associations to really look at as well to you know potentially help police uh this type of thing, even though they are uh you know at cross uh you know cross odds as far as like you know wanting to get more leases. So, you know, hey, look, you know, it's not on them necessarily, but I think education, at least for that for that group of businesses as well, should be aware of this issue.
SPEAKER_00:Some people would say that you're suggesting that the vampire runs the blood bank. Uh the the issue is you're quite right, it it is detrimental. Uh they may be able to make hey why the sun is shining, but they are going to be stabbing themselves uh in the back uh to mix all these lovely metaphors uh to uh if they don't try and police. I would I've had problems trying to get the hospitality sector and the retail sector and the amusement sector and the attraction sector to play nice with each other. They are all individual islands, and though they recognize that the others exist, they keep them at extreme arm's length because they don't trust them, or they're worried that uh, you know, if they give information then it will be used against them. And that's usually why another association is created because they can't work nice with the ones that already exist. Uh I'm going to move away from saying association support and just going for educational support and maybe creating uh an archive of information and best practices would be the best way for all of these to work out. Though you're quite right, it would be in the mall and retail landlord sector's best interests if they didn't have carcasses of dead clockades on their facility just because they were too greedy six months ago.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, exactly. Exactly. All right. Well, coming up after the quick break, we'll dive into some economic trends. Intercard is the only cashless system designed, developed, and manufactured all under one roof. They introduced cashless technology to the amusement industry and have been leading the way for over 30 years.
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SPEAKER_00:Thank you, Intercard. And moving on with trending and a little bit of economy. Well, we've just gone through Black Friday and also through the other end of Cyber Monday. And uh the doom and gloomers had to uh eat their words a bit because we actually saw Black Friday from the retail point of view doing some interesting numbers. I can tell you that Mall of America had one of their best ever Black Fridays, uh confounding those skeptics that uh were uh expecting to see recessional kinds of uh business being done. The uh the international market does seem to be uh people are wary of spending their money, but when they want to spend their money, they have the money in their back pockets in some cases. Uh I'm not going to go through the list of uh uh what was uh promoted as being well sold during Black Friday, but it is the electronics goods you would expect, uh, as well as certain fashionable items. My interest is going to be over the Christmas sales period, which we should have the numbers quite quickly on how well that retail has done and whether we do see uh tariff-based impacts. I am seeing certain people reporting in social media that you know certain products that they've ordered uh to be delivered to them are coming with a sting of an additional amount of money. But from some perspectives, they're prepared to eat that just to have access to those products.
SPEAKER_03:It's a really interesting mix of products. I mean, some that you would obviously expect that uh top the list. Uh, I think the one that stands out for me, uh maybe because I never once desired it, is the hour ring uh that uh that that topped the list. I I'm just uh, you know, like I've just never even had, and I love little bits of technology and I'm like a gadget guy, and that is one that never even topped my list and as one of the top sellers. So uh, you know, look, it's I guess I'm not the the top market for uh for Black Friday sales.
SPEAKER_00:I don't think we're the target market. If we want something, we get it and we don't wait for one dollar being taken off the price and claiming that it is a fantastic uh sales. Or as we've seen with some uh retailers, uh interesting, a couple of uh well-placed retailers uh uh put their prices up in uh October and then suddenly brought them down for the Black Friday, you know, scalping. But hey ho, uh that's what uh um uh customer support services and federal officers are there for to try and put an end to this scalping. Yeah. Uh maybe they uh they were out buying stuff while they still had the money after the lockdown, but anyway, moving to the uh trending biz and had an interesting report. Uh our friends at ONews that cover really the hospitality in the retail sector, they slapped up a report talking uh about the growth in the UK of uh competitive socializing. Uh and it was interesting to see them uh as a retail-focused news service going into the depths uh of uh this the Savile, uh well-known uh market agency evaluation and data broker, uh, put together a report, and it is their uh graph that I put in front of you, and that is a graph showing a constant grow of uh the competitive socializing market, with the claim that there is 800 competitive socializing venues nationwide. I'll argue with that. Uh, I have a very detailed database on the competitive socializing market, and I'd like to see their definitions of a competitive socializing venue compared to mine. But, you know, I will agree with them that there has been a considerable growth in that uh aspect. And next year, 2026, is not going to be any different.
SPEAKER_03:Uh would totally agree with you. I think their definition is probably a little bit looser than ours would be as far as uh what is constitutes a competitive socializing venue. Um, that being said, I mean, the UK and London, even uh specifically, but now we're beginning to see it throughout all of the UK. Uh, there's no question that competitive socializing has absolutely taken hold and is the key driver of entertainment growth right now in that market. And we're obviously seeing that trend carry over to other markets as well. Um, I am curious though, what is the downward trend bubble there that that we see? What is that counting? I can't see it from you know my screen here.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, uh I think that that one is uh development. Uh so we might gloss.
SPEAKER_03:There's no key. I couldn't read the key down at the bottom.
SPEAKER_00:So okay, so uh the dark blue uh is uh the traction, the uh lighter blue is uh the developers, and the bubble is uh the traction or the independent traction in that market. Okay. So we're we're kind of seeing the uh the pop-ups against the uh the permanent facilities uh against each other. Um I'll I'll make a link uh available to the full report if anyone is interested. That uh example of the investment in the UK uh competitive socializing, and I I'll say UK for now, but we are definitely seeing an international spend in this. We're seeing the Europeans jumping on this, we're seeing the UAE jumping on competitive socializing, we're seeing America jumping on very heavily uh to this. But the UK seems to be the crucible where a lot of this uh is being invested in. And surprise, surprise, we're seeing MA, merger and acquisition, uh playing its part. Uh, we've seen investment houses putting money into certain chains, which I've reported on previously. Now we see uh our friends at Fair Game uh being acquired by 10 Pin. Uh 10 Pin Entertainment runs about uh 50 to 60 sites, uh bowling and FEC style entertainment facilities uh in the UK. Uh and they have uh taken on the two uh fair games, or they've acquired the operation of Fair Game uh from their uh uh previous uh investment uh holdings. I felt that fair game took too long to get the ball rolling uh regarding rolling out more of their facilities. You know, they they've been sitting on their laurels with their first site at Canary Wharf a long time, and then they open up their second site, which I reported on uh attending the uh opening, soft opening of that, and they didn't seem to have learned as many lessons from the first site to warrant that. I think now with fair uh fair games being under the um tutelage uh of 10 pin, we will see an acceleration in the rollout, and we may even see the fair game concept being added as a secondary hospitality entertainment component mix to the 10 pin chain. It will be fascinating to see how under the controls of a much more business and rollout oriented operation, uh, this brand can take off, especially as they have competition from another fairground-themed uh uh competitive socializing concept that started up a couple of years ago in the north of the country.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, this is uh it seems like either both too early or too late for fair games. Uh, you know, I don't know where I said. I mean, I feel like it's uh two locations. I was fair game not seeing the traction, 10 pin came in with a really aggressive offer, you know, it'd be really interesting. You know, did they want to go and move on and do something different at fair game? You never know the motivations necessarily here, um, but it does seem like you know, you you would want you would have wanted to get to five to ten locations before the exit. Uh but again, um, you know, we don't know all the motivations behind the scenes, but it definitely is uh clear to 10 pin, anyway, that they need to be focused on alternate models beyond their their core bowling center operation.
SPEAKER_00:You I think you've hit the nail on the head uh regarding the issues that we don't don't have transparency to. I agree that uh this is an example of 10 pin seeing that they need to get into competitive socializing, and it's easier to do this than to create their own brand. Okay, we get that. If I had the numbers, if I could tell you how much that uh uh BGF was paid for uh fair games, then we would have an idea whether this is a moving on to something else, uh um just getting their hands on competitive socializing, or uh this is a problematic brand that shows a lot of promise but needs uh a safe pair of hands to uh to steer it into success. I feel, given the right packaging uh and presentation and getting away from their foible of trying to create their own gains rather than benefiting from uh the experience that's in the amusement market already, uh, then this could be in a very interesting position. And so we will look forward to seeing when site number three opens. To understand where we stand with them. Moving on again and indicating the traction and the movement in the competitive socializing as well as the entertainment mix in the UK in the whole. I have spoken of gravity active entertainment before. Most of our audience will be familiar with my coverage of the Gravity Max facilities, which are for me mules, excuse leisure entertainment facilities, with a strong competitive socializing bent to them. And while I've been sitting on a story now for the last uh couple of months, which I can't move on from at the moment, but I at least I can touch upon by saying we are aware of developments happening within the uh Gravity Active Entertainment site, which will see uh a restructuring and a redevelopment of uh this empire because they have quite a considerable number of trampoline operations, uh or I would call full active entertainment, active uh entertainment facilities, more than just trampolines climbing and all of that. They have their um, let's call it their mixed-use leisure social entertainment interests. They also have been experimenting with their own uh gravity arcade uh design, which they developed with Funbox Stroke Sega, and they have their gravity social, which is a um a full-on competitive socializing standalone concept, which they're still uh well were still uh working on and still uh you know defining uh what that was going to be. They in recent reporting stated that they're still on track to uh generate their 40 million for their for their year in operation uh fund uh uh operation revenue. So that kind of looks positive uh on paper, but there is something going on, and uh I can't reveal too much of the information that's been given to us because it's still um shrouded in secrecy. But I can say that this is one to watch regarding a uh a flag in the ground regarding the changing landscape of the UK uh location-based and active entertainment market. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Um, you know, the only thing I'll say here, obviously, because we can't speak too much about what's going on, but I will just make one comment that we've made in the past, uh, and we've actually praised Gravity for this, and I'll do it again just as a quick call out, is that they do a great job with the uh in in separate branding of each of their different types of sites. So we've come across uh different brands where each location is significantly different in the attraction mix that it has, and yet you wouldn't know that by the name. And so you run, you you walk in expecting one thing and seeing something totally different. At least here they've done you know, gravity has always done a really great job at branding each of their individual locations with the type of experience you're going to have when you walk in the door.
SPEAKER_00:Their branding is on point, their web uh and uh party booking component is uh functional, uh, and they do seem to have their finger on the pulse of what is needed in the market. Now, uh, how do you expand and grow from that position is is really uh what comes next. So, you know, this is important for us to have this on our radar, and this is what uh I'm stating in this point. I wish I could go into a little bit more detail of why that uh little light is blinking on our radar, but we'll be able to do that hopefully in a couple of weeks' time. Uh uh the UK uh is about to uh receive an American visitor. Um surprise news for many that uh our friends at Five Iron Golf will be opening up, or by the time of this report, have opened up their first of their five iron uh golf entertainment facilities in the UK. London again gets to see the first of this. Eight simulation bays, um, full service restaurant. We already have in London, uh funny, I was just at, well, we have a number in London of golf simulation bays. Uh, most of those are part of either private clubs or golf retailers. Uh funny enough, I was at one in Canary Wharf uh a couple of weeks ago, which offers a very high-quality eight uh simulator bays with a very nice uh bar component, which I would call a strong competitive socializing environment. And that is the market that our friends at uh Five Irons are walking into. I am just wondering how much of the Five Irons entertainment operation, rather than just the golf simulation operation, is being purported to be uh shipped over to the UK.
SPEAKER_03:I hope there's some additional entertainment components. I mean, but based on what's been announced, it sure looks like it is uh just one of their standard fare golf simulators. And I'm not sure that Fiveiron has the strength to stand out in what we've already talked about as a really competitive uh social entertainment environment and uh and region.
SPEAKER_00:You know, this this could be the uh you know, this is the first flag in the ground, as it were, and we will give them the benefit of doubt from the first facility, but to stay relevant in this fast moving market, um, especially looking at how golf simulation is already established in the UK market, but maybe not as uh as well branded, it's these are all points to bear. I would argue that their mixed entertainment offering would find a better uh a better avenue in this market than just uh eight uh eight bays and uh a gin and tonic, but we will have to wait and see what these plans are going forward. But it is the first. The uh market going in the opposite direction, usually it's a UK uh competitor socializing going to the states. Moving on, and uh our friends at uh Wonderworld, um they've received some major investment from uh Scottish Bank, and you know they have they already have 13 venues open, and uh this money will go towards expanding their chain of operations. Uh Wonderworld Group has uh the Wonder World uh Active Entertainment trampoline, uh inflatable kind of experience. They have Air, which is the inflatable, uh, air thrill, which is the inflatable, and then they have electric thrill, which is kind of the dark light golf, uh as well as amusement component. And you know, this new investment that uh that they've just raised, I think we'll see them moving from the 13 facilities to compete now with multiple uh new venues. I'm beginning to wonder how much the UK market can survive in the active entertainment market, how many more you can open. Uh and again, if you have to consider opening new venues, diversification is essential.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, uh we'll we'll wait and see how much they can continue to expand. I mean, electric thrill uh compared to uh something like Put Jack, there's not a lot of differentiation there. And and and one would argue that Put Shack's gonna deliver a superior experience um unless you're really just worried about uh cost, in which case, obviously, electric thrill at$4 uh 4 pounds per person is a really inexpensive experience. Um but I just I really wonder what their per cap uh opportunities are there.
SPEAKER_00:Uh and again, I've never been to an electric thrill knowingly, and I don't know what their F and B offering is because if you're gonna go up against uh a pot shack, then it's not just about the price of the game, but it's also the price of the hospitality that's important and the quality. Um that competitive socializing investment uh sees a new concept throw its hat into the ring. Uh, and in the new year in London, we are going to get game show live. Uh so this is a large audience-based uh game show. Um you know, 45 to 50 minutes worth of game show supported by uh food and beverage. I'm not sure what level of food. I don't think this is going to be a dine-in experience more than a shareables. So this isn't Mamma Mia uh the party, uh as it were, but it is going to be a live game show with all of the pods playing against each other, uh with uh an ability to hold uh about 200 uh guests, that's 40 booze dotted around. This isn't the first time that this concept has been broached. Excuse me. Um I know of at least three attempts at a live game show kind of approach. We've even seen this done with um uh uh with Bingo uh as the uh uh as the entertainment component, but again, in this freebile market at the moment for everything social entertainment based. You know, this this is throwing its hat into the ring, uh, a market which I'm sure a thousand boxes uh should have expanded into by now.
SPEAKER_03:This is really interesting. I mean, London is the epicenter, I would consider the epicenter in the world for immersive theater uh at this point, um, and at least as far as experimentation. And this is a big swing and could be really interesting. Obviously, it's gonna be heavily carried by the cast members and how well they carry on the uh the act. But um very interesting. I look forward to seeing how this does. I mean, they their 90-minute experiences, uh, you know, snacks, cocktails, um, you know, your teams of four to six getting together to compete to win actual real prizes too, which I think is interesting. Like you can come away with silly things. Yeah, you can come away with silly things, right? They're they're not uh you know amazing prizes, but you know, robot vacuums or air fryers or other things like that. But like, hey, it gives you a real um there's some there's some real um uh meat on the bone that you can uh you come away with. So uh it should be interesting to see how this how this plays out.
SPEAKER_00:Done right. Uh this could be uh could be a big push. It's interesting to see that they haven't tied themselves to a particular current television or streaming service competition. The closest example I can give you uh in London to this kind of concept is the Cube, which is based on a uh game show uh experience uh and has been turned into a competitive socializing. So again, um we'll have to come up with a new definition for the competitive socializing game show experience. And as I said previously, the thousand boxes, who funny enough weren't uh exhibiting at ILPA uh this year. Uh there was only one uh game show uh um quiz game platform. Well, two and a half, but uh quiz game platforms at uh the amusement show. It it shows that it they are a popular uh platform to parachute in as a supportive brand, maybe not just as a standalone brand. Um and I alluded to uh a little bit uh talking about our IALPA coverage when I was talking about our friends at DOF Robotics that they had plans to operate their own facility, the same way I was talking about our friends at Triotech who also have plans to open their own facilities. Well, we've got a little bit more transparency from the team at Dolph Robotics. Uh, their concept is going to be called Neoplanet, uh, and they have two facilities scheduled uh to open in Turkey uh in the coming 12 months or 13 months to be exact time. Uh I think the first facility is Istanbul, um though I I can't remember if I got that details from them or from uh a news report. Anyway, neon Neon Planet, interesting name. It sounds like it's going to be a mix of family entertainment center and active entertainment. Uh more the simulators and the laser tag and those kinds of things. Um we look forward to seeing how uh how a manufacturer uh finds itself in the uh facility operation business. Uh I think that uh our friends at Doff Robotics will find it an interesting process.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it will be interesting, right? I mean, we've talked about uh you know in past sound-offs, uh, we've talked about how a lot of uh well not a lot, but like many point of sale providers and manufacturers, like they tend to either come from uh facilities and then they built their product as a result of like needing something specific for their facility, or they go and they build their facilities in order to test new products. I mean, Lasertron has done this for years and uh has done it quite successfully. So it would be interesting. I mean, they have announced a pretty strong general manager for their main leadership of this location. He's held uh major leadership positions at Merlin and various theme parks uh as well in Turkey. So we'll be interesting to see how it plays out.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I hope to get my uh hands on a draft of the concept that they've been circulating. Uh again, we're in communication with the team there, and once we get a better idea of what age group they're going for, because you know the initial information I had was that it was quite a mixed age group and quite young that they were targeting. So it was heading towards the FEC side uh of the business. It is important to see manufacturers moving in this direction because it kind of generates recurring revenue and it is the fundamental next step for a manufacturer to then you know put their money where their mouth is, even if they only have one facility as a showroom, it is still a valuable resource to have. Moving on, and we touched upon this in opening and shut, but uh the uh Akihabor facility in Tokyo, so important to the history of uh the Japanese amusement industry, you know, and it was tears and gnashing of teeth when Sega left, and then it was taken over by Genda, and then it was tears and gnashing of teeth when Gender left, uh, and the red cladding was pulled off, and the doom and gloomers were telling us it was the end of the world, and you know the arcade industry was dead, and uh, you know, bring flowers to the funeral. Well, surprise, surprise, no, it isn't. Uh it was taken over by our friends at Silk Hat, who have uh changed the livery of the building now from the iconic uh dark orange, red, uh, and then light blue agenda to now a white and red uh outlay. It's from the pictures I've seen, the videos of the walk around, uh nothing really has changed other than some machines have been replaced and the floor has been cleaned uh and and some of the cigarette stains have been taken away. Uh again, as we touched upon in previous reports, this does feel a little bit like a change in ownership of the building uh and maybe a change in attitude towards what type of entertainment they had. But from looking at the opening of the Silcat uh Aki Harbor facility, it's more of the same, just different cladding.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Yeah, it will be interesting to see how it does in this uh particular location. Um, I'm feeling it will do very well.
SPEAKER_00:I feel so.
SPEAKER_03:All right. Well, coming up after the quick break, we will keep diving, diving in, digging in, whatever we want to say, into the trends.
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SPEAKER_00:Thank you, Alan One, for that. Reminds me, I must try out their esports uh component next time I play. Trending tech and attack at the uh projection maped uh interactive environments. We touched upon it in IALPA coverage and it's being reflected in what's going on. Hallow Park underrated uh how many interactive, immersive entertainment environments or standalone facilities that they are linked to. Company keeps its success under a bushel, I think, a little bit, but every now and then uh they pop up onto our radar and they're just about to update some of their experiences with a brand new voxel game that's uh or environment that they've created for their projection uh venue. I think we touched upon some of their new uh interactive experiences uh in a previous open and sh uh sorry sound off, but here this is a dedicated uh theming of uh uh the complete space. I would say that this game is inspired by Minecraft. And as we know, we've also seen a successful Minecraft life size uh traveling attraction. So these you know, all of these concepts are kind of heading in the right uh the similar direction towards a immersive, interactive environment that can be simply updated with the latest content and branding, a true fidgetal application.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Uh well, I mean, it is uh it sure as hell looks like Minecraft. Um of the uh the fonts that they've used, but uh you know, whatever. Like let them deal with the potential uh copyright uh trademark infringement issues that they might end up dealing with. But um, yeah, you know, and we'll we'll see how it plays out.
SPEAKER_00:If you cover up the Vauxhall and threw that poster at me for a couple of seconds, as my brain automatically did when I was collecting the research for this, I you know, look and feel did go in that direction. But but but but I'm sure their legal team has made sure. Funny enough, there was a game at the uh IALPA that was uh also giving off incredible Minecraft vibes, uh um developed by a Chinese company and being distributed by Bandai Namco. And and that that game also sort of gave me that. I wonder how closely the They had to protect themselves. Because you know, we do know that our friends at Microsoft are a little bit litigious at times. Continuing the gamification, the active play, uh, and uh you know, uh pulling the player into the digital environment. And uh Palio now has had their first US uh operation for their current chain or current range of interactive, active systems. They have a trampoline multiplayer experience, uh the Palio Arena, and uh they also have smaller versions of their systems, mainly being focused on the European market now that they have uh US representation. Uh they've jumped into their first installation with our friends at Funsport. And Funspot, I think, is going to be rolling this. Uh they have their first facility open and they're going to be rolling this uh interactive trampoline attraction across their sites based upon the initial testing. But again, this is one to watch. Uh I kind of would put them in the same cab as our friends at VeloMotion, but uh the uh the Palio version is a uh a little bit on the larger side of uh uh application, and it is using it's utilizing existing trampoline equipment uh being given the gamification treatment.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and they have three different installations or or instant maybe instant uh what's the word I'm looking for? Instantation instant applications or whatever. Applications, maybe there's a word I'm looking for that I'm not quite getting out of my mouth. Um their Playo Court, which is you know, which you've got showcased here, but they also have uh the the Playo Tower, which is a smaller footprint format, which actually you know is like allowing four players to play at a time. And they also have the Playo Mini, which is a really, I would say the Playo Mini is much more like uh Vallo Jump would be, or another version. Sissy Fox has a bouncy version as well. That's um so like Playo Mini, Playo Tower, I would say much more uh competitive with Valor Motion and some of their products, whereas uh the Playo Court, which you've got here, is definitely a new product, but a pretty heavy lift when it comes to the type of installation required. They're actually installing sensors and things underneath the trampolines in order to provide gameplay. But you know, it's a pretty interesting approach to gamifying um the trampoline experience.
SPEAKER_00:So the Palo Mini and the uh uh uh the tower uh were at IALPA, though uh sadly I don't think their branding uh was strong enough for people to understand what they were looking at. There were three trampoline uh-based uh active play systems from various companies at the show, and two of those I felt just didn't cut the mustard on presenting what they were offering as a gamified trampoline experience. Um again, our friends at Velo Motion have uh gone that extra mile to try and establish their brand because I I tell you now, um, if you're not thinking about gamification of your active play space, then you're gonna be left behind in the dust by those companies that uh that are going to invest. Yep. Uh and the latest of the projection environment uh uh game uh experiences or multiplayer gamified experiences are friends from uh Little Lions, you'll know them from the Crystal Maze experience, you'll know them from uh the Chaos Karts platform, you'll know them from the Pac-Man life sites experience. Well, uh, for their arcade arena platform, uh their facility-based platform, large enclosure with multiple projection screens that can be either turned into the Pac-Man or the go-karting experience. They have now revealed their third uh game for their environment platform, uh, and this is Alien Invasion. It's nice to see the marketing team stayed up all night on that name. And the issue here is it is a gun-based alien swarm environment that uses all of the walls and surfaces of the projection environment to supply the game facility, uh, the game experience. This is an important one. Many of us have been playing around over the years doing this kind of thing. Uh, it is a logical transgression from the uh amusement application to uh the VR kind of uh multiplayer shooting experience in a virtual environment to doing it in a digital environment. If they pull this off, I think this could be very compelling. Um, and this could be a very strong leader for uh the opening of their first London uh location. Again, we'll have to wait until the new year for that, and as soon as the doors are thrown open and they allow me past the security, I'll give you a report on that.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think the really key thing here, too, besides the obviously the new game that they're the new gameplay that they're introducing with using their uh projection mapping arenas, is the fact that they're launching this arcade arena uh concept, which is really the collection of all three of their different experiences, their carting experience, their uh this new in uh alien invasion experience, as well as the Pac-Man Live experience. So I think bringing them all together is probably a good move. I mean, we've talked about the viability of these as standalone attractions, or them trying to do Pac-Man Live sometimes and then the carting experience other times, and but bringing them into the same space, really branding uh the location as a you know as a separate brand, and then having the games be the uh attractions inside the location, I think is a good move. Uh I do feel bad for our friend, uh our friend Matt uh who who runs uh who has the company arcade arena, which is the immersive enclosure platforms um that is the exact same name uh here in the US, and uh you know, obviously is it is an attraction and not a location, uh, but I do uh there's definitely direct crossover as far as the naming is concerned.
SPEAKER_00:I also feel for a certain company in the video arcade industry that also owns a product called Alien Invasion, but um we we will have to deal with that uh uh at a later time. It is the fidgetal, it is the some people would like to call the cinema 2.0 where you are creating a digital uh environment which you just populate with content. This is the whole point of video gaming. You know, you don't have to change the facility, you just change the content. It this one for me will be a very, very, very important uh product, but also a very important opening because this this will be their London facility, which will end up being their flagship. Um, this will be the one that will get the most credit. Uh, and we will need to see how well PutMan has done away from its novelty. We will need to see how well Chaos Cart has done away from its novelty, and we will need to see how this uh uh does. I don't even know how many number of players um that this environment will have. Uh information is still a little bit early, but you know, we're getting very close to the opening of the London facility, and we should be able to report back on that soon. Uh and then bouncing back to the consumer sector, and uh underneath uh the cardia, I'm wearing the I Told You Bloody So t-shirt. Um, we you know woke up a couple of days from the recording of this uh to the news that our lovely friends at Meta have decided to cut back on the budgeting of uh their metaverse and VR operation under their uh Reality Labs division, and that there will be layoffs taking place across their VR uh and their horizon world platform. The trade and the markets were ecstatic to this news. Then um meta uh share numbers went up by 4%, uh 1.5% a couple of days ago, and it is that kind of uh reaction that the market makes to someone seeing the light. I know how difficult it must be for Mark Zuckerberg to admit failure of this level, and I don't think he will ever admit failure here, but it looks like uh Meta is going to dust itself off from its experiment into the metaverse uh and then continue its focus more along the uh AI glass, smart glasses, and AR glasses route, as well as their AI investment. But this was quite a major development and could be the beginning of a reality check for all applications of consumer VR. The reason why that is important to us is because we are in the location-based entertainment a successful application of VR and MR, and we cannot be saddled with the problems that the consumer side is having. So, again, going back to what I was saying right at the beginning about maybe the industry needs to get together and come up with a united message. I think we need to do that to ensure that we are not pulled down by the admittance of failure uh that the consumer VR sector is experiencing now.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Again, but entirely separate show, just to discuss the issues around what what face well, what Meta's uh perspective and view on metaverse was and why it failed, et cetera, et cetera. Um, but I the one thing I'll say here is that if your attraction or your uh your VR company is based is based using the MetaQuest headsets, uh you better start working on making a shift to something else yesterday.
SPEAKER_00:You should have done that a lot longer ago. Um, you know, uh next door to my still out there. Yeah, I know. Uh next door to my I Told You So t-shirt. It's the why the hell are you using Meta t-shirt is also available uh in all sizes. I had a conversation with a company at iAlpha who are using uh Meta uh quests. I had the long conversation with them. They claimed that everything was fantastic and that they could use consumer systems and they didn't have to pay for the commercial. And then as soon as I said, I will be writing this down in the Stinger report. I got a call from well, an email from their managing director going, oh, we would like to change some of the statements that we've made. Oh, we're we're agnostic too. You know, you can't you can't play around with this. This is like using uh illegal televisions in your space uh uh to display stuff and working out why Samsung or Sanya or Sony are gonna come around and sue you. Either way, our friends at Meta don't really have a strong liking for the commercial entertainment sector, and so really you shouldn't be tying yourself to a platform that doesn't really like your market, would be the basic version of what I'm saying here. But I would also point to the bigger picture here, which is if you use the word VR in your marketing and your literature and your branding about the experience that you're having, that term may come with some baggage now. And so maybe you should be thinking of pivoting towards an XR kind of presentation of your operation rather than depending on the 10-year-old out of date VR Norman Clincher. Moving on, and we've got a little bit of uh AI news uh to discuss. Our friends in Japan are always uh coming up with concepts for uh creating uh virtual friends uh for you to align yourself with, be it your waifu pillow uh or your Tamagotchi uh or your mobile phone app. Well, uh company here has been developing what they like to call a life-size AI avatar that you can create either based upon yourself or on a uh cartoon interpretation of yourself. You go into the booth, you take the pictures, you select the outfits uh and the backgrounds, and you can send that to your friends, or you can use it as an AI buddy. Uh and uh in the literature, they were sort of saying that they see this as bridging uh some of the social issues and that uh you know this virtual character could actually be used uh and deployed uh as a meter and a greeter or as an interactive with uh other humans. I don't want to get too much into this. All I want to say is we've got another use for AI.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I mean, this is one that I absolutely expect will evolve over time. Um there's you know it's a great use case for it in about a year. Um, and it's not quite ready yet. Um, and so I think if you were to try to put this into your facility, um, you're gonna run into some potential issues. Um, you know, but it it will get better. And I do think that this will be uh used to augment the overall guest experience and customer support uh experience inside of facilities. There's no question about it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it it I was interested to read that that they're doing this as a test rollout, they're doing it in stations and facilities and retail and all of that. So it's kind of proving the concepts uh by doing some tests towards the next, as you say, in in maybe 12 months' time when we have a more robust, bulletproof version of this where the AI has gathered enough um machine learning to uh uh be applied realistically. We saw an example of a virtual AI-supported character on one of the booths at uh uh IALPA this year. Uh I can follow back a couple of years to some interpretations of digital uh mascots where people had to wear bodysuits and uh the character on screen was uh anthropomorphophosized, if I can say that correctly. But we're heading there. It will be a thing you can't hide from it. To conclude, I I alluded to this at the hundredth, and I thought I would, you know, for those of you who are still awake, I would make sure that the rest of you are going to be uh snoring in a couple of uh minutes' time, but I wanted to share with you a brain uh brain worm, shall we say. Welcome to the patented immersive entertainment Taurus. I talk about my Venn diagrams of how certain uh industries intersect, and I have a very simplistic uh Venn diagram that covers certain aspects of our industry uh and how certain brands and companies fit into that. But, you know, with too much time on my hands and a transatlantic flight, I thought I'd go the whole hog and try and create as clear a torus of all of the intersecting aspects of our industry and how they play a part with some of our leading brands and up-and-coming brands. Of course, it includes the theme parks, and of course it includes the resorts and the LBs and the amusements. It doesn't include everything. You could get into the minutiae here of breaking down the restaurants from the uh the bars uh for the hospitality side, and you could go into a much more detail about how gaming uh impacts that the gambling gaming uh aspects. But just so uh you understand really where I'm coming when I'm talking about a Venn diagram intersection, and this Taurus is a mess. Uh it isn't to scale and it needs much more finessing, but you are getting a view of this at its early stage, and I will try and roughly go through how certain of these brands fits into this. So if we jump in with our friends at Chuck E. Cheese, you see that they touch the amusement and the FEC side, you see that they have an interest in the hospitality side, they offer food, they're heading towards LBE, and you could have added another line to this Taurus of active entertainment or physicality towards how they're heading. But if you could move them around, you can kind of see the where you intersect with various industries or sectors of our market, then you can see how you could change the design of your facility, and it is moving that around the Taurus that has led the team uh at CC to think about creating Chuck E. Cheese's uh active world, a venture world concept, as they head more towards a resort or physical entertainment side rather than an amusement and LBE side. Add to that our friends at uh Geigo. If it was Gender there, then they would be smack in the middle because they want to take over the world. No, I'm sorry. Uh they they want to have as much domination within this market as possible. But from Geigo's point of view, the Japanese facility, they are moving from their comfortable world of amusement where they've acquired Sega Chaints and all of the others, and now they're stretching themselves, they're creating the Geigo poker facility. They have the Geigo um uh uh uh karaoke. They they're now looking at uh their expansion to having location-based rather than just amusement facilities, and you can kind of see how they're moving away from the amusement and more towards the LBE and maybe more down towards the hospitality. That one is an interesting moving target for just one particular brand of a larger chain. And again, if you do this for brands rather than the actual facility, uh the owners, the groups of these, it becomes much more complicated. Next up, uh a simple one here when we look towards the cinema sector, you could kind of place our friends uh uh Cosm directly in the middle of the cinema side and be happy with that. But then you have to move it up a bit to touch the hospitality side because the food and beverage component of Cosm is very important to their design, and then you need to move it a little bit more towards the LBE and the FEC kind because of that entertainment. While it may not be at this point in time interactive, you can see by the representation that Cosm is giving us that it is much more immersive entertainment than it is just pure cinema. Then we drop in Dave and Busters, and you know, Dave and Busters on its own, away from its main event component, is clearly a FEC that falls into the uh hospitality sector. They use eatertainment in their marketing and promotion, but you can see by moving that in certain directions the way that. Uh the Dave and Busters becomes either a little bit more like a competitive socializing environment, or it becomes a little bit more like a sports bar if you nudge it in the hospitality director, or if you pull it down a little bit into the amusement and FEC, then you increase the gamification, the entertainment. You move away from the amusement and you start to look at putting attractions into it standalones. It's fascinating if you start to move these around, the thought processes, uh, the thought experiments that are generated. Anyway, winding down, and of course, the brand new entrants are friends with Netflix House. Uh, they are, you know, they have picked their cloth quite clearly through their pop-ups that they have developed previously. So they have landed softly in the FEC and hospitality sector, but they are being pulled by the LBE sector as they look towards more location-based style attractions within their space. And you could also say that they're being pulled down by the cinema sector because uh each one of these Netflix houses has its own cinema component next door to its food and beverage, next door to its uh attractions. It is an interesting monster there that is trying to be sucked down various uh avenues by the whirlpool. And then finally, uh we have Area 15. It is a microcosm of many different types of entertainment. Uh, so it's hard to say is an Area 15 uh its sum of its Omega Mart, or is it the sum of its uh retro arcade, or is it the sum of the VR, or is it the sum of uh the immersive attractions it has? I'm just interested looking at how one branded venue touches so many aspects of this sector. That Omega Mart falls into the gallery uh argument as well as the attractions argument. It falls clearly into the cinema side, it falls clearly into the hospitality, it falls clearly into FEC amusement. You could say that the new Area 15 that's opening uh or the expansion to the Area 15 that's open in Las Vegas really is too big a monster to plump directly into this Venn diagram comfortably without breaking it into its constituent components, but again, it gives uh our audience an example of where that cluster is starting to form regarding our sector. And you know, if I placed upon this uh Taurus a larger group of companies and scaled it down and focused more on the brands, you would be surprised that the elliptical pattern leading from the LBE all the way down to the hospitality is forming. And you would also be fascinated to see how that is moving more towards maybe gallery and attractions and how obvious our future wither relationship in the gaming industry is. But again, I wanted to share that uh with you just so you can understand the uh the red string problems that I have to deal with uh evaluating this sector.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Yeah, I think this is super interesting. And you know, I'm glad that this will be, you know, continue to evolve a little bit. You know, there's some things that, you know, for us to probably have uh you know, additional conversations. Um, I think the the placement of these is pretty good. I I would agree with you that almost Area 15 should be up into the left a little bit, more like right smack dab in that center, where it really is more firmly planted in the gallery and attractions ellipses, um, as well as then you know a little bit more into LBE than it is currently as well. Um, but uh, but yeah, this is super interesting to see where some of these brands um are and where they may need to be as they evolve uh as brands as well.
SPEAKER_00:This is not a static chart. Uh the size of these ellipticies will change as they become more and more important. Some of them will actually disappear. For all we know, amusement may vanish and be superseded by LBE and FEC. The other aspect is that all of these are moving targets. Uh, as our friends at uh Gander know, uh, they have to evolve their Gaigo brand, and so it has to become more trendy. There is a, you know, you could really get into the weeds if you put on top of this public popularity for these various aspects on top of what these entertainments are. As we know, the cinema sector is going through great permeations at the moment regarding its box office and how it evolves. And maybe in a couple of months or years' time the phrase cinema will be replaced by cinetainment, uh, as you uh as you know that we talk a lot about. And I also feel that location-based entertainment doesn't really describe uh what it offers uh correctly. Uh, I use the phrase mule, I would be happy to replace uh amusement with mule and maybe come up with a different term for what happens in the arcade sector. But again, I'm interested to hear everyone's opinion on this. Uh, and maybe we could come up with a unifying uh concept to rule them all. Though if we did that, the world would end. So maybe it's good to keep it flexible. Indeed. Indeed. Anyway, that's it from me. Uh for you that are still awake, the uh please contact me with LinkedIn uh or via my email if you've got any suggestions or any information you'd like to pass on, and please make sure that you're receiving uh the Stinger Report uh and the uh entertainment social arena. Our Stinger Report uh the mountain coverage, I said the momentous mountain of coverage from IALP will be hitting the emails very soon now. And uh I don't think you want to miss that.
SPEAKER_03:All right. Well, Kevin, it was an excellent sound off, and I look forward to having continued in further discussions around the uh the Taurus, the entertainment, uh immersive entertainment Taurus. So uh looking forward to that.
SPEAKER_00:Me too. All right, I'm gonna go to the house.
