LBX Collective

Sound Off #103 - The 12 Trends of 2025, Children IP Collab Misses, and more!

• Brandon Willey • Season 4 • Episode 103

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On this week's show we argue for a clean break from the isolating nature of VR to the more social interactive XR, trace the fallout from streaming and retail shakeups, and spotlight where IP-driven venues thrive or falter. From Universal’s UK greenlight to the rise of challenge rooms, the throughline is simple: design for people together. Finally, we wrap the show with a 2025 trend roundup!

• why shared XR experiences beat VR isolation
• Warner-Netflix dynamics and Paramount’s options
• Arcade1Up assets shift to Basic Fun!
• Brighton Pier Group divests parks and mini golf chain
• Mattel’s water park push and IP limits
• Round1 revenue parity raises questions
• Universal Studios Great Britain approval and timing
• Nickelodeon venue closure in Spain
• branded IP collabs that miss the mark
• connected tournaments and revenue sharing trends
• Disney’s Sora deal and AI implications
• United XR takeaways across VR, AR, hygiene, and AI
• immersive simulators replacing VR pods
• mall arcades return with Gen Z demand
• Genda’s fast global expansion
• escape and challenge rooms scale with hospitality
• cinema struggles and the cinetainment bet
• brand reinvention at Chuck E. Cheese
• transmedia and LBX as the new north star
• lessons from openings, closures, and debt pressure

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SPEAKER_03:

Are you on the edge of your seat? Because we're about to see the million covering today's latest trends in location-based energy. Brought to you by the LDX Collective, your community to collect a club. All right, everyone. Let's buckle up.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. Well, welcome everybody to Sound Off with Kevin Williams. This is uh number 103 for December 23rd. So we're coming up on Christmas. Uh, you uh feeling festive, Kevin.

SPEAKER_00:

Ho ho ho ho ho.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Perfect. Perfect amount of fest. Perfect amount of fest. Um, all right. So uh as we normally do, Kevin, how are you going to uh change my mind?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, this is one that uh touches upon some of the stuff that I've been doing coming back from the uh XR European events, the end of the year, one of the largest of the XR events. And one of the obvious uh opportunities from mixed reality compared to virtual reality is the engagement of the guest into the experience through the onboarding and offboarding process. And it is clear now that platforms, the VR systems out there need to progress beyond uh what we have at the moment, which is a put this helmet on, everything's black for a while, can you see it yet? Um, is it working for you? Oh, let me check the audio, okay, let's try that again. Here you go, you're in the game. Ain't cutting it. Not now. It didn't cut it then, and it's not cutting it now. Now we're seeing experiences that are in the new generation where they hand you your headset, you put it on, you see the world around you, and then you transition into the virtual experience without a member of staff having to check if the headset's working or if the audio's working properly. We've gone away from the Heath Robinson uh kind of uh confused technical technical demonstrator now to an experience, a proper transitional egress uh uh from the experience and uh uh and a uh entry level to uh the uh wonderful world of immersion. And I think now we have to draw a line in the sand and say VR was then, XR is now. Uh, and I will give a little bit more clarification of why we've moved away from the VR terminology, uh, moving forward in the specter. When I talk a little bit about what we saw uh United XR a couple of weeks ago.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I also think that just the culture has shifted away from the desire to do VR when they come out of their home. When people leave their homes, they tend to want to leave to go have shared experiences with other people, whether it's their friends or their family or their kids or their parents. Although I know sometimes kids don't think about that, but the kids want to go and have fun with their parents and in places too. And when you slap on goggles that block off everything else, you're inner and your only interactivity with them is the fact that you happen to be in the same room and you see a little avatar of them somewhere in somewhere else in the space. That's not the level of interaction that I think most people want when they come out of their home. And so when you add in XR or MR, you now have the ability to still see and interact with, first of all, things in your environment, but also the other people that are in the environment. I still struggle with putting glasses on and everything else, putting like, you know, you know, creating that unless it really is enhancing and augmenting the experience. I still struggle with like extra burden that that adds to the overall guest experience. But it is significantly better, I believe, than the disconnect that VR creates if your goal is to go and have fun interacting with other people.

SPEAKER_00:

Agreed. Uh and uh I think one of the biggest failings of the VR revolution was that it forgot that we're in a social entertainment experience. And social means that we're with others, even if those others didn't come with us, we're playing together in groups. And as you've seen with the next generation of technology, we are now looking at larger groups, and those larger groups need to interact, and if they're going to interact, then they need to have what mixed reality brings to the table. Uh, a lot more than what just uh the sedentary environment of VR uh offer. But again, we'll touch upon that more a little bit longer.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, awesome. Well, coming up right here after the break, we will dive right into the 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. Cashless system from Intercard increased customer spending, get satisfaction, and boost revenues by up to 30%. Intercard is so proud to be serving the amusement industry. And if you are already part of our global family of customers, they hope you will become one soon.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you, Intercard. And jumping into the biz. And uh we are going to see a kind of a trend here where the things that we talked about uh in the previous sound off are still playing out uh in the current sound off. The uh Netflix uh situation still seems to be ongoing because surprise, surprise, uh the uh the board and everybody else uh at Warner told our friends at Panama to go boil their heads regarding uh uh offer, uh, the the basics uh of the turndown of the Paramount deal that also included uh financial support from the Saudi fund was that it was uh an inferior offer and that there are significant risks in them, even considering the higher price that Paramount was offering compared to the stability and the structure that Netflix is offering. Of course, we've heard the phrase uh we'll we'll make another counter-offer, but I'm getting the feeling that the steam is falling out of their sales, uh, sorry, the wind is falling out of their sales regarding uh Paramount's uh capability to still play in the game, and other companies looking to uh compete against the Netflix bid seem to have also dried up. So I I'm kind of betting uh on red, as it were, at the moment, and thinking that this Netflix Warner Brothers situation is going to happen. And we're already beginning now to see some of the ramifications uh of this, as in the elements that Netflix has no interest in. And I wouldn't be surprised if maybe Paramount changes its tact to continue the sailing metaphor, uh, towards uh picking up the bits that uh Netflix aren't taking from the Warner Brothers uh deal, maybe picking up their streaming services, picking up uh some of their other stuff that they're not uh actually going to be taking away with them.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I mean, look, it it inevitably I think I do agree with you. I do think that Netflix will win out. Um, it would be interesting, though, to see what Paramount does scoop up in the scraps, and they might actually get a better deal at some level, right? I mean, the$30 per share is a really aggressive uh bid to capture what would you know arguably is not worth that$30 per share. Um, but if they can get some of the remaining elements for you know pennies on the dollar, so to speak, then there's there's some uh you know interesting opportunities for them if they were to just back off uh and and let Netflix deal go through.

SPEAKER_00:

I think so. Uh but again, they may find that they've jumped too quickly, and those scraps that are left on the table may be scooped up by some of their competitors as well. You know, the hawks of Disney and Comcast are circling as well around those scraps. Moving on, and another operation we were talking about uh last time uh had come to pass. So, as you can see, I'm wearing my I Told You So t-shirt, and that the um uh the the social media side, and a proper super official statement is still uh waiting to come out as we record this uh episode. But uh Arcade One Up has announced that uh they've uh formed a relationship with uh Basic Fun, one of their distributor seller partners, that has now decided to pick up uh the assets that they feel are of interest to them from the uh arcade one-up operation, uh, and that a brand new restructuring will be taking place. Again, I'm getting the feeling that not all of the arcade one-up operation is going to be acquired in this process, and so again, there may be some other scraps on the table for someone else to pick up. I wouldn't be surprised if arcade one-up's board um digital board game uh venture is one of those scraps that is cast adrift uh uh and the core business. Uh I don't know how well the uh arcade one-up home train machine will be uh be doing in this, but definitely the Putmans and the uh uh the Mortal Kombat type well-known classic games will be part of this settlement. But again, this is one to watch to see how the cards lie.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, if there's a there was a I don't know, there would be a better acquirer than basic fun, actually, of arcade one-up. So they this is this is their their bread and butter. This is the kind of home brand, home products that they manage and they manage well. And they already have the arcade classics um you know line of toys. And so this obviously fits in a much larger footprint than the arcade classics, which are like tiny little things that fit on your desk. But um, you know, it does fit right in with their distribution model and all of the different partners they already have. So it makes perfect sense.

SPEAKER_00:

This is an acquisition of assets rather than an acquisition of management. So it wouldn't surprise me that the arcade one art becomes a brand or a line in uh in basic funds range, as you say, extensive range of product. It allows them to uh move up a run in uh power uh regarding toy branding, uh positioning, and it allows uh the questionable style of management and direction that's previously been uh running the operation to uh move on, as it were. And I wouldn't be surprised if we're going to be spending a lot of 2026 seeing these kinds of power plays taking the assets, taking the brands, but leaving the management. Right, again, another one that we've been touching on, but this one's a little bit more conju uh uh complicated, so we say. Our friends at Brighton Pier Group a couple of sound-offs ago made it very clear that the conditions in the UK weren't advantageous to them and that they were looking possibly to sell off their Brighton Pier operation, as well as, if you read the small print, other assets owned by the group. And then we wake up a couple of days ago to the news that uh Melo, uh those uh theme park operators, as well as the operators of Urban Fun uh and their uh Cube uh competitive social uh entertainment offerings, had acquired uh the Lightwater Valley. Now, the Lightwater Valley theme park had only been acquired by uh the Brighton Pier Group back in 2021. So it was quite a surprise to see that as an asset that would be one of the first to go onto the chopping board. Not even make it onto the uh the board itself, but be acquired straight away by Meller. So it's quite clear that the Meller uh group has had their eye on this opportunity as they grow their own operation in this current conditions. I don't know if they paid the five million that uh Brighton Pier paid. I doubt it very much that they paid that uh uh amount, but I I think that they got a very good deal. And then, hold your breath, we then see another of the Brighton Pier Group uh venue or chains in this particular case, the Paradise Island Adventure Golf Mini Golf Experience. I would actually call this more of a crazy golf experience rather than a mini golf experience. Uh, they have a chain of seven facilities, and surprise, surprise, Brighton Pier has put these up for sale. Now, this is an interesting one. I had assumed that Brighton Peer Group had already found purchases for the offering. So I wouldn't be surprised if a company that they thought was going to be taking this has decided not to, and so they've now thrown it back in uh to the water to see who's interested to purchase it. But it shows a root and branch clearing of house of certain assets by uh Brighton Pier Group and could be spelling a move in the UK market as we see restructuring and reformulating, as we talked about with what had happened with uh Merlin regarding their Legoland involvement.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, this is really interesting. You know, at first I was thinking, okay, well, Brighton Pier Group, maybe they're liquidating some of these assets to make moves in other areas to free up some cash flow. Maybe they were burdened with some debt, uh, you know, or maybe they just expanded, oh, you know, reached beyond their skis. I mean, they only have that under their under their group, they have the Brighton Pals Pier itself, right? Um, so they have the Brighton Pals Pier, their golf division, which now they're selling, and then the Lightwater Valley Attractions, with the which they just sold. So they have nothing else. And so this would either mean that they're freeing up cash flow and capital to do expansion at Brighton Pals Pier or to do some other acquisitions, or shareholders are just getting itchy and they want distributions and they want uh, you know, or they need to free up their balance sheet uh because they have too much debt there. It'd be really interesting to understand, but they have like basically cleared house other than their core offering at Brighton Pier.

SPEAKER_00:

Their core offering is up for sale. They the group itself only formulated uh about 2019 or 16. If I'm doing that off the top of my head, I will rectify uh uh the exact date at a later point. But what's really happening here is they had great aspirations of world domination. They were taking on IP, they were taking on operations that were going concerns, and they were going to be building a Merlin-esque empire. That has not worked out, and I think that they've generated a large amount of debt, which the uh certain investors will be questioning how those debts were generated so quickly over what were going concerns. Uh so the scrutiny of light has forced them to uh cut their cloth now, and I doubt, I really doubt if this will be an ongoing operation uh once they've sold all of their assets, unless they draw the line at the Brighton Pier Group, as it were, uh Brighton Pier asset, and just reform from that stage. But from the stuff that I'm hearing, these guys are really cutting it to the quid. Moving on, and Mattel. Now, many of us wondered why, as we wandered around ILP uh a couple of months ago now. Oh dear, uh uh that uh why there was so much themality. Well, we knew that uh the ILPA Association was pushing its IP uh associations, but uh you know one of the entrances was decked out as if it was a water park run by Mattel, and it was interesting to see the Mattel branding and all of the water park sound effects and uh themality, and now we kinda know what was going on that Mattel were about to announce their entry into the water park or indoor water park business. Big deal. They are looking at about three facilities within the first few years of uh uh operation. We're looking at maybe the first facility uh opening by uh 2027. And if you know how long it takes to develop a water park, an indoor water park, especially one based on IP at this level, then you know it's going to be uh quite a fast uh launching process for them, especially as we have been seeing, if you've been following your open and shut, that older water parks have been finding it difficult, regional water parks have been finding it difficult to survive in the current climate. Well, Mattel's throwing their hat in the ring, and they feel that uh iconic IP themed around attractions such as Hot Wheels and Barbie and other toy brands is going to make a major difference. You know, will you and your kids rather go to a Mattel-themed uh water park compared to your trusty regional water park that's been going since the 1970s? This is the question that we're going to be seeing. And it kind of underlines the most important part that we need to take away from this, which is the IP industry, the licensing and branding industry, sees us as a major part of their future. And they will walk right over us to get to that grand future that they're looking forward to.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh I don't know that the Mattel brand will bring anything to a water park. Um, I'm just uh I'm not convinced, like as you as you alluded to, I think without saying it directly, um, that uh that it it will. I mean, that you know, we we talked about this on the LBX show in the open and shut uh on open and shut. Um and we've seen recently seen uh Planet Play School close down, we've seen other you know other brands um you know close their doors, like Nickelodeon of small kids experience. And you know, the comment I made there was uh I think holds up here as well, um, and it's to be seen. Is that do kids and families really care that the Mattel brand and that they're going down a Barbie slide versus any water slide? Uh you know, I would argue that most kids just want to go down water slides. Most kids just want to do craps, um, and they don't care as much about the actual IP or branding unless it's something that is uh fully immersive and truly, you know, something elevated above vis-a-vis universal, um, Harry Potter, and you know, like all the different Harry Potter, you know, hogsmeat, etc. Right? Like that's now you can you can cosplay into that. We're just going down a water slide and it happens to look like uh and you're in your tube you're in happens to look like a hot wheel. Okay, cool. It's still a water slide.

SPEAKER_00:

And this is the point. Will the management structure uh and the companies that Mattel have hired, because Mattel won't be uh developing this, this will be developed through a partnership of at least four companies, including a consultancy specialist uh in the uh water park business. And if they think that they can get away with just putting a uh giant tyre on the slide and calling it Hot Wheels and making sure that the colours match the palletones of the Hot Wheel IP, and that's enough. Put a lid on it, it's fantastic, without thinking about immersive experiences that offer something comparable to the larger theme parks, but in a package suitable for uh this indoor venue, then this goes back to the argument we had about uh Chuck's adventure world, this goes back to the arguments about Netflix House, this goes back to all of the arguments, which is your IP isn't enough just to wrap round proven entertainment, it has to be the next generation of entertainment, and if you don't have that, then you're going to end up uh like our friends at Nickelodeon Experience in Spain. Moving on, and uh congratulations uh to the new employees in the market, and uh Fun Labs has uh uh you know Blaze has uh been working next door to Michael now for some time, uh hand in glove, uh, as they've been growing the uh Fun Lab operation from their Australian chain to now what they've been doing in North America, and Michael feels that it's perfect timing now for him to focus more on the uh board-level chief executive uh side. He's now uh handed over to the era parent. We wish all of them luck with this process, and we're looking forward to some new announcements from Front Lab about their international aspirations uh in the next couple of weeks. Moving on, and round one in Japan gave us a snapshot or piece of information that was uh unusual uh to say the least. Uh, we need to chart something important. At the moment, there are 57 North American round one facilities uh currently, they have expanded considerably uh since their first uh foray into the market in California, and they have really established their brands. They've also been rolling out their smaller venues, and I don't think we've given enough uh coverage to the uh round one arcade, which has removed the bowling component, the same way that we also have the round one bowling facilities that also have their active play component. But anyway, these 57 facilities compared to in Japan, we have 98. Uh well, my machine tells uh tells me that we have 99, but they tell me that we have 98 Japanese facilities. Of those Japanese facilities, they uh generate uh a reliable and regular revenue. To hear that uh the 57 facilities in the US have made 10 billion yen. I'm sorry, I didn't do the calculations to dollars, but 10 billion yen, and that that number is roughly equal to the number on par with uh to the number that the 98 facilities in Japan have made, isn't as big a whoopee-doo celebration uh as I interpret these numbers. Uh a smaller number of facilities makes the same amount of money as a larger number of uh facilities, doesn't read as well as the way that the uh press statement from Japan read. It tells me, number one, that the 98 or 99 facilities in Japan uh aren't operating as high a throughput and profit uh margin as we were led to believe the success of the round one brand in Japan was. And also, we have no benchmark to work out if all of these 57 US facilities are generating profits upon profit, or if they're just breaking even, or they are mirroring what has been seen by some of their other corporations, such as Dave and Busters, is seeing uh a slight decline on uh sites. Giving us a little bit of information gives us a peak under the curtain, and sometimes that peak under the curtain sees something that we shouldn't really be seeing. This information from round one Japan is going to be dug into a lot more than I think that they were hoping it will be.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I did do the calculations, and so before I reveal the numbers, um I'm just curious, do you know is that 10 billion yen their their their top line revenue, or is this their EBITDA gross profit, etc.? Like, do we know what this number is? They didn't.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh I've near enough cut and pasted that exactly to how it was uh made in the first thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Because here's here's my here's my concern or question or reason why I was the well reason why that was even a question. 10 billion yen is 64 million dollars in the US, which would tell me then that 57 of the 57 locations, that's a 1.12 million per location. That to me should be their EBITDA. I mean, if you're if you're running, I mean that that should be your EBITDA. And if that is their top line revenue, there's a real fucking problem. Um, there's no way that that round that a round one, but I'll be fair, I'll be honest. Every time I've walked into a round one, there have been like 10 people in it. So I also do question that there is maybe a an actual$1.1 million top line per location on average, right? Now we're talking about averages. Obviously, there's outliers, etc. in different markets, but it is not a good number.

SPEAKER_00:

I will I will put up the translated version of uh the statement from Japan up on our friends of uh the uh Friends of the Stinger report Facebook. And putting this into perspective, uh I'm using the uh Taurus of Pain, uh as it were, uh to kind of position where uh I think, and this is a personal opinion, of where uh regarding this uh mass of uh birds' nest where the round one operation generally sits. I'm not just focusing on the round one arcades or the round one bowling, but the general round one operation. And you can see that it it sits in the sweet spot, as it were, for uh Etertainment and uh FEC and uh location-based entertainment. But if those numbers uh are hiding uh a shortfall, then we better find out about that sooner than later, because I've also noticed that we haven't heard much about uh Face uh Ram One's uh entry into the restaurant business either. So if we see a management restructuring going forwards, then uh well I'll keep this I told you so t-shirt warm. Anyway, moving on, and the big announcement from the European point of view is the green light by uh Her His Majesty's government towards uh the building plans uh for Universal Studios Great Britain uh working title. The uh facility, the uh 47 uh sorry, 470 uh acre facility has a rough uh uh design in place now. Uh that design has been given a green light by the government, and the big and uh the building work will start next year, 2026, as well as confirmation, which is still to be done, but you know, we're all working towards the opening of spring uh 2031. So that's not a lot of time uh to uh to get this facility open, but I do believe it's a staggered gate opening uh in place, and I know of some of uh the universal um destination and experience team that are already working out their uh shipping plans uh to move out to the UK. So this will be a major entry into the UK market, if not the European market as a whole. Um, this is a big vote of confidence for the UK uh entertainment market, and we'll see the obvious trickle down of uh services and supports uh from the UK sector helping with the development and opening of this site. And we hope that this site is an exemplar site towards other plans of similar mixed entertainment. What I mean by that, this is a theme park, yes, but it also has quite considerable resort, hotel, uh, and location-based entertainment component to the mix. But again, the a lot of the plans are still under embargo, so I don't want to go into too much detail on that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I mean, Universal is just hitting their stride. Um they're they're gonna be opening their uh Universal Kids Resort in Fresco, Texas as well uh next year. So probably springtime, late or you know, early summer next year, uh just in time for summer break. And now, you know, they've just finally, I mean, they've been pushing for this for a while, but finally got this approval, and so they are really hitting their stride. And uh they uh Disney's gonna have to think about what moves they're going to make next, because right now Universal is outplaying them for sure.

SPEAKER_00:

I would be interested to see what uh Disneyland Paris does to defend themselves against this, uh if Disney's in a position to do this. Uh and if other parks, we also have the trials and tribulations that's going on at Merlin Entertainment. Uh and uh we're not quite sure what state they're going to be in by uh 2031, but uh I wouldn't be surprised that we see uh the the industry that this park will be going into in the UK will be a totally different market to uh where we are now. Uh a lot of movement's going to be taking place. And again, I'm going to try and uh use the Taurus for as much as I can to kind of uh give people an idea of where uh an operation such as uh a brand new UK park will fit into the the mix. As you can see, it's more in the resort side than it does in the park side. It doesn't have a cruise line component. Uh Bedfordshire is quite some way away from uh the coast. But uh funny enough, the uh last theme park project for the UK that had been uh scheduled and planned actually did include a cruise line support component. So it's not so uh wild to think about that. But this particular venue is also going to be moving much more into the L uh LBE site, and uh I use location-based experience rather than location-based entertainment as a uh definer there. But again, we can deal with that more when more of the design is revealed. We touched upon this in open and shut. Um, it's very hard to get confirmation in many cases that the venue has actually closed. Uh, usually the only way to find out is to try and uh uh order uh a birthday party there or to have to run to TripAdvisor to be confirmed if a venue is permanently closed. But uh it has been confirmed uh regarding the uh uh the changes that we're seeing with this particular group that uh the Nickelodeon uh venture, two venues that were opened up in Spain to much fanfare in 2018 uh and 2017, both of those sites have now closed. We knew that the Madrid facility had closed and shut at its doors at that particular mall, but now uh all of the sites now have been confirmed to have closed. We touched upon many of the reasons we thought in the sound off that uh that could have impacted this. I am going to state my uh flag in the ground that they bit off too much with an IP that didn't bring enough to the table, to an audience that didn't really care if they were playing a turtles uh slide uh or climbing wall uh against just a normal climbing wall. I can speak from confidence that the Spanish market has a large number of active entertainment facilities in the major areas uh of the country, and most of them don't need to lean on a very expensive IP like Nickelodeon's.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I'll I mean if if anybody was curious and wants to hear my feedback, they can listen to the LBX show and open in chat. So I'll I'll hold off anything else.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you. Moving to the uh trending tech, and uh if your park business uh if your park business or your FEC business isn't doing fantastically, then you can always do a branding deal. And uh our friends at Dave and Busters decided uh that they would do a branding deal to create a crane-based bag uh with uh the company chain, uh who are uh well known for their uh uh apparel uh and fashion site. I don't know which management signed the deal. Um you could argue that the deal has worked out fantastically because it is a sold-out item, but I'm not uh an expert in uh the bag uh and purse sector to whether this is uh sold out because it is a flying off the shelves or sold out because that's how this apparel uh chain works. Uh it's only produces limited numbers of particular. I can't see a lot of Dave and Buster's thality over this crane bag. Um it's a it's a funny laugh, but you know, as a man that didn't quite get Tamagotchis or um uh or all of the furry uh things dangling from women's purses at the moment. Maybe I'm showing my age here, and this is a fantastic deal, but it was a deal all the same.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I mean, from what I can tell from the pictures that I'm looking at here online, I cannot see David's branding anywhere other than the fact that it's a Davenbuster's orange. So it does seem to be potentially a miss uh from that perspective.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm sure they will blame the previous management for this miss. Moving on, and it's one that I want to bring to our attention. Um, and I'll make this a quick one because we've got other stuff to talk about. But we've been hearing a lot about the combined entertainment system that is linked to a tournament system that is constantly connected. So, you know, you play the game, and uh, if you get the high score, then you get a prize or you get uh some reward, possibly financial. Uh, and this generates revenue for the operator because it's a shared revenue purse with uh the company. And Kinex was uh one of those systems that we or is one of those systems we've heard about. It is a combining of a punch bag and a football system using a Kinect network tournament system that also hopes to share the revenue uh with the operator. Revenue sharing. Don't be misled by the AI artwork of the machine, the machine does actually exist, and you know, we've been keeping an eye on this. I want to raise this as an interesting situation about uh machine revenue sharing because this is the beginning of something that we're going to be seeing a lot more of in 2026, and we should kind of use the Kinex as a kind of a canary in the mine uh the mine shaft, as it were, to find out if this is a concept that's going to actually uh find favor with operators, or if this is a concept that may need more time in the oven.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh yeah, well, you know, I I think the connected uh the connected tournament play is uh has legs, um, you know, long long-term legs, um, you know, in um golden things. Yeah, exactly, right? I mean, so it's been proven out. I mean, even Big Buck Hunter has tournaments, but um, you know, arcade uh you know, Allen one is trying to implement their major league esports, uh, Virtuex Omni Arena has had their connected tournament play for a long time. So this is, I do think the tournament play. I'm not convinced that a uh you know sport boxing and kicking um game connected to a tournament will will necessarily have the legs, but the I think the the trend of the tournament play expanding into pinball, you know, the connected tournament play expanding into other areas, I think is here to stay. One to watch.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh and uh quick one about AI. Uh you know, all of the big words about legal suits and suing, and uh, you know, we will see your lawyers against our lawyers. And then surprise, surprise, our friends at Disney do a deal with ChatGPT uh to make it available for their IP to now be represented legally uh within the uh the creations uh of Sora. Uh so that uh awful looking Yoda and that uh awful looking Darth Veda in Sora will now be boosted up and will look very uh true to form sheets now. It will be an exact representation in your fanfic creation mashed up between Superman and uh Star Wars. Uh I I am surprised that uh Disney did this so deal so quickly, uh, unless they feel that they need to get ahead of the chain, or if they didn't feel that the legal suits were going to uh stop the floodgates of uh AI utilization of their content. Either way, um, you know, on one hand, claiming that they're going to sue the Chinese uh AI platform and that they're going to uh you know see everybody in court, and then in the other hand, they do a deal with uh Chat GPT, may hurt the legal ramifications going forth, but that's just a personal opinion.

SPEAKER_01:

I find this super fascinating that Disney actually paid OpenAI uh versus uh versus OpenAI paying Disney for access to the RIP. I mean, it's actually mind-blowing to me that this is the direction that I went. And look, you have to hand Sam Altman uh a lot of credit. Uh, he is potentially one of the best fundraisers of of at least this generation um for uh and he's uh he's a masterful at it. And to go to Disney and say, hey, Disney, you know, we've been ripping off your characters and IP for free, but you know what, why don't you you know pay us one billion dollars and we'll continue to implement your your your your stuff in Sora. So really quite fascinating that this was uh went this direction. I would never have expected uh this to happen. And so uh you know, kudos to Susam Altman and his team at OpenAI for strikeing this deal. Um I think it's smart for Disney to have settled something with ChatGPT. People are going to want Mickey Mouse things, they're gonna want Goofy things, they're gonna want all the other IP related in their Sora videos. So why not uh you know, why not make sure it's the accurate representation and um you know and and lean in?

SPEAKER_00:

I I wouldn't be surprised if a demonstration was done of how many times the Disney character bases are being searched on Sora, and maybe uh someone within ChatGPT just went to Disney. It would be a shame if uh whenever someone typed in a Disney product, they were told that is not available and you lose out compared to uh your competition. I I'm not saying that blackmail or pressure was applied, but it is an obvious statement that you can see in the boardroom to suddenly have the company whose pocket was being picked opening their wallet and handing uh a little bit more cash across the table.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. All right, anyway. Coming up after the quick break, we will uh we'll dive into a little uh special segment. How are if your game floor is arcades by Ellen Woman? Whether it's perfectly foreign drinks and ducked up with playing, having official things or defending cities with a tank in mid-command reaching art. Alan Woman is something to every venue in arcade floor that we delayed your guests. Each game is also independent laterally each floor. Free and clear to explore it and brings guests back to your venue for more. Visit AllenDX1.com to learn more. It's AllenDX1.com.

SPEAKER_00:

Moving on, and uh we have two segments here to round up uh the last of uh the coverage for the year. The first part is uh talking about what we saw at uh United XR. For you that are not uh aware of what uh the event in Europe uh represented. Uh AWE, the uh augmented world expo group, and the European group uh there's there's a lot of little groups in the European market that kind of uh congregate around uh X Star, AR technology, VR, uh mixed reality, all of that stuff. And Stereoscopa uh was one of those events uh that really uh had a very strong following, as well as AWE Europe had a very uh strong following. And I was really impressed to see that these two operations came together, and rather than scratching each other's eyes out, they uh actually formulated an operation. And this uh this event in Brussels was a great con uh collab uh uh where we had the conference section and we had the exhibition section. Exhibition section was full of the latest XR. And I'm really heavily onto the XR side. For many, VR has been tainted by its failure to really achieve uh the trajectory that many people were planning for it for various reasons in the consumer sector. But VR is used religiously in the enterprise uh and in our sector, and we make profit from it and we see strength. But sadly, VR is tainted a little bit by uh um you know just the perceptions of what's going to be the next best thing since sliced bread and the metaverse kludge that never really happened. On the show floor, we saw some of the next generation technology that will play a major part in our future in location-based entertainment, as well as in enterprise, as well as in consumer. Uh, and uh I was lucky enough to be asked to uh host uh what was a location-based XR conference session, talking to companies uh that are really leading the charge in the next phase of VR, going back to that shared reality, multiple users within a virtual world rather than the onesie, twosie VR arcade approaches. Uh and Xcurious and Universe uh through their X-Roam uh divisions have uh been dropping in. We've talked about this numerous times at OpenShuts, uh, have been opening up facilities that have groups of 20, 30, and 40 walking through virtual environments uh together. And uh we were lucky enough to have Newsverse, uh operator of one such of these uh facilities, they're talking about how they utilize this technology. And it was an eye-opening approach towards what we hope to be the future of uh location-based XR going forwards, but also opening the door on the whole of the brand new uh location-based XR landscape. And one of those new systems uh on the show floor was uh the Skyjet VR system, uh, a what I would say a passive uh version of the uh uh flying theater kind of approach. Multiple people wearing headsets being uh transported through a uh soaring high fidelity experience using a unique motion base. It was interesting uh to experience this, and you can kind of see how this kind of system could supersede what we've seen with the previous generation of the uh 9D eggs where you're sitting in one of those eggs being buffeted around with uh a Chinese headset on uh on your face. Um it is opening the door towards offering a much more immersive approach. We also had an example on the show floor of one of those multi-use shared reality uh experiences, this time from Enter. Uh partnered with our friends at Backlight VR, who produced a number of the Monet uh and uh um uh what I would call virtual adventure kind of experiences for multiple users, and uh also partnered with uh HTC on this uh particular installation, and it gave the audiences at the show uh a chance to experience really what we mean by shared reality environments. Uh, and then we had the next generation of the omnidirectional treadmills. Many of our viewers and listeners will remember the uh Vertrix system and they're putting on those special shoes and running on those uh padded floor omnidirectional systems. Well, now the new generation offers a higher fidelity with ball bearings uh incorporated into the design, offering a more realistic and smoother flow uh to their omnidirectional systems. Uh, you know, they have their place in the market. I'm not sure how many of these will transfer themselves into the location-based entertainment sector, but it was interesting to see them there. And then we had the invasion of AR. Uh more than just an AI smart glass system. AR represents virtual synthetic images into the real-world environment, which you can interact with. And uh, our friends at Snap had their latest uh spectacle system there, which uh offers a high-fidelity AR glasses system, which is already being employed in the location-based entertainment sector through our friends at uh versus uh and uh Niantic were there as well, who are promoting their spatial environments for AR glasses. So, you know, that they create the world in which you populate and can view through the AR glasses, and it is clear that these companies are now looking at this as their next uh investment, their next push into the market away from the AI glasses, looking towards what the AR glasses can offer. A lot of uh the headset companies were there and a number of demonstrations were getting through quite a large number of headsets per uh per throughput, and it was great to see the latest of uh the cleaning processes being employed. Our friends at cleanbox systems being used there to ensure that the hygiene aspects of utilising these systems in large throughput environments was uh top-notch. And uh there's a lot more to know about the hygiene rulings that are being put in place towards ensuring that future applications in enterprise and location-based uh XTAR for uh headsets is kept to a high standard to keep our audience happy. Meta were there, didn't bring many headsets, brought a lot of their AI glasses, and they actually held a uh a mixer on one of the nights at the event, and it was kind of interesting. You know, we're here we were sharing the champagne uh and the conversation with Meta, only for a couple of uh days later to learn that Meta would be pulling back a lot of what they were doing in VR and focusing that more on their AI smart glasses, and it kind of tells you that these companies will go where the money is, and so when you start to see them migrate in this uh direction, it is not that uh VR has died, but there is uh an opportunity to be made quicker uh to roll back some of that$80 billion that they've invested uh into the sector. And then finally, in the awards and in the presentations and the whole flavor of uh the event, it was clear that uh uh XR uh is going to be very closely conjoined with AI. Uh that they the the usage uh, especially in the positioning, in the tracking, in the spatial awareness and the placing of objects into the real world as well as in the virtual world, can be accelerated by the use of large language model uh uh powered tools and applications. And uh I'm really looking forward to uh what the 2026 uh uh series of uh AWE events brings to the table, especially as we're associated with them. The the big American event uh in June will now have a dedicated LBE XR component to it, both for stage exhibition, and uh I hope to have a lot more news about companies that are going to be jumping on this bandwagon in the coming months. Any comments, Brandon, about that?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh no, I mean I I would have loved to have been there and joined you in Brussels. Um I'm hoping to get out to AWE this year. Uh and uh, you know, it is a Long Beach is just a drive away, so it's uh or a little little mini hop flight for me. So I am hoping to uh join you there and uh look forward to just seeing the new LBE XR zone.

SPEAKER_00:

It will be interesting to uh to have a uh a central venue uh for the XR side of our industry. Uh I know how difficult it is for uh maybe some of the more established uh exhibitions to incorporate this industry. You know, adding trends to an established industry is always very difficult, and having a an industry that actually dedicates itself to this technology seems a better fit, but we will wait and see. Anyway, to wind up the uh the end of the year uh and uh to give a little bit of retrospective, we'll zip through really some of the talking points that have uh tickled us, not all of them, obviously. And if you feel that I've missed one of those talking points, please hit me up in the comments uh or send me uh a message or LinkedIn or email. But my number, uh not in all any order, but just going through. We've just talked about LBX uh or XR, as it were, and really this was the year where VR had to admit that it hadn't reached its goals uh in the consumer sector, and really what we've seen is that the enterprise and the commercial application of uh XR technology has just moved on, leaving the consumer sector in the dust. And even though we have new machines coming out next year from Valve uh in the consumer sector, we have the investment that Samsung has now made into XR. We can see from what's happened with Meta and Apple that uh really the uh the the real money seems to be now pivoting towards AI and AR glasses as the big white hope for their XR aspirations.

SPEAKER_01:

Sorry, I was just gonna I was gonna add, yes. I mean, I completely agree that we're moving, especially in LPE, need to move beyond VR into XR um and uh you know in its various forms. It is if if we're going to be slapping something onto your face in order to do an attraction, it's gotta be uh it cannot be VR you know, going it it has to be something much more.

SPEAKER_00:

As we touched upon at the beginning of uh this sound off, uh I'm wearing the I Told You So t-shirt uh harking back to the uh 2024 uh IALPA show when uh I sat on a shared a stage with Bob Cooney and actually made the statement there that we will have to move away from VR to XR. Well, I told you so, it has happened, and uh be don't be so surprised when you see VR superseded by XR everywhere, even though the technology may borrow heavily from previously applied VR. That can be seen with also the move in XR towards immersion and experience. So our friends at Raw Thrills gave us a perfect example of this. They took their very successful VR experience and they removed the VR, turned uh the player towards the screens, and have seen continued success of that experience. So maybe sometimes it is more about the immersion and the immersive gameplay than it is about the technology.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I mean, these these are I I haven't seen these ahead of time, so you know like I'm just kind of like agreeing, nodding along with you. Totally like this is absolutely the next the next uh you know, another trend that has happened. And I love when you put these two pictures side by side. This is not the first time we've seen them side by side like this, because it absolutely um is is the perfect encapsulation as what's happening in amusement, going from the VR to turning around and having the wraparound screens and you know the other immersion that you can do. So um it absolutely makes sense, and you know, we'll continue to see this trend happen, I think, with more and more of these large-scale simulators, or I should say small-scale um amusement simulators.

SPEAKER_00:

These immersive uh simulators are really going to uh be more prevalent next year, and again, I think projects that were maybe being started uh this year as VR projects may actually really be released as immersive simulator projects next year. Boom. An observation. We saw the migration or the return, some would say, of uh the uh mall arcade. We've seen a phenomenal number of openings of entertainment facilities, and uh you know to be blunt, uh we're living the 1970s again in more ways. Uh our television is full of stranger things, and uh our shopping malls that still exist uh are now populating themselves with entertainment.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh you know, I think this this trend is like the mall is back also. So it's not just the fact of the rebirth of the mall arcade, the mall in general is back. Not all malls, many malls are we're seeing shut down. I mean, very similar to what we talked about with the amusement parks and things that you know, the regional parks that are shutting down. Um, the you know, region some regional malls just aren't going to be able to cut it. But the malls that do, the one uh, they are back. And Gen Z, Gen Alpha, they love to go to the mall and hang out the way that millennials didn't, um, you know, at the time when and uh and that's one of the reasons why the mall suffered. Um, and we're seeing the arcade come back as a result of that generation coming back into the malls.

SPEAKER_00:

Now, when the malls that survive talk about an entertainment anchor, they're not just talking about cinemas or restaurants. Now we are a major component of that, and it's essential that we up our game to stay relevant in that, or else we could be reliving uh what happened in the 1980s, and I don't want to see that. Uh obviously, uh a review of uh this year would not be complete without mentioning Gender. And uh we are now got Genda Americas uh that was launched this year, as well as Genda Europe uh uh and Gender China. Uh the monster is here, it is taking over the world, and those companies that try to ignore that are pretending from amnesia that they they always knew that Gender was going to be important. The number of companies during IALPA this year that pretended that they'd always known that uh Gender was going to be a player in the market was amazing. And yeah, they yeah, it's always always a good move to just nod sagely and not draw them back to uh previous comments.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, this is uh the you know, again, we just every time we have an open and shut segment on the LBX show, like there's at least one, if not like ten, uh Genda locations opening, and then usually some sort of acquisition that they've made. Um, the the number of acquisitions they made this year is remarkable, and it's gonna only continue the next year. Uh, these guys are on global domination move right now, and uh it's only a matter of time.

SPEAKER_00:

They're on fire and they have some serious plans. I was just uh writing up uh their latest acquisition of uh uh an operation in the IP side of the business. So that them they're they're booking it, as it were. Uh, we should send them some advertising uh bills for all the time we talk about.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

The IALPA consolidated this, but the escape room business uh has migrated out of just the mom and pop escape rooms into the mainstream. It was very clearly a trend that was obvious on the show floor at IALPA and will be writ large next year. Um, the amusement approach to escape gaming that our friends at Creative Uh Works achieved with their blast system, as well as that fantastic uh three-person enclosure uh uh escape game uh system. Dark Escape Games. Dark Escape, thank you. Um, we're all interested, as well as uh uh the Cube uh system. We can expect escape gaming mantra, be it either a mission room style or escape room or a horror escape uh experience uh to play a part as an additional attraction next door to the karaoke and the AR darts uh in the social entertainment sector, but also on the amusement floor.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, and you mentioned here as well the mission room or challenge room experience, in addition to the mini escape games that are on the amusement floor, the game floor, uh, it is the challenge rooms. Challenge rooms are on fire right now as well. I mean, this is the Hijinx Hotel, is a high heavily themed challenge room that Funlab has just recently opened in Irvine and they've obviously been opening up in uh in Australia. And so this is a massive trend that will continue for at least the next few years. Activate uh another. Yeah, I mean, I mean, I could yeah, I could list them off, right? Time mission, level 99, activate, and and many more, right? Especially independent ones. Uh, but the the challenge room, mission room, adventure room, whatever you want to call it, but they're the short, they're the short-term, you know, two-minute to five minute uh room experiences that you go in and out of on a regular, you know, on a strong social component.

SPEAKER_00:

So it's that strong social component with maybe hospitality now figuring a lot more than uh tradition. We could be seeing uh a rejuvenation of the escape room mission room business into a brand new landscape. It's just important that we witness it now and try and have this as some part of our industry, or else we'll be playing catch-up. Playing catch-up. The cinema industry has gone through an awful year, to be blunt. It's had highs, incredible highs and successes, and it's had really ground pounding lows. And just to take a snapshot of that, as we end the year, Disney is looking at at least six major failures of film property, a major IP that has just cratered and lost them considerable amounts of money and credibility, only to have two success stories through the Lilo and Stitch live action and the Zootopia 2 as a profitable, not vastly profitable, strong uh uh revenue generators. And as we write this, we're still the jury's still out uh about whether uh Avatar uh will be uh Fire and Ice will be uh a major success or a so-so success. You always you you don't vote uh uh vote against uh uh John uh James Cameron. So you you know it it's I think it's going to make its money back, shall we say. But this is a big experience film. This is being pushed heavily as an IMAX must-be seen 3D experience. Uh and if you go on to the Friends of the Stinger Report Facebook, you'll see the latest trailer pushing that big IMAX experience for the latest Avatar movie. Uh it's an important one, and if it is tainted by the problems that Disney's been having, then there'll be a lot of very angry investors. But this also points towards what cinema industry is going to want to do next year to try and improve their fortunes, and that leads us to the explosion that we've seen in Cinetainment, additional amusement components to the traditional cinema business.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, look, if you already have just a theater and you haven't added any entertainment to your theater, then you are going to continue to have problems and shut down. Um, I think really one of the bigger issues here is the purpose-built Cynottainment facilities that uh many of them are based in Texas, are headquartered there, and have expanded beyond Texas. Um, and there's even a few like Batcats in Utah or whatever. Um, but these are, I think, really going to struggle. They build massive facilities in order to house the cinema sector. Um and yes, they have full entertainment, they have bowling and and you know, laser tag and full arcades and and other different attractions as well. But if I'm gonna go and if I can go bowling at main events versus going to your big giant cinema facility, and I'm not actually gonna go watch a movie, this is where like the purpose-built entertainment facilities are really going to struggle unless film turns around.

unknown:

True.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh the highs and the lows. Um, you know, this year we kind of saw the uh the guy behind the curtain uh regarding AI and robotics. Uh, our friends uh Amazon Fresh decided to pull out of the market because uh the Indians behind their cameras were more expensive than having something that actually worked uh based upon what they claimed they could do. Um X uh was one of those firework properties, uh lots of interest explosion when it was revealed that it was a human behind the curtain and then down in pieces. And as of uh recording this, I haven't heard a single thing about OneX um uh since the reveal. Um it'd be interesting to see uh if we hear anything more about that company uh anytime soon. Um I'm sorry, Brandon.

SPEAKER_01:

I I I haven't shown I actually I don't have anything extra to add to this one.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, yeah, uh neither did they.

unknown:

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh IP embarrassments uh uh abounds, uh and uh but also our friends at Chuck E. Cheese should also be in the list, uh, not just for working out how to turn uh lemons into lemonade in a marketing process when your mascot gets arrested. Uh and then, of course, uh uh the local police force uh bending over themselves to make sure that they uh seem to be the good guys here. Uh, we also seen Chuck E. Cheese or CEC Entertainment really up their game with uh their Chuck's arcade, uh, which seems to be very popular, and with the launch of their brand new active entertainment chain uh with the uh Chuck's uh world of adventure. Uh it it's going to be interesting to see how all of these uh branding uh and facility positionings for CEC work out in the uh 2026 market.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I was actually just talking about CEC uh entertainment in a meeting yesterday. Um, and about uh somebody was saying, you know, they didn't even know they're not in our industry, so they didn't even know that Chuck E. Cheese was still even doing well or whatever, like they had heard about the bankruptcy, but you know, obviously like that was years ago uh, you know, at this point. And um and I said, yeah, no, they've done a surprising, not a surprising, they've done a phenomenal job at uh rejuvenating their brand, rejuvenating their overall experience from the food to the entertainment, the attraction mix to the characters to the transmedia organization that they've become. And so, yeah, this uh I'm really excited to watch how they evolve next year and the year after, especially as they move more and more into transmedia.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh as if you've uh seen these slides, transmedia plays uh plays a part here. Uh a phrase that hadn't been used suddenly gained a lot more credence uh in the economic sector. The uh the third place uh became, or the third space in some cases, uh, became a terminology to describe the explosion in competitive socializing and the large number of entertainment facilities that built upon uh a social model going forwards. Uh, and that transmedia application uh really uh under underpinned that. We are at an interesting point where the concept has been defined uh and companies have attempted to jump into those waters. We now need to see their boats float. Uh and we're very familiar with one transmedia attempt through so many pictures uh that kind of is in a in purgatory at the moment with Wonderverse, while at the same time we've now had two back-to-back openings of uh Netflix House, and we now wait to see how they their interpretation of a transmedia approach into social entertainment is going to work.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, um I've already talked about it a little bit, so I'll I'll just uh let's just move on to the next one because uh yeah, I think these I well, I think Sony is uh anyway. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna beat up on Sony. We'll move we'll move on.

SPEAKER_00:

We're waiting for them to make an official statement about where their Wonderverse sits in the market. I think it's important that they do that the same way that it's important that other companies come clean regarding where they stand in this market so we can move on, really. Uh it's not good to uh to to keep dirty laundry uh uh hidden away. It starts to smell the the application of that transmedia is now being seen across all uh of the applications of technology. So, as I said earlier, location-based experiences rather than location-based entertainment seems to be driving uh our future. And that LBX, as it were, uh is seeing IP added across it. So we've seen the virtual reality uh systems deploying IP into it. Our friends at Sandbox with their relationship with Netflix and Squid Games and the Florida Slaughter as examples. We have seen competitive socializing venues now wrapping uh an IP around uh some of the entertainment that they're offering. We saw Top Golf uh linking themselves to a number of uh entertainment properties, IP properties uh films. And of course, we've seen the projection mapped, uh immersive, uh, frictionless entertainment systems also going down that path. Our friends at Little Lions Entertainment, of course, and their Pac-Man live experience being just one example of how that transmedia XR technology bubble is going to play into the future.

SPEAKER_01:

I think the overall, I mean, I think anyway, I think the projection mapped XR mixed reality, uh actually depends on, you know, I know we've had discussions around how we define XR and MR. Um, I would say the mixed reality uh attractions and and you know quote unquote immersion, even though I don't like that term, um, immersion is uh it will continue to evolve and we'll see more and more of it before we uh see a decline.

SPEAKER_00:

I think LBX rather than LBE gives us a kind of an out over immersion. Uh and I I wouldn't be surprised if uh certain industry pundits try and push that uh as terminology, but we can touch on that. I wonder who. Everything up. Well, some things went down, and to really to to end the 12 months of this year, we have to face uh the reality that we have seen a vast number of facility openings, an incredible number of competitive socializing sites, a incredible number of uh active entertainment venues, an incredible number of what I will call mixed-use leisure entertainment venues opening, many of them brand new, but also a considerable number of existing chains adding to their retinue. But likewise, we've seen uh a concerning number of collapses uh and uh liquidations in this sector. Um, most recently uh we've been talking about uh the Planet Play School uh implosion. I'm led to believe that the Hasbro properties uh in in this particular locality, there's another uh uh entertainment facility within this mix there that is also looking that it has also closed down. So we've seen what we've talked about previously that just rubbing IP onto something doesn't guarantee success. We lost DNA VR, um, and therefore chains of what could be called older approaches to the VR arcade model uh for various reasons it didn't adapt. We could also add to that other world that was another UK-based VR arcade operation that went through uh closure. Pinstripes, the chain uh has closed down, and uh their facilities now are either being acquired by uh 810 or um uh are sadly being closed down uh permanently. We touched upon what's happened to Electric Playhouse, uh and uh we've also talked about what's been happening in the water park sector. There are trends that can be seen here if you haven't invested in your brand, if you haven't future-proofed yourself against what the market's looking for, if you haven't considered what the guest experience is, and if you aren't aware of what's happening around you regarding competition, then you're uh your head's on the chopping block. And you know, as eggs are eggs, we will be talking about other companies that will be falling into this uh sad sinkhole if they're not prepared to learn from these lessons.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that was a great I'm assuming you chose 12. Uh maybe you chose 12 intentionally, or or there was just uh or there was just um you know happen to be 12 12 trends that lined up perfectly with 12 days of Christmas, but uh but yes.

SPEAKER_00:

I didn't want to do an advent candle calendar.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, uh but great rundown, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, thank you to everyone. Uh wishing you a happy and prosperous 2026. We know it's going to be tempestuous, whatever it is. Uh a lot of things are going to change, and be sure to keep up with us at sound off to uh keep uh your finger on the pulse, as it were, but also think about the Stinger report. We're just uh going through more than halfway through the extensive coverage of IALPA and the trends that we saw there, and we have a number of uh entertainment social arenas in the bag that will also be looking at the trends in that sector. Any information that you want to pass on, of course, use the LinkedIn and the email. Anyway, Brandon, that only leaves me to wish you and your family the very best for the new year.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you very much, Kevin. You as well.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you. Have a good one, everybody.

Head Shot

Brandon Willey

Host