The LBX Show #58 - BW makes his 2026 predictions and much more!

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Sponsored by Alan-1!

On this week's show, BW grade last year’s 2025 predictions and closes out with his 2026 predictions, Kevin Williams tracks openings and closures across markets, and Chuck DeMonte lays out clear moves to win in 2026. From cranes and gashapon to mission rooms, XR fitness, and IP-led venues, the theme is positioning, proof, and product discipline.

• Japan amusement influence reshaping US mix
• Competitive socializing outpacing traditional FEC builds
• D&B brand strategy reversal and lessons
• VR consolidation vs mini golf fragmentation
• Round1 Spo-cha utilization and positioning
• Sandbox VR layout shifts toward openness
• X-Cube and mission rooms as phygital players
• Casino dwell-time plays with social competition
• XR fitness partnerships and hygiene realities
• Arcade release highlights and trade show momentum
• Operator headwinds in malls and traffic dependency
• Four tactics for 2026 growth from basics to value
• 2026 predictions on CEC games, pickleball, Merlin, IP venues, and laser tag evolution

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Chapters

• 0:00 New Year Kickoff & Agenda
• 1:39 FEC Summit Preview & Wacky Golf
• 2:36 How The Predictions Are Graded
• 3:55 High Predictions: Japan Amusements Surge
• 5:05 High Predictions: Competitive Socializing Wins
• 6:48 Medium Predictions: D&B Brand Miss
• 8:22 Medium Predictions: VR Consolidates, Golf Fractures
• 10:27 Low Predictions: Disney x CAMP Fail
• 11:38 Low Predictions: Bluey vs Angry Birds
• 12:31 Sponsor Break
• 12:58 Openings Overview With Kevin
• 13:40 Australia’s ‘Play It’ Concept
• 15:02 XCube Mission Rooms Expand
• 15:53 Round1 Spocha Debate
• 17:36 Sandbox VR Layout Shift
• 18:50 Lots Of Games, Naming Problems
• 20:23 Casino Social Concepts Grow
• 21:08 South Africa’s ‘Shooters’ Branding Risk
• 23:02 Activate Accelerates UK Rollout
• 23:54 Battle Square: Projection Soccer Bays
• 26:00 XR Fitness Enters Gyms
• 28:03 Urban Air Growth And Consistency
• 29:32 Mom-And-Pop Prize Arcades
• 30:35 Closures: Sixes Administration
• 32:05 Dreamscape Pivots To Education
• 33:12 Trampoline Park Saturation Watch
• 34:38 Tribal FEC Refresh Strategy
• 35:55 Sponsor Break
• 36:35 Arcade Corner: 2025 Game Releases
• 39:45 Trade Shows Recap & Trends
• 41:38 Operator Realities & Mall Headwinds
• 43:12 Sponsor Break
• 43:48 Promo Pro Tips: 4 Plays For 2026
• 47:24 2026 High Predictions
• 50:28 2026 Medium Predictions
• 53:34 2026 Low Predictions
• 56:00 Closing Notes & Next Sound Off

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:01

Bringing you in now to the LBX show with your host, Brandon Wine. What do you buy the LBX Collective? And inspire.

SPEAKER_02: 0:23

All right. Well, welcome everybody to the LBX Show. I'm your host, Brandon Wiley, and this is our New Year's episode. Happy New Year, everyone. We have a great, great full show lined up for you today. It is a full-packed show. So we're going to dive right into Soon as You Should Know, where I will review and grade my predictions for 2025. This is always a fun one because we get to uh go back and review okay, what did I say in 2025? What got what did I get right? What did I get wrong? And it's a lot of fun. And you know, there's I got some stuff right, and I got some stuff way wrong. So it's all right. Uh, and then we're gonna roll into open and shut with Kevin Williams. We're gonna review obviously obviously all the openings and closing trends from the last two weeks since we are off for a week over the holidays. And then Adam Pratt's gonna give us a 2025 year in review from the amusement front with Arcade Corner. Then we'll jump into a promo pro tips with Chuck DeMonti. He's gonna discuss how to set up yourself in 2026 with four trends uh in business operations and marketing. And then finally, the moment I know you've all been waiting for, I will give my 2026 predictions and see if I can beat my 2025 grade. So with that being said, let's dive right into some news you should know. All right, so as we've talked about the last few weeks, we have IAPA's FEC Summit coming up February 1st to the 3rd in Glendale, Arizona. I would say my backyard, but not quite. It's like 45 minutes that direction. So I will be staying out at the hotel and not driving back and forth. Uh, but I'm looking forward to it because it is uh going to be a great one. We've got a great keynote speaker in the Libby Gill. Uh, there's gonna be lots of other educational content. They're also going to be we're gonna be traveling around and seeing a couple of cool places. Pecan Lake Entertainment is pretty fun. Check out Fat Cat, this entertainment location, and then there'll be another location to be announced soon. I'm also gonna be involved with the uh involved. I'm just gonna be playing. I'm not involved in any meaningful way, uh, but I'm gonna be playing the wacky golf uh event that's benefiting the IAPA Foundation for the FEC Foundation scholarship. And it is a separate ticket, so make sure to grab that uh before because it's on Sunday. So if you're only gonna get there on Sunday, you're not gonna be able to play. So you might want to come in on Saturday or get in really early Sunday morning. Um, but looking forward to that wacky golf event. And so that is really the only actual news that you should know right now because I'm gonna jump into my 2025 prediction review. All right, so this my original predictions were at the end of the show, as usual, on uh, and this is the LBX show number 10. If you want to go back and listen, it's number 10 on January 5th, 2025. You can find it on YouTube, podcast platforms, etc. Or you can just listen to this. You know, I'm gonna just go through it here. So uh, all right. The way that I handle the predictions typically is I do a high, a medium, and a low, and I do two of each. So a high is basically, I think it's pretty much 80% or more certainty. Here we can get rid of her. Let's just uh let's go do this. There we go. All right, no more let me go. Okay, so 80% is uh is is you know, basically, you know, 80% or higher is of what I think is like you know, it's I think this is gonna happen. That's my prediction. Um, medium is 50-50. It might happen, it might not, around 50% probability of happening, and then low prediction is like sometimes like just the long Hail Mary that I throw out there, and uh, it's like 20% or lower. I think this is actually gonna happen. A lot of what I do in my low predictions is these are things that I actually think should happen and I want to see happen, but they may or may not happen uh for a number of reasons, and so I put it as a low prediction. All right, so for my high prediction, 80% or better, I said Japan amusement comes to the US. This means cranes, gas pond, car battlers, etc. And you know what? I'll say if you've been watching all the open ends and shuts, and if you've listened to any of our sound offs with Kevin Williams, um, you know that I absolutely 100% fucking nailed this one. Uh and the major reason is that Genda um has made a major growth into the US market through primarily acquisitions, but also coming in, bringing in some of their own brands like Gaigo brands coming into the US market. And they have made a massive push. And as a result of that, we've seen the new wave crane machines, a large number of uh independent operators opening up their own new wave crane facilities in shopping centers, in strip malls, etc. We've seen Gashapon really exploding as well. Uh, we've seen round one continue their expansion, they're a Japanese-based chain bringing in a lot of their influence as well. And so as a result, the rest of the market has had to maintain and keep up. And so yeah, and so I will say I give myself an A, maybe not an A plus, uh, but you know, pretty, pretty damn near an A plus on that one. So, all right, I think I nailed that. The next one is the the was uh the on the high prediction side for 2025 was that uh competitive socializing venues will overtake traditional multi-attraction FEC new builds this year. Um, and I did not include active play in that. So active play meaning trampoline parks, adventure parks, etc. I didn't include that because I really felt like if active play was included, then you would still see like the quote unquote traditional FEC model um still be higher than the competitive socializing venues, but again, also nailed this one as evident through all the open and shuts of the last year and just the overall the the data that we collect as a part of that process. Um the competitive socializing venues, social entertainment, uh excuse me, social competition venues, um, 100% uh new builds were over, you know, overtook the traditional multi-attraction FEC. When I say traditional multi-attraction FEC, it's bowl, you know, to like some sort of anchor, a bowling anchor or a go-karting anchor or something, then with a an arcade and amusement mix, as well as then some other ancillary attractions, laser tag, mini golf, etc. Now, you could argue, well, if it has mini golf, then is it no, if it's if it has mini golf and a strong F and B and maybe one other competitive socializing attraction, then that would consider be considered a competitive socializing venue, you know, a holy moly, for example, or a putt shack, or a pop stroke. These are social competitive uh competitive socializing venues. These are not traditional FECs. So 100% we have seen a significant increase in the number of competitive socializing venues that have opened. And so I also will give myself actually an A plus on that one. So so far, so good, doing really, really well with the high predictions, 80% and higher. I think I've nailed both of those with at least an A average there. All right, on the medium predictions. This is where things start to go off the rails a little bit here. Uh, so for medium predictions, again 50-50. The first one I said is a DMB, Steven Busters, will launch a new brand. Um, and the reason for this, uh, you know, give some background, and you can go back and listen to the show. I'm not going to talk give all of the reason, but they were really beginning to make this move into the social base. And you know, Kevin and I were going back and forth on some of the different sound-offs that they you know were struggling to gain the traction on the social base that I think they really needed to, and that they really should have branched off this social bay and social competitive socializing concept into its own concept, into its own brand. And you know, we we made it, you know, we made a joke or your hypothesis like it'd be DMB social or something like that. Um, well, I definitely miss this one. That didn't happen. I still believe they should, uh, but instead they really actually decided to go backwards. They decided to revert their locations back to their existing mix. Yes, they still have social base in some of their locations, but they're actually beginning to pull some of that out. They're certainly not including it in their new builds. They've really gone back and with their you know new uh leadership in place at DNB, actually, which also happened this last year, um, they are going back to quote unquote what they know best, which is you know, I guess sports bar, mediocre food, and arcades. So that's what they know best, I guess. All right. Um, so I definitely missed that one. And uh, you know, but they did give up on their social base. So I'll give myself a C minus on this one. I don't think I totally failed in the sense that like if they were continue to go into social base but keep it all under one, I would give myself an F. But the fact that they were actually reverting means that yes, we you know had a certain call, like this just isn't working, this mix on you know, together, this arcade sports bar and social bay thing isn't working. And so I'll give myself a C minus on that one. And then the second one was uh of the medium predictions was that there was an oversaturation of MS in VR and mini golf, and that we would see a major consolidation. Um, so MS is manufactured supplier, so like there's there's there's just way too many manufactured suppliers in VR, um, different attractions, you know, VR companies, and same thing on the mini golf side, just like fucking everybody was doing mini golf. Like everybody's got their own mini golf concept. And so I just said there'd be some major consolidation. Um, I think I nailed this one for sure on the VR side. Um, and really what we saw is that Hero Zone came out on top as the big winner there, but significant acquisition, consolidation, some companies going out of business, some companies getting acquired. And but but Herozone really was the big acquirer, and they ended up the winner of this consolidation. And I don't think it's done. I think it will continue actually through this next year as we really begin to see shift in LBEVR um moving to a more um AR, MR, XR concept. Um, but at the same time, I think I nailed that one. Um, but the mini golf still remains really fractured. So we didn't really see any consolidation there. In fact, we actually probably saw a little bit more uh oversaturation and fracturing in that market as more players began to introduce their own mini golf concepts, um, even as we saw like people moving into like mini golf social bays versus just pure mini golf, right? We saw 501 finally release their um what they had teased for a long time, finally released their social bay. We saw social rivals actually launched theirs this year into the market as well. So we saw more mini golf fracturing and saturation. Um so I'll give myself a B minus because I really fucking nailed it on the VR, but uh missed it on the mini golf. So there we go. B minus C, you want to, you know, yeah, C plus, B minus right there, whatever, kind of in that area. All right. Now for my low predictions, I had said that uh this is again 20% or lower things I think should happen. I wish they would happen, um, but uh was that Disney acquires camp. Camp is a retailtainment facility or a retail teamment, uh they they do retail teamment venues, so let me use the correct language. Um, and uh they tend to work with really well-known IPs. And uh I said, well, I still think that this would be a killer acquisition and move for Disney, as Disney really needs to figure out how to do LBE better, especially retail team into LBE. Um, I still think that this would be a great one. I did completely miss this. In fact, Disney has really made zero moves into LBE this year. Um, so why they haven't, and they continue to let you know, other groups like Netflix, uh, you know, I'll call them transmedia organizations now, like Netflix and Sony, although Sony's done a shit job. Um, and Universal, which has done a killer job, move into LBE. Uh Disney continues to ignore the space for at least a period of time. Maybe they have plans, but they just haven't announced them. I don't know about them. Um, but I'm gonna give myself an F on this one because I totally missed it. And uh and yeah, I still think it'd be a perfect acquisition for Disney, but they have not done it. Um, all right. My last prediction of 2025 was that Bluey IP and LBE overtakes Angry Birds IP and LBE. And just because we were beginning to see Bluey everywhere, and Camp had partnered with Bluey actually as well, and like Bluey was just like blowing up. Bluey was blowing up. And um, so I just thought that you know we'll see this kind of happening everywhere. And um while this is well, Angry Birds definitely, you know, the distribution of IP for Angry Birds definitely declined this year. In fact, you know, I don't think we've really seen a whole lot of you know major new attractions under the Angry Birds IP. Finally, I think we finally maybe moved on from Angry Birds, hopefully. Um, however, Bluey didn't make any major LBE moves either. So I'll give myself a C minus D plus on this one. So it wasn't a total fail um since Angry Birds didn't continue to increase. Uh, but you know, Bluey didn't overtake them either. So, all right, that was my 25 2025 prediction review. Coming up after the quick break, we will dive right into open and shut with Kevin Williams. They introduced cashless technology to the amusement industry and have been leading the way for over 30 years. Cashless system to InnerCard increased customer spending, get satisfaction, and boost revenues by up to 30 percent. Intercard is so proud to be serving the amusement industry. And if you are already part of a global family of consumers, they hope you will become one too.

SPEAKER_00: 13:22

Hey, big hello to all of you for open and shut. I hope I find you well, Brandon.

SPEAKER_02: 13:31

Uh doing very well, doing very well. So it's uh first open and shut of the new year. So uh yeah, it's crazy. And it's it doesn't feel like it's very many as well. So no.

SPEAKER_00: 13:42

Wow, straight into 2026, quite uh quite an amazing period, and we start with uh as Brand's alluding to quite a reasonable number of uh openings. Um I uh I'm gonna be cagey here. Um partly uh I haven't been as uh diligent as uh I normally am going through my research information on new facilities opening. So these are the ones that actually dropped physically into my lap, or I was pointed to. And also, uh, hey, it was Christmas, and uh you know exactly some some people don't think it's a good idea to open up a facility uh uh during Christmas. I would agree with them. I do expect this to be a lull before the storm. So let's see what uh the next open shop brings to the table. But anyway, follow the rules, you know them. Uh pause if I zip through too quickly because I am going to talk about all of them with a little bit of reason. Play it. Interesting, Australian, interesting, competitive socializing meets amusement, even more interesting. One of the things that we can see is that the Australian and New Zealand market has really embraced competitive socializing and amusement and uh entertainment uh experiences. And uh, I think we're now seeing the galvanization of these brands and new brands appearing that fit into that mix. Uh play it from what I've seen, uh, what I visited at the website looks like the beginning of a big push by a company to come up with a new chain.

SPEAKER_02: 15:22

Yeah, and I mean just the really interesting how much they I don't know that they expect a ton, but the fact that they really invested heavily in the entrance. So it's clearly in a shopping mall, but just the the digital uh, you know, the LEDs on both the ceiling and the walls of their entrance to come into what is seems to be anyway a somewhat standard arcade, um, is really interesting.

SPEAKER_00: 15:46

Uh from inside, it looks like a Chinese infused uh arcade. So a lot of dark themality, a lot of neon, but um it is still an arcade uh by all mix. Move a little further into the uh the structure, and you see where the competitive socializing elements are that they they have mini golf in there, they also have uh some other uh social entertainment components. I am seeing a lot of companies now looking at the new range of O LED uh floor, wall, uh, and ceiling signage systems now being deployed as permanent uh entrance displays. We've seen it in the retail sector, a number of perfume and high fashion brands are using them now in malls, very striking, and I think we will be following close behind, all part of that fidgetal environment. I keep on going on about. Moving on, and uh an existing facility uh in the UK uh has added uh you know uh a new component to their mix of entertainment, and this is one uh that uh I'm a big fan of. We uh reported on XCube during uh the IALPA 2025 coverage, and it's now nice to see uh operators actually deploying the system, giving them an extra uh attraction, which again promotes the fidgetal component. It's a digital uh mission room experience. Uh, and uh with some of the new content based on UK IP, uh I think this is a good mix uh into the bowling, active entertainment, social entertainment environment.

SPEAKER_02: 17:32

It's a nice, I mean, XCube is a nice drop-in. I mean, this seems to be anyway, a nice drop-in uh like way to add this kind of like mini escape room, mission room type experience without having to do significant build out on your own.

SPEAKER_00: 17:47

It it it ticks a box, uh, and if operated correctly and you understand your audience appeal, it fits right in. Moving on, and round one appeared on my radar just as we were coming to the end of the year. Um, I'm still having problems with round one USA in trying to chase down which are new openings, which are re uh installations or rebrandings. But you know, I'm led to believe that this Houston, Texas facility, which is their latest Texas uh facility, adds to their 57 facilities. And uh the interesting thing about this site is that it has a uh you know, it has that Spark system on bowling, uh, giving it immersive displays, uh digital uh capability. It's got the uh uh Spo chan, uh the Sports Uh Challenge Zone. I think that's what uh Spo chan is abbreviated for Sports Challenge because we see it in Japan. Now it's being brought over across a number of the US sites. Um all in all, you know, hundreds. Yeah, sorry, someone's added an extra zero there. I apologize. If it was a thousand, we'd be talking about it a lot more. Um it is their usual standard mix fitting into their proven formula.

SPEAKER_02: 19:12

Yeah, I every round one I've walked into that has the spo cha zones. Um I've like, I'm just they're empty and they're not being used. And so maybe it's a thing in Japan. Like obviously they brought it over here, I mean it's more popular, but I've I've very rarely, if ever, when I think about it, seen spocha uh zones being utilized. And so I you know, I do wonder. I mean, maybe I'm I'm just they're at the wrong time of day, you know, but they keep building these with the spo cha component. And you're like, well, if they had the data to show that it's being used or isn't used, I would think that it wouldn't continue to be added into the new locations. And uh, maybe to your point, this isn't a new location, or they just reopened or whatever, or they renovated and stuff, like who knows exactly? But if if they're opening, continue to open new. Locations with components that are underutilized, I just don't understand why they continue to drive that model forward.

SPEAKER_00: 20:07

The Japanese have found great success with the uh Spocha uh component. It is an active entertainment, it is promoted heavily. Here in North America, they haven't promoted it, they haven't given it its own brand, they've, you know, cut uh cut and pasted the concept directly in. I don't think it's positioned correctly for active entertainment for the target audience. I think that they need to take a long, hard look at what they're trying to achieve with this concept and maybe give it its own love, give it its own promotion, maybe even mix up some of the entertainment and go for less of uh the physical and more for the digital, but you would expect me to say that. Um again, we are at a point where round one USA is going to have to reveal its numbers and be a little bit more transparent uh regarding where its various components are, how its ping pong's doing, how its food's doing, and other stuff like that. And I think 2026 is going to be an important year to find out how successful Spocha is as a component of round one. Our friends at uh Sandbox VR uh came to the end of uh 2025 with uh 72 facilities. They just crossed the line with 73 uh entering into the new year, but uh this was their 72nd facility in Canada, an interesting location. Uh I am still trying to work out whether this is a franchise or a direct owned. I think this is a franchise, it's safe to say this uh one here. The playing environment, I've just got a snapshot picture there. You know, you walk upstairs into one of the uh many uh arena or VR arena areas, and it's opened to the world around you. So I'm hoping, praying that uh they're embracing that mixed reality uh approach that we were talking about uh in the last sound off, where you know you start off in an interesting environment, you put the uh headsets on, and then you're transported into a virtual environment seamlessly. I think this for me was an interesting take on their traditional layout that we see at uh sandbox VR venues.

SPEAKER_02: 22:26

Yeah, I mean it is super interesting, mostly because it's it's actually pleasing to look at. You know, when we've gone into some sandbox VRs, the fact like it's very broken up, chopped up. You you go, you walk into this room, it's it's enclosed, and you don't really feel like you're a part of anything else, especially with your smaller group or your group is split up. I really like this layout. I like that they're in the open and you can see out to the broader world.

SPEAKER_00: 22:49

We'll we'll have to see if this is just a one-off example by a franchisee or if this is something that uh sandbox is now going to embrace. Uh, we're at that pivotal moment, nearly at 80 facilities, and I know that uh in the next couple of months, when they cross that 80 threshold, we'll be seeing some uh developments from Sandbox VR regarding their future business positioning. I mentioned uh lot of gains uh previously, and uh it was corrected to me that there's some other uh openings uh in the chain. So we're up to four facilities now uh rather than three. And um, this latest Italian site carries on the shopping mall, high uh high brightness, uh lots of games in their facility. The thing for me, a little bit of a niggle, you'd expect a niggle from me, is that they depend for their VR components on Chinese uh systems that are just drop straight in with no um what I can see additional local uh flavor to that. Maybe I should actually play the games at their facility before I comment about that and not depend just on the photographs of the facility. But I'll just you know I'll leave that as a caveat uh regarding their lots of games.

SPEAKER_02: 24:14

Still hate the name. Still hate the name. I just did a search even now, and I typed in a lot of games, Dominica, Italy, and even changed my browser location to uh to you know, or my Google search location to Italy and still doesn't show up when I search for it. Because a lot of games, you know, I've got board games and other things, places I can buy board games and things like that. Uh, and it just is not uh anyway.

SPEAKER_00: 24:39

Yeah, I have to depend on the database with companies like this. Uh you know, I just click on uh the database link that we have within the package rather than as you just had to go through the pain and anguish of the search.

SPEAKER_02: 24:52

Maybe we need a VPN to uh that might be the only way to do it to actually see the open search, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 25:00

It's it's something that I think they may not notice is a problem, and they may not feel that it's a problem because they're dealing with a local audience. Uh, but I I would argue that it's something that they need to address internationally. Um, you know, I've touched upon the casino industry uh and their love affair of having an entertainment component. Uh, the regional entertainment sector has uh continued that investment, and here Ocean Casino Resorts and Joycey uh has uh dropped in. Uh what I would say is the competitive socializing with a little bit of amusement and a little bit of uh F. Uh it's to increase the dwell time at the resort for the target audience that will be entertained by a social and amusement component. Moving on, and uh a new one uh for me in the competitive socializing. Uh, not often that we deal with South Africa uh regarding competitive socializing, but it's important that we've also mentioned Nigeria a couple of times over the uh opens and charts regarding competitive socializing new venues. Well, we have shooters um in Johannesburg. And if you want an interesting story about searching this one out, typing shooters, Johannesburg, South Africa will get you a lot of news reports about local crime. It doesn't get you to a competitive socializing venue until you add the additional prompts of social entertainment, uh, amusement, or uh whatever hospitality. I would argue about that name. Uh I would really argue about that name if you want to appear in a lot of news searches uh uh uh when uh crime takes place in your area. But anyway, from uh the video and the photos that we have of the actual site, it is your standard competitive socializing, it has shooting simulators there uh for sports play pigeon shooting. It also has uh the ubiquitous AR darts and the ubiquitous uh uh shuffle board set up with uh cocktails. And interesting, this is the second venue in this chain, and the first venue went right underneath my radar. So uh, guys, that name may be a problem in the long run.

SPEAKER_02: 27:27

Totally agree about the name. There's no question at all. And and also it's just it's misnamed, it's not just shooting. If it were a pure you know clay shooting gallery, or even if you wanted to throw like darts in there along with the clays as part of like shooting and shooting darts, like okay, I get it, but you have mini golf, you have digital shuffleboard, you have FB, you're trying to be you know a mix, actually, a competitive socializing mix, which is good to see that they are doing a mix and not just selecting one, but their name is you know gives them the sense that you're coming there to do a very specific thing, which is shoot uh you know, clay pigeons or shoot darts, um, and is also just a terrible name in general. Also, incredibly close. If you were taking the SOA, it's incredibly close to Hooter's logo. Um, you've got the you've got the the owl looking, you know, that looks through the two O's and then the little beak for the like right there. So like if you were to just have another little bullseye in the other O, it would look very close to the Hooter's logo.

SPEAKER_00: 28:24

Double whammy, eh? Uh branding uh important. They're two facilities in. It's not too late to uh upgrade your branding for your third facility concept. Uh and fingers crossed uh that they can establish a market hold where they can survive a quick rebranding before the market becomes a little too intense. But that's that's an uh an observation from two guys uh here, you know, uh across the pond from where they are. And you know, if they are willing to reach out and contact us, uh, I'd love to love to speak to them more about uh the idea behind their two facility operation. Activate uh they rolled out a group of um facilities in the UK uh just at the end of the year. About three sites went in. Vauxhall uh in London also uh opened up. This moves very quickly towards their aspirations to have 30 facilities open in the UK within the next three or four years.

SPEAKER_02: 29:32

Keep going.

SPEAKER_00: 29:33

The yeah, we we wish them the best on this. Interesting one here. Took me a while to unpick this one when it was thrown to me. Hollywood Entertainment Centre is an established um bowling entertainment facility uh in the Netherlands. Uh we nailed down that there may be more than one of the Hollywood uh entertainment centres in the Netherlands. Their website was a joy. Uh, and they have just launched Battles Square. Battlesquare has gone into their uh their latest facility, if we understand all of this. And when I saw Battles Square, I just saw the picture originally of the woman kicking the ball, and I didn't actually see the X Wall next door to it. And I thought I was looking at a tocker social. Uh but what it does seem is our friends at X-Wall, uh the company that does the uh projection ball tracking system uh that we've talked about in uh sound off from occasion when talking about new technologies. But anyway, they have created their bay, their football bay enclosure, uh based on their X-Wall technology, and they've launched this under the Battle Square brand, and this seems to be a drop-in entertainment attraction, similar to how our friends at Immersive Game Box has a drop-in projection uh entertainment experience. I will look forward to seeing how the company moves forwards with this, if this is a one-off that was done for the uh Hollywood Entertainment Center, or if this is part of a rollout of uh a number of uh installations uh within uh within the market. Toca's got some competition.

SPEAKER_02: 31:25

Yeah, definitely. And you know, just looking at some of the pictures of their of this location, I mean the site isn't fully live. It's actually, yeah, not a great site to navigate, but um, I mean it's a it's a really interesting, kind of beautiful, beautifully themed uh space location, actually.

SPEAKER_00: 31:44

It's it's a uh uh I made the mistake originally as soon as uh my database flagged this as I thought it was Hollywood Bowl we were talking about in the UK, and then I had to jump back and correct myself and go for it. It was the European, and then uh having a look, uh wander around virtually of the Hollywood Entertainment site, it is more than just a bowling uh facility. It is it is offering an entertainment mix, and they uh key on the quality and the level of engagement of the entertainment that they offer at the facility. Uh and you know it it seems logical that alongside uh their next their what I would call social bowling uh experience or boutique bowling next door to their amusement and their attractions and their simulators and their social media, so not social media, their um competitive socializing stuff, that they would drop in uh a toker social kind of component. And the only issue I had was it was so difficult to find out if this was part of a chain or if this was a uh you know a single site that has a very high quality curb appeal.

SPEAKER_04: 32:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 32:53

Hopefully, our uh Flemish friends can uh correct me if I've uh missed out on a budding new chain of operations. The mix of adding uh competitive socializing, uh immersive entertainment, and active entertainment into other areas into other markets is taking hold. And we're sort of greeted here by the announcement that LA Fitness, a well-known UK uh gym and fitness chain of facilities, has uh done a deal to drop in a XR fitness uh attraction. Now, uh for you that are not familiar uh with this, uh uh XR Fit is a virtual reality um fitness system, kind of like a beat saber experience, but aimed uh you know much more at losing weight and uh creating uh a healthy uh physical experience. They have been selling this as a consumer system, but they have also been toying with this as a location-based entertainment experience that we have seen, kind of uh playing on the same level as our friends at uh um BlackBox VR did with their fitness uh platform. Anyway, rather than opening their own sites, they seem to have uh started a partnership with LA Fitness. We have the first site opening. It doesn't just have the XR Fit uh set up, uh, which are kind of put the headset on and uh boxer size together with everybody uh in virtual reality. They also have brought in some uh Cat VR, uh omnidirectional VR treadmill systems there, so that there's you know an additional uh entertainment value here. All very physical, all very VR, and we look forward to seeing how this is uh actually embraced by the uh the local audience. How happy everybody is is to pass round, sweaty head-mounted displays, uh, how good the cleaning regime is, how well the education for the staff. I know there's a lot of negatives, but there's also the positive, which is losing weight in VR is uh uh a lot more enjoyable than uh uh the boring treadmill and listening to uh your Walkman machine showing my age.

SPEAKER_02: 35:14

Yeah, I mean, this is super interesting. LA fitness is actually a really big chain, even out here uh in the US. Um, you know, I don't think it's a UK chain. But yeah, yeah. Um but it's it's interesting to see that they're beginning to experiment with this. Um you know, I mean I don't want to work out with a VR headset on my head personally. Um, but you know, look, if it gets people who maybe wouldn't have done it otherwise, uh then I'm all for fitness and for health. And so okay, all right, well, let's try it and see how it works.

SPEAKER_00: 35:43

The fitness industry is the one if you had to pick a real uh uh corporation or uh uh sector of the market that was impacted the hardest by COVID, uh, the fitness industry was. It was just that that pause in which people didn't use their gym membership full stop and ended their gym membership because they thought they were never going to be going back to the gym again, the same way that people thought that they were never going to be going back to the arcades or going back to the cinema or even going back to the restaurant industry, where all these other industries bounced back and you know dusted themselves off and uh carried on where they'd left off. The fitness industry and especially the gym industry has not, and they're reinventing themselves. We're seeing the openings of specialist boutique boxing and weightlifting and certain high-impact uh exercise venues now opening instead of the more traditional fitness facility. And here I think we're seeing LA Fitness taking a punt, as it were, uh, on how they can vitalize their business. Uh seems to be uh constantly talking about an urban air opening, and we have uh another another one opening in Washington. I couldn't find much more information other than it's opening, it's another one, it has the same format as all of the others. Uh, you know, what do you do? They have 351 uh sites open uh out there, part franchised, part self-owned. It it's I suppose it's difficult to get people too excited about it. It's just the audience will come if they build it from uh the way that it's being presented.

SPEAKER_02: 37:35

Yeah, I mean, in each one, we this is where we come back to we we've talked about this, not about urban air specifically, but about um the mix of attractions that you don't necessarily know what you're going to get when you walk into it. I obviously w one of urban air's focuses is to drive membership. So like you kind of pick your urban air that you go to, and obviously you're gonna know then what attractions are there. But if you're just walking in or you're traveling and you've been to an urban area in the past and you walk into another urban air and you're expecting to see go-karts, or you're expecting to see other types of attractions, and then there isn't, then you know, VR, uh, you you run into that situation. I do wish that they would standardize their attraction mix a little bit more. Um, but I also understand that their franchisees, you know, have certain and have different budgets depending on what they uh want to do and and uh the types of attractions they want to add into their mix.

SPEAKER_00: 38:25

And this is the inherent danger of franchise rather than sales partners or uh uh operator partners approach to entertainment. You may have a lot of facilities out there, but if you have an unjointed mix of what your offering is, at some point in time it becomes noise and your audience becomes disenfranchised because they don't have any connection with you because they don't know what they're gonna get from place to place to place. And then we see fragmentation. But at the moment, Urban Air are going great guns at rolling out facilities, and uh maybe it's time that they have a look at their entertainment mix once they catch their breath. And then really uh ending the openings, um more of a mom and pop operation, a family-run uh new entertainment facility, mixture of uh redemption and claw machines, uh uh positioning of redemption. Uh seem more focused on kind of the crane size uh than on the ticket size, so it's prize uh centric. Um classic retro amusement machines. Uh most it seems most family mom and pop facilities always add uh a retro component and with a smattering of amusement and some uh F and B as well. I'm not sure from the website how much the F B is a component. Their website is quite clear. I'll give them that, and it's you know broken down to you know. We have this, we have this, we have the amusement, and we have that. But I'm still not sure how much this is leaning towards being an F and B with amusement or an amusement that also has the capability of offering you some snacks.

SPEAKER_02: 40:13

Yeah, I mean, for me, this really looks like that's it's the latter. This is uh you're here for a little bit of amusement. They have a gaming lounge, you know, like classic gaming lounge, they have a like crate, like uh shelves full of video games, and then they have a tabletop section too. I didn't see where they actually have tabletop games to choose from. So maybe bringing your own tabletop game, whatever you would do that, versus just go play your tabletop game at home. I don't know. Um, but uh, but yeah, it there doesn't, it seems to be very light on the F and B, like probably snacks concessions at the most.

SPEAKER_00: 40:43

Yeah, we'll find out it's a vending machine at the back. So but uh uh but but at least they're creating a hangout social environment. Uh and I you know I wish them a lot of luck on uh getting that mix to work. Hopefully they've done the research on uh what the market there is actually going to want as they're popping into a retail uh unit within uh an already existing uh uh I'll say uh shopping zone. Yeah, yeah. So so we entered the wonderful world of uh shut sales and restructurings, and uh the big news just as the year was coming to an end. We told you so. Sorry, I left my told you so uh t-shirt back in London, but uh sixes really, you know, the management turned round uh and pulled in the liquidators, and the liquidators turfed up uh our administration uh from the UK point of view. And they said they've gone through challenging uh trading period and that they you know they're looking at the 16 facilities and they're going to evaluate which ones uh that they can you know turn around. Well, you know, the information we got uh from uh well-placed sources, and I thank those sources for being so accurate, uh, was that they closed down one of their facilities straight away. You know, the day they made the announcement that uh they were going into administration, one site closed its doors. The other sites stayed open during the holidays, which is a good thing because there were a lot of parties booked, as you would have expected for uh the holiday period, but you know, with the sort of Damocles hanging over what is the future for sixes, um no news about what is going to happen to moonshots, no news about some of their other relationships that they had. But we will go into this in a little bit more detail, obviously, in sound off.

SPEAKER_02: 42:41

I mean, this isn't surprising at all. Like we said, uh, you know, we we whether we called it or not on the actual air, uh we definitely had this conversation about sixes in general. Um, you know, social cricket, like anyway. I don't need to it's just it's it's too bad, um, but I'm also not surprised. Um I was also beginning to wonder if something was happening because the location of Grandscapes in Dallas, uh so you know big entertainment venues where Cosm right next it was next to Cosm. There's a putt shack there, there's uh Andready Carding and Games, there's a bunch of other social entertainment. There's actually a sandbox VR there as well. And um and uh they closed. They they they last time I was at Grandscapes, they had closed. And so this was uh it was maybe the canary in the coal mine.

SPEAKER_00: 43:25

I I'm concerned that there's been stealth closings and that as soon as it became knowledge, then they had to admit that they'd gone into administration. Um we we can touch upon this in more detail later on. Dreamscape, not a surprise either. Here, um, Dreamscape had been down to three of their VR Arena facilities, their um flagship European site in Geneva and their Riad facility. Well, uh in December, at the end of it was suddenly uh uh revealed that they would be closing on the 28th uh their uh their site uh in Geneva. It the company has pivoted away from their uh location-based VR aspirations and now turns towards uh Dreamscape Learn, which is an educational component, which is partnered with um at the time uh had been partnered with uh the University of Utah, uh if my memory serves me right. Again, we'll go into a little bit more detail regarding where this fits into the whole uh VR arena standalone single site franchise operation uh in Sound Off. And then a surprise, a surprise one. Um my uh web robots came back to me with uh their delivery for the day, and they told me that um uh the altitude in uh Dallas was closing. And I was like, why, what, where? So I went away and did the research. Yes, it's closing. Um, this particular uh facility at Fort Worth. Um not a lot of information given. Uh there are 92 facilities out there, all of the other facilities seem to be bubbling along uh quite nicely. Uh, maybe uh the the team at Altitude thought that having five altitudes within this environment was a bit too many, and that they've uh cut their losses and focused on the more profitable. Uh again, I don't know if this was a franchise site that was closing down or if this was a retained site, but you know, that was one of the closings that took place 2025.

SPEAKER_02: 45:45

I don't have any insights either as to whether it was a franchise or corporate location. But uh, you know, I mean Dallas Fort Worth is massive, it's it's the largest um metropolitan area in the country in the US. Um, but you know, so five is not uh overly saturated at all. The issue is this is where the trampoline park industry uh began within Dallas. And so uh they're literally, I mean, I effectively began there, and so it's just overly saturated in general with trampoline parks and adventure parks in the Dallas Fort Worth area, even if five altitudes in themselves were not overly saturated.

SPEAKER_00: 46:23

If we see another one in this territory or in this catchment go, then I I'm gonna hold up the flag of saying if you haven't broadened your active entertainment offering, away from just offering trampolines and aren't offering active uh entertainment and attractions and maybe F and B and a broader mix, then this could be the canary and the coal mine. But I I I I'll hold my powder dry a little bit until we see more about this. And then finally, um a closing soon to be reopened. Uh, if if you're familiar with how the uh Indian reservation uh entertainment business works, they have a large amount of investment, they are very focused on their audience, they know their catchment intimately. I was given an education many moons ago by uh uh one of the reservation uh organizers who told me chapter and verse of how many people were playing the machines and were using their cinema and were using their laser tag. They know their audience. And at the uh Beer River Family Entertainment Center, they have decided that they're going to be revitalizing their operation, they're going to be increasing the size uh of their entertainment offering. I don't know if that's putting more lanes on, but uh they're talking about a brand new uh update to the entertainment facility, and they're also talking about brand new branding uh uh to appeal to a wider audience catchment. So they're looking outside of uh the reservation business. But again, they're closing down, but wait for it to be added to the openings uh in summer. Anyway, I'd just like to thank uh everyone for their support last year and like to wish everybody uh a fantastic uh 2026 going forwards. Uh and uh if you have any information uh that you want to pass on to us, uh you have our LinkedIn details and our email details, and please make sure that you're receiving the Stinger reports. Uh, we're just coming to the end of our extensive IALPA coverage, and we're now going to be jumping into the chaos that uh 2026 will bring to us.

SPEAKER_02: 48:45

Excellent. All right. Well, looking forward to uh looking forward to, I guess, our second one. I was gonna say our first one in the new year, but it'll be our second uh open and chat in the new year next week.

SPEAKER_00: 48:54

Look forward to it. Have a good one.

SPEAKER_02: 49:05

How are your game floor with arcades by Allen One? Whether it's perfectly pouring dreams in Dr. Pepper's bonus land, having official lifetime things collection, or defending cities from attacking missile command recharge. Alan One has something for every venue and arcade floor that we delight your gifts. Each game is also an active literally feast for free app that's gonna clear top scores and brings gifts back to your venue for more. Visit AllenDaps1.com to learn more. That's AllenDax1.com. All right, well, that was a great open and shut. Actually, quite a bit of discussion for relatively few openings. Um we're gonna jump next into arcade corner with Adam Pratt. Let's do it.

SPEAKER_06: 49:53

Hey everybody, it's Adam with uh Arcade Heroes for the Arcade Corner, the last one of 2025, first one of 2026. And so obviously the thing you do around this time of year is review what went on throughout the year. Of course, I have a limited amount of time to do that, so let's just jump right into it. Uh, here over on arcadeheroes.com, one thing that I've been doing since 2009 is tracking all of the releases that come out. Um sorry about the bird. He's just decided to uh be very noisy all of a sudden when he was quiet earlier. Uh, of course, probably just because I hit record. But um uh so I've always been keen to track what games are released and uh are not just in North America but all across the planet. Sometimes it's a little difficult on Asia just because it's not always clear when certain games are released, like Japan's really good about setting dates as to when something begins to operate or begins shipping, uh, but China is not. Uh sometimes many times we'll just suddenly see a game if we hear about it at all. Uh and then, of course, Europe's not quite as busy, but uh mainly just focus on North America here, and then after this, get into the trade shows that we were at uh year, and then if I have more time, talk a little bit about business like the state of the industry. And so uh one company that's gonna pop up a lot on this list is X Arcadia, and that's because their system works like the old Neo Geo's did from the 90s, where you had cartridges. Granted, the X Arcadia cartridges are much smaller, don't have one with me, but I I actually do own three different X Arcadia cabinets, I have several games, um, but that they're about this size, I would say. Um, uh like a king size kit candy bar. But um this their business model allows them to release a lot of content uh during the year, and when they come to trade shows, they're generally the ones that you could say have the most new content just because of that. But uh on April 15th, they released Air Gallet Extra Label, which is uh was a 90s shoot 'em up game, and they've remastered that, added some improvements, added new content and such, make it the ultimate aversion of that game. So anytime you see Extra Label, it's talking about uh doing this sort of remaster of an original game, which will also include the original game uh with the software in those instances, but then the new Extra modes will also be available. You have Alpha Ops VR Strike by Three Mind Wave and Sega Amusements, which came out in July. There is a slightly different version of this one over in China, but uh some of the changes they made to that one are still present on the North American and European release, where I think with the slightly smaller gun, it's not quite the same. Um, it's just they the the company that designed this are the ones that designed VR Agent, and so they wanted to make the uh guns a little easier to use, a little smaller, like you can use just one hand instead of having to hold both hands on it. Uh, and then it has the two screens side by side so that uh onlookers can see what's going on, but you're otherwise looking inside of the gun uh inside of VR headset, but integrated into the gun. Here's another Exa game that just came out this month, actually last week, and Azuka 120% Burning Feet Excellent, uh, which is based on a 1990s uh fighting game, uh anime style graphics and such. Very popular with people that were into the fighting game scene that was like on the Sega Saturn, PlayStation 1 back in the day, as it came out on those platforms and some others. Uh, Avian Knights by Alan One came out in January, and that actually was their very first game that they had released the consoles, but it came out after Asteroids recharged. And so it's the think of it as a modern joust if you haven't seen that one. And that's actually been available in three models. I should change that photo there. Uh see Axel City 2, the Final Storm, which is a major update to a one-on-one fighting game by X Arcadia. As it's uh everything I've heard is this Axel City 2 game is able to beat out the newest Street Fighter in arcades, which is very impressive because it doesn't look like a modern game. It looks like a 1990s game, but uh apparently wherever it's found, even over here in the West, I've heard of an operator that has it and he says it does really well. Um very surprising. Um Bigfoot Smash by Yunis, which is also uh works as a redemption game. I call those Videmption with the little has the little moving seats, three players. It uh just dynamically will change the screen, like how much screen space you get, depending on how many people are playing. Uh Bunny Bomber Blast for the X Arcadia. That's also um uh this would be a new retro game where it's kind of like Dig Doug meets Bomberman, um, but the graphics look like they're from say like 1982, 1983 around there. Obviously, it can uh it doesn't have flicker and stuff like that. And also for X Arcadia, it was Cambria Sword Another Cry, which is a uh scrolling shoot-em-up game, kind of like Darius or Drydius. If you're familiar with those titles, um you just play this ancient creature battling other ancient creatures, and there's robotics. It has a ton of content on it. So if you're into those sort of things, also known as shmups, uh it's a pretty fun game, pretty cool one. Uh Cannonball Jam by Blue Motion Games came out in February, and that was where you fire balls at the actual screen. This model here looks small, but in person, this thing is huge. It's a hundred-inch screen, and I don't remember what the height on it is, but it's very tall. Uh, later in the year they released a uh two-player version of that one, although it wasn't at the two-player model, it wasn't at iApp, just uh one we'll speak of in it here in a second. Uh, Chaosco Nemesis Experiment, a one-on-one fighting game for the X Arcadia came out in November. It's a sequel and fully arcade exclusive. In fact, I should mention that these all these exa games are also, as you can see, I I put a symbol on here to denote if it's exclusive to arcades as an operator. I think that's important because the more exclusivity we have, the more reason we can help people come to our locations. Um, Cyberpunk 2077 Turf Wars came out on August 1st. It debuted, uh, the the prototype version debuted at Amusement Expo in Las Vegas in March. Um, and then they put it on test in Dave and Busters, made improvements. I played it at uh IAPA and it was much improved over what I had seen in Vegas. Uh Demon Bright X again, a one-on-one fighting game between demons and angels on the X Arcadia came out in June. Uh Desert Chase by Blue Motion Games. Uh, the four-player model also came out in February, but at IAPA 2025, they had a two-player model. Again, uh, the the two-player model is much more is much closer to what you would typically find uh in an FEC and such. Uh, but these uh these four-player models were also made for FECs to really stand out. Uh Dino Dash by Yunis uh apparently came out in October. I've been trying to find out from Yunis exactly when some of their games shipped because they're not always clear on that. Uh this was listed to their website, but it wasn't at IAPA. And so that's where it's a little hard to um know for sure, but I haven't gotten a response on those yet. So as far as I know, that one came out in October. Uh Dinostorm, which was a big hit at IAPA 2024, and it was also at Amusement Expo, came out in March, um, but surprisingly, it wasn't at um IAPPA 2025. Uh Dune Pinball by Barrels of Fun came out in May based on the new Dune films, um, but not sure how many people, how many locations out there grabbed one. Uh, Dungeons and Dragons. I misspelled something here. It's supposed to be the Tyrant's eye, not the eye of the tyrant. Uh, my Stern came out in January. I actually grabbed a premium model for that one earlier this year. Earthion Exa label um by a very famous Japanese musician and his company. Um, very fun game if you're into 90s style shoot-em-ups. It was designed for the Sega Genesis, and uh the new version carries that uh or this game carries that same look. They actually are working on a Genesis version coming out in 2026. Uh Food Fight Frenzy, a new four-player game for uh arcades that is based on the Atari Food Fight game. This would be one of the few sequels that ever got. Um that was by Retro Arcade Remakes came out in June. Uh Golden Tea 2026 or PGA Tour 2026 came out on September 29th. Uh Goldstone Pirates by Bandinamco Amusements came out in July. Also fun game. The they added Golden Guns to that at Amusement Expo for the final release. Uh Gravitar Recharge by Atari and Allen One just came out, just started shipping uh this week. Um this past week, so last game of the year. Harry Potter by Jersey Jack Pinball came out in June. I finally got a chance to play that at Iappa. I thought it was fun. Uh Hunter Hunter Nen Impact by Xarcadia came out in October. And uh it uh was at Iapa as well. A one on one fighting game uh based on a popular anime IP. Uh Jackpot Racer by Roth Reals. This does have a non redemption mode, although I imagine 99% of locations are going to use it as a redemption, a redemption game. Came out in November. Uh Jam, Jam and Jelly, excellent. It came out on uh June, that's another also a scrolling shoot 'em up, fantastically animated, uh, beautiful game, lots of cool voiceovers. Uh, Kaiju Rampage by Wallop IGS and LAI Games came out on February 28th. And then um, later at IAPA 2025, we did see that they have a two-player or sorry, a four-player model, although I haven't been able to confirm when that's shipping yet. Uh, King Kong Myth of Terror Island by Stern Pimball came out on April 15th. Got to play that for the first time at IAPA as well. My MyDX Prism by Sega came out in September. Very, very popular game. Been hearing about a lot of locations that have been grabbing this, and as there's a lot of fans for it out there. Even though it's never had an official American release and never had a console port, it's just one of those Japanese cultural things that's kind of seped into our own culture. Uh, Marksman by Andamiro USA came out in December or this past month. Uh, Missile Command recharged. Uh the another recharged game by Atari and Allen One came out in July, um, exactly 45 years after the original Missile Command came out. Uh Monster Jet Riders by Yunus and Monster Cart uh were both released this year. These games can link to each other even though they use different controllers. But Monster Jet Riders came out in September, Monster Cart came out on February 20th, uh, Monster Kart Deluxe came out, I think it was March or April. Uh Neon Rush by Unis came out in July. Uh, this version with the two screens, and then later in the year they released the single screen deluxe model. Uh Nope Nope Nurses, which is a not safe for work game, came out on May 31st. It's for a next Arcadia variant platform called Hot Pink. Uh Perfect Poor by DSM Arcade came out in February. And so this actually was the game that inspired games like Icy Slush Rush and Soda Slam. Um, but it it actually made it to market before Icy Slush Rush did. And so it's the originator of the concept and did get out in time before Icy did. Uh Predator by Pinball Brothers came out in September, a somewhat limited release, but uh probably can't find one out there. Sailor's Quest 2 VR by Unis came out in January and wasn't at IAPA or Amusement Expo. Uh SodaSlam by DSM Arcade and LM1. I mean, Zoda Slam is based on the perfect core software, but heavily modified to work more for FECs. And so it does have Vedemption play, but it also has normal uh play for points. So after that started shipping in May. Uh Star Wars Fall of the Empire by Stern Pinball came out in September. The fourth Star Wars game that Stern has done in the past 10 years. Uh Super Drill uh by Ace Amusement and Amusement Source came out in January. This can be played without tickets, but it's primarily a redemption game. Uh Top Gun Maverick by Play Mechanics and Raw Thrills came out in May. Um got to play the latest final software for that on uh at IAPA 2025. Vanguard Princess R by FK Digital and X Arcadia came out in October. One-on-one fighting game. Uh Walking Dead Remastered came out on November 4th by Sturm Pinball. I also got to play that. I was actually fairly good at it at IAPA. Um, but some fans have really been vocal about how much they do not like the color scheme on that particular game. And then Wild Hunting, the only game that's really tried to challenge Big Buck Hunter, came along, and this was at IAPA by Ace Amusement and Amusement Source International. Now, some of you might be thinking, well, there's some games you missed. Well, there are there were several games that would just be called new model releases, like the two-player versions of Desert Chase and Cannonball Jam. Uh Dr. Pepper Soda Slam by Alan One came out in October, as did Liquid Death. Uh, I believe that started shipping in December as well. Um, and I already mentioned the Monster Card and Eon Rush. Uh, Perfect Pore Pepsi Blue Ribbon Edition did come out in October, and that was at the ABS company's booth at Iappa. And so you have a few of those. There's also some limited releases where it's just like either you have to buy them direct from China or they were just uh on test at a certain location for a limited time. Like Cyberpunk 2077 Turf Wars did uh was available at Dave Busters from April through August exclusively. Dave and Busters also had a Hot Wheels victory lap racing game by Adrenaline Amusements, not the same as the Hot Wheels uh King of the Road game, but like more like a regular driver. Um but we don't know if that's just gonna be a Dave and Busters exclusive. And then there are a lot of games coming soon, but we don't have time to really get into that, nor do we really have time to get into a lot of the Japanese releases, which do include some things that aren't just X Arcadia, like some Konami games. Um, but let's jump over here to trade shows. Uh, trade shows um were plentiful throughout the year, and uh we should have a similar setup in 2026. Um, you usually start with EAG in London in uh in January, and then there might be some trade shows in February, but usually not too much. It used to be that Japan liked to do their big uh amusement expo in um February, but they've for some reason bizarrely moved that over to um November, right? Like literally right before Ayapa the past two years. Uh, there was Amusement Expo in Las Vegas, uh, where we got to see plenty of games debut, like I already mentioned Cyberpunk Turf Wars and Mai Mai uh by Sega. Uh there was Deal, uh there was the GTI Southeast Asia Expo. Um, let's see what else we got. There was um uh yeah, GTI Asia China already mentioned, uh, or actually, I guess there were two GTI Asia China Expos uh throughout the year. Triple A Expo, Bowl Expo, which not a lot of people went to because for some reason somebody thinks it's a great idea to keep holding that right around the 4th of July. Um, I didn't go this year, and uh the triple A Expo over in China showed off a lot of new games, and then of course there was IAPA 2025, uh, and of course, there's just other games to other expos to that. It's usually stuff like Amusement Expo, Bowl Expo, IAPA that get most of our attention. But over in China, like I said, AAA Expo, the GCI Asia China Expo are really big events. Uh, there was IAPA Europe, uh, which has been growing in size and prominence with more new releases showing up there than have been done in the past, and so um it's gonna be a busy year for trade shows. Um I mean, as far as I know, the IAPA 2025 was the most attended uh trade show or IAPA in their history. And so I think previously the record had been set in 2019, and so that was a good uh sign for the health of the industry overall. Just really quick for myself uh and businesses, I do operate my own arcade. Uh, this year was not great, and I've heard that from a lot of other operators. Uh, there's a Facebook group called FEC Operators out there where there's a lot of people that congregate and discuss uh business and such, and um watching a thread where somebody was complaining about how slow business was. Um, there was a lot of people agreeing, but there were some people who were saying on the contrary where they were having their best year ever. So definitely kudos to them on that. For me, I've been seeing a decline really since 2022 as I've been looking at year on year, month-on-month sorts of earnings and just yeah, around the middle of 2022, it's just been slowly on the decline. And I've been I was hoping that we would have hit the bottom in 2024, which was not great at all. Um, but this year just kind of continued that same trend for me. Um, part of my situation though is that I'm in a mall that's just not been doing a good job at attracting people to come inside the mall. And they've done stuff that's attracted people on the outside, but those people on the outside don't come inside. Uh movie theaters have been struggling. There's a movie theater in my um in our place in the mall that uh in the past had uh anytime a big film release would come along along, things would be busy. But I've also had the um direct competition of an FEC uh since 2019. And so between the FEC, between a slow movie theater, that's really impacted my business negatively. And so I actually have been looking at possibilities and options as to moving out of the mall. And uh don't know where that's gonna go precisely yet. Um, but if it happens, I'm very hopeful that it will uh lead to bigger, better things for my business, giving myself more control over my destiny than where I am right now. Um, but it's a huge, huge risk uh to be able to do that. And so we'll see how that uh pans out. But uh overall, it does sound like things are a little uneven in the arcade industry from what I've been hearing. And uh you can feel free to comment on this video below if you've been seeing things good or worse or the same as they were in previous years. But hopefully uh your business has been doing great and that uh it will continue to do so. But uh thanks for watching Arcade Corner throughout the year. Continue on. Let's uh see what else is here at the LVX Collective.

SPEAKER_05: 1:09:47

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SPEAKER_02: 1:10:20

All right, well, thanks, Adam, for that 2025 rundown in the amusement industry and space. Um coming up next, we got promo pro tips with Chuck DiMonty. And then we have my 2026 predictions. All right, we are almost there. Let's hear from Chuck.

SPEAKER_05: 1:10:41

Hello and welcome to Promo Pro Tips with Chuck DiMonti. Happy New Year. We are going into 2026. I hope 2025 treated everybody extremely well. Uh, and I know in the FEC space it's been a little bit tight, right? So, you know, people are still on sort of unfortunately a downtrend, I would say, in the industry, all the way from 23, right? Uh when we people had stimulus money and people were trying to get out of the house still. And so I wouldn't necessarily say it's a decrease in revenue. I think it's a return to sort of normalcy, right? Uh, but there is more competition in the space, there is higher cost of living, right? Across personal, business, professional cost of goods, right? Everything's up, right? And maybe your revenue's down. Okay. So, how do we set ourselves up for success in 2026? I want to give you four trends that I really think you need to lean into from just a business option perspective and a marketing perspective in 2026. And here's what they are. So, starting with number one, we all need to go back to the basics, right? What does that mean? I think you are seeing the good operators and the bad business operators right now, right? Everybody got sort of sort of lulled to sleep when it was very easy to make a dollar in the FEC space. You didn't have to reinvest into your location, new attractions, cleanliness, whatever, right? Up keeping it, bad staff, like it didn't matter, you were making money. Now is when you separate, like I said, the good operators from the bad operators, okay? So we need to go back to basics. Your place needs to be clean, right? You need to have a well-trained staff, okay? You need to have good customer service. At the end of the day, people are looking for a good experience, right? And historically, even going back to 2008, the FEC space does pretty well, right? Because there's people still need to do stuff with their family, right? They want to get out of the house. And taking$100 to go to the local FEC is much cheaper than taking a road trip or even, you know, obviously going on a vacation, you know, to somewhere you got to fly to, right? Hotels and all that other expenses. So, yes, you got maybe less discretionary income, but they're more likely to spend$100 on you than$3,000 somewhere else, obviously, right? So, again, people are gonna be looking for experiences. If there's a lot of competition in the space, make it worth them spending their$100 with you instead of someone else. Okay, super, super, super important. Go back to basics. That also means knowing your business numbers. What are you spending? What is your cost of goods, right? What is your labor uh cost, right? All that stuff. Where am I spending on my marketing dollars? Like, get back to the basics, know all the pieces of your business. It is super, super, super important. Go back to basics, the number one thing and the number one trend you need to lean into into 2026. Back to basics, okay. Number two, marketing efficiency. What does that mean? Stop spending marketing dollars in random places, right? And not knowing if there's ROI and you know, doing a billboard here and radio here. And, you know, yes, cumulatively, all these things can can help potentially, right? Uh, but if you have a small budget, you need to be very particular with where you spend those marketing dollars, right? Where you're gonna get the most exposure, the cheapest. Typically, social media has been the cheapest, right? But one of the things that we lean into tremendously now is basically looking at mobile ID targeting. So we are literally able to find um where there's high opportunity underperforming areas for our FACs, meaning there are, you know, a lot of let's say looking at competitors visitor foot traffic, looking at, you know, our our our clients' visitor foot traffic and understanding how it compares and the specific drill down by specific zip codes and whether they're underperforming or potentially overperforming those zip codes and where there's more room for opportunity. Okay. So that's gonna continue to be a trend. We use a tool called Placer AI. We've literally taken the last two years to understand how to action this data, okay? And people are gonna continue to lean into that. We're gonna continue to lean into that, and it's gonna be very, very even more popular in 2026. How to use this data to uh get in front of the right people and get visitor foot traffic in your FEC, okay? So marketing efficiency, using AI, right, to get better at create you know assets and things at lower cost, right? Understanding using mobile ID traffic to understand where you know the best opportunities lie for you to put your marketing dollars, okay, for the best ROI and even understanding it, using those tools, understand if you are getting an ROI from your marketing, okay? So that's gonna continue to be a big trend. It already goes in 2025, it's gonna continue to grow 2026. Number three, sort of going back to the basics. Number one, right? Grassroots community marketing. Get back to that, okay? Reach out to your schools, reach out to your community events, reach out to your moms and your events, your Facebook groups, right? Get back to basics when it comes to community grassroots marketing. Reach out to your community. If you form a relationship with your community, they're gonna want to do business with you. If they show up and they start knowing your names and your people are friendly, right? They're gonna want to do business with you, okay? You know, create a first responders night where you get 50% off. Reach out to them, stop by the local fire department, the police off, you know, police station, whatever. Tell them, hey, we were doing this, hand out flyers there, whatever you got to do. It might not take off day one, but continuously done like that, it'll get um exposure for you. The event will get traction, right? Do a teacher's uh appreciation weekly night or monthly night, right? Uh something with teens. I don't know, get creative there, right? Uh go reach out to your schools, find out if you can do field trips or whatever. Go in there and speak to them. Take the time to do that, build that grassroots community inroads. Okay, it will pay dividends, okay? So you need to need to take time to do that. And then last, the number four, value first, right? Now, I'm not saying discount what you offer, I'm saying provide value. Going back to saying if somebody comes and spends$100, they want a good experience, they also want good value, okay? Figure out how you could do this and you without breaking the bank. Make your birthday parties really stand out. Make them, you know, uh uh, you know, that they walk in, they don't have to think about anything. Decorating, right? Just make it make it a very good experience, giving them a lot of value, okay? Maybe that's having more attractions, maybe that's having um, you know, just uh a family pass, right? Uh where they get food and they get these passes or tickets. So think about how you can provide a ton of value, or even just communicate the value. Maybe you already do have a ton of value. Maybe it's you know, it's a$20 to get into your place and you get laser tag, you get this, you get, you know, you get all these things. It's like make sure you communicate that. Like, hey, for$20, it's all day play, right? You're not timed. We have all these attractions. Like people want to know where they're gonna get their best value. Okay. So again, that's number one, back to basics. Know your business, know your numbers, make sure your staff is all trained, create a good experience. Number two, marketing efficiency, using AI to improve um your assets you do, just how you work, the the you know, just just becoming an assistant, right? Uh, lowering your costs, right? Using mobile ID targeting to understand where there's high opportunity areas for you to place your marketing dollars and if those marketing dollars are working. Number three, getting back to grassroots and community marketing, building those community inroads so that people want to do business with you. You could grow weekly and evergreen events using that type of marketing, okay? And number four, value first. Make sure people know that when they come and spend a dollar with you, they're gonna get a good experience and a lot of value for spending that dollar. So lean into those four things in 2026, and I promise you, you'll be good. Happy New Year.

SPEAKER_02: 1:18:08

All right, well, thanks, Chuck, for that. And uh, without further ado, it is time for my 2026 predictions for the LBE LBX space. And so we're gonna start with my high prediction. This is 80 or higher, I believe, will happen. And uh, no, this is a bit of a swing on this one, I'll be honest. I'm taking a bit of a swing, you know, for this high prediction here, but I feel pretty confident about it. So I believe that Chuck E. Cheese, or rather CEC Entertainment, will release a video game. You're like, okay, wait a second. They already have a video game. Yes, okay, that's true. They released uh Chuck E. Cheese's party games back in 2010. So, like, this is like 15 years ago, 16 years ago now. Back in 2010, it was for the Wii and iOS, and it was developed by an outside group, UFO Studio Asia. And uh, but that was before they had reinvented their full IP lineup. This is post-bank, you know, so this is like pre-bankruptcy, right? So, like the CEC Entertainment and Chucky Cheese has become a transmedia organization. They've they have a full-on YouTube kid show that's being distributed across not only their own entertainment network, but also they're partnered with uh, you know, going blank on the other name, or but they're partnered with uh Southern Kids Network. Uh, they have uh obviously all of the entertainment they have at their facility, they've got this big ad network, they have books that are coming out, they have they've now moved into adventure adventure um uh parks. And so they are just moving and expanding significantly, and they're doing things that are making moves to make sure that kids are staying engaged with the IP and with their brand on a regular ongoing basis. Well, yes, are they watching uh YouTube and watching shows and that kind of have the Chucky G's characters in them? Certainly. But what are the kids doing when they're playing games, when they're playing video games? They are not playing anything related to Chuck E. Cheese right now. I just believe that this is the moment that we will see Chuck E. Cheese fully be fully embrace all mediums of staying connected with the consumer out of their facility, out of venue or in home, right? And that will be through a video game. So that is my prediction. Prediction number one of my high predictions that Chuck E. Cheese or CEC Entertainment will release their first version of a video game. Now, this I'm not saying this will be a console game. It'll likely either be a mobile game or it'll be something even built on top of the Roblox, the Roblox platform potentially, or the Fortnite platform. But we will see something, I'm not talking about Fortnite in themselves, but on top of their platform. That we will see something come out along those lines. All right, so that's number one. Number two, I'm actually going to go and revisit one from 2024. So I actually thought that the 2024 was pretty solid. And this I had actually put down in my low predictions in 2024, because you know, we're still in the heat of this. But um, my prediction is that the last pickleball uh entertainment venue will start construction in 2026. So that is my prediction because we are beginning to still see um we are seeing like there's virtually very few new pickleball venues that opened up. You have a few examples that seem to be somewhat successful, like Crush Yard, um, but you also see others that are have have filed bankruptcy, that have closed their doors, that are not doing well, and their food side is maybe doing okay, but their pickleball side is not. And so I continue to maintain that pickleball as an entertainment destination with FB is non-viable long term. And so I believe that 2026 we'll see. We've got enough data, we've got enough examples, enough failures have happened along the way that we will see that pickleball finally fucking stops building entertainment venues. So that is my uh that is my high prediction. I'm putting it up there because it needs to happen. We need to stop building these things, and we've really significantly ramped down on building new facilities in 2025. And so uh, so yeah, anyway, that is those are my two high predictions. Uh pickleball, the last pickleball will start construction in 2026. I'm talking about entertainment venues. I still believe pickleball will uh facilities will open up, but these will be like very specific pickleball facilities. In fact, there's a giant USA pickleball facility, like the headquarters of US pickleball is going to be built in Scottsdale, uh here in Arizona. And so, yes, I believe the pickleball venues will still be continue to get built, but they'll be more like social clubs versus entertainment destinations. All right, for my medium 50-50, uh, I believe that uh, and this is you know a little bit of a long shot. I'm taking uh I'm taking a little pass on this one, but uh Merlin Entertainment will file for bankruptcy or go through a major capital restructure this year. Uh or yeah, and so this uh I believe will happen. Merlin has seen significant shifts and turnover at their executive level. The board is getting frustrated. We've seen things, uh, them them having to sell off a number of their things. In fact, Lego just recently uh we talked about it on the show. Lego recently acquired the uh Lego um Lego Discovery Center uh concepts back from uh Merlin at like a what would be considered a significant loss for Merlin. And so uh I actually believe that as part of this process, Lego will go and buy their back their rights to Lego lands as well. So, as part of this, I think Lego, there's there's kind of two things happening here. One, I think that Lego is really trying to take control of their own uh IP and their own experiences as are most consumer brands now out there. The ones that have had the most success are the ones that really control their experience and build an experience as division with inside their organization. And so I really think that Lego is doing making similar moves. We've seen other consumer products groups like Mattel and Hasbro, for example, um, play school. And so I believe that you'll um so Lego is making this move, taking their IP back through the Lego Discovery Centers. I think they'll do the same thing with Legoland. And either that will trigger and drive Merlin entertainment into bankruptcy, or that'll actually be part of their major capital restructure using the capital infused by the acquisition from Lego of their Lego land. So again, a bit of a stretch on this one, but I think that we will uh, you know, we will see something on Merlin really continue to shake up this uh this this year. Um, all right. The second medium prediction, and this one actually it probably should put it, should I should have made this one the top one and the you know, hi, and pick a ball in the medium, you know, we can we just we switch them? Nah, that's all right. Uh, I'll go with it. Um, is that we'll see significant growth in announcements of more IP-driven experiences and LPE venues uh as media organizations, consumer brands go transmedia. So I already you know mentioned, you know, Hasbro and Mattel, I think will either really drive things internally themselves, really put, you know, expand their experiences to vision, or they'll just look for new partners. You know, Mattel has had a terrible partner um that have been they've been trying to work with their Mattel Adventure Parks, both in Kansas City and in the Phoenix market. Uh, those have not done gone well so far. Uh Hasbro has had very uh strong success in Hasbro City in Mexico City, um, but in some of their other Hasbro locations and attempts, they've gone okay, right? They've they've experimented a lot, they've done a lot of pop-ups. Uh, so I think there's going to be some things that they'll need to work through on that front. Obviously, there's been new leadership brought into these different groups to focus on the experiences side. So I think Hasbro Mattel will definitely look for new partners. I think as part of Sony is going to take another shot. I actually believe that Sony will uh maybe not uh you know and like open a new facility because they may they would have to be already underway, but they'll at least announce their next location. I think Wonderverse has been a failure for them. And so they're going to look at okay, what can they do to expand, especially now that they've really bought into the Peanuts franchise? I think they'll do something with the Peanuts franchise as well. And again, we'll see likely see some announcements on that front. I think that Beastland, uh, Mr. Beasts, Beastland will land in another, will have another run. Um, they had a relatively successful uh run in the UAE. I think we'll see Beastland have another opportunity there. So, you know, even in the YouTube media stars uh and media groups will have their own move here. And then, you know, I think Warner will announce an experience in the US. And I do think that Disney will finally announce plans for their move into LBE. So I think that we're just going to see a significant shift uh into IP-driven experiences and LBE venues for media organizations moving into the experience sector. All right, for my low predictions, 20% or lower. Um, again, things that I think should happen, I wish would happen, um, but uh but may or may not because they're long shots. And so uh this one I believe is interesting. So Red Engine, the company behind Flight Club and Electric Shuffle, um, will launch a new brand that actually merges these two concepts, uh, along with maybe one or two additional social bay concepts, like you know, for example, uh uh clay pigeon shooting or something like that. Um, and so I do think they'll launch a new brand and they'll blend their concepts. They'll use their experiences for Flight Club, their experiences for electric shuffle, add maybe one or two additional social bay concepts into the mix, and then take that and launch as a new brand that that uh you know, leveraging the experiences they've had around running single attraction models into doing a multi-attraction model for their uh for new brands and obviously new destinations, new regions where there is not already a flight club or electric shuffle. So uh that is my one of my uh first low prediction is that Red Engine will uh launch a new concept that blends Flight Club, Electric Shuffle and a few others uh social bays into that. All right. This the last one here is that laser tag and game. So, so what we saw in 2025 at uh at IAP Expo is that if you own a laser tag company, you probably need to create a uh a game floor, uh, an interactive floor, because you know, apparently uh, you know, Pixel Games is uh you know, you know, gets either partnered or you know, acquired by um uh shoot, now I'm going black and which laser tag company did that. Uh, but then you know every other fucking laser tag company you created their own game floor concept or partnered with somebody. So now we've got all these game floors and uh companies, and tons of people are doing it, and it is uh we will see some consolidation here. Um or they uh so it will one or two one or two paths will happen, but they'll have to be some differentiation. So either either consolidation and these these game floor slash laser tag companies will begin to roll together or roll up or consolidate uh because of the saturation that exists, or the laser tag companies will continue actually evolve further, not all of them, but some of them this year will evolve further to develop a larger suite of adventure mission rooms. So taking the game floor concept, you know, and and evolving it to uh have a suite of rooms like activate, but basically I could put an activate with having to buy the franchise. I could use all these different systems to put in an activate or like a time mission, and that it will do that. Triotech recently made their announcement, they didn't actually show any products, but they made the announcement at Expo 2025 um that they are moving into the adventure mission room space as well. And so I do think that this will happen either consolidation or evolution, but they will they'll have to be differentiated going forward into 2026 at X IP Expo, and we will see that present at IF Expo. So those are my predictions for 2026. And with that, we are uh wrap for our LBX show of uh first LBX show of the new year. And so um make sure to stay tuned for sound off number 104 on January 6th, coming up here in just a few days. And then uh that's a wrap. This is Brandon Wiley signing off. Stay tuned and keep picking up.