The LBX Show #68 - AEI preview, Dr. Seuss LBE, Pickleball Arcade, & more!

Sponsored by Intercard!
Sponsored by Alan-1!

On this week's show we get you ready for Amusement Expo International with the news that will shape the show floor and the conversations happening in Vegas. Then we dig into what’s opening, what’s closing, and which new arcade releases might actually move the needle for operators. 

• Amusement Expo schedule plus why this year feels unusually “new” 
• Universal Horror Unleashed IAAPA meetup at Area 15 with a lights-on walkthrough and full show run 
• IAAPA Expo Middle East cancelation and the announcement delay
• Dr. Seuss and WildBrain expansion as IP licensing moves deeper into location-based entertainment 
• New venue openings across mini golf, bar-led social entertainment, claw arcades, VR arenas, karting, and sportstainment closures
• Brand clarity challenges when venues stack too many attractions into one concept 
• Ramses exhibition model blending museum walkthrough with seated VR 
• Six Flags divestment details and open questions about the handover structure 
• Lease risk lessons from a forced closure after property ownership changes 
• Why Arena23 and Illuminarium struggled, including weak F&B and mixed positioning 
• Arcade Corner preview of AEI releases including Zombie Snatcher Outbreak, Pickleball Rivals, Ski Hero, Cyberpunk 2077 Chrome Rush, mystery IP reveals, and Atari Recharged cabinets with Pepper’s Ghost effects

Subscribe and visit LBX Collective for more!

Transcript

Welcome And Today’s Lineup

SPEAKER_04 0:01

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

Amusement Expo Week Preview

Universal Horror Unleashed Meetup

IAPA Expo Middle East Canceled

Dr. Seuss Expands Into LBE

SPEAKER_03 0:21

All right, well, welcome everybody to the LBX Show. This is the show for March 15th, 2026, and it is the day before Amusement Expo kicks off. And uh I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm gonna be rolling into Vegas on Tuesday, the 17th, so just in a few days, and uh excited to go obviously walk the show floor, see a bunch of friends and meet new people, and then also check out some great uh new attractions that have opened up in Vegas in the last year. I like quite a number of them. So, anyway, the show for today is uh gonna be some news you should know, and then we'll roll right into a solid open and shut with Kevin Williams to review all the openings and closing trends for the last week, and then we're gonna round up the show. That's it. We're gonna round up the show with Adam Pratt on Arcade Corner as he talks about many of the new releases that we're gonna see at AEI. So that being said, let's dive into some news you should know. All right, as I mentioned, we do have Amusement Expo. It's coming up in one day, March 16th to the 19th. The first two days are education, the second two days are uh the 18th and 19th are the expo, the trade show, and you can walk the show floor. So if you weren't already planning to be there, you still have time. You may not get the education because unless you fly out tomorrow, uh, but uh you'll at least be able to walk the show floor, see all the new things that are out, and uh, you know, and and get a sense for what's going on in the industry. Uh, as Adam will talk about, there actually are a surprising number of new machines and uh and and things that will be on display there. And so uh normally a lot of this stuff is like new at IAPA Expo, that we kind of see it in real production here. But actually, we're gonna be seeing a lot of new unveilings this uh this next week. So anyway, that is exciting. And then also, if you're gonna come out for the trade show two days, either the 18th and 19th, or maybe just the 19th, um, if you stick around one day longer on the 20th, you will have the opportunity to join up for an Apple meetup. It's uh gonna be at Universal Horror Unleashed. This is at Area 15. This is uh a new experience that Universal opened uh this la over the course of the last year, uh, since the last time we were at Amusement Expo. And it is a 24-7. Well, it's not 24-7, but you know, it's basically a a uh 365-day, that's a better way to say it. Uh 365-day horror experience, uh scare experience. There are four different scare experiences. And um, you know, so part of this is going to be um uh the you know basically uh networking. And so this this will run from 230 to 6:30 in the evening or in the late afternoon on the 20th. And um it's gonna be a lights on walkthrough through one of the haunted houses. There'll be a private panel discussion, and then again, networking with heavy hors d'oeuvres and an open bar. And uh the uh the night will actually conclude with the opportunity to then experience the attraction, the same one you did the lights on in full show mode, and you'll be able to see all the scares come to life just as the guests normally do as well. So, pretty cool experience. You don't often get a chance to go and see a uh scare experience, a horror experience with the lights on uh to be able to see all the theming and how everything pulls together and then be able to experience it also with the lights off. So uh pretty cool experience there. I unfortunately am not going to be able to make that experience. I am going to be on a flight back to Phoenix uh because I'll have been in uh in Vegas for a few days already, and I have to get back. I have to get back on uh for uh you know Saturday. So I have to come home, unfortunately. So uh anyway, but if you are coming out later in the week, perfect opportunity to do something and meet up with some other people that may not be coming actually to amusement expo. So I think they try to combine those two together, but uh doesn't always necessarily work out that way. All right, in other unrelated IAPA news, uh, as we'll also cover in more in-depth it uh on sound off in just a few days, uh, but uh the IAPA Expo Middle East has been canceled. Uh, this was the one that was scheduled for Abu Dhabi on the March 30th to April 2nd, uh had both education and expo show floor. Um, and this was going to be the first time that IAPA had an official expo in the Middle East. They partnered with Metalac to bring together this uh this event. And uh yeah, obviously, given the situation that's happening in the Middle East right now, it was uh just the uh board of directors met uh on Tuesday of last week and decided not to proceed with this as originally planned. They also had spoken with the AMEA Regional Advisory Board, the AMIA MS Committee, as well as in the Manilac uh Board of Directors. And just by getting feedback from exhibitors, speakers, and other local members, they just decided that it just was this best not to move forward and uh totally agree. I think it's a good call. Uh, I do think that they should have probably made that call earlier um than they did, uh, given the fact that uh TEA also had their SAIT um event that was going to take place from the 25th to the 28th of March, uh, so much even later, uh, or excuse me, um a little bit just over the week right with a couple of days right before the IAPA expo, and they made the cancellation announcement about eight days in uh beforehand, uh before Iappa did. So anyway, I'm glad that they finally did make the right decision. Um, but uh, you know, for those of uh those that are on you know MS community, uh sometimes more timely communication could have been better. But you know, whatever. That's uh that is at least happening, and uh so now you know. All right. One other really cool thing that I just want to touch on here is that uh Dr. Seuss uh Enterprises has partnered or continued to expand their partnership with Wild Brain. Um and uh they have a licensing agreement to uh but they've expanded to now include um uh representation for location-based entertainment across the UK, Europe, and uh APAC, uh including actually Greater China in that. Uh and so they already have a consumer products partnership across all of those regions um between Wild Brain and Dr. Seuss. But Wild Brain is getting more and more into location-based entertainment. This is exactly what uh Kevin has talked about. We've talked about on the show. This is transmedia. And so obviously, Dr. Seuss has uh is becoming Dr. Seuss and Prices and that brand, that IP, is becoming transmedia in itself as well. And so a consumer products division that has been making consumer products in all of these regions is now getting into physical location-based entertainment. And uh this will include how the Grinch stole Christmas, the cat in the hat, and Oh, the places you'll go, and uh there'll be other major content launches and landmark uh you know anniversaries. Um, but this is uh really, they're trying to uh combine it with the uh cat in the hat animated feature that has starring Bill Hader, uh coming out November 6th from the Warner Brothers Pictures animation, and then along with the 70th anniversaries of the Cat in the Hat and how the Grinch stole Christmas uh in 2027. So I think they're really trying to deliver experiences that are gonna bring the Dr. Seuss's like classical stories uh into immersive environments that really are gonna help deepen the fan engagement and overall build a long-term brand value for uh Dr. Seuss. And so um, you know, this is the type of thing we're seeing. And so the more obviously that IP becomes transmedia into both not only physical products but books, but then movies and and and other animated things. And then obviously now location-based entertainment, it's like the next analogical iteration. So we continue to see IP coming into uh location-based entertainment and just something to keep an eye on, and that is music should know. Coming up after the quick break, we'll 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 for innercard increased customer spending, debt 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 a global family of customers, they hope you will become one too.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

Hey, a big hello to the latest open and shot. Hope I find you well, Brandon.

SPEAKER_03 8:30

Absolutely, absolutely. Looking forward to uh Amusement Expo and uh hanging out with you for a few days.

Mini Golf Gets Axe Throwing

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Yeah, we're all looking forward to it. Anyway, let's jump into the latest openings, and as you can see, we are still up there. Uh wow. And one of those things that's driving me mad at the moment is the diversity of the mix. There isn't a uh a core pattern here, so there's a lot going on. But anyway, first one is a redevelopment, so not really a full opening. Uh, we have uh the Singer's Lounge. Uh, I don't know if you get to uh see, I've I've spelt that incorrectly, so that's a uh failure on my part. Uh something on the mind. Sinkers Lounge uh by its very name uh is a golf, mini golf kind component. They've expanded uh that facility now. They've added some axe throwing and about 50 retro arcade machines. So this is an example of the what we would call the uh the upscaling of your offering.

SPEAKER_03 9:36

Yeah, uh interesting. And this is this is the third, looks like the third location. And yeah, I mean it's it's an interesting aesthetic inside. Um, it's not doing, I think, anything significantly interesting or different than you know, your standard putt shack, maybe, but uh, you know, it is slightly different look and feel.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

It's positioning itself heavy on the cocktails and the social entertainment, and they've seen that with their need of the mix of audience that they're gonna have to have something else. This is you know the example of an additional entertainment offering to keep the people happy, as it were. Moving on, and Duck adds its name to the uh list of uh what we would call clockades. This is the uh second facility in their chain. Um you know, an interesting uh colorization, I suppose, as far as you can go. They have a brand which they're pushing, and we wish them the best of luck.

SPEAKER_03 10:35

Yeah, not much to say here with this one. It's uh it's that is a lot of yellow.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

A lot of yellow. We have in uh Los Angeles level up bowl and bistro. Now, I wasn't familiar with this, and the reason I wasn't familiar with this is the first uh uh of the operation. It is heavy on the amusement, but it also has the darts, uh it also has the bowling. So it is a kind of a proven formula, but in a uh a much more bistro styling. Uh, I I'm interested. This feels like by looking at the website and uh doing some research that this is the beginning of a chain from this particular operation, but this is their first slide.

SPEAKER_03 11:17

Yeah, it does definitely have that feel. Again, whenever I I get um I get suspicious of a future growth uh plans whenever they have a really well-done logo. Well, I'm not a big fan of the level up name, right? As we see, you know, we see these types of names all the time, but the bowling bistro at least is an interesting tagline. But their uh their logo is really nice. I mean, and again, you don't see this from a lot of single locations that aren't planning to expand. And their site is excellent. And uh surprisingly, out of 22 reviews already on Google, they are at five stars. So that is an incredible review um level. Uh, I mean, again, just maybe it's uh maybe it's the fact that they're it's in LA. I mean, I don't know, but they must be doing something right to get five-star reviews out of 22 so far.

Claw Arcades Keep Scaling Up

SPEAKER_00 12:05

They're doing something right. Uh, they've also partnered with a well-known uh contentless card company to be their uh uh purveyor of point of sale. So they they focus themselves. I'm sure we'll be hearing about a second slide soon. Away from the uh still an entertainment, still claw machines or crane machines and price machines, but away from the uh public-facing uh application, we have uh uh here the drop-in of uh crazy clay claw crazy expanding their operation of live play machines. These are the games which you play via a mobile app and it gives you a lifetime uh experience of the facilities. We'll go into a little bit more about this uh operation in open uh in sound off later on.

SPEAKER_03 12:56

Yeah, I think I'll I'll hold off any future uh any comments until the sound off, but this is really interesting.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

It is interesting and it is a uh a marked trend if you can dig a trend out of all of these numbers. Talking about the claw venues or uh the UFO venues in Japan, the expansion of the market, and our friends at Namco have uh dropped in a brand new operation. Um amusement next door to the claw machines, uh next door to uh also some of the sticker machines. It is a proven formula. You know, they have about 200 odd of this type of facility in Japan, and it is clear that they are still continuing a rollout model, uh, I'm sure trying to keep up with the genders of the market.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

Yeah, and interesting that they actually call it a Gashapone department store as well, and not uh some other clever name. They just call it what it is. You want Gashapone? Go to the Gashapone department store, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

Yeah, they've it's taken over a particular floor of uh a uh mole unit, and this kind of uh says it's a retail filler kind of approach, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:04

Yeah, and the one thing I'll say is I mean, this this this one picture you have here does not do this location justice. The the amount of machines that are in this uh I mean, it's just it's aisles and aisles and rows and rows of gas chap. I mean, it is unbelievable. So it truly is a department store. So I know it may look like this is just uh, you know, from this picture, a small, small footprint, but this is um absolutely massive.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

And it's not just gas chap, they're cranes. I always, when I look at these uh facilities, I always wonder what the back of house warehousing must be like. Our friends at Capcom have uh also been uh dusting off their uh growth profile. They've rolled out a brand new concept. Um they have a number of uh the Parlour Capcom uh traditional style arcade facilities uh in Japan. They have about 40 odd of that type of style, and now they've launched Capcom Mix, uh, which is a mix. It has uh a virtual reality experience in it, it also has their active entertainment Bannet uh approach, and it is clear from this that they are positioning themselves to test the waters uh towards a possible rollout of more of this particular approach to entertainment.

VR Add-Ons In New Venues

SPEAKER_03 15:26

Yeah, so is this I mean, I don't know what exactly to liken this to, but I'm wondering if this is like maybe like a little um like a fever slash Netflix partnership type uh pop-up, you know, that we would have seen like with Fever and and Netflix doing it, you know, some some little bit of VR, some retail. This almost seems like a retailtainment destination, maybe with some of their titles and IP, uh or like a mini Wonderverse, like a version of a mini Wonderverse, potentially. I'm I'm just kind of curious what this is. It's it's not entirely clear to me in the research that I've done. It's amusement heavy.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

Um, it's they have their uh VRX uh amusement attraction, which they have been fielding in some of their other venues. So it's a conglomeration, but I agree with you, there is some IP push uh in this, and to push the comics kind of branding tells us that there's a little bit more to this than just an upscaled uh amusement facility. Uh if you have a resort park in Germany uh that is heavily themed on you know the Indian uh cowboys and Indians kind of approach, uh why not drop a virtual reality experience into it? Well, um you know, our friends uh at uh Mac rides have included a you'll be go uh attraction as part of Fort Fun in Germany. Um, you know, from what we can tell, uh they've created a specialist attraction or content for their VR experience that falls into the narrative. So this is more of a VR edition than you know a major development at the past.

SPEAKER_03 17:09

Uh okay, so they're wearing VR while on one of their these Mac Robins, very simple. No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

It's a it's a walk, it's an arena. It is a uh uh the You'll be Go system, which is the smaller version of the Yulbi platform, is just uh HTC headsets and groups of up to I think about six players at a time.

SPEAKER_03 17:29

Okay, got it. So free roaming, VR in an arena, experiencing something tied to their overall, like their their Fort Fun, um, you know, Fort Fun IP and concept. Got it. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Um Speed Park in France, they have about 21 facilities out there. Uh they are now upscaled, uh, a brand new facility, so that's about 4,800 square meters, indoor track, bowling, you know, all of the ticks from the research we did looking at this latest opening, they are pushing the competitive socializing ambience a lot more. They have a very slick bar compared to the previous of their other venues, and they've rolled in the um the elements that are there for the uh competitive socializing audience.

SPEAKER_03 18:28

Yeah, and well, and I mean it it certainly seems like this is a franchise because they have a number of speed parks throughout the world, uh not just uh in France. Um and so this would make me think that okay, there was a franchisee that was interested in opening this up in France versus uh you know in Maine or in uh you know Tennessee.

Toca Social Tests Texas

SPEAKER_00 18:50

At some point in time, we're gonna have to sort of nail down the franchise uh carting scene a little bit better, maybe around the time of the karting expo. Uh, because there's there's a lot of different flavors here. Is there the people who just buy the track, the people who buy the full brand of facility, and those that only buy the maintenance and support aspects while operating their own unit. So it is a little bit more nuanced than just have go-karts will travel. Our friends in Tokasocial broke their duck and entered the North American market again. We'll go a little bit more into detail of what this entails in sound off. But from our point of view, 20,000 square facility in Texas. Texas is if you can't win it there, then you're not going to win it anywhere. Uh, so we will now get a chance to see what the American audience takes to this sporttainment concept, with one major caveat uh that I've noticed from the walk-round videos that I've been seeing and of the launch and the design, that they haven't really changed the model from their UK original concept. Uh, that's kind of telling. Uh, it doesn't have, for example, a uh sandbox VR addition to this. And again, the amusement that they have there is limited to uh uh you know a couple of uh uh pool table kind of amusements. So it it is it is what it is, and they are doubling down on what they feel is the uh toca social brand.

SPEAKER_03 20:26

Yeah. Uh well, I mean, look, it's at grandscape, so that's at least has a little bit going for it in some ways because it will get it will get walk-by visibility as people are going to Indredi, or they're going to Put Shack, or they're going to Cosm, or any other things that are uh that are at Grandscape of the colony in Texas. Uh so they uh, you know, but at the same time, Sixes was there, and uh, and obviously Sixes is not Toka Social, um, but uh Sixes was there and did fail. And so, you know, hopefully this is a concept that will uh gain some traction in Texas. I would have really loved to have seen the first toca social, frankly, in somewhere in Miami, um, or somewhere where there's a uh a stronger real like soccer, you know, again, US, you know, soccer uh presence and fandom than in uh the colony. But uh, you know, again, Grandscapes is a great uh great space and is going to get a lot of traction or a lot of foot traffic anyway.

Too Much Mix Can Hurt

SPEAKER_00 21:26

We will have to see if that model works for them uh compared to maybe going closer to a sports uh infused market. Uh one from you know, our friends at FunScape run a number of uh amusement facilities uh in the UK, and they have pivoted uh towards creating a concept which kind of touches on competitive socializing, but also offers a much more uh laid-back F and B mix to their more traditional amusement placings. It is a jack of all trades, but the carnival. Golf and games facility is 23,000 squif. And one of the things about it is it has got the uh the carnival games in there, but it's also got escape room in there, it's got VR experiences in there. So it is it is a uh a schnorbis board along with the mini golf, obviously. Uh and I'm still, you know, this is their second facility opening of this particular brand of this chain. And I'm I'm interested to see what the takeup is going to be like. Mixing laser tag uh with your mini golf, with your escape group can can be a difficult trick to juggle.

SPEAKER_03 22:37

Yeah, I mean, like it feels a little bit like they've taken a bunch of spaghetti and thrown it you know on the wall alongside their carnival game. So like they have a really interesting core concept uh to you know and and core brand. But then yeah, you add in laser tag and then you add in 501 darts, uh, you know, so you know augmenting darts, some breakout escape rooms, and you also have pixel, their game floor, you know, so they actually use pixel or two. So it just seems like this, you know, hey, here's us this big smattering of things. And well, we talk about having a mix of attractions, that's great. Um, but you also should make sure that they are augmenting your core offering in a meaningful way as well.

Ramesses Exhibit Blends Museum And VR

SPEAKER_00 23:16

And also not confusing your brand. If you're carnival, golf and games, then you you you've painted yourself into a particular core, but we will see. Uh, number three and number four sites are uh in the works. So but again, aiming outside of the Metropolitan in the UK, they're they're they're they're spreading them out into markets that maybe uh are bereft of this kind of social entertainment. Ramesses is a what I would call a immersive uh edutainment experience. It has got uh the museum touch, it has got relics from uh the uh the Dio City, it it has uh the walkthrough experience, but for their VR component, rather than what we see with other kinds of uh facilities of this type, they have gone back to the traditional motion seat sitting down VR uh experience. Now, I did something very similar to this a few years ago uh using the same uh motion seats, but at that point using uh the HTC headsets. Now I see the seats have survived, but they've changed and upscaled the headsets. So again, I wonder if this is the touring experience uh that's being given a quick brush up and dropped back into a space within London.

SPEAKER_03 24:39

Yeah, well, and I think what's really interesting about this, it truly is an entertainment um thing, but the fact that one, you know, is powered by fever, as you called out there in the description. Um, but it is a physical walkthrough museum type experience, then that is augmented by the sit-down, uh walk-around, or or at least move around, um, guided uh virtual reality experience in these seats. So it it definitely is meant to be a combination of the two. This isn't just a pure VR experience. You are meant to see some of these sarcophagi and uh other old ancient artifacts up front and close, and then put on the virtual reality and presumably tour something uh, you know, to tour the old tombs. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:25

Yeah, I I feel that they've got a formula that they've taken on the road and they've brought back after giving it a brush stamp. But again, this is what some people are calling a temporary uh entertainment installation. We'll touch upon a little bit of that more in sound off because uh we had an event recently that uh covered this kind of aspect of the market.

SPEAKER_03 25:48

Yeah, just to quickly just to quickly use uh to say like the term that they're using, and you've got it here as well in the description, is an exhibition. And uh they are calling it specifically even in their URL, uh the Ramsey's exhibit uh the Ramsey's uh Ramsey's the exhibition. And uh that presumably then is something that will tour around. So it might be in London, and then we may see it in New York or Atlanta or LA or in multiple locations if we uh if they gain us some the type of traction they're looking for.

Six Flags Divests Seven Locations

SPEAKER_00 26:16

I get the feeling that they've proven that this uh traveling experience works once, and so it's doing its second round. Jumping into the shots and sales, and we will go into the finalized details. When we were doing the last of our sound off, we only had just had hours ago the information, and now we have a little bit more detail regarding the structure of Six Flags divesting of its seven facilities. We uh even have the brand names uh and the logos for the new enchanted parks facility operations. But again, uh these are the seven sites that will now be uh divested into this new operation.

SPEAKER_03 26:58

And just like that, we do also have uh what we suspected is that it will be um these will be operated by a new brand and a new uh and a new operator and owned by obviously the EPR properties, which is looking to most likely make money from the lease uh payments that uh that Enchanto Parks will be making to EPR properties.

Lease Changes Force Closures

SPEAKER_00 27:18

There's a lot of uh points of uh questions regarding this handover. It isn't as clear cut, but again, I I don't want to get too stuck in the weeds when we're going to be talking about this later. Jumping on and a continuation of an example that we touched upon previously of you have a great facility, it is doing the numbers, you're operating quite happily, and then the landlord changes the agreement. Uh the property ownership uh of LTA uh depot in Tennessee uh got changed, and they're blaming uh the property ownership for the need to close down their facility because it is uneconomic and unworkable for them to continue under these conditions. This is always makes me uncomfortable because I always get the feeling that the property owner always regrets pushing uh an operation that is successful into a corner because the time it's gonna take to strip everything out and uh drop a new tenant into that space is lost money.

SPEAKER_03 28:22

Yeah, this is uh this is always a danger. Um, you know, you don't you don't know who's gonna come in and buy the you might have a great relationship with your current landlord and uh an owner of your property, and uh sometimes this stuff can happen, change of ownership, they don't want to renew the lease because they have other plans for it, or they want to uh you know, and and they they force you out.

Area 23 And Illuminarium Postmortems

SPEAKER_00 28:43

And that's why you have to make sure that your contract with uh the owner of your facility has those terms for the emergency get-out courses and ensuring that they pay for you to find your new property. Uh while doing some research, uh came across uh the Arizona area uh 23 facility had closed. Um it it was difficult to find out the reason for the closure. Um we had been talking about uh it opening. It had been one of those active entertainment facilities, a little bit of uh mixed reality technology as well as physical uh entertainment space. 22,000 is nothing to sniff at. And then um, you know, according to their Facebook report, uh they closed in January. No, nothing appeared on our radar, which seems to be coming more common now. That uh successes get a press release and failures get a Facebook page. So we we need to find out a little bit more of what went wrong here because we also have quite a few companies that have followed this kind of path towards active play facilities.

SPEAKER_03 29:53

Yeah, I mean I I went uh when this first opened, we you know did cover it on the LBX show. I think it might have even been one of the daily shows at the time. Um, and uh, you know, I went and visited the facility, and I actually went with um Barry uh from Fun Across America and we we walked around and I was deeply unimpressed uh by the facility. It's actually, and I unfortunately did call out that it would likely not last. Um, you know, they had a very weak FB offering as well. Um in fact, it was just a breakfast cereal bar. So they had like a cereal bar, so you could go and get like cereal. Um, and then like I think they might have had like a cooler full of drinks, like some sodas and that kind of thing, but that's it. So you're supposed to just come play some sports, and then if you uh were done with sports, you could go and get a bowl of cereal. Uh so uh yeah. So I think there was just some things that uh there's just it just wasn't quite operated or envisioned by somebody who was from within the space. It was somebody who is a former uh professional sports player who wanted to go and create something uh unique, and unfortunately it just didn't land.

SPEAKER_00 31:01

Lessons to be learned, I hope, rather than just squandered. Uh and another of the I told you so moments, uh, we will go into much more detail about where Illuminarium is at the moment, but uh we have been sitting there with the stopwatch waiting for the Illuminarium in Las Vegas to close because it was clearly not doing the numbers and it was definitely had a mixed message. Though, according to the uh the web page uh and Facebook announcement of their closure, uh they have made it clear that the space is being turned into uh a brand new universe of immersive experiences. The stock just started again to see how long it takes before that venue opens up as whatever the new interpretation of Illuminarium 4 Area 15 will ever be.

SPEAKER_03 31:58

Yeah. Well, uh yeah, we did we did call this one. I know we're gonna talk about it further on sound off, uh, but uh, you know, I will say it probably didn't help that uh as Area 15 expanded and added additional immersive experiences uh in their phase two development, that this was uh likely some fallout as a result of Area 15's uh expansion into uh IP-driven immersive experiences versus the fairly generic luminarium experiences.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

Definitely. Anyway, that's it from us for this particular week. Uh our LinkedIn details were there. We have Stinger and uh entertainment social arenas out there. And if you have any questions or corrections, you can hit me up either via LinkedIn or via the email. But that's it from me, Brandon.

SPEAKER_03 32:50

All right. Well, that was a great open and shut. And um, we will be taking a break from open and shut for the next LBX show, as uh obviously we are going to be doing a deep dive in uh on Amusement Expo. So we'll come back in two weeks with a probably what will be a very robust and filled uh open and shut.

SPEAKER_00 33:09

Have a good one.

SPEAKER_03 33:22

Whether it's perfectly fine to me to do it by having a fish of light competition or defending things for the city of the manager. Alan One has something for every venue and architecture to late your guests. This game is also an example of literally floor. Visit AllenDaps1.com to learn more. That's AlanDap1.com. All right, well, thanks to Kevin for that great open and shut. And yeah, we will we'll be back in two weeks with another full open and shut. But in the meantime, we've got Adam Pratt in Arcade Corner right now.

Cyberpunk Cabinet Draws Attention

Mystery IPs And Atari Recharged

SPEAKER_06 34:08

Greetings everyone, it's Adam with Arcade Heroes for the Arcade Corner here at the LBX Collective, and it's Amusement Expo Week, where uh we it's been a little while since a lot of us have been able to meet together, depending on which trade shows you attend. Uh, but at least for myself, last time I was that one was IAPA 2025 back in November. And let's I mean the spring show is something that's been around for decades now, and uh or what some people still call the spring show or the AMOA show and such, but uh official name Amusement Expo International. And I've been attending this since 2007, and this year what's surprising is that there seems to be more new new product, like stuff we haven't seen at Iapo or EAG uh than in previous amusement expos, which is a good thing. Now, to be fair, the uh major manufacturers like Roth Reels, Bandinamco, and Sega, at least from their announcements so far, haven't announced anything that would fit in that category. And so what we're seeing that is new new uh is coming from smaller manufacturers. Now that doesn't mean that one of those companies I mentioned won't have a surprise at the show, but as I remember last year they had uh or like Roth Reels had Top Gun uh there. Uh Sega brought My MyDX, a rhythm game, to the show, which garnered a lot of attention. Uh and uh Bandynamico brought Gashapon uh vending machines there. And so again, there still is a chance that they could have something like that that they're just not touting. It's just uh, at least from the indicators right now, there doesn't seem to be anything that would be you know earth shattering along those lines. But yeah, maybe there will be. Uh, one that a lot of people have been talking about that I think I've mentioned before has been Resident Evil 2 Arcade by Capcom and Bandai Namco, as that's been already seen testing in the UK, in the United States, and it's going to soon be testing over in Japan. It has a very strong fan base out there, and so just that alone will help drive a lot of attention towards it. But from the indicators that I've gotten from Bandai Namco is that this would be a release more towards the end of 2026 as opposed to like say the summertime. And so there's a good chance that they are going to keep their powder dry, so to speak, for a later show, whether that's Bull Expo or um uh uh what's is there anything really in between that and IAPA? I guess IAPA Expo Europe, uh, or something like that. I guess speaking of IAPA Expo, the Middle East conference was postponed due to the um uh the events of the Middle East that have been going on for the past uh two weeks uh now. But yeah, at least Amusement Expo isn't going to be affected by that. So let me give you as uh quick a preview as I can of what is going to be there. As I've had up on my screen one surprising name that uh was uh out and about there about 10 years ago. Was uh Takata Gaming International. And true innovation, Zombie Snatcher Outbreak delivers thrilling games. And so, yeah, they're bringing their uh zombie snatcher outbreak game back. Let me mute that so I can talk over it. But it's kind of the same thing, but with some enhancements to it. One of those enhancements is that the pucks now have little screens built into them. Also has six player stations and such, and so that's uh a more technologically advanced uh way of uh handling this redemption game. This had been released via ice, or the first one I should say, had been released via ice. I want to say like 2015 or so, and so now they've got this uh brand new Nazi version that is using the latest in of technology out there, and so this will be making its grand debut at Amusement Expo. Uh, I'm not big on redemption stuff, but uh yeah, this video is on LinkedIn on the Tocata Gaming International site. If you want to watch the whole thing with sound, and then uh next up we have um Eunice. Uh the bo they are, I guess you I should have said that this would be a major manufacturer has announced some things. And so one of them that uh been on something that I've been kind of joking about for a while since the uh the the fervor around pickleball has been out there for a while now, and that would be uh uh doing an arcade game based on pickleball. And Yunis is uh finally tackling that with pickleball rivals, which I assume is going to be something kind of along the lines of uh using like a remote style thing. I mean, you can see in this photo here, maybe it's a little hard to see there, but uh see if I can zoom in and give you a blurry look at it. But there is a paddle, looks like a pickleball paddle with LEDs in it, and I would assume that again this would have some sort of gyroscope built into it so that you can swing it, uh, like you were swinging a pickleball paddle and play virtual pickleball, um, but in a way that only arcades can provide. I have no idea if there's a pickleball video game out there on the console or mobile side of things. I would have to assume there's something out there, but uh it wouldn't be quite as cool as the arcade version. Uh but that's not all that Yunis is going to have at their um booth. So one thing that was this game here, Ski Hero, uh had been announced. Like there were some videos on YouTube that Yunus had posted uh about this before Iappa, but then it wasn't at IAPA, and there was no indicators about where it was, what they would be doing with it at that show and afterwards. Uh, because of course they were uh launched a lot of stuff at IAPA or previewed a lot of stuff at IAPPA. I guess when you have that much, maybe you just want to uh not reveal everything else and maybe hold some things over, and that's maybe what happened here. Uh or maybe it just wasn't really ready for prime time. But uh, this would be the first skiing game that we've had in a while. The first one, or the last one that I can remember, sorry, would be Super Alpine Racer by Roth Rills and Ben Dynamico. And that was about a decade ago, I think, uh, somewhere around there. I can't remember the exact uh uh release date off the top of my head. But um, yeah, be interesting to see what this new take will be like. There is a video on YouTube uh about it, but I don't know how uh uh accurate that might be compared to uh what the final release version is, and we just don't have a lot of time to go over all that. What's going to be most likely the um the biggest announcement, uh, although I reached out to Yunus about this and they just didn't really want to say anything about it yet. Uh although there was this uh from Replay Magazine uh where they have Cyberpunk 2077 Chrome Rush coming. And as that says available late April, 65-inch screens, but this is based on the same Cyberpunk 2077 PC game that uh got a lot of attention at last year's Amusement Expo in LEI Games released their or sorry, previewed their uh unique uh mixed reality shooting gallery game based on the cyberpunk 2077 IP as well. But there were a lot of fans of Cyberpunk who were hoping for more a more traditional light gun game out of it as opposed to the you know airsoft pellets and shooting gallery type stuff. And so it looks like that's what Yunus is doing here, although I am a little surprised that this wasn't done through, say, like LEI games or something. But uh, this appears to be a uh a racing/slash vehicular combat game, which you know we've seen before, although I can't really recall the last time we saw something like that in uh terms of a motorcycle racer. So whether or not it'll play like say dirty driving with motorcycles, I don't know. We'll have to wait and see. But you can see it has motion-based realistic bike controllers. I kind of wonder if uh Eunice's Neon Rush was sort of a test on that. And Neon Rush was uh pretty good. But um yeah, we'll uh have to wait and see. I guess I have another screenshot here. It's a little bit blurry, but uh 65-inch screen, nice big screen for that. Um, so I'll be checking that out uh there. And I assume that this will be getting a lot of attention. Oh, I guess as I look at this now, it looks like the top marquee might be an LED matrix marquee topper. And so that could be uh pretty snazzy and get some grab some attention. Now, um for the other things that I know about, I don't really have any screenshots here yet, but um I would note that I am aware of some other games that have not been announced as of yet and will not be announced. Until the first day of the show. So Exa Arcadia, the company out of Japan that does conversion kits and releases game cartridges for these kits, kind of like the old Neo Geo from the 1990s. We'll have two major IP that will be launching there. And I do know what they are. One of them's a fighting game, one of them's a beat-em-up game. But again, they want to keep the exact games under wraps until uh this Wednesday. And then uh Blue Motion Games, who have previously released their uh Desert Chase and Cannonball Jam games, they uh will also have a major IP, uh Hollywood IP, attached to uh four-player uh light gun game as well. And so uh there's been some talk online about that and uh some rumors about what it is in replay. They mention it as a mystery game. Um, likewise, um I do know what it is, and I will have a preview up about it on the day of the show, but uh gotta wait until the embargo is uh lifted from that. And then uh Allen one, uh, which has done advertising here on the LBX Collective. Uh, they also are going to have a booth sort of similar to their um IAPPA booth, but much, much larger. It'll be the largest booth that they've ever done, a 40 by 40 space. And uh you'll have a lot of buttons on things, cranes there, you'll have avian nights, asteroids recharge, missile command recharge, gravitar recharged, uh, liquid death, Dr. Pepper Soda Slam, uh, which again, we're all at IAPA. Uh, but uh they will be showing off the return of the Atari Pong cocktail, the commercial versions uh version of that electromechanical recreation of Pong, as well as uh three new Atari Recharged games are supposed to be there, uh including Caverns of Mars Recharged, Breakout Recharged, and Yarz Revenge Recharge. Uh, or that might just be called Yarz Recharged. I need to double check on that. But Caverns of Mars and Yarz Revenge were never released to arcades. They uh YARS was uh famously on the Atari 2600, one of the most popular games where you control a little fly in space and finding this weird alien uh weapon device. Caverns of Mars was a game released for the Atari 8-bit computers back in 1981 where you're going down into Mars through different uh winding claustrophobic pathways and blowing stuff up. And uh so be interesting to see these games uh make their way to the arcade. But of course, these are not the original versions, these are updated. But one thing that Alwyn is doing with all three of these cabinets is that they're bringing back the Pepper's Ghost effect, which is a uh holographic type effect. However, they're combining it with a second screen. This has been done before, but it's been very rare, very uncommon. Uh there if you can look up a game called uh Wyvern F0 by Taito that was released in 1985, which did it with uh two CRT screens. Um very bulky cabinet. Uh L1s are not using CRTs, they're using LCDs, but it uh it's uh from what I've been able to hear, I haven't seen one in person yet, but it's uh creates a very cool, very convincing 3D effect without the need for any glasses at all. And so that's one thing that will also set the games apart, aside from the fact that the software has been heavily redesigned from the recharge versions of those games that are have been available on consoles for a few years now. And so don't worry, there are multiple changes to the games that make them, in my opinion, better from what I've played. Uh, but uh that is um what I am aware of. Oh, yeah, uh Bay Tech does have a single-player version of Icy Slush Rush uh coming to their booth. Um I haven't read anything else that uh they will have. Um I know Touch Magics will have what sounds like the same kind of setup that they had at IAPA. There's no new new releases there unless there's some sort of surprise that they haven't told me about. And so that'd be like their pickleball toss and boxed up and treasure chest and minions, um, bullseye mania. And uh yeah, that's about it for what I've been hearing out there. So, again, uh a little bit more that's going to be new than what we would typically get from this Vegas show. And so for any of you that are out and about there, we'll see you this week. Safe travels uh as you head out there. And of course, if you're not able to make it, uh stay tuned uh to both LBX Collective and uh if you're interested in arcade stuff, arcade heroes, and we'll be covering all this stuff in great detail, and we'll probably have lots to talk about in the coming weeks here on Arcade Corner with that. But uh thanks for watching. On to the next segment.

SPEAKER_05 49:15

If you run a location-based entertainment brand and want to attract more visitors, check out Radius. They use real-time location data and customized marketing strategies to help brands like yours stand out. Radius can boost your foot traffic and build a loyal customer base. Plus, they're offering a complimentary local market analysis to show you exactly how they can help you grow. Curious? Visit radius.co and ask about your free market analysis. That's R-A-Y-D-I-Us.co.

SPEAKER_03 49:48

All right. Well, thank you, Adam, for walking us through that. And obviously, as he mentioned, we will have a pretty significant debrief on our LBX show for next week. So we are going to have a special edition of the show with a post-Amusement Expo review guest gab. Uh, I know for sure Adam will be on that as well, Kevin Williams. And we're looking at grabbing a few extra guests. We'll see who we can all bring onto that guest gab to talk about Amusement Expo. Also, coming up, we have sound off number 114, and that is with Kevin Williams on Tuesday, March 17th, the second day of Amusement Expo. So it'll run and uh you'll hopefully you'll be able to watch it and catch it for you later in the evening or you know, when you're back for Amusement Expo if you're not going. And if you are if you aren't going, then uh well, you can give it a watch at 10 a.m. on the 17th. So that would be sound off number 114 with Kevin Williams. All right, that is a wrap for this week's LBX show. I'm Brandon Wiley signing off. Stay tuned and keep kicking it.