The LBX Show #69 - BW, Kevin, & Adam Debrief Amusement Expo 2026

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Sponsored by Alan-1!

On this week's show we debrief Amusement Expo International 2026 from the show floor and zoom out on what it signals for arcades, FECs, and location-based entertainment. We dig into the surge of licensed IP, the hardware innovations that matter for operators, and the Vegas venues that reveal where competitive socializing is headed. 

• attendance and energy at AEI 2026, plus travel and timing constraints 
• education programming, networking formats, and what the organizers are testing 
• transmedia and licensed IP as the dominant show-floor theme 
• Stern Pokémon pinball as a blueprint for bringing new players in 
• John Wick shooter cabinet impressions, motion and control trade-offs 
• Disney's Speedstorm as a potential Mario Kart successor, vertical screen impact, card system debate 
• Cyberpunk 2077 motorcycle racer, cabinet size, pricing, graphics, and ergonomics 
• Triotech Typhoon Shockwave changes and the Jumanji XD dark ride license 
• Alan-1 Atari Recharged cabinets, Pepper’s Ghost depth effect, and tournament-driven retention 
• DOF Robotics compact flying theater, LED dome implications, pricing, and maintenance math 
• Area 15 updates, immersive experiences, and what constant iteration looks like 
• F1 Arcade in Vegas, premium fit and finish, plus the accessibility problem for groups 
• market pressures on manufacturers and distributors, plus the Player One rebrand moment

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Transcript

Welcome And AEI Preview

SPEAKER_03 0:01

Turning you in now to the LBX show with your host, Brendan Wyde. With you by the LBX Collective, the community connected, engaged, and inspired.

Sponsor Spotlight On Cashless Payments

SPEAKER_06 0:21

All right. Well, welcome everybody to the LBX Show for March 22nd, 2026. This is episode number 69, and it's a special episode. We are doing an amusement expo, international review that is AEI, and uh it's been this last week. And so we had a great time out there. Kevin did some speaking on the first day of the educational conferences that lasted Monday and Tuesday. And then we had the trade show and expo Wednesday and Thursday. There was some great stuff that was revealed. And so we're going to dig into that. We've got Kevin Williams and Adam Pratt here to join me. And we're going to have a great guest gab just talking about all the great stuff that we saw at the expo as well as some of the experiences in and around the Vegas area. And so we're going to dive right into it after a really quick word from our great sponsor, Intercommer.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Brandon, hey everyone. Welcome to the last day of Amusement Expo 2026. I want to introduce you to Thomas Damon, who's going to tell you a little bit about our Impulse Plus Reader.

SPEAKER_04 1:18

This is InterCommer's new Impulse Plus Reader. It accepts all forms of payment credit, debit, um, Apple Pay, Google Pay. It also works with Intercommerce game cards, temp cards, Wi Fi D, or wristbands. You can have four different prices on a touch screen. It runs on Wi-Fi or simple, and it's typically geared more towards smaller game rooms that don't need the need for Folkiums, but want a lot of features from the full card system.

SPEAKER_06 1:56

All right, Adam, Kevin, great to have you guys on as usual. We're gonna do our review and debrief of Amusement Expo. So we'll just kick things off here. What did you, I mean, let's just start high level. What did you feel about uh how do you feel the energy was? What did you feel like uh the how how do you feel like the show was for you guys? Please, Adam, go first.

SPEAKER_05 2:19

Okay, uh well, um I don't know why, but I started to lose my voice the very first day, like within an hour or two. And I was like, I'm not even I don't even feel like I'm talking that much. But um overall, I thought that the um even though the attendance was strange, like there was a lot of commentary about that. And of course, afterwards we found out that it was down, um, most likely due to the store, some storm system that moved through the Midwest, because I know several people at uh certain some high-level managers at several manufacturers couldn't make it. Um one uh Eddie from Team Play even had his bags sent, but him he was not included on the flight somehow um due to that uh happening. But um still the energy seemed to be pretty well positive. Um a lot of optimism. And and in part, uh for me, where I I generally don't attend as many trade shows as you guys do, but so it's generally speaking like IAPA and Amusement Expo. And it's always nice to go to Amusement Expo and see more than one new thing that I didn't see at IAPA, and I would say during the 2010s, it felt like that's usually what it was. In fact, there was one or two times where I skipped Amusement Expo just because it was like there really wasn't anything new uh back in those days. But um last year and this year there actually was quite a few. But what was maybe interesting was that it wasn't from the big names, at least on the arcade side of things, uh, as far as like Sega, Roth Rills, Namco, they all had pretty much the same thing as they had at IAPA, but it was from other smaller studios, which we will talk about, that uh were having to bring some new stuff to the table and uh setting things up for what could be a good summer, uh, as long as those uh products sell.

Education Focus And Transmedia Trend

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Thank you, Adam. That that that's a uh a very detailed observation. Uh you know, I'll put my corporate hat on, and I would like to thank Beth and the uh team at the AAMA as well as the AO AMOA for putting together what was an impressive show, New Location, uh held within the uh Las Vegas West, uh which brought a fresh, fresh air to the uh to the experience. It was a different I liked it better than the other parts of the totally agree. And the the one thing about it, so from my point of view, uh I was kindly invited to do a keynote on the first day to talk about competitive socializing, and it is clear that the associations and the organizers are going through a re-evaluation of what uh AEI brings to the table. And I get the feeling from this change that they are experimenting. There was uh along with the the normal kind of keynotes and panel sessions, there was some even some speed dating panel sessions that were taking place, and there was a lot of vibe and uh interest in sharing knowledge. So the education is coming forward, and I I expect that's something we're gonna see next March with this. The key takeaways from this show with my hat on, transmedia is big. There was a lot of IP, not just from the big names on the show floor. There was a lot of new content, which I didn't expect to see there, and there were exhibitors that were there and exhibitors that weren't there that was very telling in what they were trying to say. And I, you know, that that may sound a little cryptic, but we'll we'll go into a little bit more about that. But I would also argue that the location of Las Vegas was also incredibly telling on how much location-based entertainment and competitive socializing is expanded.

SPEAKER_06 6:18

Yeah, I would absolutely agree with that. I mean, just in the last year since we were there in uh you know, March of 2025, the number of experiences that have opened up, and and granted, many of them were in the phase two of Area 15, where you know that was just under development and things were just getting ready to open when we were there last. But uh the number of experiences has grown significantly in the last year, just in Las Vegas. So it, you know, I think I was disappointed to see how, at some level, how underrepresented uh underrepresented some of the competitive socializing aspects of our industry were at Amusement Expo. Um, obviously there's a lot of new things on the arcade amusement side, very few new things, if any at all, really, with the exception of maybe DOF robotics, which we'll get to here in a minute. Um, was there really anything else beyond uh amusement and and arcade side of things, you know, as far as new experiences? Um, you had uh you know the projection map pool table. There was one of those, which obviously you know we've seen and we've talked about with regards to the former founders of Hutchack bringing in pool house and bringing that type of experience. This is one that you could drop into your own facility. So we had that available. Um, but yeah, overall, I think the the energy felt really good, especially in that first day. And you know, this was just early on when I first got there at around 11. Um, you know, you can see people down the aisles, like you can't, it's not a big empty aisle, like this is right at the beginning. So there's a big open, empty space as you first walk in. But the aisles were filled, there was things moving. Um, when I was talking to some of the other vendors, they felt like they were having good conversations with uh potential buyers, uh, they had good leads. Um, you know, inevitably, like as we always see with Amusement Expo, the second day is pretty light, uh, a lot more like individual buying conversations, people going back to specific booths. But I think the vibe was very good. Um, and uh had again a lot of energy up front. And um, yeah, I mean, we would just get into some of the things that we saw that we've just one thing.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Yeah, just one thing. It's a day and a half. I can't treat the second day seriously as a full day's worth of business. You know, 11 till four compared to 11 till six is is is quite a difference for that. And the you know, tripping over all the luggage on the second day. I I still wonder if the organizers of the show are gonna have to go back to a two and a half day concert. Sorry, Brandon, I can't throw it.

SPEAKER_06 8:39

Well, yeah, no, I mean I think that's fair. The the day and a half is interesting. Although I as somebody who used to exhibit at the show, the two and a half days were a slog because this by the end of the second day, or you know, you had the middle, you basically the beginning of the second day and the end of the second day were dead. The middle of the second day was usually pretty busy because either people are like nursing their hangovers and then they're leaving to go to different events that that second day, and then the third day was totally empty. You know, there was like a few people, you'd have a handful of conversations, and you just want to get the hell out of there and start. So I think from a vendor standpoint, um, I certainly appreciate the day, you know, I would appreciate the day and a half. I haven't exhibited there in a few years now. Um, but it also, though, does get the feeling that as an attendee, if I really want to see everything and if I really actually want to try the new things that I want to try, have the conversations and meetings I want to have, a day and a half is a little tight, uh, actually. And so I would prefer to have a little bit longer, even if the second day was the full length and extended till six instead of four, or something like that, would be beneficial as an attendee who's actually looking to trial all these things.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

And that's the difference here. It's the uh do you have the hat on as an organizer and an association, or do you have a hat on as an attendee? I would argue, as you would expect, that having this show linked with the bar and restaurant show linked with Pizza Expo would allow that two and a half days split to be able to achieve that. Being a standalone event that you have to fly all the way to Vegas for from an attendee's point of view, it's very difficult to cover that show or any show in one and a half days when you have anything over uh 200 uh exhibitors.

SPEAKER_06 10:24

Yeah, I think that's fair. If and and it was always great when we had the bar restaurant and pizza expos, not co-located, but like co-how would you call it, like at the same time, basically running over the same week. And then we also had like the badge exchange. It was like you know, for like 20 extra dollars or whatever, you could buy access. Like if you had one, you could buy access. Like that allowed a lot of cross-pollination, and we need that cross-pollination between our industries. Uh, the bar restaurants, especially, even pizza expo, there's no reason why these three shows shouldn't exist at the same time for the same week and share basically share badges and be able to cross-pollinate.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

I don't know what the dates are for next year's uh nightclub and bar show, but we now have the 17th to the 19th, I think, if I remember correctly, dates for uh uh next year's uh AEI. So we will have to wait and see. But uh again, from the uh attendees perspective, this would have been a difficult show to attend, especially with the storms. I'm not just gonna blame the storms, I'm also gonna blame the TSA strike that's going on at the moment, which I I noticed was absent from the uh media coverage. That was a pain in the bar, as one that had to go through all of that.

SPEAKER_05 11:35

Yeah. Although for me, I both in Vegas and Salt Lake City, I was through security almost as fast as almost faster than I usually am. So it I guess it it seems to be certain some there's certain areas where it seems to be worse than others. Like I've heard Houston is absolutely horrible, like five to six hour wait times, and I'm sure New York and LA are along the same lines. But uh fortunately for me, it wasn't bad.

Stern Pokemon Pinball As Signal

SPEAKER_06 12:02

Yeah, yeah, same. Yeah, fair Phoenix uh Las Vegas and Las Vegas Phoenix were pretty smooth. Um, all right, so let's let's jump to our what was your favorite piece uh or your favorite new um it doesn't have to be even new thing, like your favorite thing that you saw, might have seen at Iapa in like demo mode, and then you, you know, or beta mode and then you saw it here, or it could be a brand new piece that you hadn't seen until now. Um, but what stood out to you as something that was like, okay, yeah, this this was a winner for you know for the show.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Congratulations, Stern on Pokemon.

SPEAKER_06 12:35

Hmm. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

It lived up to what the rumors were, it played well, or it was very uneasy mode for me. I I had a very enjoyable game on the Pokemon machine, it had a lot of interest, uh, and um fundamentally it's clearly an indication of where Stern is going. You know, they had three flavours of fruitiness there. They had the Pokemon Standard, the Pokemon uh Special, and the Pokemon Pro, or Deluxe and Pro, I grande and Pro and Premium. Yeah, Pro and Premium. Thank you, Adam. The the issues for me are I don't think enough of our industry spotted how much of a uh an important piece of tech that this represents. Uh I would also argue that uh it wasn't the only example of my favorite word here, transmedia technology that was on the show floor. I have never seen at an ATEI so many, sorry, AEI, I'm getting it mixed up with the amusement show. Uh I've never seen so many licensed IP property being promoted and sold on the show floor. This was an IP show, and you can't hide from it.

SPEAKER_06 13:53

Yeah, I would I would totally agree. Adam, what was one of the things you uh you saw that stood out to you?

John Wick Shooter And Operator Concerns

SPEAKER_05 13:59

I mean, Pokemon definitely uh when it comes to the whole licensing conversation, it's perhaps the most brilliant brand to be bringing into this industry because uh somebody who does pay some attention to uh pop culture trends and such, uh a lot of IP that's uh kind of beloved by, say, like Gen Xers, millennials, and such, there's been a lot of damage done to the brands like Star Wars uh or Star Trek or Doctor Who and uh several others, where they just are, if you look at the numbers, uh you see declines over time. And there's divisions and fan bases and such like that. Pokemon is one of those few things that it not only appeals to people of uh the Gen X through and millennial generations, it also appeals to kids right now. Like there's no kid I've ever heard of that's like, oh, I don't care about old 90s Pokemon. Uh it's like that they still enjoy it just the same. And uh and it's done nothing to tarnish the brand name. And because of that, like there's constantly this argument in pinball circles like, how do we get more people into pinball? And it's like they they just figure it's has to be all down to the license. And while there is some truth to that, that's totally not the complete picture of it. Because while I mean, yes, the brand in this case will bring it in, but then as to what you were saying, Kevin, it's also a simpler game, which then some of the older pinball fans were complaining about or whining about, or it's like it's too easy. I want something really complex and deep. And it's like, well, what do you want? Do you want to bring people in? You're not gonna do that with something that punches them in the face the moment you hit the start button because it's so complicated. And like as an operator who has pinball machines next to him every single day, and once in a while I'll get people that come up and say, What is this? Uh, where do what I've had people ask, what's the point of this? What's the goal? Uh, and everything. And it's not easy, it's not something you can put on a bumper sticker as to how to explain what pinball is. And so it's like that it needs to be simplified. And and again, so the Pokemon brand can pull them in, and the simplicity of the game can keep them there. And uh, so I think it's one of the best ideas. Like I heard about it years ago. What funny enough, this is one of those things that's been known out there uh without being officially announced, and um, I even then I saw the huge potential. And I've already heard from at least one operator that he had one day when after he set it up, it made$70 in a day, which for a pinball machine that's extremely good. That's like 1980 numbers, uh not uh anything recent. Like I'm lucky to get$70 in a month on my uh best earning pinball machines. Um, but on top of that, there's things like uh as we mentioned, there's other IP that was out there. Uh John Wick is one where um this is it was announced by Blue Motion Games, and uh this was significant for them given that they're a smaller company and just uh uh I think they debuted it, was it IAPA 2023, but uh they showed off their own um or sorry, IAPA 2024, uh, and then they showed off their first projects last year at Amusement Expo, the giant desert strike in Canada.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

So this this particular machine uh that we're uh that we are looking at is in a 90% complete state. They only have one particular uh level, uh, which was also in a very early stage of completion. So the content has been created internally by the team at Blue Motion. The cabinet has been developed in partnership with a uh Chinese manufacturer, a two-seater motion system. Um using uh light guns, well, sorry, not light guns, but uh uh uh actuated guns, metal guns, pretty heavy, uh heavy toys to play with, and it offers a branching play narrative. So when the final version has four uh four of its levels, you will be able not just to go through the levels to the end boss, but you'll be able to have branching extras. The issues here for me with this product is it is not from one of the the usual names, uh, as Brandon said at the beginning of this presentation. This is a Blue Motion who's relatively new. They're actually a development team that is a breakaway from some members that work at Triotech. The interesting thing, really interesting thing for me from this was the Dave and Busters perspective. You know, there's a number of connections with Dave and Busters that touched the show floor only for the poor guys at Dave and Busters not able to be able to fly in for the show. But the situation here is that a deal has been done between Blue Motion and um uh Dave and Busters, where this product will be launched across about 140 of their venues uh uh in May, and these products are going to be uh 100% complete. So the versions we're seeing are a little bit behind what is actually going to be fielded, and this could be a very important product, not just because of the IP, Wix is strong at the moment, not because of the gameplay, everybody likes motion-based shooting, but it's the package, and the package and the performance of this system will be very telling in our sector.

SPEAKER_06 19:36

Yeah, I think one of the issues, and it this is always an issue, and but it seems to have been more of an issue for blue motion games than maybe some other uh some other manufacturers and and developers, but uh you know, when you have the halgen lighting above, it does create an effect that makes it difficult for the gun and the target to track properly on the screen, and so you know I think we have a fix for that, yeah. And so, you know, obviously seeing something on a trade show floor is never entirely fair to the product, and so you know, I give it a little bit of a little bit of grace there. Um, the metal gun, I like the feel of it, it had good action. Um, but I will say the length of the game, and because of the length of the gameplay, uh, the metal gun was heavy. And if me as an adult who actually goes to the range and shoots real guns at a range, uh, was feeling the weight of this thing really dragging me down um after the same gameplay, uh, I think that you put that into the hands of an eight-year-old or a 12-year-old, um, and they're going to get uh they're gonna get tired. Um, so I think there's some issues there, and either shorten the gameplay experience or or you know change up the the gun potentially or the weight of the gun anyway.

SPEAKER_01 20:51

The nice thing about when you go down the range, the gun gets lighter the more you shoot. Okay, fair like 45. But yes, you it it's it's a spot on. It's it's a a juggling act, especially what are those nine-year-olds doing looking at John Wicks movies. Who am I kidding? So the the the issues with this is that this is a very major IP product that is dropping itself and it's gonna get a lot of FaceTime from its partnership with David Busters. What happens after May buying habits for the August period is gonna be very dangerous.

SPEAKER_02 21:26

Yeah, absolutely.

Disney Speedstorm And Racer Arms Race

SPEAKER_06 21:28

All right, well, I know Oh, yeah, actually, I mean, I think this may be the one you were gonna talk about here, but the one that really stood out for me was the uh Speedstorm, the Disney Speedstorm. You know, we're talking about transmedia, we're talking about IP. Uh, I thought this one was obviously really well executed. Uh Adam, I know in your most recent, one of your most recent arcade heroes uh posts, you just uh talked pretty extensively about the development of this game and how it came to the arcade. And so if you want to touch on just a little bit of that, that's uh great. Otherwise, we can refer people to arcadeheroes.com to uh read up a little bit more on that but i thought the execution was really good the the motion was fun um the vertical screen was really interesting um and so uh you know different obviously different mode than than some other uh racers and so uh but i really did enjoy this and i thought the use of ip was exceptional yeah agreed and and this is uh was the other thing that really came to mind uh for me as well was uh so i i i didn't really connect it until i heard somebody bring this up at the show but that is uh Mario Kart Arcade GP DX by Bandai Namco it's a game that's been in production since 2013 one of the longest in-production arcade games in history and I was told by uh Betson Rep that if you ordered one right now you won't get it until February 2027.

SPEAKER_05 22:55

Wow now it's been like that for a while I've known some operators who opened up a few years ago and they were they had to wait months and months and months. Now why Bandynamco does not increase the you know put more people on their production floor to get that game out and to meet demand I really don't know. But I'm also a little bit surprised that the industry has been this slow to really react to it because it's like this isn't a game that just showed up. It's been you know well over a decade now. But now this this and one other game Nickelodeon cart racer's arcade by Andomiro uh are both showing oh and Monster Kart by Eunice sorry uh Dolph's Angry Birds there there have been a number of games that have tried to fill the vacuum created by the uh Bandai Namco Situation which I'll go into a little bit please Adam does although I I I I forgot to ask them what's the been the deal with the Angry Birds uh game because I haven't seen much about it other than a poster but anyways um with this one I think uh it's got a very very strong IP attached to it uh because kind of like Pokemon now granted there has been some brand damage with Disney and that could take up an entire podcast to discuss. But at the same time there's plenty of people that overlook that and there's plenty of not only children but Disney adults who would play this just as well and that's what I've seen with uh kidtainment uh products before is uh because I had uh what was called hot racers a non-IP thing but it was designed for kids but I was shocked by how many adults and teenagers I saw play that it made a lot of money until it broke down. But something like this with a license a much better presentation and everything um I think it stands to perform exceptionally well and it is interesting with these uh screens now I think that's an 85 inch screen while while it's not the first time that we're seeing uh this being used such as Stormracer 2 by Wallop was one of the first to do that and that was also at the show at the amusement source international booth um it's I like this a lot better than I like the double screen um setup that Rothrials introduced a few years ago because the problem I always had with that is the seam between the monitors always forces me to look down and it's like there's no point in me looking up uh because uh I know there's no gameplay happening there uh anyways but when it comes to these screens it gets it dabbles into that area of almost uh it's more immersive you could say not quite a VR headset but since your view is there's no boundaries there necessarily on the gameplay then you're you know it just has that different effect this is a very technical and political situation most of the gen that we're aiming at are used to their portrait style of right everybody's got a phone everyone's doing their phone everyone's recording but sadly for some reason the old uh boomers feel that the multi-layer screen offers a much more larger screen feel and I think that they're missing out on a trick there but sorry I had my interrupt well no you're right uh I mean I would hope that they come out with a slightly smaller model just because it it's hard to tell from the photos but it's a very imposing game and it gets into a slight problem that exists with a lot of locations out there. Sure it doesn't exist with like Round One USA or Dave and Busters and so and some FECs but there are locations that would be happy to get something like this but they can't fit it because their ceilings aren't that tall uh or getting into the building doesn't have uh the right size access and nobody's going to you know break a hole in the wall to get one game in through the uh into the facility uh and so that's one little problem there but um but overall again like was said um the the gameplay was really solid the sound on it was really good as I recall like the the adrenaline is very good at getting those sound effects channeled through the seat properly that some games seem to miss for some reason. And then this is the other aspect that's actually um interesting about it is that it uses cards. Now I've been seeing some comments about this online and it seems to be a mixed bag. And so as far as players are concerned uh they kind of feel like why is the game locking characters behind a card system uh whereas every other racer out there you already get to choose between however many characters or whatever Nickelodeon cart racers arcade it has something like I think 24 characters to choose from maybe a little less but still they're all there don't need anything to to get it but at the same time uh from an operator perspective it looks like this you know could be an interesting way to use the card system that we've seen Roth Rills do and a couple of others before and it not only unlocks characters but it also unlocks costumes and and that actually might be a little better in the long run as far as the costume side goes um but it also I I was waiting for an answer on this I I couldn't maybe one of you heard about this but as far as I know this is not required by the game so like if it runs out of cars it doesn't prevent the game from being played just because they're at the show you could still play it and I didn't see any error message popping up on the screen saying please uh reload the card dispenser or anything along those lines um it just reduces what you can choose from as far as the characters go.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

And so it's if they have the prices good on the cards uh then uh I I'd also assume they've been testing this and uh that could be a very interesting entry into uh and a very good challenger to Mario Kart I I remember the same people complaining uh about uh Mario Kart's locking in of certain characters so you know it's uh one rule for one game one rule for the other a little backtrack on the history why the hell we have not had a successor to the popularity the proven popularity of the Mario Kart games is uh linked into two levels of politics first level of politics is the Bandai Namco Japan is the developers behind that platform and they felt very strongly that they didn't need to develop a content uh content for the Western market they created their game they created the multiple versions of their games they perfected the card systems and they were very happy and no matter how much our friends uh at Bandai Namco America and Europe have begged uh on bended knee for an update to that the warranting of having to do the licensing deal with Nintendo having to do the uh licensing deal on the hardware uh for Mario Kart never really made it uh applicable now jumping forwards we have seen a number of companies trying to jump in to fill the vacuum as Adam has stated our friends at uh uh Andemero have developed uh their uh karting game our friends at Unis have developed their carton game aimed at children uh and our friends uh at uh thank you uh the Andemero uh uh game builds upon uh its knowledge of its audience and so it is using Spongebob. There were two SpongeBob products on the show floor well more than two but uh brand new this this interpretation seemed okay I didn't play that extensively uh I did play Disney extensively for a very important reason which we'll come back to and one of the omissions on the show floor was the big publicity that our friends at Doth Robotics made when they had uh developed their um cartoon game based upon a popular IP uh Angry Birds of Angry Birds um and that has disappeared because developing content for a younger audience that also appeals to a mid-range audience is very difficult. I wanted to play the Disney product very intensively as Adam has touched upon in his excellent coverage of this um it it is a consumer game that has been pushed into uh the the entertainment sector and location base game oh yes good point all of these really it's it's easier from uh an amusement developer's point of view not to have to develop the game from scratch themselves but take a product that has already proven itself on console um and has also been approved on an IP level you don't have to keep on going through uh negotiations with uh Nickelodeon or Disney to uh have your characters and the graphical representation approved you're just taking assets an asset flip as some people like to call it the thing with Disney for me was the marriage of the card system because there's certain characters that you want to race as you want to race as wreck it Ralph um you know Mickey Minnie and Donald are uh used as the tertiary characters but when the card starts spitting out other characters it is a four-player network game and it is packaged in such a way that this could be the clear successor to um Mario Kart in its current format. It played well for an adult if if you will lower the standard of adults to include me but I also feel that it will it will play relatively well for a player. One of the things about uh the Angry Birds product which I think may have caused it to end uh end in immunity is that it was difficult to steer the the cart if you're an adult because it needed finite movement. A child is going to slam it one way and the other and the cart moves in a certain way where on the Disney product there is enough tension in the uh the steering capability to make it skillful for both ages anyway simplistic play pedal brake and speed that's it no gears no uh no view changes but but but but we are in an interesting position with adrenaline you know we've seen adrenaline succeed with a racing game from the consumer sector previously with need for speed I think that they're perfectly positioned if this game is seen to generate ROI to have another Mario Kart on their hand and the point I was going to make was if that happens that may wake up our friends at Bandai Damco to actually pull their finger out.

Cyberpunk 2077 Bike Racer Breakdown

SPEAKER_06 33:49

Right. Yeah I I want to before we hop over to what Triotech had um you know had revealed the one last thing I'll just say here about racers while this wasn't a sit-down cart racer um you know this monster jet rider uh is a is a case where you know you didn't have to necessarily use IP um and yet it still was a fairly enjoyable game it was a you know motion platform motion base um and uh you know the the sort of like jet ski controls like actually didn't oversteer it was pretty easy to control you had some firing very Mario Kart esque game you know play and their own IP that they developed right so nothing tied it was just monsters right there was nothing tied specifically to um an expensive IP and so I think there's opportunities as well to still produce you know games while IP can be a driver I think you know obviously to gameplay and to especially crossover between uh you know generations you can also have just fun gameplay uh that uh you know that that can work as well on its own i thought I thought the driving uh sorry the racing position was uncomfortable for younger kids but was suitable for uh uh your average teenager onwards as you say non-IP I made a big mistake as I rushed around the show on the uh the first couple of hours I assumed that that was Sharpnado IP and then I had to stop and watch the game being played to work out that it was a unique IP uh so whoever created the artwork for that did a great job um but again we have a lot of ride-on races and in the market at the moment we have a lot of kiddy races in the market at the moment trying to appeal to a market and I guess one thing that I should bring up that I wanted to bring up earlier too was uh the Cyberpunk 2077 license which while I'm not sure how much was talked about at the show like online this is getting a lot of attention because it has a huge fan base and not just in the United States uh but also in Europe and in Asia uh Steve at Unis was telling me that there were some influencers who caught picked up on the news and it was getting millions of hits in China alone.

SPEAKER_05 36:02

And I wasn't even aware that Cyberpunk had such a uh fan base in China but uh that one um I was very surprised by the um the package that it had there um uh as well as the the gameplay and everything it's uh interesting seeing Eunice over the many years and how uh their games uh had been and how they are now they've definitely stepped up their game uh as to the quality of the racers and that they are being able to develop something that is uh truly reaching parity with like what you would expect out of Roth Reals or Ben and Amco or Sega and um just even the details on the cabinet that they were putting there were uh a little bit different as well and uh or I guess another thing I wanted to say real quick was like the this was indicative through their Neon Rush game which I played at IAPA and I was shocked because it was like wow this is a lot better than what I expected like I played Ultramoto VR and that was just kind of forgettable to me. But Neon Rush was like wow this actually is very close to um a super bikes game but it doesn't feel like it's necessarily ripping it off um you know there's only so many ways to uh uh make a motorcycle racer but uh this this cyberpunk one it reminds me a lot of the old there was an old game called Road Rash. Yes of cool yes and but then probably for our industry there's motor raid and in fact I brought that uh up to uh uh a guy at Elot and uh he was like oh yeah I sold motor raids and and everything uh back in the day and so I was surprised to hear somebody knowing that somewhat obscure reference but um you know that one does stand to also perform very very well um it's obviously going for a different target market this would be something of more of a hardcore gamer millennial probably maybe Gen Z sort of target demographic um but again I was surprised and impressed by what they offered with that one.

SPEAKER_01 38:12

I I am I'm surprised that Steven was surprised by uh the uh online interest in this product we've seen uh uh a lot of interest from our excuse me uh from our coverage of this the uh the key key issues that I have for those of you that haven't seen uh the product this is one of the largest motorbike ride on uh amusement systems ever they have created a futuristic recreation of one of the bikes out of the successful PC um PC and console uh cyberpunk uh game IP so uh we've seen cyberpunk by LAI games turned into a shooting experience now we have a bike racing experience we are in an early stage here with this product it still needs to have its prototype design accepted by CD Red um I am interested how far Friends at Unis has gone with this concept before getting the final sign off I played the game extensively uh at the show and it is in an early stage of development that button to swing the katana was very definite uh uh very delicate a lot of lag and this graphics uh that the game is offering is not to arcade standard this is a higher level of graphical representation that we have seen on many games this isn't your raw thrills this isn't the cartoony uh high-end level graphical representation this is a near uh representation of the graphics that you see when you play uh cyberpunk my issues with it is the size of that cabinet this is a big box dominated unit uh for a play level that I would argue is not much higher than the traditional racing game. There is also some other issues with it which is it's not going to be a cheap product and it's not going to be a product that's going to be readily available in the near term. We may not have this product available for purchase until next year.

SPEAKER_05 40:20

So this is according to Steve at Eunice uh a couple of things uh is they he told me that they have had it's been in development for almost 24 months that they actually had the license before LAI uh announced their uh turf wars edition um that they have been working directly with CD project on it um he also I also saw pricing on this before the show it's under 30 000 which actually puts it in a much better spot than some of the other racers like that's better than speedrider 40x by BandaiMco it's better than asphalt moto blitz by LAI games so yeah out or top and so that actually does put it into a pretty good position because it is a twin model cabinet. Now of course like you said there is that issue there where it is rather large compared to a Superbikes 3 uh I think it's larger than the speedrider 40x is um I'm pretty sure it is just because the screen size uh on this which I think are 65 inch screens whereas the speedrider is like 49 if I recall correctly um but uh there was one little thing that they did on it uh on that you can sort of see on the sides of the cabinet there um I it's still a little hard to tell in the render but uh I was noticing this when I was editing video about it like you see those boxes and those pipes those are actually on the game uh and it's just that was something CD Project wanted on there just because that fits with the universe it's totally pointless from a uh practical point of view and there's some other things too like fake buttons on the uh part where there's the wind blower uh which actually the wind blower effects were very good on this one sometimes you don't fill them at all on certain games but on this one I actually did um but uh at the very least it's like that's a little interesting thing I guess for you know having things that uh are in universe to it uh little lighting things that and subtle details but you know maybe your normal consumer won't even notice those but I guess uh operator and gamer geek I I doubt a consumer is going to notice the box on the side and this is yet again a arc uh an arcade product being developed in uh by a consumer games company that has no bloody idea of what they're doing you know the unit uh situation with um cd red uh compared to the LAI game situation with Ubisoft.

SPEAKER_06 42:52

Yeah and you know the issue I always have with these kinds of things that are appended to the outside of the cabinet is that it makes it difficult when you're putting it into your game floor, depending on your space, you cannot nest your games up against each other without having you know to remove those things and then it just becomes like useless stuff that you paid extra for for the cabinet and for the IP. So you know I think sometimes just keeping things flat and simple on the sides is uh is the better path to go you know even if it is part of the IP um so the most problematic component of this bloody product is the seat is uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_01 43:30

It is uncomfortable to ride on it because it is an artistic representation of a video game uh component or model turned into reality and they're going to have to do a little bit of ergonomic modeling or else no one's going to want to stick on there much longer. And I had to because I was playing the game and my bum does not talk to me at the moment.

SPEAKER_05 43:52

And Steven that was another thing Steven did say that they were going to be doing some redesigning I don't know how much of that's going to go into ergonomics or comfort Um, but he did say that there would be some changes made there. They are also say told me multiple times June this year is when they intend on shipping this. So we'll see how that all goes. But I would say that that seat was still more comfortable than the shockwave seats on the new CleoTech product because that was surprising to me that they didn't have padding on those, uh on that one. It was just a hard surface. So when you're getting thrown around, uh my head, the back of my head was not like super sore, it wasn't bruised or anything, but it actually was uh you know, it was noticeable as like that was a little bit hard there.

Triotech Shockwave And Jumanji XD

SPEAKER_01 44:39

And uh so uh yeah, I'll I'll argue that the Dolph Robotics seat system has never uh nothing wrong with Dolph, it's just the the application for location-based entertainment has always been a bit rough. Just to bring everyone up to speed, our friends at Triotech have celebrated the uh multiple award-winning uh longevity of the uh typhoon uh ride amusement system by creating a uh a modern interpretation with Typhoon shockwave. The big differences are that they have uh improved the Doff motion-based system. I don't actually think they're doff. Uh sorry, um I actually think that they're using their own proprietary motion system here for this in a compact package. They're also going for the double screen approach with that awful scene, which I think is a bad move on their part, but uh you know, they they feel that it is the same thing.

SPEAKER_05 45:38

Yeah, when I first saw the render, I was hoping that it was um going to use like a micro LED curved screen, kind of like the Ubisoft All-Star VR. But then I was looking at it closely and it's like, that looks like those might be flat screens. And then when I got to the show, I was like, okay, they were flat screens. But then the even more odd thing about this that did kind of bother me is that the top screen is actually offset, it's forward like an inch or so from the bottom screen, so they're not uh flush with each other, and uh and then it so it create it made if you were bothering to look up at the top, uh you notice that it seemed to be slightly off. And so it's like, I don't know if that's just you know, for get it ready for the show because it's like on the Disney Speed Store. Uh, actually, all these games we've discussed so far, every single manufacturer told me there will be changes. Uh yeah, we just had to get it ready for the show, and so it's like I'm hoping that's what the instance is here because I did not like both the theme and then just the offset be is is like I just kept my focus on the bottom screen because it's like if I look at that top one, it's gonna drive me crazy.

Alan-1 Atari Recharged And Tournaments

SPEAKER_01 46:47

I I made a mis I keep on saying doff, I mean D box uh motion system. The the the issues with that product are as as you touch upon with a lot of these new products that were shown at the show for the first time, was that they rushed up to you as soon as they saw you from the media or the influencer side or whatever, and said, Oh, oh, this isn't it yet, Kevin. No, no, no, wait, wait, wait, we're gonna change it, we're gonna add whatever. So it's clear that they're now using AEI, like how they used to use uh the Fun Expo back in the day, the American show that took place uh at the beginning of the year in uh uh February and March, as a kind of a taster. They'll they'll work it through the mill, they'll do some ROI numbers, they'll make some major changes, and then we'll get to see the real thing in November, which means that I, you know, I'm very skeptical when uh you say that we will see this product in June uh for Cyberpunk when I get the feeling that they're not going to really have the final version until August, or even maybe show the final, final, final, final version uh for uh ILP. But one of the interesting things with our friends at Triotech uh that was many people may have missed uh was that they were also promoting that they've just had a major film IP uh license for content for their XD dark ride uh the dark ride theater systems. These are the systems where you sit in uh uh an auditorium and shoot at the screen with guns. Um they've just announced that they've done a Jumanji license, which will be coming out in the summer.

SPEAKER_06 48:20

Yeah, yeah. Well, so I want to before we get to the actual DOF robotics uh ride, I want to do a quick shift because one of my favorite pieces actually, and this is uh, you know, just in just to be fair, um, you know, just be very clear about this and transparent. Alan One is a sponsor of the LBX Collective and of the LBX show. Um, however, I was that as well as arcade heroes, as well as arcade heroes, yes. Um, but I was actually a uh a big stinger, yeah, and the singer, yeah, across the board. All um so I was really a big fan of the the specifically the Atari breakout. I mean, I think their Yars and their uh Caverns of Mars were also excellent, um, but I've I really enjoyed the breakout recharge. Um, and uh and so that was definitely you know one of my favorites. It used the Pepper's Ghost effect, obviously, which you know Adam has talked about, we talked about a little bit um on the LBX show last week. And we do have just a quick thing here from James at Allen One. It's gonna just talk about breakout, uh, and then we'll we'll uh come back because I want to get everybody else's opinion of these uh new new releases by uh Allen one.

SPEAKER_07 49:26

Thanks for finding me here. What a show, huh? How many times how many shows have you been to, Brandon? Uh I've been to this is my 10th show. 10th show. This is our fourth show. Four years ago, we had little teeny tiny booze and little avians, we had no idea how hard this would be. But I'm so glad we did it. We know how 29 gum lights working, we manufacture um we have partnerships with units, we have partnerships with us for trying to secure all the clubs. We're um we can um to really help operators and um FECs bring in more traffic, get more money, and more revenue when they get less ready there. We think the strategy is, we know it's working. There's an FECUT MOLMER GAMES up for a bit of in a mother location. Because if the nobody's there playing a game, they're gonna be a biggest money. When the kid's coming at us for more money, he gives them more money. One of the new guys is coming to the next. So we have three new games in the motherfucker, Tommy Child series. You can look at these games on the commonsable, even though different versions exist there. These are all been modified by Tomarian partnership is very strong. They allow us to change the code and make it great and make it for an arcade. Here, um, one of the things we did different with this number and we took we took inspiration from Space Invaders and Asteroids Deluxe and the. Why don't we bring the Ghost Pepper effect? Where you have a screen on the bottom that's hidden, a mirror here that's semi-transparent, and instead of cardboard in the back like what they did in the 80s, let's put another LCD screen and create some d to give the game an experience you can never get at home. Let me show you breakout. You can't see it on the on the camera because it's not 3D. But when you look at the screen, the background is actually backed by about three inches. And it gives an effect that you've just never seen before. It's 3D without glasses. This is breakout with your updated modern version that feels like a like the next evolution of what we should have been doing back in the day. We've included some Easter eggs in here. You know, Mustang built this game in four days for the money back in the day. So we actually included some masky code and smells of the secret message. We included all sorts of inspiration from pin bumble like bubble saves and multi-bumble with magic and bonuses. We even allowed you to capture the bum and put some spin on the bumble with some English to get breakout to get bonuses. The bonuses you get when you get a breakout is 1976. The year breakout came out. I mean, come on, it's all here. It's all a lot of fun. Breakout recharge. We already sold this one out the floor. Phototype number one.

SPEAKER_02 52:26

Congratulations to the guys. I love the passion. Thanks for capturing that, Adam.

SPEAKER_05 52:32

That was actually captured that. But I should say, as a disclaimer, uh, you know, I've been able to uh work directly with Alan One on uh playtesting and uh providing uh game design feedback and suggestions on those. Uh out of all those three, uh Caverns of Mars probably has the most of what I've suggested that they do. But actually, very early on, uh before I started doing any sort of consultancy with Alan One, I suggest I helped plant the seed for, you know, it'd be really cool to have the Pepper's Ghost effect back uh in arcades because that is something that you that just is very difficult, if not impossible, to do at home, unless you're you know, I'm sure somebody with a 3D printer can do something, but most people aren't going to do that. Um, but yeah, like breakout recharge. So I'm I'm kind of surprised they didn't do that sooner. Um, that would have made more sense to me than say like Gravitar, but uh, because it's just so iconic. Uh, and I was actually out of all the Atari recharged console versions, it was the best seller uh out of those two. Um, but yeah, with all the extra additions to the gameplay and the effect is very cool as well. I also think that, at least in my opinion, not maybe you feel differently about this um for the both of you, but it seemed like the depth was best on Caverns of Mars, and that was probably because I was definitely made that straighter one.

SPEAKER_01 53:54

I I feel that that effect works best there. I want them to do a scramble version of uh using that system. The 3D works breakout. The other thing that uh James didn't touch upon, and a big thanks for James for spending some time to talk to us, was that they were running a tournament on those missions. So tournament play is an important part. I get the feeling that a lot of operators are neglecting to actually understand where what uh Alan One is actually trying to achieve with their cabinet.

SPEAKER_06 54:25

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Uh we're not gonna we're just gonna let this play here while we talk about the tournament, but this is their you know major league esports, and you can see some of these guys, these were some of the players that came out for the tournament. So the way that the tournament works is they basically have it running throughout the year, and then the I believe top ten players are then invited. How many? Top eight. Top eight. Okay, top eight players are then brought in to uh compete ultimately for uh you know, for for first place, second place, and third place, and they just get to play for you know the three days or the two days while the show is going, and um, you know, and ultimately it's an all expense paid trip for uh for Alan, you know, the Allen one puts on to bring these guys out, and so it's a pretty cool thing. And then there's cash prizes. Um yeah, so they did win some different cash prizes based on you know, first, second, and third, and you know, either way got a chance to probably go around and play some other stuff while they were there too, you know, on the show floor.

SPEAKER_05 55:21

They did, yeah. And the first place winner this year got five thousand dollars. Uh and I can't remember what the uh second and third got, but it you know, it was also over a thousand dollars each. So pretty nice.

SPEAKER_01 55:34

The only other product that seems to be going down this path uh is our friends at Stern, uh, with their uh pimple uh tournament uh capabilities. It is a surprising element. Uh again, I I'm not gonna get beaten up by incredible technologies. They have a fantastic uh tournament capability based on their incredible uh on their uh golf uh and now their new bowling system. But this is something that causes repeat visitation. This is a longevity platform, this is easy cheddar on the table. I cannot understand why not more of our amusement brethren embrace this level of player engagement. I would also just like to say I got a chance to play a number of the uh Alan One machines for it finally, because usually I'm running around the show and I don't get a chance to play. Their missile command platform, excellent. Their that caves system with its uh Peppers go 3D effect was super special to me. The breakout was incredible. These are legacy products repackaged in a way that should be compelling, and I get the feeling that our operation side may be missing this out because they're stuck in a mindset that doesn't include this level of, shall we say, rebooted arcade playability.

SPEAKER_06 56:52

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I was also excited to see, you know, Adam got a picture here of the Pong tables and make a return. This was something that uh yeah, I have right in my office sitting here right in front of me, and picked it up back, I think, in 2017 or 2018 off the shelf floor when they were originally sold by Eunice. Um, and now the uh now Alan One has the license to distribute and uh and sell these uh these tables. So they were gone off the uh off the market for a few years and excited to see them back and uh because they're a great physical form of uh you know pong gameplay. And actually, you know, frankly, uh they're just a blast.

SPEAKER_01 57:31

I I I was always surprised why they disappeared. Um, I was never given a straight answer by Stephen about why they gave up. Unis gave up. It's nice to see Alan Wan doing this. I just hope that we also see some other game, uh early game products get that physicality representation because it is very compelling.

DOF Compact Flying Theater With LEDs

SPEAKER_06 57:51

Yeah, absolutely. Um, all right. Well, one of the things we've definitely got to talk about, uh, we we could not uh not talk about this at uh you know leave without doing this. Uh, this is the DOF, uh the new DOF ride. Um, it's uh basically a small mini flying theater that fits within a 20 by 30 footprint, so still fairly large for an FEC, but as far as a like you know big immersive full, uh it's pretty amazing. Um, you know, I'm gonna mute it here because there's just a lot of sound. Um, but you get a sense for you know, when you're in that seat, which is very comfortable, by the way. Uh really remarkable, you know, it was a remarkably uh comfortable seat. Uh you uh you know, you're you really feel immersed. Now, um, one thing I'll say, and they even admitted, uh, they these are all micro LED panels.

SPEAKER_05 58:38

And um Yeah, at first I thought it was projection mapping, and as I got close, I was like, those are LEDs, that's cool.

SPEAKER_06 58:44

Yeah, so very, very good resolution as a result. Um, you know, obviously shows very well in the high, you know, the the the very the bright atmosphere that we are in. Um, but you know, there's some there's some tweaking to those panels that need to happen when it's on site in order to get the perfect fidelity. Uh but overall for just a demo that they put together in two and a half days in before the before the show floor opened, um, you know, it was pretty well done and um you know exciting to see.

SPEAKER_05 59:10

That's very impressive because I was surprised by the graphic fidelity of the actual software itself. I mean, it was kind of their interpretation of a Star Wars-like thing, you could tell, but it was very cinematic, very well done.

SPEAKER_01 59:24

So this is uh Doff Robotics is mostly known in our sector for their virtual reality uh um uh attraction system, the 360, uh yeah, the Hurricane 360, yeah. And you know, sticking a VR headset in uh on your bonds allows you to have that level of uh ride immersion, but they have now embraced the latest range of LED panels. They put them in a dome, and we are at the transition point because if you're not worrying about a laser projector, if you're not worrying about throw and lighting scales, you now have a package at sitting down, everyone, 350,000 buckaroonies, and you can have a four-player um theme park quality attraction that could be deployed into any kind of location-based entertainment facility that has the ceiling clearance uh and the power uh capabilities. This four-player system rides off of, and they call it themselves, a compact flying theatre. Flying theatre experiences are very popular in the uh in the theme park attraction market, and they offer a level of engagement. The thing I love about this system is that that screen that we're looking at actually wheels in. So as soon as the experience starts, the lifts off, and then this uh the domes uh pulls in. So you're sitting in the iBox, the best location to watch that uh graphics, and the latest uh slimline LED stream panels have proven themselves. But this is the culmination of the transition point that we've talked about in a number of sound-offs, where the projection market will have to worry because they can be superseded now by LED systems. What does this have to apply to the amusement industry? Well, number one, it's a system that can be deployed in a location-based entertainment system as an alternative to laser tag or to karting or something like that. This is allows Goff to be in the FEC sector with a comparable price point system that will be very compelling. I have a number of uh clients that work in 4D film ride systems that look at this and say, wow, this is now an opportunity for our film content to be uh made available to this type of market. But there's also one important thing with Doff at the moment. DOF is moving into their own location-based entertainment facility operation. And it is clear that the company is thinking not just locally but globally regarding the placement of their products into new markets and offering new business opportunities.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:04

Absolutely. And I think that would also include like smaller theme parks who can't afford the giant flying theaters because I I don't know how many seats those have, isn't it something like 24 or even higher?

SPEAKER_06 1:02:15

Well, they they can have, I mean, and you know, even DOF has the larger flying theaters as well, right? So they they have them up to you know, you can have them in 24 seat uh racks, but then you can also stack them and have multiples, and you can have you know massive massive uh flying theaters. You take it soaring over California, and I believe that number is close to around 200 seats in that particular flying theater.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:36

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:36

Big dome, big projection system, multi-stacked. Yeah, the for some reason uh uh tastes, the flying theater experience or the soaring theater experience really took off when Disney created uh soaring over America, where you know you're the legs are dangling, you're looking into a dome experience. Yeah, oh yes, and you believe that you're there, and that and that has been duplicated across the market with lots of people creating soaring styled uh flying theaters. Now, scaling that down to be uh to get that uh uh profitability for a location-based entertainment with a system like this. I I'm not sure how many people who wanted the AEI show floor actually recognized what a revolution this particular system could be. I I think that would be the big takeaway for me about AEI this year. But there were a number of revolution moments, be it uh the card swipe technologies that were shown at the show, uh, this as a uh mid-scale attraction, our friends with in the IP zone with John Wicks uh and with uh Pokemon, where our industry is actually changing quite drastically. And it isn't just transmedia, it's changing in its profitability position.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:55

Yeah, absolutely. Uh one point of just quick clarification. Uh the$350,000 for that DOF experience was the show special, and it is$420 for the uh as you know on a retail basis. Now that's to you know, probably be to be determined as you know your pricing sets in, etc. But um that was the uh you know the thing. And it uses the the main DOF uh system uses their supernova uh platform, which has been tried and true for uh it's been out in the market for decades. So this is not some you know brand new thing. Obviously, the LED dome itself that rolls in to the but the supernova product itself has been in the market and is in hundreds of installations across the world. And so it's definitely a platform that you know I think you could rely on, um, rely on over time. Um, I also heard that the maintenance on it from uh Sam Rhodes, who's their uh uh their head of North America uh for Doth, said that the maintenance on the supernova product is about$2,000 a year. So when you're looking at a mid-size attraction, you know, talking about putting in a go-kart system, for example, yeah, it takes up significantly more um, you know, the maintenance on go-karts versus on something like this, for example, are uh in two completely different worlds.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:13

There's there's an interesting crossover period where a FEC operator starts thinking about putting a soaring attraction into their facilities next door to maybe just having a laser tag attraction.

Area 15 Growth And Immersive Vegas

SPEAKER_06 1:05:26

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. All right, so this is uh, you know, I think covered quite a bit that we had, and you know, we can always circle back if we want to to a few other things at AEI. Um, but we'd love to talk about some of the things in and around the uh the convention center that we had a chance to go and check out. So, Kevin, I know you had a chance to get around uh to Aerie 15 uh before you had to take off a little bit early on Thursday. So maybe you could talk a little bit about some of your experience that you had, and then I'll tag on to that as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:56

So one of the important things about being uh In Vegas is uh keeping up with all of the competitive socializing investment that is now steering the direction uh of the sector. You know, I created a long, boring list of all of the new uh competitive socializing venues that are opening out there, everything from F1 Arcade uh uh all the way down uh to flight club. One of the biggest developments, of course, has been uh Area 15. The shopping mall of entertainment experiences that I think we coined in a Stinger report many moons ago. And it has gone through a reinvestment. We have now phase two of uh Area 15. So away from the main hub, there is a new hub uh which is uh earmarked, or should we say, underpinned by the carcass of a lovely Boeing 747 in the middle of it, made me sad. This is still early in development. Only half about a third of uh the units are populated, and many uh many of them are in development. But what we do have there is we have uh the uh arc experience, which is a virtual reality and immersive uh futuristic space. We have escape games there, uh we have Universal Horror there, which uh again is uh an immersive experience with actors, with live actors, uh as well as digital experiences, all wrapped up in the the uh pastiche or the branding that is Area 15. Jumping back to the original Area 15 component, we also have now uh an update to their brewery dining experience, as well as the inclusion of a John Witt experience, which is again a live actor, uh walkthrough immersive experience with some skill. What we are seeing here with Area 15 within Vegas, away from the strip, away from the casinos, is how competitive socializing works well. And even within the established uh Area 15 concept, they are constantly reiterating and updating. We walked around the uh classic retro arcade that they have within that space, and that has gone through an update and a metamorphosis of uh uh the five iron uh golf facility has been updated a little bit. They even have something now which is a kind of lab for immersive entertainment where they put the birdie simulator where they have a me leap uh interactive uh AR-based uh game system where they have some virtual reality. Constantly iterations. We're led to believe that our friends at Area 15 aren't just looking at Las Vegas now. They had originally planned to expand to Orlando. That plan got shelved now after their latest uh opening of the uh the new edition, the new phase two, we're led to believe that they have some bigger plans to announce later on in the year.

John Wick Experience Versus The Bar

SPEAKER_06 1:09:17

Yeah. Uh, you know, I will say that the uh while there are a couple of competitive socializing spaces, you mentioned Five Iron Golf, there's also the axe throwing inside of the main uh area 15 bunkers, I guess we'll call them, the zone one uh bunkers is what they call it. And uh but primarily I really think it seems to be that the area 15 is really turning into be this area for immersive experiences. And while you still have you know game show, uh it's not game show battle room, but game show experience and some uh you know escape games as well. Um, so you could argue that those are both uh maybe a mixture of competitive socializing as well as immersive experiences, but really is becoming a hub for that. And uh, you know, I was uh hoping I could get in to see the John Wick experience. I ran out of time to do both that and Interstellar Arc. I was able to do Odyssey Manor, which I was very excited about, and I did talk about on LBX show last week, uh, you know, in in preview, and they took over the old Lost Spirits distillery, uh, and which was one of my favorite experiences around it's not a part of officially a part of Area 15, but it's in that same area. And I was uh both really pleased with what they done with Odyssey Manor and also a little bit disappointed in that they hadn't changed a whole lot of the theming and space for uh that was there for Lost Spirits. Uh, they really just took over the space, made some small modifications, updated the FB, uh, I would argue improved the actual actors and and um and performances, but it was a fun experience. Uh, and so did enjoy that. Um, I was super underwhelmed, and I know Adam has a different uh experience because he actually went through the John Wick experience, but I was substantially underwhelmed by the at least the lobby and the main bar. I know this wasn't the speakeasy that I couldn't get into at the time, uh, but this is the lobby and the main bar for uh the John Wick experience. Very under underwhelming. Their bar um was uh, you know, frankly, like this is something that that could have been done for, I don't even know, like$10,000. I mean, like this was something that just like had felt like to me the budget was not put forward to create a great bar experience and certainly didn't lead me to believe that if I went into the rest of the John Wick experience that it would actually be at the same uh that a higher level of fidelity, I was actually worried that okay, if I go on this thing, it's gonna be the same level of fidelity and I'm gonna be very disappointed. But Adam, you had a chance to do it, and I'm curious to you know hear about your uh your thoughts.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:45

Uh I guess it's a little bit amusing because you're asking a Mormon uh about uh bars and everything. But uh from what I mean, really this looks fancier than the speakeasy does, but of course speakeasy aren't aren't supposed to look fancy. Um, but I'm pretty sure it was the exact same menu that they had available in both uh the speakeasy and whatnot. I mean, the speakeasy did have a little bit of that uh John Wick Noir, uh future noir uh going on uh with it, you know, a little more underground sort of stuff. But overall, the the John Wick experience itself, like when you get started and you go into this very narrow elevator and then it starts going in through the experience, like that I thought was fantastic. I I was very fortunate back in the day to go through the Star Trek experience, which used to exist at the Westgate Resort. Um it reminded me of that, except that it was a little bit more advanced. It's well, a lot more advanced, I should say, um, where it's this themed, uh almost like an escape room experience. Uh there where you go through multiple runes, you have to work together as a team. There's at live actors who walk you through everything. Um, and there was also an arcade experience in this John Wick one, where like the Star Trek one was an actual ride where you went into a shuttlecraft and it was a projector screen, very old school from late 90s, you know, advanced for them. But um, but in in this John Wick one, um the the actors were fantastic. Um, they were um they they were able to keep their composure and play along with it, very good at improv and everything. The sets inside there were all very good. There were a couple of instances where you did have to do the escape room thing of working together to get to the next room. Uh, and then the rest of it was more of the kind of guided experience with what you were going through. And I'm trying not to spoil anything there, but uh just that part there. If if you're not worrying about uh the bar, I think that is uh well worth it. Granted, I also am saying this as I didn't have to pay for any of it, so you know whatever, but uh that was nice. But um overall, I was happy with the experience portion of it.

F1 Arcade Looks Great But Feels Hard

SPEAKER_01 1:14:07

Well, that of course if you didn't have to pay for it, it's uh extra special. Yeah. It it you know, I I I too have happy memories of the uh Star Trek uh experience at uh the Westgate all those years ago, and uh and it had proven back then in the 90s that you could do a immersive entertainment experience with real actors as well as supported by digital uh experiences. And I think our industry's woken up to this again. Moving away from the uh live experience approach, we also have the competitive socializing experience. And one of the other venues that I managed to get to that I know Brandon also managed to attend was the F1 uh arcade experience.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:53

Yeah, the this is one that I definitely wanted to see. We've talked about this a number of times on both the LVX show as well as sound off. And um I was uh was very interested to see, you know, A, like how what were the aesthetics, you know, how how did it look, like how you know how busy was it, etc. And I'll show some pictures here. And to be fair to them, we got there. I went with Barry Zelixon from Fun Across America, as well as then Jeremy Hoyam with the Urban Air, um, he's an Urban Air franchisee and uh the current FEC committee chair for IAPA. And you know, we had a chance to go down and check it out. And this was at noon, right after they had opened on Thursday afternoon. So to be fair to them, you know, when I'm walking around, it was relatively empty, but it had just opened. So um this uh, but you can as you can see here, I mean, really frankly, just a beautiful facility. Uh, the you know, very well appointed. Um, everything was very well done. All the finishes were on point. I really have no complaints whatsoever with regards to the overall look and feel of it. You know, my biggest issue, and we've talked about this, um, and now I got a chance to actually see it in person versus just see on photos, is that there's just way too many sims, period. It's way too big of a facility. There's a third floor and a first floor. And to be fair, the first floor is much smaller and uh is really just meant to be an entry point, and then you can take an elevator up to the third floor to be able to then then you know, this is where we were ultimately as on the third floor. Um, and this is located in the Caesars, way in the back of the forum shops. So also not easy to find, not easy to navigate to as well. Um, but you know, again, very well uh appointed, had one of their cocktails, it was very well done. The staff were friendly, um, and it looks phenomenal. But as you can see, empty, there was um this this little gift shop, which you know, Kevin corrected me and said there's a larger gift shop on the bottom floor that I missed. Um, but this was all you could buy on the top floor and uh just a couple of hats, so I thought was a miss. Here was an example of for uh you know two couples that were you know playing. They purchased a 30-minute uh it was roughly actually they purchased a three-race package, and apparently each race takes about 10 minutes. So this was a 30-minute experience, roughly. And for a three-race package, it's basically$30, roughly$30 per person. Um, so you know, it's you call it uh you know, a dollar a minute, uh basically, that you're spending to play. They came and they went. They didn't get any food, they didn't get any drinks, they they left after the 30 minutes after they did their first three races. Um and you know, one of the things I called out, I was watching them race, and the guy on the left here, uh clearly the one who wanted to come here, yeah, he he finished first. And the other three out of 10, you know, there's there's uh there were then six other um uh six other, you know, basically computer driven, you know, NPCs, and then the other three, they all were DFL. So seven, uh they're all eight, nine, and ten. So this is one of my issues as well with something like an F1 that requires actually quite a bit of practice, and and it's not an easy thing to pick up right out of the gate. And you have one person there who's enjoying it, having the time of his life, and the other three are struggling, they're spinning out, they're you know, and yeah, they were laughing a little bit, whatever. Um, but I can guarantee you, if they had had a more accessible experience, they would have stayed longer, maybe bought some drinks, loosened up a little bit, and then hopped back on and played. Um, and so this is, I think, a major issue.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:29

It's it's what we stated at the launch of F1 Arcade in London, it's what we stated at the second launch, the third, fourth launch, that they are forgetting what they are, which is an entertainment facility based upon the F1 franchise. I have done a detailed evaluation of the play model that they are using for F1 Arcade, and you only get three game styles. You get the you know, the Plastocine, easy peasy Mario quality, you then get a little bit more simulation, then you get the super pro version. All of these versions still don't appeal to a wider audience. If you go to Flight Club down the road, a darts experience, even if you suck at darts, you can still get something out of the darts experience. As long as that your steals touch the uh touch the board, you will still be brought into the game. There won't be that expert level. This is the most dangerous thing about competitive socializing, where you have one person who's fantastic at it, and the rest of the players are so-so, and they get bored very quickly. Yeah. You're right. The uh F1 facility had opened early. I went uh at three o'clock on a Sunday.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:49

Oh, Sunday. Oh, you went during the weekend. Okay, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:51

Yeah, uh uh weekend. You you did a weekday. Um, it is early. I didn't see any marketing or promotion in the Vegas rundown promoting the F1RK. Maybe they are focusing mainly on promoting themselves during race season, and we have to also remember this isn't the only F1 uh experience in Vegas. They also have a Grand Prix uh uh venue. My argument here is we need to keep a very close eye on F1RK to see if they work out what that word arcade in their name actually means.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:25

Absolutely. All right. Well, was there anything we got you know last maybe two minutes each if there's anything else we wanted to uh to to cover? Um, but uh otherwise, you know, I think we can uh we can call it a wrap on this year's AEI. Anybody else uh got anything last to say?

What Was Missing And Industry Shifts

SPEAKER_05 1:20:42

I don't know. I guess um I got a photo there uh really quick of uh X Arcadia. They had actually been missing from Amusement Expo last year, um, but we're back, and uh they are starting to lean a lot more into the licensed IP. Um they have some huge announcements with some Jap Japanese IP that are going to be coming with uh up with the event known as Evo Japan 2026, which is more of a fighting game tournament thing, but uh it's going to make some big headlines. Uh, but at this show they had um Avatar Legends the Fighting Game, which is based on the Avatar anime uh as well as G.I. Joe, which funny enough, um I asked Jet Games USA about this because at IAPA uh everybody was talking about that G.I. Joe game with that giant artillery cannon on it, and it was missing from Amusement Expo. And it sounds like it's been delayed. It's still in development, but they're still working on it, and I guess they felt it wasn't time to uh uh bring it to the show. But uh this G.I. Joe game, it's uh more of a four-player beat-em-up type game, um, and uh made to as a you know strong fan service to people who were really into G.I. Joe back in the day. Uh and so they're yeah, with them and their systems, which though, as you can tell, those cabinets are Japanese uh arcade cabinet styles. Uh they're very modular as well. You can swap out the control panels, you can even change the orientation of the monitor. Um, they've seen very high demand for those to the point where they've actually stopped making those uh older wooden ones that they used to show off at these shows because there's just not any brand new Japanese arcade cabinets available for collectors and the like. But there's more arcades that are also getting into wanting to offer that sort of Japanese arcade experience so you don't have to fly to Tokyo to get it. And uh Exa is one of the few companies that's allowing you to do that with brand new content.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:41

Yeah, that's awesome. I'm glad you called that out. That is uh this is one area I didn't get a chance to really spend a lot of time to uh to play these games.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:50

Well, it was the appearance of the their GI Joe that triggered my memory that we were missing one GI Joe uh experience off the show floor. We were missing a couple of uh experiences off the show floor because of shipping problems. Some companies weren't able to bring products, some executives weren't able to come. Uh just touching upon VR uh and uh XR in general, we still had VR products on the show floor. There was still uh a level of engagement and interest in that technology. We also had uh Mixed Reality on the show floor, our friends at Versus uh had a very popular show, and our friends uh at uh Dive Labs, they uh also came to the show with a brand new Arena VR uh experience that was of interest. For me, you know, the the high altitude uh observation of AEI this year is that it was still showing its value uh and its importance into the uh market. What I'm more interested in is how much the market is changing, and there is a strong possibility that the distributors that we have in this uh industry and the manufacturers in this industry are beginning to change their business model quite considerably due to three areas that are pressuring them. They're being pressured by the cost of living and the financial situation, which has been compounded by uh the oil price rise. They are changing because of the new compet uh competition. We have seen a lot of venues open, and some of them haven't opened as traditional amusement sites. But finally, we're seeing the uh the change of age. We have been watching the amusement industry continue along a path, a traditional path unchanged. But those days are over. We're seeing a migration of some of the older members of our industry executives retiring and moving on, while the new people coming into the industry are not following the same hymn sheet, the same business plan, and are looking at the opportunities. And that was best illustrated for me by our gender moment. Oh, sorry, our gender moment on the show floor. We saw the transition of player one uh distribution, who's been acquired by Gendar, physically changing their brand uh during the show uh to now being uh uh Kittleton. This is the beginning of something that I think many of the traditionalists in the amusement industry aren't ready for, but it is fascinating for some of us, uh secret baseball watchers, so we say.

Wrap-Up And What Comes Next

SPEAKER_06 1:25:30

Yeah, absolutely. I thought those pictures when you sent them of the of the player one banner and then in the same example. Yeah, absolutely. I thought that was fascinating. So um, all right. Well, guys, this has been an excellent review of Amusement Expo International 2026, and we'll see you all on the next guest gab. Have a good one. Intercard is the only catchless system designed, developed, and manufactured all under one roof. They introduced catchless technology to the amusement industry and have been leading the way for over 30 years. Catchless systems from Intercard increased customer spending, get satisfaction, and boost revenues by up to 30%. Intercard is so proud to be serving the amusement industry. And if you are already part of a global family of customers, they hope you will become one soon. All right. Well, that was a great guest gab and review with Adam and Kevin. So still glad that they were able to join us here. And uh it is nice to be able to just see them walking around, even though we didn't get to spend maybe a whole lot of time together as much as we would have preferred. Uh, but you know what? We've got uh we are not doing a sound off this week, so we're gonna skip this week because of Amusement Expo. We didn't uh Kevin and I did not record one, uh, but we will be back with sound off number 115 with Kevin Williams on Tuesday, March 31st. And otherwise, that is a wrap for this week's LBX show. This is Brandon Wiley signing off. Stay tuned and keep kicking at us.