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LBX Collective
Sound Off #115 - Arcade Dynamic Pricing, IP-based Social Entertainment, & more!
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On this week's show we challenge the amusement industry’s reaction to dynamic pricing and map out what it would take to use variable pricing without breaking guest trust. Then we sprint through the biggest LBE and FEC trends right now, from geopolitical shocks and investment moves to VR’s reset and the tech and IP trends seen at Amusement Expo International.
• dynamic pricing defined for admissions, sessions, and eventually arcade gameplay
• why transparency, signage, and marketing decide whether guests feel cheated
• Middle East conflict impacts on entertainment events and tourism forecasts
• Saudi Arabia’s esports investment and what it signals for leisure strategy
• American Heartland’s collapse as a due diligence warning for mega-projects
• Funlab's sale watch and what the prospective buyers may change or cut
• Five Iron Golf’s Series E and what it implies about growth pressure
• Immersive Gamebox franchising and the need for hospitality-led formats
• Angry Birds and the ongoing IP infusion race in competitive socializing
• Secret Cinema going permanent and Warner’s Harry Potter experience plans
• executive departures and why missing successors create operational risk
• Merlin revenue softness plus Minecraft as an IP-led turnaround attempt
• Netflix House immersion tech and why interactive tools drive repeat visits
• VR and MR market cycles, liquidations, and why commercial VR still holds
• new turnkey competitive socializing products and the data-risk question
• Pokémon Go data monetization and the public as unintended beta testers
• Amusement Expo International takeaways on IP, arcade innovation, VR, and XR
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Welcome And What’s New
SPEAKER_00Are you on the edge of your seat? Because we're about to see the covering today's latest trends in location-based entertainment. Brought to you by the LBX Collective, your community to connect with a inspirer. All right, everyone. Let's buckle up.
SPEAKER_03All right. Well, welcome everybody to the latest sound off with Kevin Williams. This is number 115 for March 31st, 2025. Kevin, how are you doing back in London after a great time out at Amusement Expo?
SPEAKER_01Oh, wow. Uh, still trying to recover a little bit uh the time zone change, but I'm doing well, Brandon. I hope you are too.
SPEAKER_03I'm doing well and didn't have to deal with a time zone change whatsoever.
SPEAKER_01Lucky you.
SPEAKER_03All right. Well, how are you going to change my mind this time?
SPEAKER_01Well, um, this is a ticklish subject, as most of my uh change my minds usually are, but this is ticklish in a direction that is uncomfortable for some of our trade to actually grasp. And that is dynamic pricing. You know, I'm hearing people typing in the comment session right now and throwing things at their laptops. Dynamic pricing for those of you that are new to this is the ability to have a facility operation where at certain time periods or certain uh uh days in the week, you can change the price of uh the experience that you are offering or the particular product that you are offering. It does what it says on the tin. It is dynamic. The issue here is dynamic pricing is kind of one that needs to be married to a very professional marketing and promotional system so people don't feel jipped, don't feel cheated if they turn up at your site and the price is different uh from one day uh or the other, or from one period of the day to the other. And we have seen dynamic pricing employed in the restaurant industry, hospitality industry, and the even in the cinema industry. But now there are more and more calls for location-based entertainment facilities to consider dynamic pricing, especially linked to the effectiveness of the uh contactless payment systems we now employ.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean, look, I think that uh dynamic pricing for admissions and uh you know for your your uh your session times, if you're you run by based on sessions, or if you do pre-sale tickets, like those are all perfect opportunities for dynamic pricing. And a lot of the point of sale systems that exist out there do have that capability for those types of things. I think where we run into the issues, while you know, while I I don't think that uh dynamic pricing is a problem when it comes to amusement, uh the actual amusement pieces, we don't have the systems in place to be able to employ dynamic pricing across all of the different games, redemption games, uh arcade games. We don't have the algorithms at some level. We don't have, and then we don't have the capabilities for the real-time dynamic pricing shifts. And I think the card system that does something like this and gives those capabilities to their operators will be a leader for quite some time. I think that the market is ripe for it, the consumer expects at some level dynamic pricing. Should games be cheaper to drive more gameplay during hours and more expensive during other hours? Should certain pieces that have more activity during certain times because of the demographics of when they're there? There's so much opportunity for more both revenue and gameplay to be had here by employing dynamic pricing across amusement pieces, but we just do not have the systems for that today.
SPEAKER_01We will have uh the King Canute moment by our traditional trade to try and stop this from actually happening beyond, as you say, the theme part ticket approach to dynamic pricing. I expect, married to decent signage, married to decent social media and online promotion, that uh a dynamic system linked to one of the popular payment systems will take shape. Uh, it will need to be managed very well, and whoever takes the plunge will benefit from this, though it will be a very hard baptism. Though I would argue also that uh dynamic pricing may need to change its uh perception in the market to be able to succeed fully.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, uh maybe I think that might be true. I think people consumers are already doing it. Maybe they just don't know they're doing, you know, they're being they're succumbing to dynamic pricing unless they're buying tickets for Disney, et cetera, right? Which or theme parks that those are very transparent dynamic pricing uh models. I think, though, that you know, when we took at Fever and we look at some of these other ticketing platforms, they are employing dynamic pricing certainly to some of their uh attractions and experiences. The difference will be when I'm inside a facility, I've already paid to be there or I've I've driven there. And then the pieces themselves, the individual games and experiences themselves, are dynamically priced. I think maybe that is where we will require some consumer education.
SPEAKER_01Clusters. But anyway.
Economy Ripples And F1 Cancellations
SPEAKER_03All right. Well, all that being said, after a quick break, we'll dive into the economy trends. Intercard is the only cashless system designed, developed, and manufactured all under one roof. They introduced cashless technology to the amusement industry and have been leading the way for over 30 years. Cashless systems from InnerCard increase 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 their global family of customers, they hope you will become one too.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. And straight into the trending economy aspect. Um the ripples still continue within the Middle East's entertainment and leisure sector uh regarding the current uh conflict. We now have the confirmation that F1 has cancelled its plans for its uh Middle East uh race season. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, uh Grand Prix have now been cancelled. Uh that's quite a big hole in the F1 uh uh race uh schedule. Uh and it also brings uh concern regarding other events, uh other gatherings and other projects that are in development in the area also being either postponed or being cancelled. Still no word at this late date whether the C Saudi uh entertainment and amusement conference will be taking place, though from an international standpoint, many of the people I've spoken to have already cancelled their plans to go to that. I just think they're ignoring the inevitable, or they're going to focus on making this show wholly for uh their particular area. Another knock-on, of course, that we've uh been reporting on, and that is the impact in the tourist sector. Uh 2025 saw an incredible downturn in tourists, especially from Canada uh into the North American market. That has had an impact uh on uh expectations on ticket sales uh and visitations to the theme parks, which we'll talk about uh a little later on, and also has now put storm clouds over what the reaction is going to be to the uh World Cup uh coming in the next few months.
SPEAKER_03So, one quick uh thing, I I have heard uh that uh and it hasn't been confirmed publicly, but I have heard from some internal sources that uh C has been canceled, and so it's quite possible that by the time this runs, um, that uh, you know, of course, this is upon time of recording, by the time this runs, that uh C will have made their cancellation notice public. Um, one thing just quickly to note about F1, I mean, this is a big economic impact. This is the biggest sport in the world, F1. Um, surprise, it's bigger than football, uh bigger than cricket. F one is hands down, yeah, exactly. Uh hands down the biggest sport in the world. And these two races comprise close to 190 to 200 million dollars in revenue loss just for F1, which also equates to about an 80 million in EBITDA that they have lost from just these two races. And that's not including the losses by the teams uh that are there as well. This is just F1 corporate that is losing this type of revenue. So these are having these types of cancellations and the continued conflict is having a massive uh impact globally on just not only the sporting world, obviously, but the rest of the world. There's big trickle-down effects happening.
SPEAKER_01Moving into the uh trending biz and uh continuing with uh what's happening in Saudi, some areas that they're having to back away from, some areas that they're doubling down from. And uh our friends at the uh Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund Wealth Group have uh decided to double down on their investment on esports, and they have uh spent six billion dollars on uh Moontone, which is uh owned by Bike Dance and is one of the uh what I would call the uh gathering agents for esports uh activities, events, and uh team uh promotions. This is quite a big deal uh and carries on the cementing of uh the Saudi market for esports. They have one of the largest esports events, well, one of the largest, uh China they've been competing with over uh the event, and I am wondering that the current situation that we were talking about previously may have impact towards whether some of these teams will be able to travel to Riyadh uh in September for the uh Saudi and UAE esports championships.
SPEAKER_03Wow, we talk about uh we just talked about F1 and uh being one of the biggest sports in the world. Uh, you know, look, esports, while still in niche, is growing significantly in some of these markets. And these types of prices are prices that individual F1 teams are going for. You know, six billion, four billion dollars for some of these individual F1 teams. And we're seeing this now for uh these types of esports uh events and corporations. So uh this is uh something definitely to keep an eye on.
American Heartland Project Unravels
SPEAKER_01We touched upon this in open and shut and we'll go into a little bit more detail. American Heartland was a project that started off uh in 2023 as a dream, a$2.5 billion dream uh to build in Oklahoma. A vast theme park concept on a Disney World or Disneyland scale of uh development. They actually brought in a number of ex-Walt Disney Imagineers to design the uh concept for this. It was backed by um very powerful entrepreneurs in the area that came from corporate as well as uh from the religious heartland, and uh the concept had actually broken ground. We'd had the shovel uh uh shovel in the land moment for uh uh for the beginning of this. It was going to be an RC park to open first, and then each one of the different gates that was going to offer a traditional American experience, and then suddenly everything went quiet 2024, 2025, and finally now in 2026, uh the stake has been pushed through Heartland uh and it has come to an end. And in enigmity, uh the uh the whole process has been now thrown into chaos uh through legal action. It would seem that many of the claims about the money uh that was being invested into this project was not correct, that those individuals of high net worth that were bankrolling these projects didn't have uh that uh capital available to them. And even some of the key individuals involved with this were pressured into uh undertaking uh uh investment into this project. One individual has actually uh family has actually uh claimed elder abuse and started legal action against those uh that were involved in running this project. You know, claims that uh the individual was faked into believing that God was talking to them via uh email communication have been leveled. Uh this is a very nasty way to end a project, especially in Oklahoma that is desperate for an A-tier theme park project. There was so much excitement and there was so much interest from the community as well as the entertainment industry as a whole. And I noticed that uh while certain media services have been reporting uh what has happened to American Heartland, many in the current uh theme park industry seem to be ignoring this.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I mean, this is the this is a wild and wacky story. Uh it's uh you know, it is not great for those who have been uh duped by the the two um, I guess I'll say the two main defendants of the legal action. Um, but it is uh it is wild uh the fact that uh you know this this stuff is even happening today in uh you know, unfortunately, and that$60 million roughly at least um you know has been just evaporated as a result of this uh this this project for just nothing more than basically a fence and a gravel road, uh so to speak. So yeah, I know exactly. And one of the even wilder things is that one of the defendants, just as an aside, has submitted legal briefings uh that even contain fake case citations that uh are claimed to be hallmark signs of AI hallucinations. And so I think that this is just, you know, the whole this whole thing will just be continued to be a wild story, but also very disappointing because this could have been uh you know a great project had it been able to get off the ground and and run by you know proper uh proper businessmen and women.
Funlab Sale And Brand Uncertainty
SPEAKER_01And this has got theme park industry written all over it, and we can't hide in the sand and hope it goes away. We have to position ourselves to defend ourselves against this. Is not how our industry uh works. These were when they are convicted or if they are convicted, two bad actors. Though again, our trade associations are going to have to stand up and take their knocks because they had support at the beginning of this process. And you can't just support it and then disappear if it starts to smell. You should do the smell test at the beginning, and we should be in a position where at least if our trade associations saw something going wrong with this project, they should have stepped in. But again, we'll wait for the legal uh prosecutions to complete before judgment is ruled. Moving on, and a really confusing one here, though one that could have major ramifications for not just the Australian uh social entertainment sector, but for the international sector. Fun Labs, you've heard us talk about them many times before, uh commenting about their holy moly brand, which has actually made it to the United States as well as uh being established in Australia. Uh, we've talked about uh their hijinks hotel and their uh strike bowling uh uh operation, six brands under the Fun Lab chain, 80 facilities uh in all operated by the operation. Uh and they were acquired back in uh 2021 by uh an equity, a private equity firm that uh$250 million, uh I think that was Australian dollars, uh, into them. And uh everything seemed rosy uh in the courts. And then last year we had the first inkling that there were issues. Uh we had a change in management, top-tier C-suite management changed, and then we also had a report that the uh expected earnings from their businesses hadn't hit the targets that they had set themselves. It didn't seem major alarm bells, it just seemed par for the course of what the sector was experiencing. But for the equity firm, it does seem to have been the straw that broke the camel's back, and they put uh Funlab up for sale. Now, at the time of recording, we're led to believe that there are two or three suitors that are actively looking at acquiring Fun Labs, uh, and that we should by the end of March have an answer to who will be the lucky winner in that battle. But this will be one to watch to see whoever acquires Fun Lab, how much they change the operation, how much they are prepared to put money into the operation to roll it out, because to be honest, I feel Fun Lab was on the launch pad of international rollout. Uh 80 facilities may be great within the oceanic uh uh region, but really they were starting the process of looking at North America uh as a strong launch pad. And now having to pause that means that other operations with similar entertainment properties could uh eat the cheese that they have left on the table. So this is a time is ticking, and who is going to be the recipient of this operation? Questions that we will be answering, I hope, in the next couple of weeks.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, absolutely. The the timing of this is really interesting, especially given the fact that you mentioned the C-suite transition that happened in December of last year between the CEO Michael Schreiber, who then handed the basically stepped down as a CEO to become executive chairman and passed it on to Blaise, um, Blaise Witness, who's been a longtime executive there. So definitely no stranger to the Fun Lab culture and everything they've been doing. And it was expected that she was going to really take things into the future. And so, you know, we will see what shakes out as far as the C-suite changes are concerned once uh sale is done. Um, but definitely a very interesting timing given that transition just three months ago.
Five Iron Golf Funding Signals
SPEAKER_01Whoever comes in to acquire fun lab may want to parachute in their own team. Whoever comes in to acquire fun lab may not buy all of the operation. There are a couple of those brands that have not really achieved the numbers, uh, what I would call boat anchors holding the rest of the vessel down. And there is also the question of how much the uh internal operations uh team have jury-rigged uh the facility chain to be able to grow into the North American market. Acquiring failed uh mini-golf operations in San Francisco and then turning them into holy moly uh was one approach, but that was just the starting point towards really what they have to do to establish a unique brand or chain of brands in that market. But again, want to watch, and we live in interesting times. Our friends uh to uh Five Irons, uh, they've just completed a Series E investment. Um you know, this is quite a large amount of cash, not you know, the the details uh still in the wind, as it were, but this has gone towards uh growing uh upon their aspirations. They they're currently operating 40 facilities under the Five Irons Golf uh chain. Most of them are configured as golf lounges, though we have reported uh of their migration towards a more FEC or LBE style competitive socializing model. With this investment, uh, this new funding will grow the operation and move to the next milestone that they have set themselves, which uh I think was nearly a hundred facilities in the next uh four years. But again, this is once the money has settled down, especially in the chaotic investment market that we're experiencing at the moment, this is a very serious investment or foundation to allow them to grow their model.
SPEAKER_03This is a really interesting one given the fact that they only have 40 locations. And I say only given the fact that this is a that this is a series E investment, right? This is, you know, when you have 40 locations, you would expect this to be a series B or a Series C. The fact that we're already so far along in uh their you know equity investment rounds. And we don't know, right? The funding amount was not disclosed. We don't know if this was a down round, if this was an up round. So we don't necessarily know. Um, but at the same time, you know, there's something to be said for the fact that they are still raising investment capital, equity capital, uh, at some Level. This is not debt that they are taking on. Somebody is coming in and saying, we are going to put this money in because we believe that this is a viable brand and growth opportunity. And we're going to come in and put equity capital, you know, high-risk capital on the table to expand this brand. And so that must mean that there are some good numbers behind the scenes. Otherwise, you wouldn't typically see this type of investment coming in at such a relatively early stage still in this the growth of this company.
Immersive Gamebox’s 30-Site Gamble
SPEAKER_01I would argue that it was a down, that they were going to the last of their uh uh well of uh investment and making use of that while they still can. That would be my personal uh observations from keeping an eye on this. And you're quite right, 40 facilities in an E, that's near enough the bottom of the barrel kind of that's usually uh when you consolidate just before you float. Again, we are in interesting market conditions and we are seeing Five Irons pivoting away from their more traditional sports lounge approach. Again, we need to see what their next few facilities look like to see the benefit of this investment. Our friends at uh Immersive Game Box uh are back in the news again. We talked about uh their uh brand new game experience that they had developed. It was a much more competitive socializing. We had been talking about how the previous C-suite management had been focusing away from a facility, standalone facility approach, and going for more of an attraction into existing entertainment facilities approach. And then we wake up one day to the now uh announcement that uh the current C-suite, remember, immersive Game Box went through uh a period of uh financial difficulty, which they were bailed out of. Uh now the new management team behind that has signed a multimillion pound uh franchising agreement with uh operation called Beyond Box Operations, um, and this is for 30 facilities in the next five years. Now they already have their uh products in around 15 to 20 uh sites, as well as about three or four standalone sites of their own. That has fluctuated a lot due to uh changes in the management and the business model. Now, to target and to double down to think that this model will be able to support in this competitive market 30 facilities. I raise a flag seriously here regarding what they will actually be offering. And so I wouldn't be surprised that uh Beyond Box is going to be looking at a totally different application of the immersive game box game cube uh environment uh towards fitting in with what we're seeing in the competitive socializing market.
SPEAKER_03There's no question. They cannot be just pure, what we have seen in the past, the pure immersive game box installations, this will have to be much more of a lounge, eatertainment, bar, restaurant, plus immersive game box type uh type installation or rollout uh in order to be successful in the current competitive socializing environment.
Angry Birds And The IP Gold Rush
SPEAKER_01If it isn't, they're going to have a very uncomfortable surprise. Moving on to another competitive socializing projection-based uh entertainment environment that does embrace hospitality, that does a lot of the things that uh Immersive Game Box uh decided not to do when they first started. Uh, our friends at Toca Social have doubled down on content IP. Uh Kevin puts on his transmedia hat, and we now see Angry Birds being turned into a game experience that can be played within the uh Toca Social sports in Bayes. Uh it's uh it looks a fun game from the video uh that I've been watching. Uh it is much more of a sports skill game compared to the super sports taintment uh experiences that have been offered in the Bays. Uh obviously, going for Angry Birds, you're aiming for a certain age demographic uh with this type of product. And fundamentally, um, you know, Angry Birds has become a go-to IP uh to rub into your concept. It's everywhere. So uh again, our friends at Tokasocial are thinking about the bigger picture, the marketing and the promotion that this brings, as well as the uh the compellingness of the game that they've developed.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean the uh just the the you know immersive game box we just talked about has an Angry Birds um uh has an Angry Birds experience. Uh we heard a few months ago that uh Smash Swing, the new competitive socializing golf simulation bay, has an Angry announced an Angry Birds installation. And so while one of my predictions at the beginning of the year was that Angry Birds wouldn't continue to see the same level of uh IP infusion infusing, then we'd see things like Bluey and others take over, um, which we have also seen. Uh but uh but uh Angry Bird still continues to be a powerful IP to bring people in the door.
London Anchors Secret Cinema And Harry Potter
SPEAKER_01Yes. Um I I am interested about what it actually does bring to the door. Uh and Tocker Social uh will have to prove to us that uh this this works for the demographic that they're aiming for, and this works as a compelling entertainment experience. And this can't be a standalone, and it can't be cheap. So there, you know, the swings and roundabouts of this. You know, maybe at the end of the year we can have a uh a tally of all of the different IP that has been dropped into our sector and which ones have succeeded and which ones have been dug. Our friends at uh Secret Cinema, uh, like our friends uh at Tocker Social, like our friends uh immersive game box, also doubling down on the UK uh market and the London market uh to underpin your heartland comment about uh uh the UK sector for uh immersive and competitive socializing business. Secret Cinema is that magical move between live actor experience and film and hospitality gathering. They have been a kind of uh nomadic uh operation going from pop-up facility to pop-up facility. Well, those days are over now, and uh by 2027 they will have a dedicated uh secret cinema facility by the Thames. And I would not be surprised if this is not the beginning of something very big in rolling out the secret cinema concept on an international basis.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we'll see how this first uh physical, well, obviously, permanent installation of Secret Cinema um plays out. I'm very excited for them. I'm a big fan of their work and so excited to see how this plays out.
SPEAKER_01I think it will be a wake-up call to the cinema industry as well, depending on how this is uh treated by the local audience. Our friends at Warner, even though in the midst of uh their own internal uh redevelopments and acquisitions, uh they have uh doubled down on their experienced business uh prospects, and they have announced that they will be opening a flagship Harry Potter venue uh in London in a prominent location in the centre of uh London. This is different to what has been opened in New York with the uh uh Harry Potter store. This will be an experiential entertainment facility with some retail. So I would kind of call this a Netflix house Harry Potter venue more than I would call this just a larger retail entertainment experience. Information is still very limited uh about this. We understand that it will be on two floors, that it will be covering 21,000 square, and that they've already selected companies that will be involved in installing this. But this is on a very tight schedule, uh, aiming for an autumn 2026 opening. So uh we should be in a couple of months' time able to uh speak physically from the venue.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I would actually say that this is maybe more akin to a camp installation, so camp retail team installation, perhaps more than a Netflix house, but yeah, definitely a little bit too nebulous for this.
Executive Exits And Operator Fallout
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're quite right, yes. I was uh uh taken by the IP rather than the application. Yeah, yeah. Moving on, and uh some developments in the sector. Uh, we have seen, as we said at the uh end of last year, beginning of this year, be prepared for a lot of C-suite changes, be prepared for a lot of shaking up as investors wanted to double down on the expanding and changing markets and to have the right leadership in place, uh, the right C-suite uh group. And you know, after 13 years with the uh corporation, uh Esther has uh moved on. He uh made the announcement uh only a couple of hours from when I'm recording this that uh he would be leaving Lucky Stry, uh, that uh he would be moving on into, and I want to get this correct, focusing on entrepreneurial pursuits, including advertising and investments. Advising and investments. Advising, sorry. Uh I don't know if uh yeah, I would say advertising. I'm sorry. I have that on the mind at the moment because I I wanted to link in that uh he comes from a background uh where when he uh first started at the uh operation, he was brought in on an executive level on the marketing uh side of the business and then migrated from that in 2024 to be promoted to uh become president of the operation. Now, Lucky Strikes uh represents uh you know the Lucky Strikes Bowling Chain as well as uh Boomers, which was uh acquired under his uh reign, and of course, is all uh kind of following over from the bolero uh history of the uh operation, if you haven't followed all of that. It is interesting that we have another situation where a top C-suite executive leaves without the announcement of who his successor is. Um I'm noticing this becoming more and more prevalent. So it looks like the uh the individual goes and has the the final board meeting, they're told uh that their you know their services aren't welcome uh or wanted uh any further, or they're given an opportunity to come up with a different plan of action and they decide to move on, leaving the board in turmoil of then working out who they're going to plant as a successor. Now, start stopwatch, we will evaluate how confusing this departure is based upon how quickly our friends at Lucky Strike Entertainment announce uh the new president of the operation. Because with all of those uh over 360 facilities that they have in various stages of upgrade and reinvestment, their plans for new acquisitions, we saw them by a number of pinstripe uh facilities. Uh there are a lot of questions here for whoever comes in next of how they pick up the pieces and move forward.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean, this feels a little bit suspect. At the same time, you know, we can't say that he is directly responsible for the issues that Lucky Strike, you know, aka uh Bolero has had in the last uh quite 10 years as they've you know continued to acquire and acquire and acquire and not focus on their internal operations and their location, their their individual location operations. Um, but at the same time, he's also had two years behind in this seat, um, you know, only but had had two years and hadn't seemed to make any really significant changes to the direction of their same store sales, um, in you know, improving. And uh, you know, look, he's now stepping down, but uh this is very strange when there is not a successor named. It does always leaves a little bit of a head scratcher for me. Um, at the same time, you know, maybe some of this is true and that he is truly moving on for advising and investing. He has recently been the one of the executive producers for the new HBO documentary, Born to Bull. If you haven't seen the trailer for that, highly recommend you checking it out. It looks like it will be very exciting to watch. I'm looking forward to it. Um, but it's a new documentary series series on HBO, and he is one of the executive producers there um as of uh as of this month. So um we will see.
SPEAKER_01But he had his roots. I mean, he he he was steeped in the entertainment sector.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely, and in the building sector of entertainment as well. Yes.
SPEAKER_01And to then turn around and say, no, I'm not jumping into the competitor of uh Lucky Strikes, or I'm not moving into a new, but to be an advisor on entrepreneurial uh activities does sound like a holding pattern for something else. And that kind of leads us to how this happened, the timing of this statement, and as I said, the stopwatch ticking on when that board, uh the Borero board, now rebranded Lucky Strikes Entertainment, uh, when they made the announcement of his successor, and whoever his successor pulls in to help write the ship of state. Changes at C-suite. Uh, we already reported uh a few weeks ago uh of the new CEO position at uh Play Social, and now we have the new CFO position uh announced. Um, PlaySocial are the owners of Play Playground, which we never got round to going to uh during our Vegas visit.
SPEAKER_03It was on the list, but uh you would never have found it in the Luxor. You would have looked and looked and looked and never have found it. It is it is uh not at a great location.
Merlin’s Dip And The Minecraft Bet
SPEAKER_01Well, uh I was hoping to have a look at their inflatable addition uh component. Uh uh, but yeah. Whatever the reasoning is, we are at a point with Play Playground where they need to underline how they're going to move forward and how they're going to expand. They have had two facilities open for a long period of time now. They need to move to the next phase. We should be in the threes and fours and fives of this concept if it's a proven model. And from all accounts, uh, it is a proven model, but it still needs a little bit more time uh in the oven uh to uh to get it to become a bankable uh concept. And with a new CFO, I'm sure that is the plan of action. Moving on, and Merlin Entertainment, along with Gander, we have our regular Merlin Entertainment moment uh for the sound-offs, and not really a big surprise, but still as a traded company, it is a surprise uh of how they manage this. They had to admit that uh they saw uh quite a uh a considerable, you know, 1.6% drop uh against their 2024 numbers in revenue. Uh they also saw a drop in ticket sales uh during the 2025 season period across all of the operation. Uh and you know the company has positioned itself to say that you know it it sees that there were problems, they've listened to the markets, they've listened to their audiences and they're taking decisive action uh towards uh transforming their program, which usually means uh the uh the theme park and attraction scheduling, but also we know that they are repositioning themselves regarding IP and uh trying to improve their entertainment positioning offering in a crowded market, and that is illustrated by the news of the opening of their oh sorry, the um commencement of the development of their Minecraft world uh gate uh at Chessington World of Adventures. This won't be open until uh 2027, so we've got a year to wait before they throw the doors open. The renderings, the low quality renderings, I have to say. Really bad. Very shocked by the quality of uh pre uh pre-promotional artwork they shared with the media and the trade. Um uh especially as we've already talked about in sound off, so open and shut, that uh there is a very impressive uh Minecraft uh experience, traveling experience during the rounds, which has a much higher level of femaleity and uh digital involvement, which is expected from the target audience that we're going for. But anyway, our friends at Marjo Studios are working very closely with Merlin Entertainment on a$70 million investment across all of the Merlin Entertainment range to include Minecraft and this Minecraft world is the beginning of that process.
SPEAKER_03It'd be interesting to see how this plays out. Uh, yeah, it is not encouraging when you see this level of fidelity at this late stage of their development. Um, I mean, this is something that maybe you would see thrown around in some internal rooms like years ago as they were first pitching this to each other and sketching things out, but to have this level of fidelity for their concept art and imagery that they're putting out as part of their public announcement one year before their opening is concerning.
Netflix House Immersion Plus Industry Awards
SPEAKER_01As an actual Disney imagine, if I had produced this type of uh concept artwork at the initial stages, I would still have been told to maybe up the game a little bit regarding the quality of the artwork. I, you know, our fellow friends at Merlin, I understand the pain and anguish you're going through, and I know that you're restructuring the magic maker uh operation there. But you know, if you're going to be public-facing and trying to wow the audience for what's going to be available in 12 months' time, this artwork ain't here. Moving on, and uh our friends at Netflix House have uh announced a new uh attraction being parachuted into their Dallas uh Netflix House facility. Uh I was a little confused by the press release here. Uh, I do actually believe that the Stranger Things face the dark experience is already operational uh in the Dallas facility. It's just now that uh our friends at Alterface, the uh media and immersive entertainment company are able to admit their involvement uh as supplying the interactive interface for this. If you're not aware of this particular attraction, it involves you using a torch to illuminate certain areas of the show set that you're traversing through. And these torches are more than just a light emitter, they also have uh uh activators and positional awareness that uh uh interacts with the show set and the live action that is taking place. It is nice to see this type of technology being employed in a location-based entertainment side. Uh, our friends at Alterface work very much on the theme park and the resort and the leisure entertainment side, and so moving into the location-based entertainment market with this type of uh technology shows us the uh levels of immersion that Netflix are looking at for their future attractions.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, this is this one is interesting because I'm I'm watching some of the video and I'm trying to understand. There's it looks like there were some parts of the videos that they had here where they didn't have the flashlights, and then other parts of videos where they have the flashlights. So it also may be that they enhanced the experience with uh with alter face, and um, you know, because maybe yeah, for for any number of reasons, but it may have been just that they couldn't get it all working in time before the opening, and they just had to open, and then they brought this uh alterface thing in. So it may be that actually this is a new addition to this current experience that has been opened since they opened originally.
SPEAKER_01It was a very wordy uh press release, uh, and uh its detail was more on the application than on uh what has uh led to believe they're they're supplying quite a large number of these unique devices for the attraction, which leads me to believe that there will be a uh Stranger Thing face of dark face the dark uh attraction going into the Las Vegas facility. So this will be the first of uh the attractions that uh Netflix have been uh pivoting that will have uh a second run. In their next facility. All that aside, uh, immersive entertainment being added to this type of uh experience is important again for that repeat visitation and for that engagement. Uh, we touched upon this very lightly uh in Open and Shut, but one of the things that we've had going on is the awards ceremonies, uh, the patting of everybody on the back regarding the hard work and development that's been going on in the industry, especially in the location-based and uh FEC sector. And from the bowling industry, we saw our friends at uh arcade time uh receive uh the best new arcade in the US award. And from uh our friends in the AAMA uh for their uh annual awards, we saw Star Lanes uh get get the award. The interest uh for FEC location of the year. The interesting thing about the Star Lanes venue is that will actually be used uh later in the year by the uh Trade Association uh as the venue for uh uh some of the gala related uh FEC Connect uh Connect event. Thank you. And you know, for me, it is important that we recognize greatness uh and innovation and development in our market. Uh, and it's also important that all of those new operators out there throw their hats in the ring to be seen uh to be offering something unique so they can be recognized by their peers.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I would also say that they don't have you don't have, you know, if you have an existing facility that's been open for 10 years and you believe that you've uh enhanced it in some way, or you just run a really great operation, and uh I think it's worth going through the process of submitting for one of these as well. I think sometimes we get really focused on the new and less on the well-run and uh the the you know ones who continue to stay relevant in their market by updating and refreshing their experiences and attractions.
SPEAKER_01Agreed. Uh and uh I have been in facilities where originally uh it started ho-hum, but after the management got their teeth uh into it uh and started to understand their audience, they created a very unique and a very compelling venue. And you go to them and you say this needs to be promoted more, and they go, Ah, but we've been going for five years. No, that has nothing to do with it. If you've achieved that and if you have something that you feel very strongly about, not just for your audience, the industry also needs to know. Moving on, and for all of you pain lovers out there, I've uh tried to apply uh those uh announcements to the Taurus of Pain. Uh I was actually hoping to spend some time fiddling with the Taurus of Pay uh Pain during the flights, but uh uh sleep got to me and I never got around to it. But I do promise that it will be updated before the next major event.
SPEAKER_03Perfect. All right. Well, coming up after the other quick break, we will continue with the trends.
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VR Market Reset And Liquidations
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I had fun with missile commands, so we'll we'll we'll talk about that later. Yeah. Anyway, jumping into the trending tech, and I I like to try and use all those balls of string that I have connecting all of the dots uh to try and uh make a picture out of, or a mosaic more likely, uh, out of uh what we're seeing happening in the sector. From the virtual reality point of view, we're at an excellent stage where it's you know near enough five to six years from uh the last phase, or you know, you could you could sort of say we have seen 10-year bubbles of the application of head-mounted box on your head technology application. And both of them, uh both of those phases are marked by a kind of a down period or a pause period. This is from the consumer uh adoption point of view, but also from the technology adoption point of view. And that 10-year cycle, uh now we're in 2026, we seem to be heading towards another cyclical uh re-imagining of the market. From us in the location-based entertainment sector, we're still very happy with uh the technology, though we're not uh buying into the hype as much as previously. We're still finding that it generates revenue, as we will see when we talk about what we saw at the AEI show. But from a general perception of what's going on in VR and MR, we are at a transition point which will mark the next period of uh investment or a redefining of investment. Remember at the end of uh phase two of the uh the previous involvement, you know, we had a period of over 10 years where stagnation, where VR was still being used in commercial, but it needed that injection uh to be uh drawn down to be suitable for consumer. Again, I'm still sitting on the fence regarding this next uh generation phase five technology that we've seen from Samsung, that we're going to see from Meta in 2027, that we've seen from Apple, that seems to have stalled. Uh, and a lot of this now rides upon whether the hype train has derailed or has taken a siding. These are important to consider. Kind of adding to that feeling of concern is the beginning of liquidations of manufacturers of VR technology, VR and MR technology. French company Lynx had to announce that it had fallen into uh governmental liquidation, ceasing operation immediately and its assets being sold. The Lynx technology followed that uh mixed reality approach that Samsung and Meta have uh pivoted towards, kind of uh an unproven aspect of the market. And as Lynx was aiming for the commercial entertainment, uh sorry, the commercial business market, um, this was a product that could have charged quite a higher price and had made uh claims that it was going to be quite an important leader in the commercial mixed reality and VR sector. Well, that never came to pass, and we're at this stage, and we're led to believe that this is the beginning of other announcements regarding difficulties with these types of operations.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, this is always disappointing to hear a potential competitor coming into the market that might be bringing some new technology. We were talking on open and shut about the need, you know, a couple of days ago, on the need for a different type of technology and headset for these types of applications. And uh this was this was promising and is too bad to hear. Uh, we need more competition in this space. Not that the current providers are doing anything necessarily wrong, but you know, competition breeds innovation, and that's what we need.
SPEAKER_01Innovation is essential, especially at this early stage of uh product adoption. Uh the software development side uh in the consumer is also showing uh extreme strain. We reported on Meta closing over four studios that had worked on VR, some successful VR products, as they repositioned themselves and eased back on their investment. And that has had ripples through the sector and Ubisoft, who are going through their own uh baptism of fire and going through their own restructuring, have turned around and said that they will also be uh ending development uh of VR product through their uh Red Storm Entertainment uh studio and that they'll be laying off uh a percentage of their staff, about 100 uh individuals gone there. This is quite an admission. You know, you've had a major IP injected into the consumer VR. You have claimed on a stack of Bibles that it has been a phenomenal success, everything's rosy in the garden, and then suddenly, as soon as Meta stops uh injecting vast amounts of money into the market, it implodes as if it was a bouncy castle with the fan turned off. This is serious concern. Uh, also understanding that Ubisoft has involvement in the location-based entertainment via application market, uh, as we will touch upon uh later on. The positive side is the uh the commercial side, that is still going strong. The positive side is the location-based entertainment side, it's still going strong. And this is a side that is not getting the publicity uh from some of the consumer VR media for the obvious reasons the taps have been turned off their free uh um uh support from Meta, and so they're now licking their wounds and reconsidering how they're going to position themselves to cover the market. But with us in the location-based sector, we're seeing continued investment. Uh, one of the big pop groups in girl band groups in Japan has uh announced that it is going to be holding its first VR concert tour. They are not the first to do this. This is their first one. We have had a number of uh K-pop uh and girl band groups and boy band groups creating virtual reality uh concerts where you go into a specially appointed cinema, you put on the virtual reality headset, and you are dropped into a virtual concert that is beyond the front row, as they have labeled this one. And this one's quite an important one because it isn't just being done in Japan, but they will be screening it in Korea, in the United States, and Taiwan. This is going to be quite a considerable concert. This is going to be quite a popular fan-based operation, and this is the kind of location-based uh virtual reality application that isn't getting the kind of publicity from the consumer VR sector who are claiming that the sky is falling in and woe is me, where in reality the uh the hype train may have popped into the sidings and the reality train is now taking passengers.
SPEAKER_03Hmm. This one is interesting uh for a number of reasons. I don't know. I I'm just a uh I'm skeptical that this type of concert experience will deliver the level of um uh fidelity is not the right word for it, but uh level of immersive experience. I guess it depends on how the audio is delivered um alongside the the you know VR. If it's just through headphones or something else, then why am I sitting in a theater watching this? You know, the idea behind uh what the success of the Eras Tour, for example, uh you know, concert series uh that uh was you know put out into theaters was the fact that you were truly you know visually and uh you know auditorially immersed in that experience. And so uh hopefully they are doing something similar here.
Competitive Socializing Hardware Goes Turnkey
SPEAKER_01This isn't a sphere, this isn't a cosm, but this is still appealing to a very large fan base, offering a unique opportunity and experience, which they wouldn't be able to achieve on their consumer VR if they even owned consumer VR. I have seen a number of these VR concerts held, and they have within their fan base been very popular. How popular and how profitable those are, we need to evaluate once we have more uh data regarding uh the revenue generated. Jumping into uh competitive socializing and uh Rival Social has revealed uh some of the unique attractions that they have developed. They have created a product range of competitive socializing uh systems uh under the Battle Ball Machines brand, and they are upscaled, familiar uh applications and some unique uh applications of competitive socializing, unique uh have you have used the word unique too many times, uh of compelling uh entertainment systems. These are based on platforms that they've actually dropped into their new facility and that they're now looking towards rolling out as products that can be brought uh as standalone for other facilities.
SPEAKER_03Oh boy. So we've talked about Rival Social in the past. Obviously, they started as an actual location-based entertainment uh competitive socializing venue, and uh they had some really unique uh attractions, really unique approach to competitive socializing, which I think you know I was a fan of. Now getting into the actual distribution of their products uh is really interesting and now becomes even more of a conflict, I think, with social rivals, who is also based in the UK and who also operates uh facilities called Putt Above, but has a golf sim, a mini golf uh bay product that they sell into the market under these social rivals thing. So now we have Rival Social and Social Rivals, uh both selling products into the marketplace. And uh it was already confusing enough when Rival Social was just operating venues, and now they are effectively a competitor to social rivals, and it'll be interesting to see how the dust settles with regards to IP and copyright and trademark discussions.
SPEAKER_01Away from the brand, it will be just interesting to see if this is the type of product that can be parachuted in to uh the emerging competitive socializing venues. We have quite a few of them popping up, and many of these competitive socializing venues don't really want to think about changing out their hardware too quickly. Uh, I point to uh operations such as Electric Shuffle that have been using their standardized shuffleboard system since uh Ponchus got his uh pilot license. Now, will these venues be forced to start looking at dropping in other types of attractions uh to uh augment their flagging experiences? Will they turn to a company that is a competitor of theirs? You know, do you let the vampire run the blood bank? Is uh is the question do you feel comfortable that uh a possible competitor to your facility will have access to your data uh and uh uh knowledge base by dropping their product into your sites? These are all questions as the competitive socializing market uh evolves to the next phase, and we are rushing headlong to the next phase where we're going to see the shaking up of old thinking and new thinking being applied, then these types of products are going to find a space if they work and if they generate revenue. And our friends at uh 2Bit Circus know a little bit about running their own uh entertainment experiences through their 2Bit Circus facility chain that uh uh was in Los Angeles, and Brent and the team have decided to branch out and apply this technology as a standalone product that can be sold by other venues, and the first of the products out of the launch is a button box battle. Try and say that after a couple of gin and tonics. The issue with this is that it is really the uh application of the thousand boxes kind of uh system where you have a table mounted button system so each uh member of the team of four can hit the button when they know the answer to the question. It is a turnkey situation uh solution that can be dropped in uh to other venues, and from the look of the uh information, it is a very live play, in-person kind of experience that can handle quite large audiences. I can see a venue uh at uh you know a bar area at a certain point, turning the key and turning themselves into uh a game show experience for a period of time by dropping out the boxes and then taking them away. This isn't a new idea. There had been other companies that have been trying to do the game show mobile unit, but it is interesting to see that our friends at uh two-bit are looking at this as a new product that they can release into the market.
SPEAKER_03I think what's interesting about this is not necessarily the product itself, but the scale in which they expect this to be deployed. So they see this going into, we've talked about this on both sound off and also open and shut, these experiences where you have the smaller experiences like game show battle room, where it's just, you know, it's a a small group of you, maybe eight, ten of you, your friends, family, whatever, and you have two sides, and it's like this really small mini game show experience. Then there's the larger experiences that have it's you're almost sitting in this big, like dinner theater style uh seating. You have F and B, you're sitting at these tables, and then there's a host, and people are coming up on stage, and there's a it's like almost like you're attending a actual game show in a game show studio, and this allows the in this this type of application that allows everybody to be engaged in that broader game show application for 250 plus players all playing together to compete, which I think is really interesting. And um, not sure that there are too many venues and types of facilities that exist today that could drop this in. Could somebody decide to build a facility or change or modify a facility to deploy this type of game? That uh could certainly happen. But I'm really curious to see who takes this and deploys it within their existing operation.
SPEAKER_01And that is the question. A concept looking for a home. And another concept that's found a home is our friends at uh Dream Park. I was uh, you know, I'd like to hats off to uh one of our followers who mugged me uh during my drinking session in Vegas and pointed me to the announcement about this. Dave and Busters in Hollywood have uh worked with our friends at Dream Park on the deployment of their augmented reality or mixed reality entertainment experience within the uh game floor of the uh Hollywood facility, Dave and Busters. This is a real diversion for me. This is a real uh eyebrow raiser, uh, and this kind of feels like our friends at Dream Park are grabbing at opportunities where they can. Uh remember, they had opened two facilities running their uh Dream Park uh technology that um we hadn't heard that much from since the opening. Uh I need to go back and check to see if they're still open. But now the the reinterpretation of the Dream Park concept is a vending machine will dispense head-mounted displays. Now, remember, dream parks do not have you putting on the headset like the traditional way of wearing it, but you actually have to hold the headset to your face, and then you move through the virtual environment uh Mario-esque uh universe. Now, rather than doing this in a totally empty space, which was the application of the previous uh deployments of this technology, they are now doing this inside the game floor. So while dodging uh people playing on the big bass wheel uh and having a quick time crisis or uh driving, you you will also be playing your augmented reality game. Uh, and then at the end of the game, I assume you lovingly put back the uh headsets you've been using into the vending kiosk, and I have no idea how they're going to wipe down or clean or hygiene these systems for the next users, but I have to assume that they've thought about that. Okay, that's me explaining what they're doing. This is Dave and Busters taking an experimental route. They are not rolling this out across all of their venues. This is being dropped into the Hollywood facility for a period of time. They will evaluate it, and then I'm sure within three months' time we will know if this has been a success and whether they will then be rolling them out across their 170 odd uh facility chain. A number of flags for me, but let's you go first, Brent.
SPEAKER_03Uh, well, I mean, I think we did talk about this. I can't remember if it was on sound off or an open and shut, or you know, if we just talked about it offline. Um about the rollout of their dream park concept inside of Dave and Busters. I think the vending version of this is the is like the next iteration of it at the Vegas location. I am skeptical of not as much the vending. It does look like maybe there's some UV cleaning happening when you put it back into the vending box potentially. But well I I'm not saying that there wasn't sweat and other things, but at least from a disinfectant standpoint, UV will take care of that. But I I am skeptical though about its application inside of a busy venue where there's kids running around and other people running around and you've you're holding this thing up into your head. You're trying to interact and move around inside of a facility not tripping over wires or people or anything else that was left on the ground. And then also at the same time, what do I do with my drink? Where do I leave my drink if I was drinking something or having some food? I now put this thing on my face, walk around randomly. Dave and Busters is meant to be this place where I can carry my drink and whatever and move around and play games and set it down. I cannot do this when I'm playing this game because I have to hold the headset and I also have to interact with my hand doing different things. So even if I'm holding my drink, well now I can't interact in the same way with the game so I'm going to have to set it down somewhere it's going to get cleaned or taken or roofied or whatever. And so that is a you know concern that I think I have around its application here. I applaud Two Bit Circus for trying to get their dream park concept embedded in a place like Dave and Busters. It's a big win for them to even get this as a pilot program at Dave and Buster's but uh I am concerned about the potential application of it.
Lego Rumors, Niantic Data, Disney AI Shift
SPEAKER_01I really wish that the Dream Park team would speak to some of us in the industry. They don't have to hire us as a consultant they just need to sit down and have a come to Jesus moment about where this works and where this doesn't work. My biggest concern about this is the handbag on the floor. You will not notice it you will not while while playing this game and if this is an active war zone uh an active playing environment rather than a dedicated playing space then the first person that trips over a bag and hit uh falls flat on the floor and the legal action starts will uh pop this bubble when this bubble could actually work if it was a dedicated arena kind of approach. Our friends at Dive Labs have created their Insta VR environment enclosure which is vended uh it is uh operator less and works very well they have considered all of those problems why try and reinvent the wheel when people have already developed the wheel I understand that they're passionate and I understand that they're innovative but sometimes those can be the biggest enemies towards actually establishing a concept but I will wait and hold my powder dry towards hearing what the numbers are and I am not going to let this just disappear as a puff of smoke if it succeeds or doesn't succeed. We will be following this to see how the market embraces this system. And if we're lucky while we're in uh California in June uh we should try and make the time to pop into Hollywood uh and have a look at this well Brandon you're gonna need to move some space on your shelving uh the rumors on the street from the toy industry is that Lego has been bitten by the arcade bug and uh after the success of uh the other arcade related sets they're now in the works of uh launching a Donkey Kong arcade cabinet Lego set uh we're not sure if it's going to be launched at the end of the year or the middle of the year but the rumors are very strong that the Kongster is going to get his uh his Day in the Sun or Day in the brick and I assume that this is going to be riding very heavily on the Mario film um IP interest as well as Lego's continuation with uh video game themality uh well that'd be super exciting and I've I'm a big Lego fan as those those of you who uh you know watch these different shows know and uh so yeah and I will be one of the first ones to line up to buy it when it comes out I think it's about time we flex our media credentials and try and get you a review copy and uh you can do an unboxing. Ah there you go yes absolutely a brand new concept for the LBX channel moving on and some reality comes home we talk about uh mixed reality and augmented reality and one of the most popular and successful applications of that technology was our friends uh at uh Niantic with uh Pokemon Go. Well some home truths it's you know the vast success of Pokemon Go and the you know 300 million active users that you know fill the streets uh and uh hunted for virtual Pokemon uh in all kinds of locations uh were doing a secret service for Niantic labs under under the surface of them collecting all of that uh data and traveling around venues uh and locations that data was being harvested uh and revealed that that harvested data has now been applied towards uh helping uh robot delivery systems and robot uh traveling systems to actually navigate the streets and be able to move so your gaming helps the robots deliver your uh your food much quicker or your parcels much quicker um it goes back to a statement I'm hearing a lot more which is the public are turning into beta uh or beta testers for all of the big technologies we seem to have been beta testers for the uh the Amazon fresh walk in and go system which you know suffered its problems and now it seems that we've been the beta testers indirectly for uh the robot delivery systems through uh this interest I wonder what other uh interesting games and applications that we're using now will help drive uh future technology this was a phenomenal play by Niantic um and uh what a great application for their data makes me wonder if they had any inkling at the beginning when rolling out Pokemon Go that this would be an opportunity or if they rolled out Pokemon Go and then realized holy shit look at all this data we have we've got to find a way to monetize this. I think they were scared by the gyms when the Pokemon gyms started really exploding and people were you know paying their money to have uh Pokemon players gather then they knew that they had a data set that was going to be unrivaled and uh it is still growing there are still active players of Pokemon Go and I'm led to believe that there is a new generation of Pokemon Go coming quite soon so those robots are really going to know the layout of our streets when they invade moving on a quick one about AI and Disney's pulled out of their relationship with uh open AI it seems that this comes on the back of open AI readdressing their uh risk in the uh international market they have shuttered their Sora animated uh AI animation and picture creation tool uh that was a big surprise on the market uh everybody scratched their heads what was going on and as soon as they announced that Disney were equally surprised by this move and said you know what we don't need to be involved with just the AI uh generative text system this could be the beginning of uh a major change and shake up in the AI sector as maybe very expensive legal teams have worked out the uh possible damages and liability of certain of these AI tools in the market and some companies restructure themselves to avoid those problems.
SPEAKER_03Yeah it could have been something to do with legal it also could have been just that it was a shit app you know it was it was a uh all it did was basically create AI slop that you could then put into a viral video feed and uh it was basically Instagram for you know made by AI uh and that was uh you know reels I should say made by AI um and uh it wasn't it wasn't to what we've been seeing from some of the other platforms and maybe they felt that it wasn't needed but I I also get the feeling to do this so quickly without informing Disney to force Disney to have to exit the relationship rather than restructure the relationship is very telling.
SPEAKER_01Moving on and we'll try and rush through the talking points uh that were generated from the Amusement Expo International we have gone into uh a lot more detail in our guest gab that we did directly uh after the event but I just wanted to touch on some uh personal observations uh number one we liked the new venue a lot uh kudos to all involved uh the uh West Hall really did bring a different spin to the event uh and uh it's just a shame that uh the travel plans and the chaotic storms and the TSA problems uh forced some individuals not to be able to attend. Uh the first two days obviously were uh of the educational side and I would like to thank everyone involved in allowing me uh to present uh at the keynote and uh to talk about competitive socializing and to see such a well attended session it's it was heartening and for all of those that came up and talked to us afterwards and commented on the uh session it it seems to have gone down very well uh and we're looking forward to repeating this kind of approach uh in coming events. Uh the party mixes proved very informative getting everybody together and uh sharing a lot of thoughts uh about what's is driving the industry it was very clear that those that managed to get to the show and attended the educational uh as well as the uh show kickoff events had very strong views about where the industry goes next and how the industry needs to define itself in the market. And we will try and relay that in the coming Stinger reports covering the event. A little interesting observation um you know how quickly things change. We had uh had a private bet amongst ourselves whether we would see the new Gender branding uh take over uh the Player One uh uh brand after the acquisition uh uh and the announcement of the rebranding of Player One I didn't expect it to happen over 24 hours so uh I took one picture as the show was being built and uh the Player One uh uh logo was uh there in place and then when I came back I had to rub my eyes and double take and double check uh that it had been replaced by Genda Americas. Uh so obviously someone in Genda made sure the Kinkos worked very hard one evening. Uh that said the uh Kiddleton representation uh on the show floor on the now Kiddleton booth still was suffering a little bit of schizophrenia there were still uh some examples of player one uh group uh uh branding there even on the t-shirts of some of the staff and the business cards and signage but it is clear that this is a period to mark in your calendars of the beginning of uh the uh the dominance of that Kiddleton Gander uh uh placement on the US amusement trade show floor and you know what we can expect uh in November the show uh was down on intended as I touched upon uh storms and uh flying conditions as well as the TSA ongoing strike uh impacted uh impacted some people that had expected to come it impacted some equipment that had uh expected to be uh delivered in time for the show that said it was still a very robust and very strong uh attendance from the market and uh I would argue that it points towards uh building upon this foundation of new thinking on how to run the show though again I have issues with the one and a half day event uh maybe needing to think about a little bit more uh longevity of show period because of the expense of getting out there setting up an exhibition space just for for one and uh bit days transmedia and branding was the king of the show uh we had the launch of the John Wicks product we had the launch of uh the uh Disney uh racing karting uh experience we also had other IP such as uh uh the cyberpunk product manifesting itself not just through the LAI game but also now through a brand new uh concept in development through Unis which uh they're talking about launching in June it was shown in the prototype it's a big ride on motorbike experience but it does kind of point towards uh where branding is going for us in this sector uh you know branding was personified by Pokemon being uh on stern booth and it was avidly played and avidly interesting even I played it I you know I'm an old war horse when it comes to pinball but I had a really good session on their machine they've tuned it just right for the market and hearing the dates that were being quoted and when you can get your hands on a new system I think if you haven't made a decision to jump on this bandwagon now you're gonna be sorely disappointed on how long you're gonna have to wait to get it. This could be the game of the year regarding its popularity in the market having seen what is going on with Pokemon but we will see. Big uh hats off to our friends at Alan One I was really impressed by their 3D or mirror FX effects that they're employing on their new machines uh I played the caves avidly uh uh the caverns of Marseille avidly I played the breakout avidly uh I also got a chance to play uh their missile command which I argue also needs to have the mirror fx treatment uh for operators that don't really want to go through the difficulty of running retro machines but still want to have that retro feel I think it is lunacy not to include this kind of setup in your operation just to appeal to that market VR was still there so the doom and gloom that VR was not going to be present at the show was uh soon the bubble was soon burst over that it's just now that we've gone away from the hype and we're now the reality uh or many of the machines have already been launched but we had some new machines uh new products there mixed reality made an appearance or augmented reality made appearance our friends at Versus came to the show and showed off their uh glasses uh immersive uh entertainment experience and our friends uh at uh dive labs they showed off a mobile version uh of their arena system one of the only uh VR arena systems at the show was their uh uh Insta VR system which surprised me I thought other companies were going to come with arena systems uh based upon what happened last year but I think uh the the the issues from the the VR feel of last year's show uh has a la uh has meant some companies are taking a period to re-evaluate how they position themselves in the amusement sector but Insta VR now has a mobile version of this system that means that any venue that has the space can set up uh a Insta uh VR arena for up to six players and that is uh a compelling opportunity for uh some people that didn't really want to have a permanent installation but still wanted to jump on the VR bandwagon and then of course XR got the big push uh we saw the first deployments of the strong LED dome screen systems that now allow us to have compact uh ride simulation systems that could go into location based and FEC from our friends at Doff and then we saw Triotech uh dusting off the evergreen uh typhoon system and giving it a big screen new modern format feel so along with the fantastic amusement we also have the transition of the uh uh uh attraction style entertainment experience into our market anyway I've zipped through that very quickly because I think we touched most of the big parts in guest gap anything that sets you off Brandon from that no I mean I think you covered the things that are obviously relevant to the trends that we've been talking about here on Sound Off.
SPEAKER_03And yes for those who are interested in listening to the guest gab where uh Kevin myself and Adam Pratt really covered in depth a lot of the different things that we saw uh that that we you know believe to be important from the show on LBX show number 69 from the uh that ran on June uh excuse me June I'm already in June that ran on March 22nd uh that ran on March 22nd so uh you can certainly go back and watch that on YouTube LinkedIn or anywhere you can get your podcasts well that rounds it up for me the next big event uh for me is June that's one you're getting uh uh heading towards uh with uh uh uh augmented world expo we have the uh dedicated LBE XR zone uh and that will be we've already nailed down a number of arena vr uh systems that will be attending and some amusement VR systems attending as well as the developers this is part of the game hub component and this is going to be an opportunity where we really get to the nitty-gritty of where XR is going in the market and the opportunities moving forward.
What’s Next And How To Follow
SPEAKER_01It's very difficult to shoehorn this kind of level of discussion into an amusement or a theme part show when really it is uh an event that needs to have its own standalone discussion and we hope to go into a lot more depth and look forward to seeing those of you that are able to uh attend that event anyway that's more than enough for me this session uh our LinkedIn uh thank you to all of those that have been keeping us up to date on developments even while I was on the road I was getting LinkedIn uh updates uh we will have the Stinger reports coming out fast and furious uh once they're all completed and we're also going to be doing a special entertainment social arena based on what we saw in Vegas any questions just bung me an email but thank you very much for your support absolutely all right well that was a great roundup of all the latest trends on this latest sound off and we will see you all on the next one.
SPEAKER_03Have a good one
