The LBX Show #70 - Laser Tag Day, Minecraft Experiences, Arcade IP, & more!

Sponsored by Intercard!
Sponsored by Alan-1!

On this week's show we track the biggest signals in location-based entertainment right now, from Laser Tag Day and a shuttered QZAR site to Disney’s Bluey activation at Disneyland and an escape room operator expanding into VR and game shows. Then we run the openings and closings with Kevin Williams and finish with Adam Pratt's view of the most promising new products from Amusement Expo.

• National Laser Tag Day origins and why Photon still matters 
• A vacant QZAR location and what venue lifecycles look like 
• How laser tag gear moves from DIY builds to modern manufacturers 
• Bluey and Bingo’s first Disney park appearance and what it suggests about IP in physical experiences 
• Our take on Disney and the next wave of location-based entertainment moves 
• Bonds Escape Room rebrands into an entertainment center with free-roam VR and a live game show 
• Open And Shut highlights including immersive exhibitions, traveling Minecraft, mini golf, claw concepts, sim racing, and NHK VR pop-ups 
• Why refresh cycles, pricing models, and web discoverability can make or break new venues 
• Arcade Corner top picks from AEI including John Wick, Disney Speedstorm Arcade, Cyberpunk, new racers, and more 
• Adam’s reminder not to judge trade show prototypes as final products

Subscribe and visit LBX Collective for more!

Transcript

Welcome And Show Roadmap

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Tuning you in now to the LBX Show. With your host, Brandon Wyatt. What do you buy the LBX collective? Your community to connect, engage, and inspire.

National Laser Tag Day Origins

A Closed QZAR And What It Says

Modern Laser Tag Manufacturing Shift

Bluey Arrives At Disneyland

Disney And Location-Based Predictions

Escape Rooms Expand Into VR

Sponsor Break Intercard

SPEAKER_04 0:22

All right. Well, welcome everybody to the LBX Show for March 29th, 2026. I'm your host, Brandon Wiley, and we have a good show lined up for you today. We will dive right into a news you should know. Then we're going to roll into a pact open and shut with Kevin Williams to review all the latest openings and closing trends from the last two weeks since we took a week off for the Amusement Expo guest Gab. And then finally we're going to round out with the show with uh Adam Pratt on Arcade Corner, and he's going to talk about the top 10 new products we saw at AEI. All right. That being said, let's dive into some news you should know. All right. Well, if you're watching this on March March 29th, we'll start that again now. If we're watching this on March 29th, um, yesterday was National Laser Tag Day, which happens on March 28th of every single year. And this is to commemorate the opening of the first commercial laser tag arena photon in Dallas, Texas, on March 28th, 1984, by George Carter III, which basically launched the laser tag industry. And uh the little thing you can see here is the uh it's a poster that you can download for free. They do a new one every year uh to promote the laser tag day, and you can get that at laser tagmuseum.com. And uh, why are we talking about this? Well, one, you know, it's because we just came back from Musement Expo and the Laser Tag Association typically has a presence there. They had a very minimal presence there this time. Um, but you also have obviously the laser tag day, which was yesterday. So we got to talk about it. Uh, but then also I was in Concord, uh in which is in the Bay Area in California, not too long ago, and uh actually just a few weeks ago visiting some friends, and I came across a QZR of all things. So this was the uh QZR that I saw when I was there in Concord. And as you can see, it's vacant. It had closed down. Apparently, I did some research, it closed down two years ago after operating for 32 years. And uh yeah, QZAR was one of the early brands. There was Photon, there was QZAR, there's Quasar, there's a few others out there that were some of the earliest brands that existed, and the Bay Area was one of the ones to catch on to this laser tag trend very quickly and early. And so, yeah, this is uh some artwork. If you're looking at the if you're watching the video of some of the artwork inside the building, but the building was completely cleared out and I was bummed because I was hoping to be able to go in and see, you know, some of the old iconic uh man, old iconic equipment. That was uh some of the QZR equipment from back in the day. And this is back also when a lot of the Laser Tag arenas built their own equipment uh that they they used. They didn't, there weren't laser tag manufacturers like we have today. There was like you know, very much like a garage shop type scenario. Um, but that's obviously since evolved. And uh so now we have you know a lot of really standard laser tag manufacturers out there producing great quality products. So anyway, uh I just thought I'd talk a little bit about that because uh, you know, so like wistful when I came across the Q's are as walking through downtown Concord, and uh, you know, and it happened to coincide very seamlessly with Laser Tag Day. All right. So this is something really interesting. So Bluey and Bingo, if you're familiar with the show Bluey, uh has arrived now at a Disney park for the first time ever with the launch of Bluey's best day ever at Disneyland in California. This is uh they opened on March 22nd, so just a few days ago. And it's a new experience in the Fantasyland Theater at Disneyland. This is where Tangled uh theater uh experience used to be for a long time, and like a Disney princess experience. And so now they have a full Bluey experience. It's obviously inspired by the animated series Bluey, which has transformed the entire theater into the grounds of Bluey's school for a fun fair. Uh, there's a bunch of playful surprises, interactive games like Keep Yuppie. Guests are gonna see Bluey and her sister Bingo uh live on stage during set throughout uh times throughout the day. There's a bunch of comedic performers, musicians, you know, it's just typical standard experience at Disneyland. But in addition to the onstage experience, the theater venue is gonna have different storytelling, games, dance-alongs, a real-life fairy garden in Gnome Village, uh, Barkie's boats, and Bluey's helicopter stump. Uh, but you also have new FB available to Troubadour Tavern and in other locations throughout Disneyland. And this also includes Pizza Girls uh Baked Potato and the Mud Cake Cold Brew, both inspired by the Pizza Girls episode of Bluey. And then you're gonna get a bunch of Bluey merchandise available for purchase at the oh boy, at Elias and Co. in Disney, California Adventure Park, World of Disney in downtown Disney, uh Disney District, and then the Fantasyland Theater Valet, which is right next door to the Fantasyland Theater in Disneyland. And so why are we talking about this? Well, for a few reasons. One, uh Bluey has uh a couple of years, about a year ago, year and a half ago now, we talked about this. Uh Bluey joined Disney as part of the company's global relationship with BBC Studios, and uh Blue's producers, Ludo Studios, collaborating on special fan activations around the world, not just at Disneyland, with Disney. And they also, Disney has a very strong relationship with streaming, Bluey's uh Blue's shows and everything else on Disney Plus and the Disney Channel. But this leads also right into my prediction this year that Disney will finally announce plans to move into location-based entertainment. They haven't done it yet, uh, but I predicted early this year that they would do this. And then last year, I actually predicted that Disney will acquire Camp as part of that effort to move into location-based entertainment. I missed that, uh, so I gave myself an F because they did not do that on that prediction. Um, but it still feels like a strong possibility that that's an opportunity, especially considering that Bluey has a strong relationship with Camp. They currently have a retailtainment destination in Minneapolis called Bluey's Backyard, and a lot of other the Disney IP also have camp installations. It just seems to me like a match made in heaven. I think maybe now that you have a new head, like the head of experiences, Josh Tomorrow, uh excuse me, not Josh Tomorrow, but uh his counterpart, uh, head of experiences will be looking at ways to move into location-based entertainment just in the same way that a lot of their other Disney's other media competitors have done. And so Camp makes a strong play towards that direction, but also the relationship with Bluey and the fact that Bluey is just blowing up around the world makes a lot of sense. So, anyway, that is a little bit of that. And then a little quick bit of news here I wanted to just share because I thought this was um really interesting. So, this group, uh, an escape room in Fairfax, Virginia, US, has added a uh let's see if I can add it to the stage here. Um has added a uh they're an escape room, they added a new free roam VR attraction as well as a live game show experience, and they're rebranding themselves as an entertainment center. Uh, their name is Bonds Entertainment Center now. It used to be Bonds Escape Room. In fact, you can still find them at Bonds Escape Room.com. Uh, but they celebrated their 10th anniversary and they brought in city council representatives, everything like you would do. But as part of the celebrations, they also um you know basically announced that they are expanding beyond the 15,000 square feet, which was home to nine escape rooms, to now include this VR arena and game show. So why do I bring this up? Well, one, it looks like they do a pretty good job with their uh escape rooms. They have nine of them, which is not a small escape room installation, but they also have realized what you know we've talked about in some cases around these types of single attraction models, even though yes, they have nine escape rooms, is that they find that they are ready to expand into new things. And I think this is great because we talk about those types of venues that just don't change. They've been around for 10 10 years and they're ready to try something new. And it may work, it may not work, but you know what? They're out there and they're trying to make it happen. And I appreciate the fact that they are moving on and expanding and growing. And uh yeah, that they are uh, you know, trying to stay relevant for the continued 2026 and beyond. So, anyway, congratulations to Bonds Entertainment Center, and that is news you should know. Coming up to the break, we'll dive right into open and shut with Kevin Williams. They introduced cashless technology to the amusement industry and have been leading the way for over 30 years. Cashless systems from Intercard 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_00 9:19

Hey, welcome to the latest open and shut. I hope I find you well, Brandon.

SPEAKER_04 9:25

Doing well, doing well. Had a great time at Amusement Expo, obviously. Uh, but it's good to be good to be back doing open and shut. We took a break last week, so it's good to be back here.

SPEAKER_06 9:33

And it's uh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:36

You're gonna say we're gonna pay for it.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Yep, we're paying the price for a break. As I've warned you before in the past, when we go away, yeah, birds will play. So let's jump straight in.

SPEAKER_04 9:49

All right.

Immersive Exhibitions Keep Spreading

SPEAKER_00 9:51

So on the openings, uh, we have quite a lot here, and I was working right up to the wire compiling uh this list. So we're gonna zip through of targets of interest, shall we say? So, first off, and you know, I I would kind of point to the new immersive entertainment venues that are popping up. Uh, you know, Baron von uh Oppensbean uh is an immersive entertainment facility uh Mississippi and you know at 80 uh sorry 800,000 square, it's relatively mid-sized, but it is interesting to see this kind of exhibition experience with immersive uh projection getting, you know, getting its chance. I I'm I led to believe that this is actually building on a museum site that has been trying to expand its uh operation and offering.

SPEAKER_04 10:46

Yeah, this is one that I've been excited about for a while. I'm surprised. I mean, I feel like, gosh, it was a maybe a couple of years ago, year. I mean, it's a while ago that they announced that this was coming and had some uh maybe with some concept renderings and images, and I was excited about it, and then it just went away. I didn't hear anything about it until now. So uh yeah, very excited to I don't know when I'm gonna get down to Memphis anytime soon. But uh yeah, uh the location is odd, but uh it does look cool.

Drop Zone And Small Market Risks

SPEAKER_00 11:17

You know, this is the meow wolf engendered kind of entertainment experience that we're gonna see a lot more of because there are a lot more operations that feel that the market needs this kind of approach. Moving through and uh drop zone, adding its name to the crowded top golf water bees. This one has a little bit more of a uh wider coverage, it's not just uh the shooting bays, it also has the uh ubiquitous pickleball, uh, it has a putting course, and from really from Nebraska's point of view, there isn't that much of this level of entertainment available within the catchment. So this is an interesting deployment, which is part of a much bigger uh leisure entertainment complex going into the region.

SPEAKER_04 12:05

Yeah, I mean I always get concerned when that's uh you see something of this scale going into a town I've never heard of before, and that uh has you know a population of 33,000 people. So that is uh that is a really big concern for me. That said, you know, look, if it does draw from some other smaller rural areas also, and they do have other entertainment, it's not just pure golf, uh, then all right. But uh, you know, this part of Nebraska is not a year-round facility. This can't be a year-round facility either, other than the restaurant and bar, maybe. And uh, you know, maybe that's probably about it because I think everything else is outdoors. So uh that is also a concern for me here. Heated pickleball courts.

Traveling Minecraft Lands In Chicago

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Uh yeah, yeah. This is part of the field of dreams approach for all of you uh movie buffs out there that uh some developers go for. That if you build it, they will come. Kind of uh analysis. Uh, if they're put uh putting in a high-end location-based entertainment operation, we will keep an eye on this to see if it actually does achieve the dream. Moving on, and we have more than one uh Minecraft uh experience to talk about. We will be covering later in Sound Off uh a development in the theme park sector that uses the Minecraft uh IP, but uh looking at it in the location-based uh entertainment application, and Chicago has uh become the recipient of the traveling Minecraft experience. It had spent some time in London. We had a look at it there. Uh, it is very interactive, it is very gamified. Uh, I would say this is one of the uh most gamified traveling uh immersive uh entertainment experience, excuse me, experiences that we have out in the market. And it is an example of that transmedia bullywick I keep on going on about, but it also it's an example of the focus that certain corporations are putting into pushing their IP out there. We saw this in Las Vegas when we were recently there with what Universal uh and what uh our friends with Lyons Gates and John Wick had achieved, and here we see the um partly owned by Microsoft, but the uh Minecraft uh experience offering a very strong, immersive, interactive entertainment experience with some repeat visitation.

SPEAKER_04 14:35

Yeah, this is this one is actually, I don't I don't mean to disparage some of these pop-ups, but this one is actually really good. Um, I mean, this looks like there's some uh definite interactivity. They have custom these custom blocks they've built that interact with the screens, interact with different parts of the the facility. They have other boxes that are moving around, you know, obviously very selfie driven, you know, and because it is a lot of this is projection mapped, even though you know there are some physical components to it as well, it makes it to where the point where it can be updated and it can have different experiences. They could add seasons and other things here, as long as they keep, you know, make sure the interactivity doesn't also just remain the same, even though you maybe have some different screens. Like to obviously change up the gameplay, et cetera, to drive that repeat visitation. And this isn't produced by fever, but our good friends over at Fever are the ones handling the ticket sales. So when you go to buy tickets, it goes to Fever's website to actually transact. So Fever is handling all of their management and you know, at least as far as the uh the ticket sales are concerned, not necessarily the operations. So uh, you know, fever is getting their fingers in everywhere and is definitely being seen as a ticketing platform beyond just a obviously operator of these types of experiences.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

It's now come to the point where I look to see if fever isn't involved rather than if fever is involved with these type of projects. And they have a lot of fingers in a lot of pies, and they're hoping to pull out a plum if you're old enough to know that nursery.

SPEAKER_04 16:08

Oh man, little Jack Horner.

Philadelphia Pop-Ups And Pricing Reality

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Yeah. So moving on, and another kind of what I would say is mid-scale, um uh immersive entertainment, uh, exhibition stroke experience in Philadelphia this time. The Ministry of Ore, lovely name. Again, eight uh 8,000 square, kind of telling us uh the mid-size that we're seeing very heavily on the live actor interaction with uh uh you know a lot of novelty. It's an interesting one to see. It's utilization of an available structure and then populating it with entertainment. Again, another kind of pop-up uh approach that we're gonna see a lot more.

SPEAKER_04 16:52

Yeah, I hope this one does better. This sounds very similar to one that was uh opened in Houston and the Sugarland area a couple of years ago. Uh, very, very similar. It was like it was Ministry of Light. It wasn't Ministry of Law. I don't believe it was the same, um, I don't believe it's the same developers, but uh, you know, I hope that this concept does better. It was very, very well done from an internal, like immersive design standpoint. It just uh it just couldn't gain traction. And so uh yeah, again, hope that this one does better. Philadelphia seems to be an epicenter here in the US. Uh, there's more and more of these types of immersive experiences popping up in Philly for some reason. And it could just be that there's now a uh some momentum happening that is really driving these types of experiences in this area.

War Of The Worlds Reboot

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Some of the developers are using Chat GPT and using the same prompts, I get the feeling. But it's but it is very important that when you stick exhibition, or especially immersive exhibition, on the front of your disclaimer, uh your pricing model will be impacted. Uh, the repeat visitation isn't there. Uh and again, it's very difficult to make bank off of this kind of experience unless it's unique. Talking about that type of experience and talking about that uh unique, our friends uh at Laird Reality have reopened the doors on uh their War of the World immersive experience. We had reported that it had closed, but it was closed for redevelopment. It was showing its age. You know, it has had about 300,000 uh uh ticket holding visitors go through the original version of the concept, and so now it's been redeveloped, it's been given a brushdown, its VR has been updated, its immersive entertainment elements have been sharpened, the guest experience and the interaction with the live uh the actors have been sharpened up. I am hoping to go to uh this in the next couple of days, so I'll be able to give a report on what the previous version looked like and the differences for the new version. But again, we're talking about an immersive attraction uh based upon a very popular IP uh on the War of the World's uh live music uh experience, uh, as well as the uh War of the World's novel. And we are now at that point where these kinds of immersive experiences are getting to uh a stage where they need to be refreshed to keep relevant with the changing market.

SPEAKER_04 19:31

Yeah, I mean, especially in a place like London, which is the epicenter of immersive experiences at this point in the world. And if they are not continually refreshing, then they will be left behind with uh or or forgotten amongst all of the other new immersive experiences that are continually opening in the area.

Ripley’s Crazy Golf In Orlando

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Two options either you close down and do something new or you reboot. And uh we have seen laid reality behind this experience and laid reality behind the Elvis experience go through the reboot process to keep themselves relevant with the audience needs. Moving on through and Ripley's, I'll touch some of these very lightly. Um, you know, the Ripley's believe it or not, uh operational chain. They've you've got quite a few uh venues out there of various flavors. They also have the Ripley's Crazy Golf uh operation. They don't have that many out there, but uh we have a brand new one opened in Florida, in Orlando, uh to add to the crowded uh mini golf sector in that particular uh biome. The interesting thing for me here is that Ripley's has the chops to understand what the market needs, and they have quite a powerful uh foundation to work upon. So I would be interested to see what they bring differently to the uh mini golf approach. Uh, it was very difficult when I was doing the research on this particular one to find out if it's got a bar or not. Uh, you know, just a simple thing. So we will have to wait and see. Maybe I alpha time to pop in and uh pay it a visit.

SPEAKER_04 21:12

Yeah, I mean, Ripley's historically, for these types of smaller attractions, does not have FB. Uh, they have, you know, maybe some real basic concessions and things you can buy, like, you know, uh sealed sodas, etc. So this would be interesting if they didn't at the same time give it its location at Icon Park in Orlando. They may have felt that while they could always always drive per cap, and we talk about this all the time, you should have FB. They also felt like you know, maybe they were uh unnecessarily competing with all of the other F B options that are available at Icon Park. And Icon Park has a really unique liquor license that you can walk with your uh you can basically buy a beer or a drink anywhere and walk around all of Icon Park. And so it doesn't necessarily require that you stay in a certain area. So they also may think that, hey, maybe somebody's going to come in here with a drink from the bar, you know, for example, in the wheel. And they have a number of other attractions here too. They have a mirror maze. While Madame Tussaud's isn't theirs, they obviously have a wax museum component to some of their attractions. But yeah, this one looks interesting. It looks like they've done a good job with their, you know, with overall with their theming. And it definitely made it wacky and strange. It is definitely crazy golf, like of the classic sense.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

It's a classic sense, and I think they put a lot of energy into it. I'd like to see it. You know, we've we've been to Icon Park when we were looking at the zero latency uh operational. I spent some time just to keep her relevant there, and I'd like to see how this fits into the mix.

Claw Machine Venues Multiply

SPEAKER_04 22:44

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 22:47

Moving on, and we have I the attack of the claw machines, more claw cakes, claw world. Um, again, another example of the have claw. We'll try and add a little bit more. This has got a DJ component onto it. It is included including the skill claw aspect. Um I just I just throw it out there. That's one of the many.

SPEAKER_04 23:20

Yeah. It's interesting though, that at least in its uh renderings and what you have there, it looks like it's a standalone building invented like a standalone pop-up, which is surprising. Either hopefully they didn't over anything.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

Yes, that's what I hope. That's what I hope. Oh, carrying on, and we have the attack of uh the sim racing uh after our time in Vegas and having a look at what our friends at F1 Arcade were doing. It's also interesting to see what the hard uh esports simulation sector is doing. And uh Velocity, this is their second uh site in Texas, in Dallas, crowded market, but it is offering a very specific uh sim racing pro professional uh experience, but supported with quite uh interesting F and B. So I would say a little bit from column A and a little bit of column B regarding how it fits into the market. This isn't your F1 arcade, but this isn't also your standard uh um esports simulation set.

SPEAKER_04 24:34

Yeah. So here's the one thing my here's the one issue I have with this space. I mean, it looks beautiful, it looks like it's a gonna be amazing. They probably spent a lot of money on it, etc. etc. Um, great. But then then they chose a name that uh one, they haven't they haven't launched their website, but they also haven't done anything on their Google Maps or Google Business. Because you search Velocity, Dallas, Texas, and I get a dance convention, I get a clinical research facility, I get an IT facility, I get a uh I get like a press release about their thing. Um other assistants living, assisted living. So like guys, come on, like pick. I understand velocity is a good name, but pick something that if I search for it, it's going to pop up. You are you you you are dependent on search, you're dependent on your web presence, you're dependent on foot traffic, and this is not going to you know help if I have to you know search. I hear about velocity and I can't find you at all. So anyway, um, web rant done.

NHK VR Pop-Ups And Headset Friction

SPEAKER_00 25:33

But no, no, but but uh but a relevant rant, it's valuable rant if they were listening, and I don't think they've been listening. They have been focused a little bit more on what they could borrow from F1RK than rather than the marketing and the branding mix. And I don't mean to belittle it. We know how difficult this is their second site, and they've been learning a lot of lessons about what the sim racing community wants from an entertainment bricks and mortar venue. But if you're going to enter the entertainment industry, you'd better start wearing our clothing. Uh we have seen an incredible number of what I am calling shared reality, uh immersive adventures or immersive exhibitions using head-mounted displays, walking around in large groups of 20, 30, or 40 through an experience that lasts 20, 30, or 40 minutes. We and this is one that Fever has definitely got its fingers in, but it is also one that other entertainment uh corporations have got their hands into. And NHK in Japan, uh, a major media, uh television media and streaming service provider, has started to open up their NHK VR venues, and these venues are offering kind of a pop-up approach. They are going to be changing the content out quite regularly. So for about four months, you have one particular experience, such as the one we have here in Tokyo, which is the samurai dream experience, where you visit a famous historical castle in virtual reality, and then this will be followed by uh more of uh the historical or the uh immersive entertainment kind of experiences. Cinema 2.0, maybe.

SPEAKER_04 27:32

Yeah, I think maybe, right? I mean, can especially considering its temporary runs. So, you know, this is at least according to their website, running from excuse me, Friday last Jesus, uh, March 20th through May 31st. So it is, it kind of has a theatrical style run um in that period of time. Um, you know, I think it's interesting though that while the required time is 40 minutes, the total viewing time is 25, and they take they require 15 minutes, is what they're saying for the explanation and fitting of the headset and everything else. And this is one of my biggest issues with these types of experiences is the amount of time required to get somebody ready for the experience is almost as long as the experience itself. And that I think is what will make this what will we what will prevent this from becoming Cinema 2.0. I think it has the potential to be, but the disparity between the actual length of the experience and the length of time to prepare for the experience is uh you know is the issue.

Awards Submissions As A Strategy

SPEAKER_00 28:39

That box on your head loading and unloading time is an issue. And uh it is an issue that could be redressed by new technology that's just been released. But let's not get up too far ahead of ourselves. You know, I've zipped through that very quickly. Obviously, um, if you uh if you want more details, you get the pause button out and you go back and you look at some of the ones that I've covered here. But just uh an aside, or a brief aside, we have had uh a number of these venues receiving awards for their excellence. And we will be talking about in sound off uh both uh our friends at Arcade Time and uh Starlades, uh, who have both been held up uh by their various associations as uh bringing something unique uh to the table. It is interesting to see how these decisions have been made about what is unique compared to the avalanche that we've received of uh entertainment venues, but it is also important to consider that putting your facility's name up for consideration by these associations is equally as important as making sure that your web page works and your brand is suitable.

SPEAKER_04 29:59

Yeah, you know, I I was uh real quick here uh in talking with you know a few other past winners of both this award and also the uh top FEC, top LBE of the year award from IAPA um and others. You know, one of the things that uh they recommend is just submitting yourself, period. Uh, whether or not you think you have a chance of winning, they say it's the process of going through the submission, it really makes you take a different view and different eye of your facility as you're really preparing to submit everything. You know, you have to take pictures of your bathrooms, you have to take pictures of how things are laid out, the cleanliness of your staff, how they're addressed. And you then begin to realize both positives and the opportunities to make improvements on your overall operations and everything else because you're having to put such a fine view on everything in the facility. And so the very process of just submitting for one of these is valuable according to them. And they highly recommend that most or or other FECs and LBEs and experiences do the same.

Closings, Sales, And Lease Math

SPEAKER_00 31:03

We'll go into this in more detail, I think, uh, when we do sound off. Jumping into the shots and the sales, and you know, if you have over 500 Chuck E. Cheeses, of course, you're going to have churn and uh you know Maryland facility. They have, I think, three in the catchment uh of uh this particular store. It's being closed down uh in April, and they're blaming it on uh the expiration of their lease, which uh is if you've been there a while and you know, landlords change and the venues and the areas change, you toss a coin about whether you put the money in to bring this up to uh Chuck E. Cheese 2.0 standard, or you just move on and put the effort into other facilities.

SPEAKER_04 31:51

Yeah, and given the pictures on the you know, on Google and everything else, it does look like this was still a Gen 1, or not what we call it Gen 1, but they definitely haven't upgraded it to the current version of Chuck E. Cheese. And so it probably was that they had they probably had some indication that this was going to be a point where they were going to have to leave, do it a lease expiring. I'm sure they were already negotiating with landlords a couple of years ago, realizing that they're not gonna be able to get a renewal on their lease. So why put any investment into the facility and we'll just shut it down when our time is up?

Funlab Sale Tease For Sound Off

SPEAKER_00 32:23

You can see the spreadsheet that um CC Entertainment must use when they come to look at each of their venues for whether it is worthy of investment for update or whether it is worthy for closed down and consolidation of other venues in the area, how the lease uh works, when was the last time that the facility was updated, and the most important, what's the numbers like that it is generating in that particular area? Launch, um, you know, it's not really a close down, it's just a change of uh management. You know, we we have this type of thing. A franchise facility here in Dearborn is uh opened, it is run for a period of time. Uh the current franchisee owners decide they want to move on, and so it is swapped over to a new uh ownership. Now, whether that ownership is going to need to put money into the operation to expand uh or to uh enhance uh the launch experience, I don't know. But this is the changing of the guard, the natural progression for these types of operations. Uh a weird one, and we'll go into this uh in a lot more detail when we uh talk about this in sound off, but Funlabs, the Australian chain, you know, has about six uh kinds of uh entertainment properties under its fence, everything from holy moly to its strikes. Uh and what has happened is that the company that acquired them, uh, well, the equity operation that acquired them uh back in 2021 has decided to put them up for sale. And uh currently we are led to believe that they're in the final uh stages of announcing uh who will be the lucky acquirer of the operation. I am very interested to see once the acquisition is made, how much fun lab will change.

American Heartland Collapses Into Legal Mess

SPEAKER_04 34:27

Yeah, I'm gonna hold off until we do get to sound off. So I highly recommend this will be an interesting discussion. Uh so highly recommend uh if you're listening to this and you want to get a little bit more here and dig in deeper to go and hop on and listen to Sound Off that comes out in just a couple of days.

SPEAKER_00 34:45

Uh, one that really hadn't appeared on my radar because I don't usually have Bunkum on my radar uh regarding concepts. I don't mean to insult my fellow ex-Walt Disney Imagineers that worked very hard on the concept art and work on this project. Uh, American Heartland Theme Park and Resort, what uh you know, was going to be Oklahoma's uh premier uh entertainment venue. It was a high concept,$2.5 billion expected project. They had broken ground, they had had that moment with the piles of earth and the shovels, and then it came apart like a cheap Italian suit in the rain. It really did, you know, as soon as sunlight touched this, it just came apart as more of a wonder dream. And sadly, we've gone from just a failed concept to criminal activity. It seems that one of the key investors uh that was bankrolling this project may have been uh uh uh the victim of elder abuse towards uh getting them to support this project. The claims of the vast amounts of money that were involved in this project may also have been a sham. There is a legal action taking place as we speak, but we have officially had the stake driven through the heart of Heartland, and sadly uh that you know chalked this up as another boondoggle project that ended uh in the courts.

SPEAKER_04 36:26

Yeah, there's a lot to go into with this uh with this one, so looking forward to that conversation and sound off.

Wrap Open And Shut

SPEAKER_00 36:33

It's a messy one. Anyway, uh we've bored you long enough. If you need to contact us and keep up to date, we have the LinkedIn and the email. We have uh some new Stinger reports. I'm busily typing away for the next tranche of Stinger Reports and an entertainment social arena that will benefit from our trip to Vegas and that particular heartland. And if you have any questions, just knock us out.

SPEAKER_04 37:02

Perfect. I'm not sure I'd call Vegas a heartland, but there we go. Um, uh another great open and shut, and we will see you all in the next one.

SPEAKER_00 37:12

Have a good one.

SPEAKER_04 37:22

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John Wick Light Gun Hype

Trade Show Prototypes Are Not Final

Disney Speedstorm Arcade And Cards

Cyberpunk Arcade Buzz

Alan-1 Cabinets And Mirror Effects

G.I. Joe Beat-Em-Up Revival

Nickelodeon Kart Racers Needs Tuning

Typhoon Shockwave Comfort Fixes

Avatar Fighting Game Plus Pinball

What Arcade Operators Should Watch

SPEAKER_03 38:19

Hey everybody, it's Adam with Arcade Heroes for the Arcade Corner here. If you're new to the LBX Collective podcast, I I cover the aspect of the industry from the point of view of an arcade operator, mainly focused on video arcade games, pinball machines, things of that nature, not so much the ticket redemption, uh, since that oftentimes doesn't really need the signal boost. So the top 10 products that were shown at AEI that uh I've seen, where of course, and this is the reason why John Wick is here already, is John Wick is by far the number one uh title in that regard, it being a light gun game. Uh now I have to scroll a little bit through my um slideshow here. I don't think there's anything else that I have that's from John Wick uh specifically. But then all right, no, somewhere I had a photo of the guns and whatnot. Although one thing that I also need to point out, in case you're new to the business, is that uh anything that was shown at any trade show, really, but say at Amusement Expo that wasn't said to already be in production, don't make a final judgment call on it. As it's very possible that lots of things can change about any one of these products. Like with John Wick, they could change stuff about the cabinet. They already told me they were going to be changing things about the guns, at least their look, uh, as well as the um the car piece that was behind the two seats. Um uh yeah, there. Uh and so there was those changes that were going to be made. Uh, there was obviously a lot of changes that still need to be made to the game because they only had one level out of the three. And so, yeah, this is it's always very important to keep in mind that these are works in progress. A lot of times they're just concepts that that you're finally seeing there. And so, yeah, just uh I see too many people uh oftentimes uh writing something off just because it's like, oh, this doesn't look good for whatever reason, but it's just like this is super early, so stop uh having that reason. Now, uh number two on the list may be a little bit surprising, but um Brandon, Kevin, and myself did discuss this in our amusement expo wrap-up um video where there there's been a desire, a hunger for kid-based racing games. And uh I've been kind of shocked how Bandai Namco has kind of dropped the ball on their Mario Kart Arcade GPDX, dropping it in the sense of demand for it is super high, but they're so slow to jump on that or to increase production to hire the people that they need to hire to be able to meet those demands. As I was told at the show that ordering one right now in March 2026, you won't get it for almost a year until February 2027. And uh to me, that's just a little bizarre. I don't know why you would want to uh put yourself in that position and not hire more help. But it presents an opening, an opportunity for other manufacturers to jump on it. Although I'm surprised it's taken them this long because Mario Kart came out in 2013. Now sure the demand for it hasn't been that high since 2013, but still that we haven't had more kid-focused racing games, it's been a little surprising to me. Uh, but Disney Speedstorm Arcade was shown off for the first time by Adrenaline Amusements. Uh, one of the unique aspects about it, which actually does sort of pull from the uh home console mobile games because those have unlockable things that I think you can buy, is having this card system. And of course, with Disney and collectibles, that's kind of a no-brainer. But uh by getting the cards, which you can either buy from the machine or you can win or earn by playing through an entire cup. A cup would be three races. You don't have to win the cup, you just have to play through it, and it'll give you a card. And uh then that will unlock either a new character that you can race as, as you can see here, like Wreck It Ralph or Sadness uh from uh Side Inside Out and uh and such. Uh, or you can unlock costumes from those characters. Now I think I had a photo. This is really just from the uh the it's not the full cabinet. Uh adrenaline hasn't released a render of this full cabinet yet. This is another thing where they were telling me multiple things about the cabinet that they were going to be changing in production, including the placement of the card reader and the card dispenser, the look of the shell on the back. Uh apparently that was done mainly just to get it ready for the show. Uh, there's going to be an infinity mirror of the Mickey Mouse uh shape cutout as opposed to just a single mirror and a couple of other things. But that's coming in May. Another thing I was able to confirm with adrenaline is that the cards are not necessary to play the game. And uh that's something that was the case with, say, like Minecraft Dungeons Arcade or Injustice Arcade or Marvel Contest of Champions, is you absolutely have to have the cards for those machines to work, otherwise they just won't. Um but you don't actually have to have that in the case of Disney Speedstorm. Um And let me race through some of these other ones. Next up would be Cyberpunk 2077 Chrome Rush, which just taking a quick look here. It doesn't look like I got any particular photos of that. I got plenty of video of that one, but that's by Yunus and CD Project Red. And getting a cyberpunk video game in the industry is something that a lot of those fans want. Steven at Unis told me that it went viral in China. There was a lot of buzz about it once they released the trailer. And I saw people covering this in Europe as well as the United States. And uh Allen One brought a lot of new things to the show. I mean, the Butts on Things wasn't exactly new as it had been at Iapa, but they had full packages of those little Butts on Things toys, which use the same material as the rubber duckies. And of course, they had a lot of their other games that had previously hit production there. I saw the um return of the Pong coffee table as well as the Cocktail Arcade table. But the I did a video specifically about the mirror effects cabinets, and surprisingly, that uh was almost right up there with um with Cyberpunk. So uh some interesting attraction on those ones. I have to imagine Breakout is the one that because it's definitely by far the most well-known out of all of the Atari games uh in that, those amongst those three. And but uh personally I like the Caverns of Mars game the most. But uh that's just me, I guess. Uh next up would actually be not Alan One, but Exa Arcadia, and you've seen this as I've gone through here. Apologies for not getting this slideshow completely uh named in order uh beforehand. But um G.I. Joe Wrath of Cobra, which is a beat-em-up game by XR Arcadia. It actually did come out on consoles, but EXA is doing a lot of change, making a lot of changes to this, adding a lot of voices, finding voice actors who are close to the original voice actors, as unfortunately a lot of the original voice actors to the cartoon have uh died, uh, but handles either uh one to four players, you can put it on a two-player cabinet. And uh, I've spoken about EXA many times before. They offer, they're one of the few companies along with Alan One to offer video products that are under$10,000. And EXA is getting a lot more into licensing um as they are with their other game, which actually um is a little bit lower on the list. Uh, but yeah, this is uh G.I. Joe Wrath of Cobra coming this summer. Again, beat them up, kind of like the old Ninja Turtles or Simpsons Konami arcade games. Um, let's see. The next one, I can't remember if I actually had a photo of this guy. I don't think I did. Uh would be Nickelodeon Cart Racers Arcade, and this gets back into the demand for um kids racing arcade games. Oh, there we go. And uh, but this comes in a much smaller, more affordable package than the Disney Speedstorm does. It comes in something that almost looks more like it's out of the early 2000s, as far as the cabinet design goes, uh with a little extra LED lighting, like in the back of the seat and such, but it doesn't overdo it. Of course, that could be changed uh for the final as well. Um, but uh there were a number of changes that I was talking to the producer of this game about uh for the software, that would be the main focus, uh, such as explaining that the brake pedal is actually a jump pedal, uh which that threw me off. Um, but there was another thing that another person brought up to me, and I noticed this when I first played it before I had talked to this other person, was that the sense of speed in the game is not very strong. It feels like you're racing kind of slow. And so um I brought that up to the producer, and hopefully that's something they they fix. Um, another, and then next on the list is Typhoon Shockwave, the fourth in the Typhoon series. If you count the Mad Wave Theater, which I believe Dreotech does, um, and we discussed this a bit. Uh, just uh I hope with the production model. Uh, one thing they needed to do because I was filming and I uh I caught this where it was violently shaking the guy who was riding it so bad he kept grabbing the back of his head and he eventually got mad and got up and walked away. Um, and uh but I are I did hear the triotech guys uh mentioning that that uh there was going to be some better padding for the headrest on that. It needs to be very soft padding because like I noticed this too when I was on me. There is like a but the back of my head felt a little off. It wasn't sore, it wasn't like I was getting sucker punched or anything, but still I was like this this was probably just due to didn't have enough time to get that particular material on there. Um and then uh next up on the list would be um the Avatar Legends fighting game. Uh so this is actually based on Avatar the Last Airbender, another licensed one, but it's a one-on-one fighting game. Think of like Street Fighter, uh, something like that. Um, but uh yeah, that's also coming this summer. Um we're just almost out of time here. Um the I don't have a photo of the next two, but uh the one the next two would be Pokemon Pinball by Stern Pinball and uh My My Circle by Sega. Now I'm pretty sure Pokemon's not super high up on my list just because there's a lot of pinball media uh companies out there that at this point, a lot of bloggers and influencers who just focus on pinball, and so that's where most people go for their pinball news. And so that's uh fine by me and whatnot. I still cover it anyways. Um, but yeah, yeah, that's uh those are the top things uh that I've seen so far. And that might change as we get further into the week and I get more stuff out there. Um but uh let me know in the comments below what uh was the top 10 or at least the top three stuff for you at the show. What are you looking forward to the most? What do you think is going to make the biggest changes as we get into the summertime? We'll catch you on the next video.

SPEAKER_02 51:10

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SPEAKER_04 51:42

Okay, well, that is uh nearly a wrap here. So we can sound off number 115, and that's with Kevin Williams on Tuesday, March 31st, so in just a couple of days. So be sure to do definitely tune into that one. That will be a great sound off. Uh, but yeah, that is a wrap for this week's LBX show. I'm Brandon Wiley signing off. Stay tuned and keep kicking assuming.