The Stinger Report #1264 - Vegas Amusement Fun – Part 1

The US amusement sector’s first major trade event, AEI 2026, highlighted key market trends, including a focus on social entertainment, XR, and immersive technology. While VR remains prevalent, new offerings like portable arena systems and AR glasses are gaining traction, though traditional VR arcades face headwinds, exemplified by the closure of CTRL-V’s remaining venues. Ride simulation innovations, such as LED dome attractions and new motion platforms, signal ongoing growth in immersive rides. Major players like Bandai Namco, SEGA, and UNIS showcased new products and IP-driven experiences, underscoring a shift towards hybrid entertainment models and evolving consumer preferences in the competitive landscape.

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Transcript

Why AEI 2026 Matters

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This is the Stinger Report, issue number 1264, Vegas Amusement Fun, Part 1, by Kevin Williams. The U.S. amusement sector holds its first major trade event of the year and offers a snapshot of the opportunities shaping the market. In this first part of the coverage of the AEI convention, we look at the educational, XR, and initial trends shaping the scene. Amusement and Attraction, Expo Momentum, Part 1. The March period of the years was a crowded period, even with the postponement of the new Middle East concept from IAAPA. This period also became a complicated point for the industry as external weather, financial and political conditions impacted the events, taking its usual spot in the year Amusement Expo International AEI 2026, the CoinOP services support event curated by the AAMA slash AMOA, trade associations and WG Glasgow organizers, the convention board group working hard to invest in a new direction for the event, seeing a relocation to the Las Vegas Convention Hall West for the first time. This was an event that had a lot to prove these years to continue its relevance in the market, and was headed by educational sessions and then two days of trade floor, seminar and educational sessions. First two days of the trade event were focused on the AAMA and AMOA Educational Program. Along with keynotes and panel sessions, the Exhibition Board had invited presentations from industry specialists. KWP slash Stinger Report owner Kevin Williams was invited to give a first-day keynote presentation on the growth of social entertainment and the opportunities for the amusement industry in the expanding competitive socializing landscape. This was a well-received session, part of the record 310 attendance, and raised a lot of questions from the amusement trade towards how the social entertainment scene will change the business. The educational component of the AEI event also saw Foundation Entertainment University hold their education forum, attracting a record 110 participants during its 24th year. Regarding the other sessions during the educational days after the troubled VR summit of last year, the AAMA and AMOA organizations and AEI Board of Directors rethought the structure of the event, focusing heavily on the educational aspects of the trade gathering. The AAMA's Mixed Reality and Immersive Technology Committee held a session at AEI 26, compiled by panel chair from Cleanbox, discussing the best approach to continue the growth of the technology and the benefits operators are seeing to best practices approach. This comprised representatives from XR users and developers such as Valo Motion and Zero Latency, including their Vegas partners, Caesars Entertainment, owners of MGM Casino, who run a Zero Latency VR installation on site, and Operator FEG, a session supplying to the gathered audience the realities of profitable XR operation. Exhibition floor, XR headset offering. Turning to the opening of the AEI 26 trade show, and after the ceremony, the packed show at its new West Hall location offered a strong mix of the latest trends in the amusement sector. It was clear that VR was still prevalent on the show floor, but by no means to the same level had been seen at previous events. Of the mix of VR at the convention, there was only one real new release, while the others included hardware previously seen. DIVR Labs VR brought an example of their Insta-VR Arena system, offering a operator-free VR attraction, using automated headset lockers and a selection of the latest multiplayer VR experiences. This system has already been successfully installed across several venues. DIVR Labs came to AEI 26 with a brand new platform with Insta VR Go. This offered a complete turnkey portable VR installation, comprising six Pico headsets and controller sets in a travel case and mobile enclosure. This offers a chance for any operator to drop in and benefit from the popularity of VR Arena Gaming. There was also some previously seen VR Amusement. Of the only other dedicated VR exhibitors, we had Relix VR, the company offering at the Expo their compact two-player virtual entertainment system. The company also presented the final production version of their Relix Rush VR. The system offers immersive two-player, mounted shooting action, all supporting the ruggedized mount for the MetaQuest 3S headset. Previous VR releases were also seen on other amusement exhibitors' booths, which we will cover later in our exclusive AEI 26 coverage. Away from the VR offerings, MR slash AR applications were represented at AEI 26 with the exhibitor and market leader Verse Immersive. The company had an installation of their glasses-based augmented entertainment environment, employing the latest SNAP spectacles, as seen in our IAAPA25 coverage. The company includes entertainment and edutainment content and is being installed as an attraction at FEC's as well as standalone venue operation. Verse employs a dedicated hygiene policy for their system, using the cleanbox architecture to ensure effective use. We will report later in this coverage regarding another AR project that has been fielded into the modern amusement facility business, with a new deployment under evaluation by Dave and Busters. More details later in our extensive coverage. Regarding the general VR arcade scene, the continuing growing pains were evident in the market. It was revealed a few days after AEI-26 that the VR Arcade franchise operation Control V and their remaining four venues had announced their closure for the end of March. This news came as a surprise as the operation had been in business for the last 10 years and had made fantastic efforts in the market to reinvent themselves following the privations of COVID lockdown. At its height, the operation had established 11 venues in Canada and the US, but had fallen back to four in the US and Canada. A victim of the need to continue to innovate in the XR landscape, the operation had continued to focus on a tethered HTC Vive VR Gen 1 hardware approach, which has been superseded by an audience looking at untethered, multiplayer arena scale VR excitement. Exhibition floor, XR ride simulation. The XR landscape covers many technologies. Along with the head-mounted displays and glasses, there is also the immersive display technology. The latest examples of the revolution in immersive displays were seen on the DOF robotics booth. Along with model illustrations of the mid-scale attractions, the company had a full installation of their latest platform. The Compact Flying Theatre is a four-rider, LED dome-based attraction. Using the latest LED display configuration, but in a strikingly compact format that would be suitable for deployment not just in theme parks, but also FEC and LBE. Regarding DOF's first-time appearance at the American Amusement Trade event, it was interesting the DOF did not bring to the show their AI photo booth platform, or more relevantly, their Angry Bird Fury Road Kiddie Karting Video Game Racer, based on the popular IP launched last year during IAAPA 2025. Its omission from the show was telling as so many karting video games were revealed during this year's convention. Another media attraction developer that came to the AEI 26 show was Triotech. The company has an extensive history releasing products aimed at amusement and FEC application, one of their most successful being the Typhoon that has an illustrious history in the amusement scene as a dependable coin op ride on simulator. Triotech took the occasion to launch a new version of their popular platform. Shown for the first time, the Typhoon Shockwave includes a new large screen design and twin motion seat configuration, a new generation of ride-on-motion simulators for the new generation of guests. It was revealed that Triotech has signed a major IP for their XD Dark Ride theaters, revealing Jumanji will be launching in summer this year a XD Dark Ride film experience for their theater based on the Sony Picture property. It was announced that Merlin Entertainments will be opening four locations at property-based on a Jumanji-themed immersive experience developed by Triotech. This will be available to all XD Dark Ride owners after the initial Merlin rollout at the end of summer. This will mark the second announcement of a Jumanji-based experience for the LBE sector. This follows the zero latency announcement of a VR experience based on the film IP Exhibition Floor, Amusement Offering. The extensive exhibition space represented a leading selection of the 2026 new and popular releases. Leading the charge at the entrance to the show was Bandai Namco Amusement America, BNAA. The corporation was the winner of the AAMA Award, Manufacturer of the Year 2026, and represented a wide range of the latest amusement pieces. Along with the prize machine and redemption, the company showed the previously seen environmental cabinets Goldstorm Pirates and their third-party title, Mini World Motion. One omission from the lineup of BNAA new releases was a sequel to the popular Mario Kart Arcade series, this vacuum attempting to be filled by several releases at this year's expo, what are being called karting video games. The burgeoning amusement trade was also represented by Sega Amusement International, SAI, with a crowded booth of their own, with the latest prize and redemption, along with video amusement such as the new version of Daytona Championship USA Motion Edition. Also represented was MyMaiDX, the music game sensation based on the touchscreen technology. Having been a runaway success in the Asian market, the company positioning for Western popularity. SAI also promoted their Alpha Ops VR Strike platform, and the booth even represented social gaming with Puttit Party. Moving round the trade show and the other big booth was with Betson Enterprises slash Raw Thrills, showing their current crop of successful releases, including Top Gun Maverick. The version on display was equipped with the latest software update, with releases now supporting online free software updates. Alongside this and other video game success on display, included Godzilla Kaiju Wars, seen in its non-VR version, while the VR amusement aspirations were represented by King Kong II Skull Island in its full VR colors. Raw Thrills founder, Eugene Jarvis and industry legend, was recognized with an AAMA Lifetime Achievement Award. While ICE Games did not have a dedicated booth as in other years, the company's latest releases were seen across many distributor exhibitors' booths. On the LAI Games booth and VR was represented by the final production version of Ubisoft All-Star VR, the motion-based, two-player virtual experience. This was reported to be the final version of the game launched at the end of last year. The booth also showed the updated software release version of Cyberpunk Turf War, the mixed reality BB shooter. This was the second Cyberpunk 2077 game license applied to amusement, see the UNIS coverage. Also seen in the third-party amusement release, Phantom Vanguard, the unique modern combat shooter from GameLoft. The changing structure of the corporations that represented the amusement scene was illustrated by the appearance of Player One Amusement Group, P1AG. The company had a booth representing their amusement distribution and operation investment. As reported previously, P1AG had been acquired by Gender and represented the newly established Gender Americas operation under the new Kiddleton brand, the new transition seeing the replacement by the new Kiddleton signage. The booth also included a selection of the branded crane machines and kiosks under the Kiddleton brand, along with the latest third-party amusement release, such as from SAI. Having one of the biggest showings in recent memory, Unis Technology offered a selection of new releases in development. Along with their crane and modular redemption counter range, the big news on the booth was the reveal of Cyberpunk 2077 Chrome Rush, a futuristic ride-on motorbike racing game featuring combat elements and an immersive motion platform. Shown in a version with the signage prototype pending licensor approval, the game offered a big package of the latest motorcycle game in the amusement scene, employing a large ride on futuristic bike design on a motion platform. Expected to be released in June, the system has been in development for some time, working directly with the CD project Red Developers of the original 30 million selling video game, who have offered design suggestions in the game and cabinet hardware. This the second representation of the video game IP on the show floor as we reported the LAI release. Another big new reveal on the UNISAE i-26 booth was Pickleball Rivals, a two-player bat and ball video sports game evoking the accessibility of motion-sensing gameplay while delivering a modern competitive arcade experience. The player competes within their own ring, moving their bat with their movements represented by their character on screen. Along with the Wii Memory Berry, we have seen other video amusement motion-tracked bat and ball-style gaming, such as the live-action ping pong from D-Gate in 2002. At the Unis booth at AEI 26, other new video releases from Unis included their gaming series of new races Monster Jet Rider, a stand-up racing game in the snow. Also shown was Monster Cart building on the same concept characters. This the latest in the karting video game category seen across the show floor. Regarding the transmedia impact on the floor, to see one IP from video gaming, such as Cyberpunk 2077 from CD Project Red, make such an impact was interesting, especially as it would be revealed later that along with the LAI Games last year signing and the UNIS signing, Zero Latency, the VR Arena Facility franchise would be announcing the signing of the property for their release, a very popular franchise. But what of the other developments and trends at the convention?