Commentary

Active entertainment progresses on numerous fronts, spawning trade associations

'Gamification' and digital technology have fueled a range of 'live play' amusements which have included new partnerships and new trade groups.

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June 13, 2022 by Kevin Williams

The deployment of active entertainment experiences into the leisure entertainment landscape can be best seen with the previous success generated by inflatable and trampoline businesses. The modern approach to active entertainment, however, is growing with the deployment of more modern implementations, including "gamification" and digital technology.

Bandai Namco steps forward

Bandai Namco Amusement America's "Pac-Man Battle Royale CHOMPionship," a tabletop physical amusement launched in 2021, has introduced a "remote" version, allowing up to eight players to log on via their smartphone and control their character, with some bar operators running the game as a free-play to promote competitive socializing.

The remote configuration marks an important development in the hospitality and social entertainment landscape — and a perfect companion to a bar and food offering.

Its unique ability to use guests' smartphones to control the action frictionlessly — as there is no need for controllers of cabinet — is another incentive to drive interest. The use of a QR code signup and Wi-Fi login is seamless, and it will be interesting to see if it is the hospitality or amusement trade that will benefit the most from this innovative entertainment experience.

The company also announced a new service in Japan, "Marui No Anime Plastore," the latest entrant into the "live play" (online crane game), supported by the Bandai Namco ID platform — the online crane (UFO) playing app. It is a hybrid service, with the crane prize element supported by a character lottery feature for players to collect virtual characters as well as prizes.

Bandai Namco is also celebrating the 45th anniversary of its Gashapon vended toy system, with a series of promotions and a limited release of the world's first capsule vending machines.

The company has developed "Gashapon Odyssey" — a promotional system using false-3D LED screens to simulate 3D objects, with the user able to select their capsule that is vended by the machine.

Competitors follow suit

"Live play" is also in full swing at Sega Corp., which has announced plans to re-enter the online crane business with its "Sega UFO Catcher Online" — an online app for remote play of crane cabinets supported by a Twitter campaign.

Unis, meanwhile, has leveraged "videmption" technology with its "Wicked Tuna" in its four- and two-player configuration — illustrating the latest IP crossover based on the popular National Geographic streamed TV show.

The company has also presented an active entertainment amusement piece, "Pogo Jump," aimed for the "kidtainment" market, offering a very physical game experience. The system opens up an opportunity to appeal to trampoline and inflatable operators with an active amusement property.

Projected "immersive enclosure" systems are also on the move, as Japanese development studio Gugenka partnered with Taito to develop a four-player space shooter called "Space Cube" played on the corporate's Cube platform, offering a 450-degree projected environment (floors and walls), with players shooting at waves of invaders based on the "Space Invaders" property.

The Cube system is also being used to play a two-player game, "Cyber Arkanoid," based on the classic 1986 coin-op release. The system launched in March, with its first installation at X-Station (a XR space) within the Taito Station Ikebukuro facility in Tokyo.

Then there's CSE's motion tracked "iWall" platform that has the players' movements represented on screen in the game, with the players actively jumping and ducking to the action.

Active entertainment spawns associations

The physicality of active entertainment, married to an e-sports and/or social entertainment component, has started to consolidate and has generated a trade body, the XRS Association.

The best illustration that an industry is solidifying into a force is the formation of the leading parties into a trade body to better promote the opportunities they bring to the table.

Speaking of industry trade associations, a "VR Collective" — led by VR event coordinator Bob Cooney and supported by AVS Companies, Shaffer Distributing and TrainerTainment — has been created to streamline the "go-to-market" for new VR concepts — intending to offer advice on best practice regarding operation of machines, needed elements and appropriate marketing.

The collective is being supported by the AAMA trade association and hopes to allow new developers, with little experience of the amusement scene, to gain traction into the choppy waters of amusement sales.

One of the first products to be retained by the collective is VAR Live with its "VAR Box," an unattended VR arcade kiosk, offering a VR e-sports tournament platform and several other shooting games.

The Hong Kong developed platform has established a strong Asian following and looks to penetrate the difficult Western amusement scene — and it is hoped that the VR Collective will ensure this, having already placed a system on test, and worked closely with the developer to make the needed changes for the transition to western sales success.

We are clearly entering a new phase of active entertainment.

(Editor's note: Extracts from this blog are from recent coverage in The Stinger Report, published by Spider Entertainment and its director, Kevin Williams, the leading interactive out-of-home entertainment news service covering the immersive frontier and beyond.)

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About Kevin Williams

Along with advisory positions with other entrants into the market he is founder and publisher of the Stinger Report, “a-must-read” e-zine for those working or investing in the amusement, attractions and entertainment industry. He is a prolific writer and provides regular news columns for main trade publications. He also travels the globe as a keynote speaker, moderator and panelist at numerous industry conferences and events. Author of “The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities,” the only book on this aspect of the market, with the second edition scheduled for a 2023 release.

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