Commentary

London spreads competitive socializing fever in global entertainment

Image provided by Puttshack.

October 24, 2022 by Kevin Williams

Competitive socializing has gained significant investment among entertainment brands of late, the majority of which have opened in London before stretching their wings for international rollout.

Swingers, Puttshack and Flight Club all cut their teeth in the U.K. capital and gone on to open U.S. locations.

Toca Social, since opening at London's O2 Arena, has started an ambitious rollout, soon to launch its second site in Dallas, what the developers have described as an "interactive football and dining experience." The English soccer striker, Harry Kane, is an investor in the parent company and is now being used as a brand celebrity to promote the growth of the operation.

Social mixed with gaming

The London based Toca Social concept underlines the mixing of a social entertainment atmosphere with a strong hospitality element, adding more amusement entertainment to capture that secondary spend. Several separate payment foosball tables have been added with talk of more amusement elements being rolled in.

Projection simulator sports enclosures have been seen also with the golf simulators, and more recently with the appearance of sports shooting.

Clays Bar — Interactive Clay Target Shooting Experience, a new London operation, marries shooting simulators with a high-level cocktail and dining experience. The shooting game experience, developed by Trigger Group, lets players take their turn to blast virtual clay pigeons from the air while wielding re-creations of shotguns.

Sixes Social Cricket uses the same immersive projection approach for a cricket simulator-based bar and dining experience with four U.K. locations. And, as with most of the social entertainment developments, there is a focus on groups of young adults who are looking for fun and competition.

Electric Gamebox, another competitive socializing brand, has rebranded as Immersive Gamebox, with plans to roll out its hyper-immersive digital experience which uses motion tracking sensors worn on players' hats. The company announced the launch of its "Angry Birds" game content, licensed from Rovio Entertainment, and it is to be installed across all 12 locations in the U.S. and U.K.

The company is moving from a location based entertainment model to a more standalone attraction approach, deploying "digital rooms" called "Lightboxes" in entertainment venues, and announcing a partnership with Santikos Entertainment to place the platform in its Texas chain of cinemas.

Modern and classic decor

One of the unique elements of the growth in competitive socializing is the appearance of amusement hardware, both modern as well as classic.

Many entrepreneurs have attempted to relive the classic arcade environment and developed short-lived bar experiences, with the placing of a selection of machines in a venue. The ability to make this model work is much more difficult than would first seem.

Aspects such as a lack of understanding regarding the needs of the customer and a way to appropriately monetize running an arcade and bar together have caused many to fail. Likewise, trying to transport the American style "bar-arcade" environment has proven equally as difficult.

The latest operation to make a serious go at this approach has also set up shop in London. NG64 — Arcade Bar opened its own basement amusement venue decorated with a spray can and blacklight art aesthetic.

This is a stylized arcade tavern with themed cocktails and a selection of amusement cabs alongside classic console machines offering games. The space seems to try to evoke the cool elements of the traditional arcade that the Las Vegas Soho venue, only a few doors away, originated back in the 1980s.

Four Quarters Arcade Bar, another London social entertainment chain, has four venues, three within the suburbs of London, and the new site at Elephant and Castle offers the latest interpretation of this brand's retro-arcade cool.

Along with the console gaming stations and group seating are interspersed classic video amusement pieces from all the eras, including an "Out Run" deluxe cabinet, "Time Crisis 2" shooters, and even "Space Invaders" and "Pole Position" cabs.

Rather than the basement arcade vibe, this operation is looking at championing the social play element of amusement with a strong student nightlife focus.

Hospitality embraces video amusement

The placement, once again, of video amusement cabs in hospitality areas is growing — most recently seen as part of the BrewDog chain of craft beer venues in London. In offering an engaging and enjoyable location for office staff and students to socialize after work, along with an extensive lunch trade, the facility supports its beer and food offering with a social entertainment style gaming arena.

At locations like the BrewDog Outpost Tower Hill the venue includes this arena comprising three shuffleboards, as well as a cluster of amusement cabinets — two video games and one pinball table.

Other BrewDog locations, such as Shepherds Bush and Paddington, also run the same arena setup. While this is not a return to gaming in pubs, other hospitality venues are looking at the addition of an amusement mix.

Self-service dining enters the mix

Regarding the food and fun element, many industry executives have been looking at the staffing situation impacting the returning entertainment business. We have seen the deployment of self-service food, drink and confectionery purchase. These have been dubbed "frictionless" checkout platforms.

These concepts mirror what has been seen with the Amazon Go model of frictionless convenience stores — using the company's machine learning platform, this allows customers to enter a store using their app, collect items and walk out without needing to use a checkout, the purchases made automatically.

Entertainment chain operator Dave & Buster's partnered with The Coca-Cola Co. to develop its new concept, "Game & Go MicroMarket." Dubbed a checkout-free experience, the system offers a frictionless market checkout process as part of a full restaurant.

Offering guests a choice of the full-service restaurant or checkout, the system uses machine learning and autonomous checkout technology from Zippin. The new system saw its first rollout in a Dave & Buster's location in Florida — branded on site as "Dave & Buster's Game & Go" — and with the installation fabricated by partner The Central Group.

No word yet on how many of the D&B sites will include this new service, although other entertainment operations are evaluating its benefits.

This could be seen as a derivation of the convenience store (walk-through) vending machine approach. Already, alongside the Amazon stores, Zippin has been rolling out its "MicroMarket" stores employing the AI and machine learning support to create the frictionless checkout-free environment.

These have started to be rolled out across the market in sports arenas, cafeterias and airports — and this marks a move into the entertainment and hospitality sector.

Many entertainment facility operators who previously depended on food vending on-site will now be considering the ability to offer a higher level of refreshment using this frictionless platform. As seen with the use of robot servers and now autonomous self-service platforms, the entertainment scene is about to experience major developments.

(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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