Commentary

Mixed use leisure entertainment: a logical progression

A new generation of entertainment facility businesses is taking advantage of available retail venues for larger entertainment spaces.

Artist rendering of VS Park. Image courtesy of Bandai Namco.

June 28, 2021 by Kevin Williams

There has been a lot of chatter in the lockdown market of investment being made towards opening new "mixed-use leisure entertainment" operations. I myself have been instrumental in this direction, co-founding the retail entertainment facility operator and location based entertainment developer Spider Entertainment.

This is a new opportunity for a new generation of entertainment facility business, both taking advantage of the available retail venues and also looking at available properties towards creation of new larger entertainment spaces.

It is the logical progression from traditional "street route" business to that of mall arcades, then to family entertainment centers to the next generation of' mixed-use entertainment facilities and location-based entertainment' sites. We are starting to see several new openings from new and established names that seem to illustrate a growing momentum towards opening new businesses in preparation of the expected influx of guests.

Momentum builds

We saw varied examples early in the year, such as Cineplex Entertainment revisiting its Playdium concept and opening a brand new 30,000-square-foot facility in Dartmouth Crossing mall, Canada, comprising bowling, amusement and attractions with food and beverages.

The 100,000-square-foot "Tilt Studio" opening in South Carolina by owners Nickels & Dime might have been the first time an FEC amusement and redemption site converted a recently abandoned JC Penney mall department store.

We also saw Scene75 Entertainment Center's latest 135,000-square-foot FEC open in Chicago, converting a former Romeoville Sam's Club. This is a venue that expects to attract more than 400,000 visitors per year.

This continues the crossover into "retail-tainment," embracing available retail space.

National Entertainment Network enters the fray

Speaking of the upheaval in the market and the changing landscape, we have additional information on the shutting down of Pac-Man Entertainment, previously Namco USA, by its Japanese parent. One of the three buyers of the operation's assets was revealed with the news that National Entertainment Network, an amusement and bulk vending operation, had acquired 760 of the Namco sites, making them the largest game room operator in North America, according to their own information.

The NEN deal will see all 500 Walmart-based amusement sites, as well as cinema, mall and arcade venues retained in this acquisition. The company is not acquiring the non-revenue sharing mall locations. Further details on these remaining locations, and if they will undertake re-branding of the sites, was not revealed. Nor was any further detail on the remaining managed locations, including Pac-Man Zone, Pac-Man Café and Pac-Man Entertainment, the flagship in Chicago — or the still unnamed two other new buyers.

While the operation was restructuring its American subsidiaries and passing on its North American facility business, Bandai Namco in Asia was expanding. The company had started to roll out in Japan with a third site of its new chain.

News broke that the concept would be seeing its first Chinese placement, its first overseas store. Bandai Namco VS Park will be opening at LaLaport Shanghai Jinbashi Store in China. News of other new openings are expected to follow soon as part of this aggressive rollout schedule.

Bandai Namco opens specialty stores

Bandai Namco iopened 25 toy capsule stores with Gashapon Department Store. Image courtesy of Bandai Namco.

This was not the only increased investment in a physical entertainment facility business from Bandai Namco Amusement. In a mass rollout, the company announced they had opened 25 stores nationwide with Gashapon Department Store. This is a retail-based "Vendertainment" offering — Gashapon being a capsule toy specialty store.

These capsule vending experiences have proven popular internationally, with several examples in the West, predominantly treated as vended business. But with this big push by Bandai Namco, they hope to establish a dedicated business operation based around their popularity.

This is a growing popularity and other amusement venue operators are looking to diversify into this sector. Just as news broke of this development, it was announced that Capcom would be rolling out its latest interpretation of this scene with Capsule Lab and a number of mall-based Gashapon venues.

Genda Sega Entertainment restructures

Concerning the other side of the paradigm, some information regarding the structure of the newly acquired Sega Entertainment facility empire emerged. Now under the control of its new owner, the nearly 200 Genda Sega Entertainment facility operations in Japan revealed restructuring measures were under way.

Described as "business reforms," the facilities have started their rebranding and adoption of new infrastructure to bring the operation up to date, and this includes the use of a new online communication tool between the 3,800 employees and management. This electronic bulletin board, named "Hata Luck," supports an information portal for staff communication and problem solving. The system is able to be accessed by smartphone and tablet app, allowing Genda to streamline the facility staffing and management process.

This platform is part of what Genda Sega Entertainment sees as a digital transformation for the operation, shaking off the previous Sega business style — with new social media contact with players, although still no word on ALL.Net.

These reforms are examples of the modernization process that will be felt across all entertainment facilities moving forward. Several amusement customers facing information portals are expected to be fielded from other venues in the coming months.

Some of the larger urban entertainment facility brands carried the burden of extensive debt during the lockdown and were unable to use their operations. They furloughed staff and husbanded resources to survive. Meanwhile, new operations and those without accumulated debt, in many cases self-funded, can be more proactive, investing in the next generation of urban entertainment experiences to deploy within facilities that also take frictionless payment seriously, alongside a strong food and beverage offering.

(Editor's note: Extracts from this blog are from recent coverage in The Stinger Report, published by KWP 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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