Commentary

Signs of amusement recovery cover the globe

Vibrant trade shows and innovation on three continents point to a recovery for the amusement industry.

Image provided by iStock.

January 31, 2022 by Kevin Williams

The amusement trade seems to have weathered the first part of the post-lockdown business landscape, judging from recent developments in the U.K. and Japan, as well as the 21st Global Gaming Expo at the Venetian Expo in Las Vegas I discussed last week.

Closest to my home, the Autumn Coin-Op Show at London's ILEC Conference Centre was a compact gathering that saw a major turnout of the trade, keen to return to physical events once again. The show organizers, Swan Event, achieved the difficult feat of getting the amusement trade to act positively about business during the two days of the event.

The big release was from veteran amusement distributor Electrocoin, which along with its redemption and prize machines, showed "Skill Shooter." The company has worked closely with Chinese developers to create a fun shooting game, with the ability to offer redemption ticket and capsule prize support. The game also uses a great recoil system for the guns, along with offering multi-player support with connected cabinets. This is a great new shooter to add to the roster of blasting games appearing recently.

New interpretations of older themes

Speaking of new shooting games, on the Instance Automatics booth was the Unis Technology title, "Elevator Action Invasion." For all intents and purposes, this was a modern interpretation of the 2009 shooter, "Elevator Action Death Parade" — although now released by Unis Technology as a standalone product, just with similar physical elevator doors and a similar name.

The game enclosure includes a vibrating floor and recoiling machine pistols. It has a large enclosure for a pedestrian shooter but is sure to draw some interest. Also, the surprise moves by the developer to not include a high score chart on the game seems a telling omission for a game of this type.

Chinese developer Ace Amusement Technologies was represented on the United Distributing booth and had new releases, "Sky Riders" and "Nitro Speed," on display. The latter is a four-racer stand-up "videmption" piece, clearly inspired by Adrenaline Amusement's "Hot Wheels" approach to competitive racing.

Virtual reality was also on display at the show with Harry Levy bringing one of the 9D Chinese motion simulator systems to the event.

Frictionless payment arrives

It was interesting to see the U.K. trade seriously embracing the frictionless payment scene with several exhibitors showing payment systems for family entertainment centers, as well as the needed CRM platforms.

Exhibitor Nayax Ltd. had its suite of contactless systems, as well as the unique payment support of Apply Pay and Google Wallet as standard, underlining the inference of smartphone e-payments on the sector.

Several operators spoke of record earnings as they embraced the new payment methodology. This was a long time coming, and sadly it took a pandemic for the industry to evolve.

Traffic returns post lockdown

Other than concerns on the supply chain impacting deliveries, there was a strong sense of seeing strong numbers in sales and, from operators, the return of the audience to their facilities — partly fueled by the "Staycation" state of the post-lockdown public.

Information was revealed that London is bound to see several new amusement locations. The popularity of social entertainment has emboldened several new investments.

Electrocoin has started its own amusement venue, located in a central London shopping space and taking a dedicated unit under the "Funland" name. This marks a continuation of new openings of family entertainment in this sector.

At the same time, other major names were linked to the return of an amusement space at the London County Hall site following the closure of "Namco Funscape." Sources also spoke of plans for a major mixed use leisure entertainment venue opening next year in the capital.

Japan recovery begins

News continued to come thick and fast from Genda, with the company accelerating its presence as a power player in the Japanese amusement scene. It was revealed that the company had partnered with Japanese developer Dynamo Amusement. The partnership will see Genda representing its products in a capital tie-up third-party agreement.

Many of the original Tokyo Sega facilities had toyed with VR installations, and it is expected that the Dynamo range will play a part in future installations.

The Japanese amusement scene has been in suspension from the preventions of the global health crisis. Many of the operators in the Home Islands who can reopen following the last emergency measures have now been faced with a lack of any new tangible releases.

However, that seemed to change with the news from Bandai Namco Amusement of "Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 6RR," the latest in the series of popular street racers. The release was confirmed for Japan, Asia and Oceania (India/Australia), but it is not expected to make Western landfall due in part to the online/constantly connected element, although specialist Western operators such as Round1 may go the extra mile depending on the player base interest.

While Japan amusement sites have been greatly impacted with numerous closures, the trade seemed to have survived intact, but there seems to be more under the surface.

Many sources point to announcements in 2022, where we will see considerable upheaval in the corporate structure of the Japanese factories.

The abandonment of JAEPO 2022 is a case in point that the trade associations and core members may be hurting much more than they would admit. As was stated during the recent trade shows from several sources — we are about to enter a phase of business where much change will be about to take place, the ripples of which will spread wide and far.

(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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