Month: February 2022

Those long-suffering readers of The Stinger Report will have begun to see a consolidation of the various elements of the immersive / interactive entertainment landscape that we have made our focus for over 28-years. In looking at immersive entertainment in the Out-of-Home Entertainment scene, we have seen competition evolve into eSports. Competition in the Frame An aspect of the competitive socializing landscape is the tournament and championship element of the business. This is personified by the overall term of eSports – a perception that all competition revolves around this term. The reality is that a true understanding of how Out-of-Home Entertainment can embrace and profit from this genre was recently discussed. Amusement would seem to have already cut its teeth in the origination and adoption of competitive play, in an industry that established collection and promotion of players’ stats (first […]

The explosion in new entertainment facility development continues apace, with moves by some corporations towards a “Digital/Physical” strategy. This report looks at the convergence of the new social entertainment blend, while at the same time charts the appearance of new active entertainment investment and repositioning from the latest leading corporations to embrace the metaverse. Competitive Entertainment Culture The rise of Social Entertainment has been personified by the explosion in popularity of the hospitality-centric entertainment venues seen with Puttshack, FlightClub, Topgolf, Swingers, and other brands. However, the descriptor for this new phase of entertainment experience is better described as “Competitive Socializing” – a term first coined in the UK, gaining mainstream popularity as far back as 2015 and initially defining pubs incorporating a circus entertainment vibe, or bowling and F&B brands. Moreover, it is a blending of a hospitality atmosphere married […]

Moving fast into the Chinese New Year of the Tiger, and investments and developments have sprung into action, with major corporations pouncing on big opportunities. This report will start with a look at the investment in eSports, and the marriage with interest in cryptocurrency and beyond. Then we will turn to the Japanese amusement and gaming scene and view the upheavals, restructurings and new investments hoping to keep this market relevant in the modern time.  Electronic Sports and Payment Considerable investment in the eSports sector was made by the Saudi Arabian government, through their Public Investment Fund (PIF) through Savvy Gaming Group (game industry investment corporation), who acquired ESL and FACEIT groups for the sum of $1.5b. The groups run tournament competitions, as well as running apps for players to organize independent tournaments. This development marks one of the largest […]

There are momentous developments across the social media, videogaming and location-based entertainment markets. The time for acquisition, restructuring and more is at hand. Looking beyond the changing perspective of entertainment investment, we see another major acquisition take place and start a bidding war across the sector.  The Acquisition Game Only a matter of days after the videogame industry was rocked by the momentous deal by Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard and their associate components for $68.7b (as well as the fallout from the Amazon acquisition of MGM Studios for $8.4b), a feeding frenzy erupted in the industry that seems to mark a pivotal point in its history – what some have labelled the “Videogame Consolidation”. However, it may be better to see this as an “Entertainment Consolidation”, as the ripples widen towards creating true multi-media corporations.  Announced just at the […]