#1214 – Big Strike for Entertainment Future!

While the bowling industry and even the Japanese leisure sector all get their chance to shine in the sun, we see the realities of how social entertainment is impacting the sectors from bowling scene, alongside the Japanese market’s need for reinvention and investment towards its new future. Reflecting a momentum in the evolving leisure entertainment sector before the holidays and the rest of the years expected surprises.

AI Constructed Brief

The International Bowl Expo (IBE) 2024, held at the Gaylord Rockies Resort in Aurora, CO, marked a significant gathering for the bowling and amusement sectors, celebrating its 92nd anniversary. The event highlighted a shift towards social entertainment, with exhibitors showcasing innovative bowling technologies – such as QubicaAMF‘s ‘NeoVerse’ and Brunswick‘s ‘SyncOne’ media platform. The focus was on creating engaging experiences, such as compact bowling systems and new video games, like Raw Thrills‘ ‘NBA Superstars.’ Despite a reported 20-30% decline in attendance, attributed to factors like timing and location, the expo emphasized the growing trend of “Entertainment Bowlers” who prefer casual play over traditional league formats. This evolution in the industry signals a potential schism between traditional bowling centers and those embracing a more social, entertainment-oriented approach, reflecting broader changes in consumer preferences within the sector.

The second Amusement Leisure Expo (AMLEX) took place in Tokyo, Japan, from July 3-5, 2024, as part of the larger Live Entertainment Expo (LIVeNT2024). The event showcased a shift in the Japanese amusement and attraction industry towards social entertainment models, with exhibitors displaying string bowling systems, innovative crane machines, and AR games. Attendance was 26,701 over three days, notably lower than the previous year, reflecting changing financial conditions and a more focused business approach in the Japanese sector. The expo highlighted the growth of new businesses, like GENDA Entertainment‘s ‘GiGO’ chain, which is expanding with various entertainment facility concepts. Additionally, the announcement of AMLEX’25 taking place in January 2025 signals a potential shift in the promotion of the Japanese amusement scene, competing with the rebranded Amusement Expo planned for November. The Japanese market’s influence on the Western amusement trade was also evident, with BANDAI NAMCO Amusement America planning a limited release of the popular ‘Taiko Master’ game in the U.S.

Full Stinger Report

Bowling Towards Social Success

International Bowl Expo (IBE) 2024 – The event this year was hosted at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center in Aurora, CO, comprising a new schedule of conference elements which supported the weekend start to this gathering. The event was organized by the veteran Bowling Proprietors Association of America (BPAA), celebrating its 92nd anniversary.

This year’s IBE represented a pivotal event for the bowling trade, as well as the social entertainment and amusement sectors. Bowling has become a new lynchpin in the drive of new social entertainment venue investment. Meanwhile, the traditional bowling sector has de-evolved into a migration to more socially engaging bowling represented through a string pin bowling approach, and a more boutique environment.

The bowling industry was as expected front and center at this year’s event, with exhibitors QubicaAMF presenting across their lavish booth, with the latest investments into media-based bowling environments. This was supported by the latest large LED screen wall across lanes (‘NeoVerse’), along with the latest touchscreen kiosk support of registration, payment and ordering – promoting the tagline “Bowling Beyond Tomorrow”.

Brunswick Bowling Products – offering a wide selection of services, including their ‘SyncOne’ media support platform, with a monthly fee for operations running this. This was along with a range of products supporting the social and boutique bowling landscape – such as their ‘Duckpin Social’ platform. Meanwhile, US Bowling, with a crowded booth, also demonstrated their string machine bowling setter and Duckpin Bowling, alongside their ‘Pulse’ media system for bowling venues. Exhibitor FunCo also embraced the move within the trade for more compact and boutique capable bowling, with their ‘MiniBowl’ system. While Funk Bowling included in their lineup their new scoring software platforms (a company also exhibiting in Japan).

But, along with the bowling support and services, the secondary entertainment offering for bowling facilities and those facilities which incorporate bowling was represented. From the amusement trade, exhibitor Betson Enterprises took a prominent booth for the amusement sector. The company chose the bowling tsunami to launch new video amusement pieces, with the first trade sighting of Raw Thrills’ ‘NBA Superstars’ – the eagerly anticipated successor to the previous Midway classics ‘NBA Hang Time’ (1996) and ‘NBA Showtime’ (1999) release. This new four-player basketball property hopes to recapture the interest and playability of the original in a modern presentation – with a large 75’’ LED display. A desert of sport video pieces will mean this game offers a new chance to enthrall a new audience. The system is only now coming to an end from its exclusive rollout, first with Dave & Busters’.

Next up on the new releases was the latest card battler, ‘Marvel Contest of Champions’ – seen in a two-player configuration, the game employs the well-known IP and characters, with players collecting skill cards and taking their selected character into battle. As we have reported previously, the Card Battler genre is in the ascendant now – aimed at a young audience and offering a secondary game element. The previously seen releases on the booth included VR offerings ‘Godzilla Kaiju Wars VR’, ‘T-Rex Safari VR’, and ‘King Kong of Skull Island II VR’, along with Halo: Fireteam Raven’. ‘Minecraft Dungeons Arcade’, in its two-player configuration, was also presented to the IBE’24 attendees.

Concerning the other key amusement presence, LAI Games attended the bowling extravaganza with a wide videogaming solution including ‘SMASH’ DX racer, and VR in the shape of the ‘Asphalt 9 Arcade VR’ release. All supported by redemption and prize offerings. Fellow exhibitor SEGA Amusement International (SAI), the division of Kaizen Entertainment, took a booth at the event, representing previous seen amusement pieces. JET Games had a colorful representation of their deluxe range of metal gun games, with ‘Mega Shot’ taking pride of place on their booth. Some exhibitors were sharing the conjoined AAMA association booth, bringing members’ products to the bowling community. TRIOTECH had their ‘SuperBlaster’ represented on this booth space – the four-player shooting attraction was offering a strong entertainment placement within a small catchment.

Distributors and manufacturers were represented on the IBE’24 show floor, with some interesting omissions. Following its separation from its parent company, Player One Entertainment (P1E) took a booth and represented the RILIX VR platform (‘RILIX COASTER’). Also represented on their own booth, this cost-effective VR ride-on (non-motion) coaster style experience, rocking Meta Quest headsets and a selection of passive ride experiences, along with the ‘SpongeBob Bubble Coaster’, was developed in partnership with Andamiro USA. This system had previously been represented on the SAI booth during AEI’24, although an announced agreement has not gone forward – which was now reported to have ended. Meanwhile, the RILIX VR continues to be represented by P1E, CVA Companies, Betson Enterprise, Indoor Playground, PrimeTime Amusements, Shaffer Distributing, The VR Collective, Bungee Supply, Central Distributing, Costley Entertainment, and MOSS Entertainment (also exhibiting at IBE’24). Along with their international representation by Warehouse of Games.

UNIS Technology – taking a presence at IBE’24 with a wide selection of their new amusement and prize platforms, including their latest stylish crane platforms, as well as video game racer ‘Bigfoot Mayhem’. TouchMagix exhibited their new games at the show, starting with the newly launched ‘Pudgy Penguins Crane’ and ‘Pudgy Penguins Polar Challenge’ game. Also on display was the wildly popular IP game, ‘Pop It!’. Amusement Source International (ASI) was on a crowded booth with previous releases in the video amusement and redemption/prize field, and showed their new AR skeeball system, called ‘Zombie Rolling’ – from Chinese manufacturer DreamFun, with one of the latest AR interpretations of the skeeball premised, with an animated MR-overlayed playing field.

The VR genre was represented on a smattering of platforms on the show floor but was not as prevalent as seen in other years. The exhibitors are favoring the previous generation of platforms. There was not a large amount of the new generation of VR free-roaming systems, other than from exhibitor Zero Latency, who presented at the bowing event. The company had announced its new business plan, supporting its franchise LBE VR venues, while also launching its modular six-player arena platform. The system is offered as a standalone platform and comes in two size configurations. The company is entering the turbulent waters of the standalone VR arena sector. Meanwhile, at the same time, the company is about to launch a new licensed game experience based on the ‘Warhammer 40k’ universe (‘Space Marines VR – Defenders of Avarax’), in partnership with Games Workshop – more details coming in October.

Concerning other attraction and entertainment offerings for the new generation of bowling facility and supportive venues, and one of these was seen from Lasertag exhibitor Laser Blast – promoting their ‘CyberBlast Pro’ equipment, with an emphasis on its low operational cost and high throughput of players. LaserForce had on their booth the gamified system from Pixel Games and their interactive floor. While the other interactive floor, ‘Flash Pads’, was represented on another booth. This active entertainment element is gaining interest from operators.

Regarding facility installation and new generation attractions, Creative Works exhibited at the facility, recontesting their new partnership with Valo Motion, with the ‘Valo Arena’ in its immersive enclosure configuration – seen as a strong companion for amusement installation in bowling sites. The team, on the booth, was running a live virtual demonstration of the system from their Helsinki site. Creative Works was promoting their own VR free-roam arena ‘Limitless VR’, offering a unique physical element to the VR experience. It is the need for companion entertainment in support of a primary bowling offering that is taxing many minds in the sector (the only example of this approach at the event).

Beyond the VR, MR was represented on the IBE’24 show floor with ‘Verse Immersive’ – the AR glasses powered holographic immersive theater experience, developed by Enklu Creation. At the bowling show, as at AEI’24, the system was being represented by lasertag specialists Delta Strike. It is offered as a turnkey franchise drop-in to existing venues, along with the six standalone theater installations that Enklu have opened – examples include a partnership with Main Event. Available experiences include the ‘Unreal Garden’ adventure – employing the Microsoft Hololens 2 hardware.

Offering varying attractions alongside the standard amusement and aiming at a more social entertainment experience, exhibitor HD Golf promoted their golf simulator suite of platforms – offering an experience that can be parachuted as a companion entertainment element to a facility. Especially so with the new style of boutique bowling venue that wants to have a diverse mix of entertainment. These golf simulator bays are also able to support a F&B component. Competitive socializing bent to the entertainment offering was also represented from exhibitor LASERTRON, who had their caged enclosure entertainment – moving from their axe-throwing to their new AR ‘Krazy Darts’ offering, seen at R&B’24.

The importance of frictionless payment for the bowling facility sector was supported by a group of the leading card and ePayment providers. QR-capable readers from Intercard will be shown to the bowling market, while Intercard will introduce its new iQ readers that read QR codes, setting the new standard for unattended amusement center payment technology. Embed was heavily promoting its frictionless platform, including cloud-based solutions for the payment sector. While Sacoa basked in the success of its award-winning ‘K4 Kiosk’, seen as a cutting-edge solution for bowling proprietors and FEC operators.

Technology trends entering the bowling sphere of influence mirrored what has been seen in other entertainment sectors – IBE’24 had robots on display from exhibitors such as BowlMarc Robotics and the ubiquitous ‘BellaBot’ table serving system. Even bowling lane cleaning autonomous systems were presented at the show, the harbingers of full venue cleaning appliances. This was seen with the ‘Atlas Pro’ smart lane cleaning machine from Kegel – an autonomous, oiling, buffering, and cleaning system for bowling lanes. The bowling scene has been one of the first entertainment location vectors to see the adoption of robotic servers, and its inclusion into the business mix is now being emulated by other sectors (as seen at Restaurant and Bar Show in March).

In Conclusion – While everyone agreed the venue was great, anecdotal observations suggested a 20-to-30-percent decline in attendance on the show floor, against the expected 7,500 attendance (though official numbers were not available at this time).

Attendance at the Colorado show was reported by many attendees over the full show period as being slower than they had expected – while pointing to the absence of several unusual exhibitors from the show floor. During evening discussions, observations on the reasons for the shortfall were blamed on the proximity to the 4th of July holiday, the unfamiliar location for the event, and current financial/political conditions impacting the trade’s spending. Whichever of these was the case, the format of the two-day exhibition floor was another area of discussion. Exhibitors’ value-for-money is based on being able to present the right products and services to attendees in a total of 12-hours (11am until 4pm each day), and this is an issue for all exhibitions wanting to maximize facetime with buyers.

Next year’s IBE will take place in Washington DC, on June 29th until July 3rd, and this will mark the first time in many years that a major amusement trade event has visited the capital. Visiting the capital of the US the day before the 4th of July celebrations, following the elections, will be an interesting experience – especially on attendance, and we hope to report first-hand from this event.

Regarding observations from the show, we note a few trends. Such as what the tight-knit bowling community has labelled the “Entertainment Bowlers” audience – casual players who just want to have fun, and are not interested in the league, rules, shoe rental, or regulation lane measurements (elements which are of key importance to the “Sports Bowlers” audience). This trend is felt to have encouraged the explosion in adoption of “String Bowling” (Duck Pin/String Set), over the traditional installation of “Free Fall Pinsetters” and drum. The more inclusive nature of social entertainment has embraced the opportunity offered by Duck Pin, with ball size, elevation of weight issues, ease of installation/maintenance, and play. Along with the ability to marry the attraction to a stronger F&B offering. That said, from an exhibition organizer perspective, IBE offered the chance for Pro Shop products to be offered to support Sports Bowling business – where casual bowling ignores that element of the scene.

The social bowling wave of enthusiasm has clearly sparked some concern in the traditional Bowling Centre market. Members of which seemed even triggered by the term “traditional”. The growth of the entertainment bowling audience, along with the new competition that traditional venues are feeling from boutique and social bowling installations, seems to mark a period of transition for the bowling management and operation businesses. A schism seems inevitable between those who support a sports and leagues approach to the game, and those who are deploying bowling, in all its varieties, as a form of entertainment.

Japan Revels in Changing Landscape

Taking place as Bowl Expo ended, and Japan played host to one of the largest events of that territory for the industry. The second Amusement Leisure Expo (AMLEX) took place at Tokyo Big Sight Japan, as part of the all-encompassing Live Entertainment Expo (LIVeNT2024), also including Japan Sports Week, all during July 3rd to 5th. This was the alternative event for the Japanese amusement and attraction scene, superseding the JAPEO event earlier in the year

The combined shows skewed heavily towards leisure and entertainment, although trends and technology played their part. Across the multiple halls, we saw exhibitors showing string bowling systems, as the Japanese market pivots more towards the social entertainment model. Exhibitor Funk Bowling had a demonstration of its string pinsetter bowling system – here we see a company represented both at IBE and AMLEX, marking the widespread interest across the sectors.

Regarding the amusement representation, exhibitors such as Unique Anime showed off the new stylings in crane machines, with the bright and neon heavy designs, as well as the ever popular mini-stacked designs. Other areas of interest included a selection of AR games. This included examples from NPC Corporation, who presented ‘AR Fishing Game’ and ‘AR Dinosaur Game’. Meanwhile, ‘MATOATTE’ is a touch panel-type game with sensors.

Last year’s LIVeNT saw attendance over the three days of 45,500 – and this year’s event saw, over the three days, 26,701. This reflects changing conditions, financially, in the Japanese sector, and immigration by the sector towards more focused business. The Japanese market is in considerable upheaval, with the traditional infrastructure being superseded by new businesses and thinking.

One reflection of the new thinking is personified by GENDA Entertainment – the operation has been on a considerable growth spurt, opening numerous new facilities in their region. Their ‘GiGO’ (Get into the Gaming Oasis) chain is seeing many new sites, marked by the opening of a new flagship facility in the Aeon Shopping Center at Satori Narita Newtown (Tokyo) – comprising a large UFO catcher (crane game) area, capsule toy machines (Gashapo), and a smattering of amusement. This is a new generation entertainment facility, based on the latest UFO Catchers, as well as boutique crane machines, with stylish merch. The store also applies the new GiGO smartphone app. Along of the rollout of new GiGO venues, a new version of the site was fielded in July – called GiGO Arcade Café, this reduced size site includes a coffee bar, along with a selection of amusement pieces and some prize machines. This is aimed at a more transient audience, located near a major train station.

Although not announced until after the AMLEX’24 show, it was revealed that one of the most popular new amusement releases based on a strong IP – Raw Thrills ‘Minecraft Dungeons Arcade’, the card battler game – was to be represented by KONAMI in the Japanese amusement sphere. This is a first-time partnership with the US manufacturer and the Japanese factory. Previously, Raw Thrills games had been represented in the territory by BANDAI NAMCO – so this move marked a new partnership.

In Conclusion – The show organizers (RX Japan) announced that the third Amusement Leisure Expo (AMLEX) will be taking place in January 22-24, 2025, at the same Tokyo location. This will be a serious competitor to plans the Japanese amusement trade had for its own show (Japan Amusement Expo (JAEPO)), which has been on hiatus, only holding a February event focused on B2C in 2023. Then JAEPO rebranded to Amusement Expo, with plans to hold a two-day event in November. The announcement regarding AMLEX’25 seems to indicate a changing of the guard regarding the promotion of the Japanese amusement scene. We will share more information on this new show date soon.

The impact of the Japanese amusement scene is still felt on the Western amusement trade. It was announced that BANDAI NAMCO Amusement America would be undertaking a limited release of the Japanese amusement smash ‘Taiko Maste’ (originally launched in 2001) – the Japanese drum rhythm game. The title has been on a secret LocTest at Dave & Busters’ and Round1USA. It has been decided, following the reaction, to roll out the game, supported by its own competition network. The English version is based on the Oceana region (Australia and Indonesia) variant. Sources suggest especially selected music for the machines, and the platform will be supported by a subscription service covering licenses and network cost. Details on the availability for operators of this limited release were not available as we went to the wire. A special feature on the impact on the West of the reappearance of interest in rhythm games coming soon.