Kevin Williams

The start of a new dawn for coverage from The Stinger Report – and we begin with exclusive coverage of the developments and new opportunities witnessed at the gathering in Las Vegas in March. We share all the developments in this two-part report, as well as information on the other aspects that shaped the industry during this period.  Amusement Trade Assembles For the international industry, the trip to Las Vegas marked the two-year anniversary of the Global Health Crisis – and for many the first time they had been able to make the trip to the United States. The holding of Amusement Expo International (AEI’22) in Nevada marked a return to the original home of the amusement trade event and marked an important line in the sand for the return to some level of normalcy for the Out-of-Home Entertainment trade. […]

The second part of our coverage from Las Vegas and the Amusement Entertainment International (AEI) convention, and the other developments impacting the immersive entertainment scene during this period. Amusement Convention Other developers who supported the VR Summit and were exhibiting on the AEI’22 show floor included LAI Games, with the company having seen great success with their ‘Virtual Rabbids: The Big Ride’ platform, now with nearly 1,000 units in the field. The company promoting their new offer, ‘Rabbids: The Big Bundle’. Along with this success and an extensive range of new amusement and skill gaming machines on their show booth, the company also had the US appearance of ‘Asphalt 9 Legends Arcade’ – the WAHLAP title developed by Gameloft that is represented by LAI in the Western market. On display was both the 5D deluxe motion version and the standard […]

While compiling the exclusive coverage during AEI’22 and Amusement360 (coming soon), information was also collected on the latest facility developments. This included a first look at those sites in Las Vegas, as well as news of other projects in development internationally.  Visiting the AREA One of the important ventures visited during the Las Vegas stay was AREA15 – the self-styled world’s first purpose-built immersive entertainment district, offering live events, distinctive attractions, interactive art installations, extraordinary design elements, and hospitality. It was revealed that the venue has seen some 2 million visitors in its first year of operation and has won several audience awards for its mixture of entertainment and art installation. The space has been selected well outside of the main strip area of the casino and resort Mecca – the nondescript warehouse district has been transformed into an entertainment […]

The build-up before the mad rush of American trade conferences and physical shows continued, with some momentous and important developments shaping the amusement and attraction landscape – and beyond into the immersive entertainment sphere. We cover news of major changes within the troubled London Resort planning, the developments at the vast Mobile World expo, and the continued mergers and acquisitions across the digital landscape. Attractions & Resorts While EAG previously had close affiliations to the attraction scene, this year’s event was more focused on amusement and gaming. But there were developments in the theme park sector in the UK, which impacted the market while the London show was taking place. The latest major impact hit the troubled London Resort Company Holdings (LRCH) theme park project, just as February ended. It was first broken by the Daily Mail news group that […]

Returning to our extensive coverage of Entertainment Attraction & Gaming Expo (EAG’22) we look at the other elements that are shaping the amusement and entertainment experience. With the conclusions of this return to a physical trade gathering – and the issues shaping the industry.  Frictionless EAG saw the largest gathering of e-Payment systems for the FEC and Adult Entertainment Center (AEC) businesses in recent years – showing the establishment of this payment infrastructure in the modern market. The BANDAI NAMCO Amusement booth represented Embed and their latest range of platforms and applications, including a new kiosk.  Nayax and their operation Tigapo showed off their e-payment platform, readers, and apps. Focused on street routes, malls and FEC, the company is supporting the latest smart apps such as Apple Pay and others. Another prominent developer of smart payments for amusement consideration was […]

We see the return of physical amusement and entertainment trade events, and the London show starts the ball rolling – charting the new trends and some interesting developments in the international, as well as local, scenes. Entertainment Attraction & Gaming Expo (EAG’22), following postponement from its usual January fixture for obvious reasons, saw the event taking place at the beginning of March, now falling into a crowded picture of events only a few weeks before the US amusement and hospitality trade shows. Amusement BANDAI NAMCO Amusement Europe (BNAE) – we are just about to see the parent company in Japan updating their branding (expected to be reflected across the divisions). While no new videos were on display, the BNAA had developed the ‘PAC MAN Power Pellets’ redemption machine (a joint venture between UNIS and BNAA), which was on show fresh […]

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 […]