Kevin Williams

We continue the stock take of the incredible influx of new “Competitive Socializing” (abbreviated down to CompSoc) venues and trends that have been emerging over the last few months. This second part of our feature will hope to offer a snapshot of the developments, with more in-depth site visits and reviews planned. Northern Repurposing  The ability to drop CompSoc concepts into available and abandoned units has proven one of the endearing aspects of this new trend. One of the purveyors of the mixed-use approach in an urban entertainment placement is Gravity Entertainment, with their new ‘Gravity MAX’ concept. The second venue of this chain is opening in Liverpool and, again, the facility has been installed inside an old 100,000 sq. ft. Debenhams department store, previously abandoned in the city. The company is defining the venue as the biggest city arcade […]

It is important to take stock of the incredible influx of new “Competitive Socializing” (abbreviated down to CompSoc) venues and trends that have been emerging over the last few months. This two-part feature hopes to offer a snapshot of the developments, with more in-depth site visits and reviews planned. Start Your Engines! One trend that has seen a mixing of the RaceSim and CompSoc landscape is with Competitive Socializing and the racing experience. This was recently demonstrated by the opening of ‘VRROOM Brighton’ – a themed virtual race room, which comprises 12, Restech motion sims, supported by the venue, and includes a motorsports themed bar. The bar is used for a new aspect of the social entertainment mix of holding “Watch Parties” – linked to the motorsports races. This represents the continued development of the CompSoc style racing environment, which […]

The summer holidays move to a close and the markets move head-long into the next phase of developments. We have reports from the largest gathering of the computer graphics industry, the investment into AR and VR applications feeling market impacts, and the way that IP from the entertainment scene is shaping park and venue development.  Simulated Reality Takes to the Stage One of the largest and most influential gatherings of 3D display, immersive technology, and computer graphics, was held in the USA during August. SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) 2023 celebrated its 50th anniversary, holding a massive event at the LA Convention Center. The event comprised extensive presentations and conference sessions, and a dedicated exhibition and demonstration floor – all to attract some 15,000-computer graphics and animation professionals. It was all organized by the international […]

The continued investment and innovation in the immersive technology business sees both ups and downs across the market. This collection of developments, happening during July and August, is covered to offer a snapshot of the state of play in the industry. Immersive Gallery Growing Pains The immersive art experience (Artainment) scene has proven a difficult market to define. Along with numerous openings, there have been bumps along the road. The latest warning sign came with news that Lighthouse Immersive, the Canadian developer and operator of immersive experiences, had entered into bankruptcy. Lighthouse is known for the creation of the original ‘Immersive Van Gogh’ light show – which has seen installations such as in Paris, Chicago, Las Vegas and Toronto, along with other shows. The company was reported to have filed Chapter 15 bankruptcy on July 28th, to protect its assets. […]

Moving to the homeward stretch of the year, and we saw a culmination of major trade events mark the continuation of the June and July period. The ability to chart all these gatherings continues to be a hard task. Along with this, the Asian market sees China and Japan invest heavily in the next stage of entertainment developments, and news from the consumer VR scene shows a market in transition.  Asia Trending We complete the hard task to keep abreast of the leading trade events over this period. During the end of the month, the 38th CAAPA Attraction Expo (CAE) was held – organized by the China Association of Amusement Parks & Attractions (CAAPA) and held at the China International Exhibition Center, Beijing. The event saw a smattering of international visitors and exhibitors and marked the latest in several China-based […]

Now into summer and we start to see the developments in the industry. Back-to-back trade events have defined the latest trends in the industry and beyond. In this comprehensive, two-part report, we now look at the key events that filled the last few months. We look first at the branding and licensing landscape, and then at the Asian event for attractions. Crowded LBE and Attractions Scene The ability to cover all the developments across the international scene has been a Herculean task. There has been a massive selection of events over May, June and July, which have charted developments and new investments in the Out-of-Home Entertainment sector, and the new off-shoots in the market. We now give a snapshot of those events and the developments.  The end of May saw the Global Gaming Expo Asia 2023 in Singapore, in a […]

The expanding international leisure entertainment sector sees the latest station on the caravan route, with Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. Along with Middle East and North American (MENA) business, we also cover the developments in the eSports and Competitive Gaming sector.   Middle East Entertainment Sunshine A very crowded first half of 2023 saw many international entertainment exhibitions. March had seen the Dubai Entertainment Amusement and Leisure Exhibition (DEAL), and the Principality was about to see the gathering of Saudi amusement and attraction investment – the Saudi Entertainment and Amusement (SEA’23) Expo at the Riyadh International Convention & Exhibition Center. The event was held in conjunction with the SLS Expo (focused on immersive audio and lighting).  The need for a dedicated trade event for this region was underlined by the announcement of the explosion of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s (KSA) investment […]

The “XR” (extreme/extended reality) phase of development in the sector took center stage during May and June. XR is being seen as the natural progression of the immersive tech scene – being championed against that of VR. XR has the ability to offer both a complete virtual environment, and one that superimposes virtual elements over real-world imagery. This is achieved with either optical “See-Through” via glasses, or video “Pass-Through” via cameras – this encapsulates the aspirations of both VR and AR. While many also use the term MR (Mixed Reality) to describe the application, the overarching term of XR seems to have become the new popular descriptor.  The Battleground for XR The Augmented World Expo (AWE) USA 2023 took place at the end of May, entering June at the Santa Clara convention center in California. The event was celebrating its […]

Continuing the ever-expanding coverage of the Social Entertainment emergence in the out-of-home sector, and we cover the only wholly focused event on the sector, along with charting further industry developments in our exclusive coverage of the scene. Competitive Socialising 2023: Gathering  The second Competitive Socialising 2023 (ComSoc’23) event took place in London at the end of May, held in South London’s ‘The Lighthouse’ theater. Under the tagline “the power of play”, the leading lights of the trade came together, sharing observations on this growing market sector. This is a market appearing on many investors’ and operators’ radar and feeding this growing event.  Competitive Socializing was abbreviated to the term #ComSoc for the event – whether this will catch on as a term is unknown, the same way that the attempt to use the term #Socialtainment as an abbreviation has fallen […]

We have recently covered the explosion in investment in ‘Competitive Socializing’, ‘Family Entertainment Centers’ (FEC), and ‘Urban Entertainment’ properties. Many of these sites are seeing their embryonic rise from UK-based developers. In our previous coverage, we focused on the country’s capital as the incubator of this rise. But in this third part, we look at the growth beyond London across the country, thanks to new investment. Northern Exposure The monopoly of London opening new social entertainment venues has been broken, as new venues percolate outside of the metropolis. The Gravity Active Entertainment group announced plans to open ‘Gravity Liverpool’ before the end of the year. This £10m investment is part of the new entertainment venue within the new Liverpool ONE area. Once again, this mixed entertainment venue is placed within a previously closed Debenhams department store in the city and […]