01/02/13 - The Stinger Report charts the main out-of-home entertainment trade events that launched 2013! In this first of our extensive three part report with focus on the main Euro Amusement & Gaming (EAG) Expo exhibitors - looking at the state of the main players on the show floor and the products they brought to the Capital; with coverage of the other events and trends to follow.

Winter chill greeted the UK amusement trade to the 4^th Euro Amusement & Gaming (EAG) International Expo 2013, at London Docklands ExCel exhibition venue - the show organizers (Swan Events) working hard in restrained market conditions to create a show that the industry deserved.

In what was hailed a technical success in show organizing, the fourth visit to the ExCel venue saw EAG move to the north hall and a packed exhibition space. Leading from the front was exhibitor NAMCO Europe,with a big booth under the banner of 'BANDAI NAMCO Games' the company brought their full contingent of titles to the UK. Given a prominent placement was 'Dark Escape 4D', featuring two cabinets with the addition of an audience screen showing the reactions of the players inside the theater enclosure. The game having been on test, this was the first time the UK trade got to get their hands on a title that won the 'Brass Ring Award' for Best New Product in the Arcade Video Game category at IAAPA'12, offering the effects of 3D, vibration, air blasts, surround sound and panic sensors within the theater enclosure cabinet; revealed this will be available from March for purchase.

Editor's Note - The 'Dead Heat: Riders' cabinet traced the lineage of NAMCO and bike games, with a very similar presentation to the 2008 title 'Nirin'. Some observers that saw the bike game from NAMCO speculated that the all-bike version offered a cheaper licensing option for the amusement developer (without the need for the licensed car brands). Another observation was speculation on how the NAMCO astride bike racer would compete with similar Raw Thrills'titles also on-booth ('Super Bikes 2' and 'SnoCross'). The NAMCO UK division Brent Sales is representing these games. How could one try and sell these game against another made by your owners, will have to been seen.

There was a little confusion about the new 'Dead Heat: Riders' features fostered by unsubstantiated sources from the internet. One source claimed that the racer could be connected directly to the original Dead Heat system so that in theory cars and bikes could have been represented in the same game for network racing. This was not the case however, with a well-placed source at NAMCO American confirming that there was no reality to this claim and the machine could not accommodate this feature - a nice idea let down by facts!

Continuing with the push of the NAMCO mascot, the booth included a showing of the deluxe 'Pac-Man Battle Royale' and the classic arcade cab 'Pac-Man's Arcade Party'. Other titles that had been previously seen included 'Deadstorm Pirates' deluxe theater enclosure cabinet, and a smaller upright version. NAMCO had a second booth away from their main presence - this accommodated the company's 'Deadstorm Pirates 4D+',the shooting adventure attraction offering four players a chance to compete in the large screen 3D motion base shooting game; the EAG team running the game with a competition to win Pac-Man plush toys.

Back on the main booth and the last of the NAMCO placement, along with their prize and merchandising was the latest in the Kid-Tainment new amusement genre for children. Making a second appearance in the UK, 'Animal Kaiser' was on display hoping to evangelize the trade to the opportunity of targeting the younger playing audience. While the remainder of the booth was given over to supporting their third party representatives through Brent Sales.

This new version of the game was developed wholly for the unique UK sector, on evaluation towards being deployed in new locations not commonly familiar for amusement products, (more information on this development to follow). Other Raw Thrills / Play Mechanix titles at EAG'13 included 'Dirty Drivin' and 'Terminator Salvation' mounted gun version, along with 'Super Bikes 2'. Another third party represented on the show floor by Brent was Apple Industries, showing their popular photobooth technology now embracing a strong social networking capability offering a strong driver to new sales.

The largest booth at EAG'13 was provided by SEGA Amusement - seen by many as the most adventurous exhibition booth in SEGA's UK amusement history. A unique open-plan design greeted visitors and offered a wide mix of exclusive and third party titles. The leading light of the SEGA videos was 'Dream Raiders', the 55'' LCD display riding shooting game described by SEGA executives as "our latest Action Adventure Game". It was also revealed that this game was immediately available to buy since its testing last year.

The other SEGA videos on the booth included previously seen 'Virtua Tennis 4' in its deluxe 55'' display version, 'Operation G.H.O.S.T' (launched previously) and 'GRID' - with a twin, 42'' display version of this racer. On the show floor this year there was only a handful of new driving games seeming to point to a plethora of second hand content to choose from.

Editor's Note - No-shows on the SEGA booth included the racer 'K.O. Drive'. Promises at IAAPA'12 of an updated software appearance at the UK show seemed not to materialize in time. One other surprise absence was the 'Let's Go Island - 3D' Theater Enclosure shooter. But from the third party camp one major no-show was Triotech's 'XD Theater' - the popular theater system not given space at this show - though a 'Typhoon' simulator was placed on the booth.

Though Triotech were low key on the EAG show floor, they did make a big splash presenting at the DNA Association London Seminar held the day before the show. (See following coverage.) In other news, Lotte World, South Korea announced that they were working with The Goddard Group on a new attraction for their major indoor theme park. Called 'Underland', inspired by popular Korean fairy tales. The first phase of development will see an Interactive XD Theater developed by Triotech installed specially for the facility. The new attraction will increase Lotte World by over 2,000sq.,m.

The remainder of the SEGA booth was given over to a mix of genres. The Kid-Tainment aspects of the market were represented by 'Hero of Robots', building on the success in creating the genre with 'Mushiking' back in 2003. SEGA worked to define the market with the competitive card collecting and vending experience for the younger player. In the Video Redemption (Videmption) genre, SEGA also showed the production version of 'Pirates Monster Island', the 42'' display pirate cannon-blasting game developed by Gamewax and offering compelling pay-for-shot entertainment. Other Videmption on the booth included the game 'Monsterous' - from a third party with a pusher mechanical game incorporating a video element - and the famous mobile game app 'Bejeweled' in its four-screen Videmption variant.

One third party given pride of place on the EAG'13 booth was Innovative Concepts in Entertainment (ICE), bringing their highly colourful and impressive 'Doodle Jump' Videmption game to the UK show floor in an impressive kiosk with a big vertical 42'' display, offering the popular game app in arcade form. The company revealed exclusively to the Stinger that for the UK market ICE has been experimenting with using the game as a gift card merchandiser - dispensing prizes of retail discount store card offering a strong V-Voucher element to a redemption product and bringing it to the interest of the retail trade as a secondary spend tool, (more information expected on this development in our AmuseExpo'13 coverage).

Of the other major exhibitors on the London show floor,

A big surprise, and a source of some confusion, was the appearance of the Videmption title 'Juicy Frutti', a similar representation of the coin-pusher cartoon skill game 'Fruit Mania' from UNIS. Sources close to the development revealed that Golden Dragon in China had worked on both games. 'Juicy Frutti' is not exclusive to UDC.However, they are distributing it in the territory, working with the developers on unique tweaks needed for the market. Another interesting game of note was 'Target Tango', an AirSoft pellet AR-15 weapon-shooting game married targets with displays - a new prototype.

The importance of app games as a rich source of new Videmption titles was not lost on the EAG exhibitor Magic Play (a company that has attended previous UK trade events). One of the Polish contingents that came to the London show, they presented their new release 'Can Knockdown 2'. This "arcade edition" of the mobile game app launched in 2010 and seeing millions of downloads, developed by Polish based iDreams - now presented in a Vertical 42'' LDC multi-tuchscreen as a Videmption title, with the player launching balls at cans on screen (with three game modes to select from). Along with this the company also had prize and skill games from their European catalogue on display.

The power of the distributors and agents to present affordable content for the evolving UK and European amusement scene was illustrated by a strong placement by Crown Direct. The distributor and operator of amusement pieces through their operation the company also represent a number of machines as agents for their manufacturers. SEGA was one such represented, with their 'Dream Raiders' on display. Though missed by some of the trade Crown also presented the Creative Works attraction 'Lazer Frenzy', the laser maze experience and a strong contender for the family orientated amusement scene in their territory.

Another third party representation was the Italian MemoPark with their 'Urban Skater', though this was not seen played once during the show - possibly seeming uncomfortable to mount without the side rail. While the other product from the company 'Rockin Helmet Ride' was seen in its current configuration with a new parental viewing screen. Crown was also announcing their first foray into the manufacturing their own products - an example of the need by the trade to have dependable sources of hardware as other sources slow.

Editor's Note - The chairman of LAI Group (consisting along with LAI Games, Timezone FEC 230+ chain and Embed card and management system), went on the record a few days after the show to state how coin-op game revenue needs to be improved. He started by referring to the Vending Times magazine 2012 census that stated the US industry has been in constant decline from its peak of $6.2 billion in 2005 to $4.7 billion in 2011(-24.2 per cent). Every category within games including redemption and prize-vending has been declining during this period.

He went on to state that the traditional street operations have declined massively and the iconic Mall Arcade is almost a dinosaur. The only area of the business that is showing some resilience are the large format FEC locations like Dave and Busters, Main Event, Incredible Pizza, Brunswick Xtreme, Itz and other similar locations. The games business as a whole including consumer games, online MMOG and downloadable, is a $150 billion business. Coin-Op is less than 5% of this so if we are going to claw-back a reasonable market share, strategies will have to change.

The appearance of the Asian contingent to EAG seemed muted compared to the flood seen at IAAPA - partly due to distances and clashing events, partly due to support of the following gaming show. Leading the charge of new Asian blood was Universal Space (UNIS), represented on their sales agent's booth. Instance Automatics showed the range of new titles. Taking pride of place was 'After Dark', the deluxe theater enclosure cabinet (DLX) with its motion bench-seat and 3D graphics sat alongside the upright version (SD). The horror shooting title is now available for purchase, with promotion stating a major price reduction compared to the other similar quality deluxe machines.

Editor's Notes - UNIS is working hard to showcase the latest products for the international scene with prominent appearances at the leading trade events. The company will be attending the Amusement Expo, and will reveal the earning reports received from around the US. It is very pleased with how well 'Pirate Hook' is performing in venues, and this will be mirrored by representation of the UNIS range at the RAAPA amusement event taking place at the same time in Moscow - represented by the company's distributor ODA.

The following coverage of this important UK event will be with you shortly