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has undoubtedly been a good thing for Bandai and the market in general, although Short says the firm has always had a family offering at its core. “It has certainly been good for us as it is what we are
known for. Family entertainment is nothing new in our sector, it has been around for a long time. We need to offer something for everyone. “We listen to feedback from the market and our
stakeholders, who are of course the players, the operators and the distributors. In turn, we feed this back to our parent company (Bandai Namco Entertainment Japan) and partners such as Raw Thrills, Adrenaline, Andamiro and Apple Industries, in order to refine the development of future products.” James Anderson, the firm’s sales and commercial
director, says it is having a strong year with new licensed games and new approaches to classic titles. “Cruis’n Blast by Raw Thrills is the number one new driving game for 2017,” he says. “The feedback from the market has been very good and when tested against competition in the market it has excelled, however the Mario Kart GP is still very strong too. “The Walking Dead is no doubt
the strongest video shooting game of 2017. There was some scepticism about the nature of the content of the game being a little too graphic but there is a setting in the game to it tone down. “World’s Largest Pac-Man (BNE) and Space Invaders Frenzy (Raw Thrills) – both of these games have 108” LED display screens and have outstanding income. Finally DC Comics 4 Player Pusher has been outstanding. The game was a joint development between BNAE / BNAA and Andamiro. It’s a closed loop pusher that vends tickets and collectable cards featuring DC Comics characters. The strength of the brand has been astounding due to the strong movie release schedule and also the TV and animations using the brands. This is the start of a range of DC branded goods and we are now launching an air hockey table - Jokers Wild - working in conjunction with SAM Billiards of Spain.” The firm also has a number of distribution agreements in place to handle products such as the Embed payment system and other crucial logistics systems. It might be the less glamorous end of the sector, but it is nonetheless, vital for operators.
“Distribution has always been a big part of our
business,” says Short. “We like to align ourselves with the best in market brands such as Embed & Deltronic to add to those James has spoken about. “Cashless systems have taken a while to come into the
operators minds but with banks declaring war on cash transactions in the national press this will only emphasise the move towards a cashless environment within the amusement sector. The benefits are starting to outweigh heavily the arguments against systems such as Embed and with enquires coming through daily it seems the UK market has woken up to the shift in public trends.”
AUGUST 2017
At the more exciting other end of the market,
virtual reality is once again being vaunted as the next big thing in arcades, with Bandai in Japan investing big money in its flagship Tokyo VR arcade, but Short seems sceptical about its long term appeal. “I don’t know if I would go as far as saying it is the
future. The technology is certainly new and state of the art, as can be seen in the Bandai Namco flagship location in Shinjuku Tokyo. However, it is still early days for the market. I feel it is complimentary to the current products on the market and an excellent addition to the portfolio for family entertainment.” What VR does offer is something that is central
to the ongoing appeal of arcades, which is a better, or at least, different experience to home game systems. When graphics and gameplay are now on a par and even TV screens are almost the same size, an arcade game has to offer an alternative form of excitement often in a shorter time frame. The espresso to the console’s latte, if you will.
“
Cashless systems have taken
a while to come into the operators minds but with banks declaring war on cash transactions in the national press this will only emphasise the move towards a cashless environment within the amusement sector.
“They target different markets and therefore are developed as such. In Amusement we are looking to offer three to five minutes of entertainment for a low price point. Home game systems tend to be developed to offer 18 to 24 hours game play over a longer period of time. On some products they can be complimentary. Also in terms of amusements, we have World’s Largest Pac-Man and Space Invaders Frenzy. These machines use a 108” LED screens. There was scepticism in the market about the titles, however, the income from both of them has surpassed expectations. I believe this is due to the out of home experience e.g. playing something that cannot be replicated at home.” There’s no doubt that the World’s Largest
Pac-Man and Space Invaders games are impressive, eye-catching, installations. And it is that sort of development, tapping into the arcade’s golden years heritage, but adding excitement through technology, that keeps the market relevant. And there’s no doubt that for family
entertainment centres aiming to offer a multi-hour, multi-faceted experience for all age groups, arcade games are still vitally important.
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