From Arcade to App to Arcade Again Adrenaline Capitalizes on the Increasingly Lucrative Mobile Game Market The world of video games has seen its fair share of evolution, transforming from the massive hardware required for tiny, memory-cheap games of the ‘70s and ‘80s to today’s smart phones that run exponentially more complex games. That transformation hasn’t kept the basics of good gameplay from permeating throughout formats large and small, however, and a company like Adrenaline Amusements knows that well. The Canadian game manufacturer is well known for its early adoption of the idea that app-based games with millions of downloads…
Author: RePlay Editor
Maximizing Facility Revenue – Part Five Offering Food Means You Don’t Leave Money on the Table! by Frank Seninsky, President/CEO Amusement Entertainment Management (AEM) & Alpha-Omega Amusements & Sales [Editor’s note: For a first-time read or a refresher, Part One can be found in the February 2016 issue, Part Two in March, Part Three in June, and Part Four in July. All are available online at the RePlay website: www.replaymag.com/current_issue/frank.html.] If I’m working with someone who currently doesn’t offer food in their facility or outsources their food, I try to start off rather slowly on the financial reasons why food…
Working Hard Fair Play Pledge and Other News Emerge from Successful Annual Meeting Q: How was the Annual Meeting and Gala? It looked like a pretty newsy affair! A: The meeting went very well and you’re right, there was a good bit of news coming out of it. First, I’m happy to announce we have two new members on our board of directors. We welcomed Alpha-Omega Sales’ Joe Camarota and Benchmark’s Al Kress. We also have Coast to Coast Entertainment’s Jim Chapman as a first alternate and Jonathan Durst of Pyramid Technologies as second alternate. One of the things we’re…
Editorial If Shakespeare was a game operator, he’d probably say our lead editorials usually cover one of seven basic plots, two of which are: “join an association” and “go to the convention.” I’m going to talk about both. Firstly, we all know that business owner associations are a bit like labor unions, only for the bosses. We also know that their main reason for existence is to protect members against nasty stuff like harmful legislation and/or to fix a problem after it lands on their heads. AMOA, as many know, was founded back in 1949 to keep the federal Copyright…
The Future of Redemption Arcades Keep Your Eyes on the Details and Evolve In Order to Remain Strong by Howard McAuliffe, Partner, Pinnacle Entertainment Group A s we gather at IAAPA and 2016 comes to an end, it’s time to look toward 2017 and beyond. The redemption arcade business has never been better, and we have been enjoying steady growth over the last few years as new models are proving to be profitable. Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, is quoted as saying “change is the only constant in life.” While we’ve been enjoying this growth phase of the redemption game room,…
Change Is Coming Fast It’s Going to Take a New Business Model to Attract & Keep Consumers By Randy White, CEO/White Hutchison Leisure & Learning Group It wasn’t all that long ago that film canisters, taxi medallions, CDs, video rental stores and book stores (among others) dominated their respective industries. Much of retail is now going down that same road due to e-commerce disruption. We can thank those histories for this indispensable lesson: Survival in the 21st Century demands new business models. Another variation of this lesson for existing businesses is this revised truism: If you keep on doing what…
You’re Going to Be Regulated, Like It or Not Why What’s Happening in Ohio Is Important to All by Tom Fricke Ohio has been a “battleground state” in respect of games for prizes for as long as it’s been a “battleground state” between the major political parties. Right now, a battle is brewing in the Buckeye State that requires an immediate response from the amusement machine industry. There have been skirmishes over many gambling-related subjects including video poker, charitable tip tickets (the Ohio name for pull tabs), games supposedly free of chance because you could see the next outcome before…
Rigging Won’t Bring Repeat Business Fairness, Fun and Skillful Winning Will Keep Your Players Coming Back by Jack Guarnieri, Jersey Jack Pinball & PinballSales.com Everyone in our industry has some belief that a new game should make more money than an older game. But we all know that there are many “older” games that faithfully continue to earn money for years, week after week. Those games are the core of any route or FEC operation. Shows like IAAPA get us excited as we judge the new offerings, trying to figure out what the return on our investment might be based…
Redemption: Is It Art or Science? The Balance that Creates Success Starts with the Fundamentals By George McAuliffe, Chief FEC Strategist, Redemption Plus We at Pinnacle make our living working with clients who are new to the redemption game business. While our job is to flatten the learning curve and help these new operators avoid mistakes, some areas are steeper than others. A common trouble spot is the merchandise purchasing process and the economics that go with it. Simplify to Understand There are two critical numbers in redemption: sales and, on the expense side, cost of sales. These are interactive.…
Sales Versus Order Taking Selling the Experience, Not the Price, Will Get You to the Next Level By Beth Standlee, CEO, TrainerTainment It always makes me crazy when a business owner has a fit about someone “taking” an order. Sometimes they refer to it as “low hanging” fruit. Here’s the deal: If we don’t grab the low hanging fruit, it will fall to the ground or someone else will come by and pick it up! My solution is that we talk about what’s really bugging us: order taking vs. sales. Order Taking It’s a transaction, plain and simple. The buyer says, “I…