Experience Is Everything! By George McAuliffe, President, Pinnacle Entertainment Group Okay, I confess. I stole that headline from my friends at Brunswick Bowling. It’s a brilliant tag line: Experience Is Everything! The brilliance is that Brunswick manages to promote their company’s long history in bowling while planting the end goal for their customers: Brunswick’s experience will help you deliver the bowling experience. But, whether we’re talking about bowling or FECs in general, that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? The guest experience! FECs of all types are in the business of delivering fun and the guest experience is their product.…
Author: RePlay Editor
Emails, Calls & Texts…Oh My! by Jack Guarnieri, Jersey Jack Pinball & PinballSales.com How many emails do you delete each day without opening them? How many social media friend requests do you ignore? How many phone calls do you reject or let go to voicemail? When it comes to email, I delete about 50 unopened messages a day. One might be letting me know I supposedly missed the delivery of a package…or that I have four deferred incoming messages requiring I take action to get them…or that there’s some invoice that needs to be paid for something I never ordered…
Summer’s on. Anyone who’s been in the game operating business for more than a decade has a good handle on how he’ll do in the cash box during this curious time when shuttered schools and family vacations tend to shove things around a bit more than at most other times on the calendar. Depending upon which economic news you subscribe to, the paying public is either spending some leisure money or hoarding it until inflation settles down. Everyone knows that inflation in goods and services is no myth. Sure, we’ve gone through this before and come out the other side…
Arcade Golf Enters its “Golden” Age It’s 35 Years and Counting for Incredible Technologies’ Iconic Video Game “Everyone’s favorite arcade golf game” is primed and ready to celebrate yet another momentous milestone. Golden Tee Golf, reportedly the highest grossing coin-op title of all-time (and recent Amusement Industry Hall of Fame inductee), marks its 35th anniversary this year. Since the inception of the very first video games, few titles have lasted this long. And its maker, Incredible Technologies, says Golden Tee isn’t even close to being done. The company says it’s celebrating the anniversary “with a refined and exciting entry in…
ICE Heats Up! Games, HQ Upgrades, Team Additions & Travel Just the Tip of the 2024 ICEberg Innovative Concepts in Entertainment, known throughout the industry as ICE, reports that 2024 brings the busiest and most exciting agenda in its four decades. Never resting on their laurels, aggressively pursuing new game development and opportunities, they say this year will be a particularly special one for ICE on a few fronts. The company has already released two new games, Quarterback Pro and Double Dribble, both of which hit production in March. Four other games are in the pipeline, slated for testing by…
Sales Are Declining Somewhat Here’s Why and What We Can Do About It! by Howard McAuliffe, Partner, Pinnacle Entertainment Group We’ve seen a boom in arcades over the last 10 years, leading to what my father and partner calls the “Golden Age of Arcades,” a significant statement from someone who operated through the video game boom of the early 1980s. Now, we’re seeing some softening of this record growth, including in the bowling business. Since this issue of RePlay is their pre-Bowl Expo edition, I’ll highlight trends in bowling centers, but much of what we see in those businesses apply…
Impressions of Amusement Expo 2024 by Adam Pratt, Arcade Galactic & ArcadeHeroes.com When you live in a state like Utah where you can have snow well into May, it seems like the winter doldrums will never end. Thankfully, the sun is out and those with cabin fever have emerged, ready to play! That said, I expect my business to be still a little tough this year, but I’m optimistic that we’ll have a good summer. Since January, I’ve counted 27 new game releases, including videos, pinballs and video redemption titles. That’s hard to believe, especially when, for many recent years,…
Playing Around with AI by Jack Guarnieri, Jersey Jack Pinball & PinballSales.com Artificial Intelligence, “AI,” is the biggest revolution since the Internet and is going to be much bigger than the Internet…perhaps it will be the eighth wonder of the world. It’s ushering in a new industrial revolution. Are you already playing around with it? Maybe you’re using ChatGPT to help write reports or do research tasks. For those simply wondering what a “GPT” is, it’s a “generative pre-trained transformer.” It can analyze, understand and generate text as if a human created it. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty amazing…
Confirmation & The Sales Process By Beth Standlee, CEO, TrainerTainment Coaching and training your team is not a one-time activity. Most people like to know how to win more at work and at play, and having a strategy to provide correction and direction can help your team, your business and you thrive. I believe monthly team training is a crucial component of employee development and retention. It’s a time to engage, educate and empower your team members. It may feel like you don’t have the labor budget to manage one to two more hours of payroll. However, if we calculated…
Interactive Adventures Unlocking the Wonders of Activate and 5 Wits by Barry Zelickson In the ever-evolving landscape of entertainment, few places capture the essence of imagination and excitement like Activate at American Dream in New Jersey and 5 Wits in Syracuse. Prepare to embark on two exhilarating adventures as Fun Across America takes you inside the captivating world of these two immersive entertainment destinations, each promising to awaken your senses and ignite your imagination like never before. Activate American Dream – East Rutherford, NJ www.youtube.com/watch?v=EonHRSpmr1E Activate American Dream is not just a mere entertainment complex; it’s a portal to…