Pokemon celebrated its 30th anniversary in February, but it was still one of the hottest commodities at the Amusement Expo International this week at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
“Our newest big hit is Pokemon,” Stern Pinball CEO Seth Davis said. “It’s an (intellectual property) that has been around since the ’90s, but it’s huge. It’s the biggest IP in the world.”
The new Pokemon pinball machine at industry leader Stern Pinball is already sold out and back-ordered.
“The games of Pokemon that are being operated are earning three and four and five times what other pinball machines have made,” said Gary Stern, 80, founder of the Chicago-based company who kept pinball alive early in the 21st century when he was the only pinball manufacturer left.
Davis said the pinball business has changed a lot over the years.
“In the old days, it was all commercial equipment,” he said. “Now the majority of our business is actually homeowners buying games, and the homes they go to are the Gen Xers who grew up in an ’80s arcade, and they want a game in their home for their friends and families to play.”
Pokemon is the first major video game IP that Stern Pinball has produced.
“Now you’ve got video games from the ’80s and ’90s people grew up with and have loved for a long time. Pokemon is one of those,” Davis said. “There’s 182 Pokemon in the game and we’ve got people trying to collect them all. There’s over 1,000 Pokemon out there so we’ll add more.”
More than 300 companies were represented on the show floor and the four-day conference and trade show that ended Thursday and attracted more than 5,500 attendees.
Not far from the Stern Pinball exhibit was The Crown Foil Vault, a specialized vending machine that vends factory-sealed packs of trading cards, including high-value items like Major League Baseball and Pokemon. Several of the Pokemon packs were sold out shortly after the Brand Vending Products exhibit opened.
“This is one of the hottest machines in the marketplace right now,” Brand Vending Products CEO Scott Jochim said. “The collectible market is on fire. Both kids and adults are wanting the latest and greatest in cards.
“Whether you collect them, trade them or sell them, they’re very popular.”
Old is new again
While the Amusement Expo featured the latest industry innovations, it also showcased many updated arcade and video game classics, from Asteroids and Golden Tee to Pong and Pop-A-Shot-style basketball games and more.
“It’s just putting new life into the products that have been established for many years,” said Steve Mortensen, Eastern sales manager for Incredible Technologies, which created the ever-popular Golden Tee Golf (which now features PGA Tour courses) and Silver Strike Bowling games.
UNIS Technology, a key player in the industry for more than 30 years, had new claw machine games on display powered by Korean Claws that promise “Smarter grip. More wins. Maximum Fun.”
“Players like that it’s more skill-based,” UNIS marketing director Karen Yea said. “It reaches deeper and you can grab at different angles.”
Yea said one of the growing industry trends is the use of artificial intelligence, which the China-based company incorporates into Pickleball Rivals, a new game it debuted at the show.
With the influx of foreign-born players in the NBA, Innovative Concepts and Entertainment vice president Dan Coppola said his Buffalo, New York-based company now sells four times as many basketball shooting games internationally as it does in the U.S.
The company Alan-1 has remade several Atari games, including Asteroids, Missile Command and a mechanical version of Pong, which was released in 1972 and became the first commercially successful video game.
“Everyone knows Pong. It’s a very popular game,” said Brandon Minson, 25, Alan-1 salesman and arcade cabinet maker. “The small mechanical coffee table is a very nice touch. That makes them different.”
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.
