GTI Asia China Expo 2023 Review

The first major amusement-related trade show since the International Bowl Expo has just wrapped up, and while I was not able to attend the GTI Asia China Expo, we’re able to gather some info together to pass along to you as a review of what was there and a preview of some products that might find their way to Western shores.

As usual, the expo was held in Guangzhou, China. With its attendees, some of these companies might not sound familiar to you – but a big thanks to Ted and Sega’s Oga-Shi on Twitter for much of the info here. I’ll start off with Wahlap since they are advertisers on the site, then go from there:

Wahlap Technology

Wahlap had quite a large booth to show off a number of new products, including Japanese licenses for China like Taiko No Tatsujin, Chunithm, and Initial D The Arcade. A tournament was even held for the latter on that list. Here’s a highlight reel; there’s this one too that shows a few more titles but it’s in vertical mode.

The newest video game is one I discussed in this post, Asphalt Moto Blitz DX:

Ace Amusement

This company has seen a lot of their games get official representation in Europe and the States through different distributors over the past few years, e.g. UDC for the former. They will have their own large 30×20′ booth at IAAPA in November, which might replicate their GTI booth in some respects.

Jet Ski Madness is their big new video game GTI debut that looks intended for the West. It brings back a type of game that isn’t super common in the biz, the personal watercraft racer. The last time we saw such a game was Jet Blaster by Wahlap & Sega. This one has the player standing instead of sitting down, however. Source for the pic:

Arccer Amusement

Arccer Amusement are most known for Japanese rhythm game clones, though have been getting better of late with putting their own spins on these concepts. First from them, the latest evolution of their MaiMai competitor, called Dance Cube 4. Arccer ran a tournament for it, as pictured here:

They also had their tweaked supersize DanceRush clone called Dance Battle, as seen in the first video of this tweet:

Attending the 15th GTI AISA CHINA EXPO（Sep 11th-13th） pic.twitter.com/x35Edwg0zp

— Nicole Toyamor (@softoysupplier) September 12, 2023

Playmore

I’m not particularly familiar with this company, but Playmore have recently been mainly responsible for recent pusher pieces sold by LAI like Pearl Fishery and Rick & Morty: Blips and Chitz (which was originally made without the licence as Solar System, sold by Sega Amusements in European territories). Aforementioned UK distributor UDC was on hand at their booth, and they look set to be importing some of their newest games to Europe soon – certainly the game pictured in this photo. LAI may well pick them up for the States too…

Yuto Games

Like Arccer, this company has been getting better at producing original creations, although there is still work for them to do in that regard. They brought a mix of video amusement & redemption pieces to the show; I also forgot until seeing some games in the background of their booth that they now own all of the InJoy Motion product and still produce some of those titles under slightly different names.

There were two racers at their booth (Showtime and Volt). I haven’t seen before but I can’t find any info on them and don’t know if they are rebadged games or original (likely the former though…). Yuto will also be at IAAPA 2023.

Unsure

Since I can’t read Chinese and there is no identification on some of these games or who made them, they’ll go here:

Here’s a new video pinball game called Mini Pinball. This a pinball machine (although from this photo I can’t see the flippers), ticket redemption and prize merchandizer all in one. With the machine on the right it seems that they are hoping to target it for the Western market but it depends on who it is that’s making it (possibly UNIS, as F&F Arcade is in the background there and they sell that in China – could be someone else entirely though).

チケットペイアウトのミニピンボール。ピンボールはスキル性がめっちゃ高いので、リデンプション系には不向きだと思うのだが、まあ俺は好きだからいいよ！ pic.twitter.com/GLlkMzzpC7

— oga (@oga_gicho) September 11, 2023

Here’s a gun game although it appears to be fully wireless. Hard to tell what it’s about, other than a shooter.

レーザーガンも含め、やたらデザインがガチである。 pic.twitter.com/bsR8esFabn

— oga (@oga_gicho) September 12, 2023

It’s taken a while but following up on Taito’s OnPoint airsoft/BB gun game, there were a few BB firing pieces at the show; Here’s a link to another.

オガさんの広州アミューズメント機レポート

中国ではBB弾ゲーム機がなぜかやたら目につくようになったのだが(おそらくタイトー製のガンアリーナが火をつけた)、軍がある国で独自発展してしまっているのだ。 pic.twitter.com/BDMfl2txFJ

— oga (@oga_gicho) September 12, 2023

Here’s a boxing/punching game although it doesn’t appear to have any video component to it; This is quite the presentation for it though:

やり過ぎだと言いたくなる、パンチングマシンのディスプレイ。 pic.twitter.com/4Co4YYXCzW

— oga (@oga_gicho) September 11, 2023

Along with that Jet Ski game that Oga-Shi posted about above, he included this fire fighting game which takes some inspiration from Sega’s old Brave Firefighters (Oga-Shi has been the producer for many of Sega’s arcade shooters, although not for BF). I’m not sure if this was a part of Ace Amusements’ line-up or not; it’s not listed on their website and AA doesn’t have much of a social media presence:

A new racer that’s a sequel, although I can’t recall seeing Furious Speed before. It looks like someone is using AI to do the promo art in the marquee and the booth – perhaps they did so in some of the game development too? Source:

Here are some generic cabs that one can put anything into, although as Oga Shi mentions in his tweet, the software included is questionable:

That’s all I was able to find – China expos being what they are in their growing size and scale, despite the obvious lack of coverage from English media, if there’s something I missed do please let me know and I’ll add it here.

Do any of these games shown at the GTI Expo interest you? Would you like to see them turn up in the West?