It has now been a week since EAG 2026, the earliest amusement trade show of the year, and the time has come to recap and review all of the relevant companies and new arcade games that appeared there. I (Arcadian) could not attend, but that is where UK-based AH co-contributor Ted and Kevin Williams of The Stinger Report came in; many of the photos you see below come from them. Let’s get straight into the expo:
EAG 2026
For the catch-up on the show in case anyone is new here, the EAG (Entertainment Attractions & Gaming) Expo is the main amusement trade show for the UK, and one of the most significant in Europe as a whole. Held at London’s Excel center since 2011, following the end of the country’s previous ATEI shows, it has typically taken place during the second week of January, running across three days from Tuesday to Thursday. This year’s show took place from the 13th to 15th.
Last year saw the show branch out into featuring dedicated areas for the gambling industry and social entertainment with the London Casino & Gaming Show and Social Immersive Entertainment Expo, respectively, which continued here. Without them, the show would be a bit smaller than it used to be, though only the latter holds much interest for us on the pure arcade/amusement side of things (the UK has very different legislation on casino gaming, which explains its inclusion). This isn’t unlike what has happened in the States with Amusement Expo, which has sometimes included some gambling, or has included laser tag, billiards, and partially merged in the past with the Pizza Expo.
Bandai Namco Amusement Europe
Running things down alphabetically, we start off as usual with Bandai Namco’s European subsidiary, who alongside their own product represent a wide variety of amusement companies in the region. Chief among those is Raw Thrills, whose Godzilla Kaiju Wars Deluxe and Jackpot Racer made their debuts in Europe, lined up with Wizard of Oz and Top Gun Maverick (both of which hadn’t been at a UK trade show until now). Also together with them was Bandai Namco’s own deluxe piece GoldStorm Pirates, making its second EAG appearance following its pre-release showing last year.
GoldStorm was looking the same as last year, besides the newer addition of golden guns to the cabinet. The standee next to it here mentions several of the other companies BNAE represent in Europe, including Adrenaline Amusements, Andamiro and Leon Amusement, although their products shown off here were all redemption, whilst others like Triotech and JET Games had existing pieces on display.
On the other side of the booth was Superwin’s Mini World Motion, which appeared here after Bandai Namco first had it on their booth at IAAPA last November. Oddly, fellow Superwin shooter The Future did not show up alongside it, despite being promoted in advance and tested in the UK – perhaps there was not enough space? Less surprising was Resident Evil 2: Dead Shot not appearing, as despite testing first in the UK, it presently remains too early for it to appear at any trade show. That might well change in the coming months, but depends on how development and location testing are progressing.
Also returning after being shown off at IAAPA was the latest offerings in the Pac-Man range of products, of particular note being the new Whack-The Ghosties whacker and interactive kiddie ride seen below. The latter took the place that the Taiko no Tatsujin ride occupied last year – although Taiko itself was still nowhere to be found here, despite recently testing at a publicly unknown location in the UK according to our close sources. Hopefully, news on that will change soon.
Crown Direct / Harry Levy
UK distributors Crown Direct and Harry Levy often get together for EAG, with one of the bigger booths on the show floor. Last year they brought Skull of Shadow to Europe for the first time, and that returned here alongside all of Bay Tek’s latest redemption pieces and a couple others, like TouchMagix’s Minions Bullseye Mania (which was supposed to appear last year via Bandai Namco, but ultimately did not).
The two companies usually have a few other products on hand from names who appear in their own right, such as the 2-Player model of On Target from Sega Amusements as seen here.
Electrocoin
While it’s now a long time since their glory days of representing Taito, SNK, Capcom and various others, storied UK distributor Electrocoin are still hanging in there, with more of a focus on redemption and their fruit machine repertoire. One of those, a different videmption interpretation of ICE’s World Football Pro concept with only one caged ball instead of several dispensables, can be seen below here:
Of the Japanese companies they have had ties to, Electrocoin do still have continued dealings with Konami, as their main attraction and one of the show’s biggest new product launches was of course Dance Dance Revolution World‘s European debut, tied with the first appearance of the game’s new ‘Universal’ model. This was naturally placed right out front on the booth’s corner for maximum visible impact, and certainly brought the spectators (plus dedicated players/fans); this photo at Flickr snapped by Intergame happens to show Ted, one of Electrocoin’s own employees, and another individual all filming it at once.
For the video that Ted took, it can be found below; there is also a thread of general information about the cabinet and new game version here. Unfortunately it does seem that there have been some music removals in the software build for Europe, and as already confirmed, it will still not be connectable to Konami’s e-Amusement network. On the other hand, the cabinets coming to North America will have that privilege, with them allegedly being bound for our shores by March. Once again, it will be interesting to see whether there will be any representation of them or any other Konami product at Amusement Expo that month, but until we hear more…
As usual, Electrocoin also had Stern Pinball’s latest works on show, making for the only pinball available this year at EAG (for reasons we’ll get into later). It wasn’t just the pinballs that appeared as Gary Stern himself did also come along with the company’s personnel, as seen in another Intergame photo here.
JNC Sales
This UK distributor deals as much in used product as they do new pieces of their own, typically sourced from the smaller Chinese companies like ZS Cheer and Nitto. For a few examples of those, you can see Rooster N Bro 2DX down here, which Amusement Source International have out in the States (they also have The Container and Lucky Pong Challenge, which ASI sell too).
Taking up the most space on their booth this year though was Furious Speed DX, an example of how those stacked screens just won’t go away. By all accounts this one was pretty weird – apparently it uses a game that has been around in China since 2014, merely updating it for two screens with some obvious AI art usage on the loading screen and a few very hasty rejigs of unlicensed-looking assets…
Sega Amusements International
Sega Amusements could be found at the far left side of the show floor as typical, with a very elongated booth that had a lot packed in (this photo hardly shows all of it). Immediately obvious here should be their main prize game products like Mini Cube Prize World, but they also debuted the new Go Go Ducky ticket game and Neoshuffle social entertainment attraction at the show (find videos of those at the links enclosed).
Their racer options all got their own corner, including the standard model of Apex Rebels, the new Motion Edition of Daytona Championship USA (which once again garnered plenty of attention online when posted to Twitter/X – feat. Ted himself playing it!), and IGS/Baohui’s Speed Rider 4DX making its UK debut. Note that the last of those is being sold by Bandai Namco in North America, with other distributors like ELMAC II and ASI also carrying it in specific European and Middle Eastern regions.
Speaking of distribution… for a couple companies that Sega Amusements exclusively represent in Europe, at the other end of the booth ICE and LAI Games’ product could be found, with Cyberpunk 2077: Turf Wars and Ubisoft All-Star VR making their first UK trade show appearances. Alpha Ops VR Strike from 3MindWave and SAI themselves can also be seen next to them, which returned with the full game software and production cabinet after being previewed in an earlier state last year.
Simon Arcade and Putt It! Par-Tee took pride of place too, being Sega Amusements’ main couple homegrown pieces at the moment. The latter seemingly had a few small adjustments from its IAAPA build, with a little ramp placed to direct the golf balls to players better, and higher ridges around the playfields.
UDC
As a neighbor to long-standing UK distributor Electrocoin both in their Park Avenue headquarters and their booths here, UDC brought their regular variety of product along to the show. Their cranes from Elaut (e.g. the new E-Claw 2.0) and pushers from Playmore were of course a big part of that, as well as other amusement novelties like the novel Breaking News photo booth, but they always have some videos too.
Some of their lineup can be seen in this video posted by UDC themselves; a second clip of Kyle Ward himself playing StepManiaX can also be found at their channel. SMX appearing naturally made for a little bit of competition between it and DDR, as although UDC just had the existing DX model of the game, the Step Revolution team timed their latest free content update to coincide with the show like usual.
Up against the back, black curtain wall again was their present range of deluxe product they distribute from China’s Ace Amusement, though of them, the Wave Runner-like Jet Ski Racer is the only one of these games that has not previously been seen out West in any capacity. Bikers Madness‘ vertical screen model was also new, though the stacked monitor version did appear last year (and at the IAAPA just gone).
One piece missing from their above video is a curious one – Dance Show, the Chinese music game by Arccer Amusement that’s similar to a certain existing circle-based rhythm action title. This is the first major representation it has had from any distributor over here, although one or two imports have of course happened before. Arccer did show up in their own right at IAAPA, but only exhibited their coin pushers…
Others
Moving onto the odds and ends of EAG 2026, there are a few to take note of here. Though they did not appear the previous year due to some planning conflicts, Instance Automatics came back with a booth right by the entrance at this show. As they represent UNIS, they had lots of their product, but it was largely redemption-focused besides Jump Master and a single Spin City – no Monster Jet Riders, Turbo Nova, or Neon Rush. Why those did not appear is not clear, although redemption is a safer bet of course.
One little surprise was this spooky-themed two player shooting gallery called Monster Mash on the small booth of Pan Amusements, who otherwise focus on bigger, custom built shooting ranges and other attractions for various location-based operation clients (they had a bumper car on hand too). It certainly draws upon its classic song namesake, as it has decals emblazoned with “it’s a graveyard smash” 😛
The reason for Electrocoin having the only pinball at the show was this – Retro Arcade Specialists’ space being effectively empty, despite them booking it out. This is a shame, as they have recently branched out into supporting Unico product too, which could’ve seen some now-rare EAG stick-and-button action, as well as pinball from Jersey Jack, Barrels of Fun and others, but it was evidently not to be.
Moving into some quick highlights of the twinned Social Immersive Entertainment Expo side of things, perhaps the most notable exhibitor there was new UK entrant Robobike. They came with their three highly advanced motorbike simulator motion platforms, each suited to a different audience, with even wheelchair users getting the chance to try their experience with a special accessible model. They also make for an interesting contrast with the more arcadey motorbike pieces mentioned above. Had this come along a few years back, it probably would have been a VR product. Instead, no headsets to be found.
Game Volt showcased two of the biggest trends of the moment in social gaming, as they had both their new Hot Shots projection shooting gallery and the Supercharged Shuffleboard, the latter being one of several of its type seen at the show (as well as Neoshuffle at Sega Amusements, there was also the shuffleboard piece that Elaut/Benchmark had at IAAPA via its Ireland-based originators, Pirate’s Cove).
Another name showing off shooting galleries was Sim Way, who appeared as part of SIE last year and came back with a bigger, more expansive booth this time. As well as their shooter (with multiple modes, including a zombie one), they had a projection screen golf simulator too:
Social Rivals had an interesting take on golf, going for a fully projection-mapped application with multiple game modes available. It’s good that there’s some variation there beyond the same old single golf holes:
Finally, one of the few pieces of VR that appeared at the show came in the form of Rilix. Besides the aforementioned Alpha Ops VR Strike and Ubisoft All-Star VR (plus another company’s simulator that UK laser tag operators Laser Quest brought along), these were the only examples of that available, pointing towards the state of play there with bigger attractions and VR arenas fading away in favor of smaller setups.
Overall
All in all, it does seem like this EAG was a good one; the general feeling seems to be that though there were a few disappointments, that was made up for in the people who attended. The continued inclusion of the Social Entertainment Expo is a key one, as there are numerous current developments in shuffleboards, golfing and shooting galleries with great influence on that side of things. The question there seems to the extent to which arcade applications of it (e.g. Putt It! Par-Tee) can co-exist with the real deal, as mentioned by Kevin in his own recent Sound Off show coverage over at The LBX Collective.
Also hard to ignore is the strength of rhythm games, though this was only shown in DDR, and UDC’s offerings. The absence of Maimai DX and Taiko no Tatsujin despite their recent North American releases was keenly felt there, but those weren’t the only games missing compared to IAAPA – the total absence of anything by Wahlap was notable (especially after they made their first direct appearance at the last IAAPA Europe), plenty of UNIS and Ace’s recent games didn’t turn up, and a few newer names like Blue Motion Games + Alan-1 still haven’t had anything appear in Europe via anyone as of yet (though A-1 are looking into things).
It could well be the case that some were simply holding back for the next IAAPA Europe, which is due to take place in London this year at the same venue as EAG in September; more companies tend to have direct presences there, besides the main names that make EAG more distributor-heavy. Could games like Maimai, Taiko and Resident Evil 2: Dead Shot appear there too? Only time will tell…
That’s it for this recap of EAG 2026 now; thanks once again to Ted and Kevin for their assistance here. If you would like to see the expo covered in video form, our friends at Arcade Belgium have several dedicated uploads for many of the new releases that were on hand, and Pinball News, GTI, and Dan’s Out and About have show floor tours. What new arcade games seen here interest you most?
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