Play Mechanix has spent decades developing location-based entertainment that takes risks, attracts players and keeps evolving after launch. From Big Buck Hunter to Minecraft Dungeons, the studio has become the experimental counterpart within the Raw Thrills group while maintaining a long-running relationship with Bandai Namco Amusement Europe.
Founder and President George Petro and Marketing Director Dave Snipes recently reflected on the partnership, the creative division between Play Mechanix and Raw Thrills, and the ideas that have helped a 25-year-old arcade title remain relevant.
A London conversation that changed two companies
The story reaches back two decades to a January morning in London. At ATE, the major UK arcade and amusement trade event that later evolved into ICE, Petro met Raw Thrills President Eugene Jarvis in a café away from the show floor.
Petro had brought Big Buck Hunter to the UK for the first time, hoping Raw Thrills would manufacture it. At the time, Bandai Namco distributed Raw Thrills products. During lunch, Jarvis suggested that the two companies should merge.
The merger was completed in June 2006. It united two studios with different creative instincts and established a business relationship with Bandai Namco that has helped Play Mechanix reach European and international markets.
Different strengths under one roof
Play Mechanix was founded five years before Raw Thrills. After leaving Midway, Petro created the company as a game-development studio rather than a hardware manufacturer. It licensed its games to manufacturers, including Incredible Technologies, which produced the original Big Buck Hunter while Play Mechanix retained the intellectual property.
Raw Thrills brought manufacturing expertise to the relationship, while Play Mechanix contributed a strong focus on game creation. After the merger, Petro asked Jarvis what he wanted to change. Jarvis told him to continue doing what the studio had already been doing.
That division of labour has remained broadly intact. Petro describes Play Mechanix as the more experimental studio, prepared to pursue unfamiliar arcade concepts even though not every idea will succeed. Raw Thrills reflects Jarvis’s own arcade heritage, which reaches back to Defender.
Petro says he is a supporter of Jarvis’s approach rather than an imitator of it. Together, the companies offer operators a broader catalogue, with different types of games able to share the same arcade floor. Snipes describes that breadth as a way to serve a wider range of player preferences.
For operators assessing new equipment, factors such as footprint, audience and venue type matter alongside the game itself. RETROCADE’s arcade machine buying guide offers a useful starting point for considering those practical questions.
Why Big Buck Hunter keeps developing
Big Buck Hunter is the clearest example of Play Mechanix’s willingness to keep experimenting. Now in its 25th year, the series continues to receive new content, although Petro says there is no simple recipe for that level of longevity. The original concept had a strong enough foundation to support sustained development, something only a small number of truly iconic arcade games achieve.
Play Mechanix also continued investing in the game after release. The studio embraced connected and live-operations features early, at a time when maintaining that infrastructure cost more than it generated. That strategy changed with downloadable content introduced through a licensing arrangement involving the television series Duck Dynasty.
The content was supplied to operators at no charge, with Play Mechanix recovering the expense through a per-play model. Although the approach was controversial, it shifted the relationship between the developer and venue owners. Instead of treating a cabinet as a one-off sale, the model encouraged both sides to benefit from ongoing player engagement.
Later developments included a crossover with The Walking Dead. The series also recently added a mountain goat chosen by the player community. This was the first time Play Mechanix had given its audience direct control over that kind of character decision. Players had to participate in the game to vote, which helped generate engagement before the result was even announced.
Winning attention on a modern arcade floor
Petro’s view of arcade success begins with an unglamorous requirement: a game must first attract attention. Deep gameplay cannot help a cabinet that nobody approaches. Modern arcades and family entertainment centres increasingly use the visual language of casinos, with large installations and extensive LED lighting, so visibility has become a crucial part of the product.
International appeal presents a different challenge. Play Mechanix understands the American market closely, but Petro acknowledges that the studio cannot always anticipate the cultural details that influence players in countries such as the UK and China.
To reduce that uncertainty, the company often builds around globally recognised properties including Minecraft, Top Gun and Godzilla. Play Mechanix has also avoided competing directly with Bandai Namco’s own games, which draw on a distinctly Japanese design sensibility. Petro believes a healthy creative field benefits the entire arcade sector by giving players more reasons to engage with location-based entertainment.
Snipes identifies a quality that travels across national markets: physical arcade games offer movement, scale and shared participation that a phone or home console cannot reproduce. The communal experience, rather than any single licence, remains central to the appeal.
The next stage for Play Mechanix
Play Mechanix released a substantial amount of new equipment during 2024 and 2025. Raw Thrills also has a Stranger Things title in the pipeline, along with another announced release. Petro has identified 2027 as the next major year for Play Mechanix launches, but he has not confirmed specific projects or whether the company will present anything at IAAPA Expo in Orlando in November. A decision is expected in October.
Petro remains optimistic about location-based entertainment. He points to venues such as Topgolf and UK competitive-socialising concepts as evidence that people still want to spend time together in physical spaces. That was particularly encouraging after COVID lockdowns, when he had wondered whether players would again want to stand beside one another at an arcade cabinet. They did.
Two decades after the London meeting, Bandai Namco remains one of Play Mechanix’s closest business relationships. Petro says he feels fortunate to work in an industry filled with friends and partners around the world, placing Bandai Namco at the top of that list.
For readers interested in the hardware and culture behind location-based play, the RETROCADE arcade blog covers wider industry developments. Those planning a home setup can also compare upright arcade machines, racing arcade cabinets and arcade parts for repairs and upgrades.
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