Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, UNIS is making its latest industry splash with the emoji® brand. The two companies have been working on games with each other since fall 2022. Now, they’re exclusively developing emoji-branded entertainment centers under the name emojiPlanet™ with locations coming stateside in early 2025.

UNIS explained that the family entertainment industry is increasingly shifting toward IP-based centers and that “emojiPlanet™ enters this competitive landscape with a unique edge – leveraging the global popularity of emojis to create a space that is instantly relatable and universally appealing.”

Already introduced to China, emojiPlanet™ offers operators a recognizable brand and a slew of different options to keep things fresh. UNIS is currently in talks with operators to bring the concept to North America and elsewhere next year.

Thus far, UNIS and emoji® have created 16 games and counting, plus attractive merchandise and theming to go with them.

“We can sell games, we can sell merchandise, and also have zones in someone’s FEC. We can have pop-ups in shopping malls with 20 to 30 games – fully themed,” explained Steven Tan, general manager of UNIS. “It’s a very flexible concept.”

What’s also nice about the brand is how utterly well-known it is. Tan said, “emoji® has such a broad audience. It’s part of the fabric of society. We intend to grow with this brand over the next decade-plus. It’s a very relatable brand and with Gen Z soon having the highest spending power in our industry, they dictate what the future brings.

“But ultimately – every generation uses emojis,” he said.

The company emphasizes that the brand is an integral part of daily life and communication for many people, with more than 10 billion emojis used each day. (That’s 3.65 trillion a year, if you can believe it!)

“We’ve launched redemption arcade machines such as emoji Roller, emoji Frenzy and emoji Party, and UNIS secured global distribution,” said emoji  CEO Marco Huesges.

“Due to this success, we’ve embarked on another exciting journey, creating emojiPlanet™, a groundbreaking concept that will truly redefine location-based entertainment around the globe.”

He added: “Working with Steven and his team is truly amazing. His dedicated team works with professionalism and passion, and the execution of projects is truly second to none.”

Enter emojiPlanet™!

All of their emoji offerings culminated in the idea behind the emojiPlanet™ location concept. Tan explained that UNIS will provide turnkey solutions for operators no matter what their own plans for an emojiPlanet™ center may be.

He said an emojiPlanet™ facility can range from a 1,500-sq.-ft. micro FEC on up to a 20,000-sq.-ft. center. “Scaling up is no problem,” Tan said. With both player card and merchandise sales as options, he says operators can easily host birthday parties and events, as well as serve food and beverage to customers.

It’s all about finding innovative ways to present the iconic emoji brand, whether it’s a full-scale fun center, a suite of emoji games or an emoji section of merchandise in your redemption counter.

“We couldn’t have found a better brand to work with,” Tan added. To learn more, email the company at sales@unistechnology.com or pay them a visit at the upcoming IAAPA Expo in Orlando.