Game Technology at G2E 2018

Transcription

1 CONVENTION COVERAGE Game Technology at G2E 2018 Indian Gaming magazine spoke with leading game technology companies at G2E about what products and innovations they are most excited about and their company trajectories for the near term. Here is what they had to say... AGS Andrew Burke, Senior Vice President of Slot Products Nathan Drane Andrew Burke and Laura Olson-Reyes INNOVATIONS: We are excited to showcase a deep library of games for our Orion Slant product, which was released in May. We've really focused on developing families of games so are excited to have the Fortune Blast family and Kingdom Ca$h family both on display. Customers are really excited to see this depth of product from us. We continue to have a lot of success with our Orion Portrait, which has been a resounding success with customers. Next, we will be releasing the Orion Upright, which we also showcased at G2E. We hope to release that product in Q3 of next year and it has shown very well. People are really excited about that product and it rounds out the Orion family well. Our table games division, led by John Hemberger, is the most innovative in the business. He and his team do a fantastic job and there is absolutely nobody that is going to outwork them in this industry. I'm really excited about the products they've been showing it's been a really good year for them too. FAVORITE GAME: Rakin Bacon it features a little pig that as you progress in the game, gets fatter and fatter until it explodes. It was a fan favorite at the show and I think it's going to really play well with players. Aristocrat Nathan Drane, Vice President of Commercial Strategy, Games INNOVATIONS: We're really excited to be launching new hardware to market. We have the flame55, which has just released and has four approved games on it. It features the first dual bending curved LCD screen in the industry. It s highly innovative and looks really sharp on the floor. We re also launching the Buffalo Diamond 10th Anniversary Edition, to celebrate the tenth year of Buffalo, which is a huge brand for Aristocrat. It's one of our favorite children, so extending that game and bringing it to the flame55, is really exciting for Aristocrat and our customers. We're very excited about Class II this year. Our portfolio is really strong, and we are pleased to have Buffalo coming into the Class II portfolio with Buffalo Xtreme. It s based on the Buffalo Gold product, which has been very successful in Class III. It has a new reel growth mechanic, so bringing reel growth to Buffalo in Class II is exciting. With the game sales portfolio, a lot of our focus has been on leveraging our portrait cabinet, the Helix XT, which features this great 43-inch, 4K-resolution canvas. Some of our new products, such as Reel Climb, feature reel persistent growth, so if you get the reels to grow, they stay in the next spin and the next spin after that. These new persistent mechanics are innovative and leverage that Helix XT canvas so well. FAVORITE GAME: Dancing Foo it's our Gold Stacks 88 product. It was the number one game on the Eilers-Fantini Game Performance Report in August. That's probably my favorite game. We also launched two more games in that category at G2E. Aruze Justin Arcemont, Managing Director of Global Sales INNOVATIONS: On the core slot side of the business, we launched three new cabinets based on our Muso platform. The feedback has been fantastic from customers on all of the variations Muso Triple-27, Muso-43 Curve, and Muso Limited, which we are going to launch with Paradise Fishing. 32 Indian Gaming November 2018

2 Justin Arcemont On the ETG side, our Roll to Win Craps product is an industry first and there is nothing like it out in the market. We are showcasing the final version and have begun to take orders. Roll to Win Craps brings excitement into the table games world because today, the experience is static, felt and doesn't feature any 'celebrations.'this brings some of the slot elements into the table world and can attract a different demographic. Additionally, on the backend, the labor savings and the increased speed of play are very appealing to operators because you can go from three dealers to one. Also, there are no chips involved, so you don't have the payouts to deal with or the worry with regard to the security of chips being transferred back and forth. There is a lot of appeal for this game on both the player side and the operator side. FAVORITE GAME: On the Muso Triple-27, my favorite game is Wheels Go Round, which is out and doing very well. On the Muso-43 Curve, my favorite is Wheel of Prosperity family of games, which are approved and being installed. Everi Mike Wabschall, Executive Producer INNOVATIONS: We are very excited about our story at G2E, which is the commitment to our customer base and our players in expanding product offerings. We are expanding new cabinets and configurations, as well as adding depth to our library to support those product lines and adding innovations while staying classic to the things we do really well. This year we're rolling out the DCX, which is our new Empire Cabinet a dual curve cabinet with 7.1 surround sound featuring licensed WAP content including The Mask with Jim Carey and The Karate Kid. For the mechanical space, we are introducing the Skyline Revolve, which features a hardware wheel at the top, which we're introducing with the Casablanca license as well as Penn and Teller. In terms of new product offerings for the mechanical space, we have a lot of configurations that are very interesting. We have a new top box called the TB26, which keeps the cabinet looking very classic and traditional, but adds more screen real Mike Wabschall estate for interesting bonuses, progressives and pay tables. We're investing in that space and making sure it feels fresh. We're also adding innovations one to check out is called Cash Machine. It's our first game that doesn't have sevens or bars it's a win what you see, and there are numbers on the reels it's really out there. We're also expanding our TournEvent product with Tourn- Event Now, a standalone, sit and go type product that we can offer to casinos to do promotions however they see fit. If an operator wants to run a week or month long promotion, they can set up a tournament and a player can use their player card with a machine that has a TournEvent Now sign on it and automatically get in however many entries that operator has allowed for. It s a fun way for players to enjoy the tournament experience on their own time. Another thing we're doing a lot of is banked products. Pairing with our E43 titles, a lot of our new games and most popular titles are coming with two different versions featuring different mechanics and themes. We also featured our Lazer Lock banked product, which has a popular industry-wide lock and re-spin feature. We have a great package with this and we're really excited to release it this year. FAVORITE GAME: We worked hard with Willie Nelson and his family to launch the mechanical products last year at G2E. Now we are launching the video title, which has been a labor of love. We've worked hand in hand with Willie he's recorded custom audio and music, and we have custom photo shoots as well. It's all unique, exclusive content. It has reel innovation features and a lot of fun entertainment, yet it's still a gambler game at its core. Gaming Arts Mike Dreitzer, President INNOVATIONS: We are very excited to debut our video reel slots in addition to the SuperBingo product, the Super- Promo product, and other great bingo and keno products. Everything has been very well received, and we've talked with customers from all over the country and world who are very November 2018 Indian Gaming 33

3 CONVENTION COVERAGE David Colvin and Mike Dreitzer excited about our offerings. We are going to take the momentum that we've gathered from the show and go forward into a very successful 2019, picking up new markets, moving our products out, and getting into the market in a very big way. We ll continue to put our core product out bingo and keno, and now slots and just keep executing and showing customers that our products can perform for them and offer a lot of features and content to help maximize their bottom line. It's been a wonderful show seeing a lot of great customers and great friends, and we look forward to FAVORITE GAME: They're all great it's like picking between your children. From an innovation standpoint, our Dice Seeker game is very exciting and has been called out by many as being tops in terms of innovation and play mechanic. The Da Fa Ba game is really excellent as well. IGT Mike Brennan, Senior Director of Product Management INNOVATIONS: Last year we talked about having some of the best innovations in the industry, such as gesture, mid-air haptics, and PowerSight. This year we've productized those items. Our PowerSight is in Sex and the City, and it s pretty amazing to be able to control things in the game with your eyes. The American Gods 4D game has been just phenomenal. It s a unique brand and the quarter bonus is fantastic. We want people and players to buzz about our games and these kinds of innovations, while still getting the entertainment they're craving. In Wheel of Fortune 4D, a player can just gesture to spin the wheel. It uses a base game that's strong for us, Golden Egypt, and we have the ability to scale the top wheel from two to six machines. Large properties can put in big banks of six, while smaller properties can place two or three, and still have that shared wheel experience. On the CrystalCurve Ultra, we have the Blake Shelton and Adam Levine games, and have been giving away signed and limited edition guitars. I've been impressed by how popular both of these artists are. From coaching on The Voice to their individual music careers, and Adam Levine playing at half Mike Brennan time at the Super Bowl, it s just been great timing for us to be able to produce games that have great music with what we feel is the best gaming chair in the industry featuring surround sound. Scarab is a core game we launched in April on our Crystal- Dual 27 cabinet that changes the rhythm of slot play. Through the game, players accrue Scarab symbols that stay on the screen, and every tenth spin they turn wild. One of our design studio heads came up with the slogan, These games give people a reason to play and a reason to stay. That has been a fantastic game for us and we already have evolutions that will be ready within six months. Our core product portfolio has been the most positively received in about a decade. We're taking these things that are working and putting little spins on them and continuing to blaze our own trail. We are riffing on our own mechanics with our All-Star Evolutions. We are taking a game like Ocean Magic and making Ocean Magic Grand, which was a highlight at last year s G2E, and probably the number two game in our entire portfolio on CrystalCurve. We also have a great back catalog of classics like Cleopatra, and you'll see things like Hexbreaker coming. Last year, Dream Pool was a featured game and now it s in the market, proven and doing great in Indian Country. Coin O Mania is another highlighted game for us as well. With regard to jackpot games Fortune Coin has been probably the strongest received game out there and is ready to go as well. For poker and stepper we're excited to have had keno be the focus of this year s show. We have a lot of great products in poker, but also have some entertainment style single card kenos, and then Ultimate X Keno, which has been the star. It takes that exciting, gambler friendly mechanic and brings it to keno. It's been really interesting the last couple years people have been asking for keno, and there has been this resurgence of it. With our S3000 Refresh, we re making it look and sound classic, because what s old is new again. FAVORITE GAME: My favorite core game is Coin O Mania it's transfixing and very well done. On the premium side, I like The Price is Right Showcase Showdown on the MegaTower 34 Indian Gaming November 2018

4 Universal cabinet. We basically created the cabinet around that wheel. Who didn't stay home from school at least once and watch The Price is Right? And who doesn't want to spin the wheel? I'm very bullish on the brand because it translates to gaming so well. It has all of the mini games built in, so it has game mechanics; it's been around since 1956 and everybody knows about it including young people and the older demographic; it has wealth and winning associated with it; and it has gambling. Diamond-izer meter, or the entire amount. The 4K just pops and there are things that we could do with the lighting effects that we couldn't do with standard definition. It really is beautiful and is going to be a winner. Merkur Gaming U.S. David Orrick, Director of Industry Relations Konami Gaming Steve Walther, Senior Director, Marketing & Product Management David Orrick Steve Walther INNOVATIONS: We have three distinct channels of games that we're offering on our dual-screen cabinet as well as new linked progressive content and new game mechanics. Crescent & Stack, which is our single-screen cabinet, has had some top of the performance charts products with the Strike Zone such as Star Watch Magma, Star Watch Fire, Agent: Magnifying Jackpots, Inspector: Sign of the Jackpots. At this year s show we launched our 4K line of products with our Concerto Opus, which features a 65-inch high definition display. We also launched our KX 43, which is our 43-inch ultra high definition display. We also showcased our award-winning SynkConnect product, which we're showing for Synkros. This allows players to use their mobile device with an NFC chip to tap on and tap off to a game they don't have to have a player's card with them because it's all built into the phone. With that, key player functions and promotions, etc., are delivered directly to a player's phone. We're covering the gamut with everything we offer and all areas of the business are firing on all cylinders. FAVORITE GAME: My favorite games right now are the Star Watch games, which are currently out. Additionally, we have a really cool game coming on the Opus cabinet called the Diamond-izer. It has a Strike Zone style mechanic and when you buy reels the wilds expand. The key behind Diamond-izer is that every progressive win adds credits to the Diamondizer meter. Periodically a player can win a share of that INNOVATIONS: G2E 2018 has been exceptional for Merkur Gaming. We are on the threshold of exciting developments in terms of product development, product launch, certification, acceptance and testing all of the above. To my mind, the mental image that I have is of an Olympic athlete bending down to get into the blocks before starting a race. Right now, Merkur Gaming America is in the blocks and all we're waiting for is the trigger. Regarding expectations for the future, the critical period in terms of accelerating and advancing development on all fronts, both technical and commercial, will be the period between G2E and the next most significant event in the American gaming calendar, NIGA in San Diego, CA in April of next year. It is clear to everyone in our structure that the carefully calculated and considered, step-by-step approach that we've taken thus far, has served us well. Now, we're in the process of firing our starting gun and going full speed right ahead across a variety of different jurisdictions, markets and so forth. FAVORITE GAME: Having played all of the new games presented at G2E, the one that gets me most excited is Big Deal Wheel. That game gave rise to the title of a press statement we recently issued, Reels, Wheels and Big Deals. We fervently expect going forward that all of those things will come together in the next few months. Next Gaming Mike Darley, CEO INNOVATIONS: We are very excited about the quality of our games right now. We brought them to G2E last year, and they were beyond concept, but they weren't yet finished products. November 2018 Indian Gaming 35

5 CONVENTION COVERAGE Mike Darley We ve spent the last year with focus groups enhancing the games and entertainment value. One of the aspects that's unique with our skill-based games is we've designed them to play like slot machines and also be very entertaining. These games are time-on device and value-oriented they can be played without a $100 investment. Players can sit down with a bankroll that's comfortable for them, engage in the machine, be immersed, have fun and feel good about playing. People that gamble want to find value and to have a chance to win, but they don t need to win a million dollars. If they walked away with $100, $200, or a couple of thousand dollars, they'd be happy, and that's the way we've designed our machines. We're going to be in Caesars shortly and I've had almost every casino in town show interest. I want to get these out and gauge the acceptance, which I think is going to be high, and then based on that, start expanding into Oklahoma and California. We want to do this at a measurable rate to ensure success. FAVORITE GAME: There are a couple skill-based games that are new to us including Missile Command and Tempest that we are very excited about. We also recently licensed Grumpy Cat, which was a great find that appeals to that wide demographic we're hitting. A reasonable development cycle for Grumpy Cat should be about six months to where we ve really managed the game well and have it interesting and the bonus round attractive. Once we release it, Grumpy Cat will be a great value and game for our players. Novomatic Americas Rick Meitzler, President Kathleen McLaughlin, Vice President of Marketing & Product Management INNOVATIONS Rick Meitzler: What I'm most excited about is our product pipeline. If you look at where we've been over the last five years coming to this year s show, we've shown a lot of European content that we were trying to bring to the U.S. and Canada. We've really refocused with our full Rick Metizler and Kathleen McLaughlin studio in the U.S., which we started two years ago, and is fully operational now with 20 employees. We have a lot of content coming out directed at the North American markets, and we have two studios in Austria also focused on North America. That's what I'm most excited about. I'm also excited about our ETG products, which we've started rolling out at Foxwoods and Pechanga. Kathleen McLaughlin: We are very excited about the MacGyver product line, which we spent a lot of time focus group testing with customers real players. Matt Ward and his team have been solely focused on bringing all aspects of this game to life, and have done a phenomenal job of making sure the MacGyver brand is well represented in the game. It has translated so well to players and we received nothing but positive feedback at the show. We re also very excited about our electronic table games. We just did an installation at Pechanga, and Foxwoods is adding additional terminals. They're very happy. We have three side bet options two are with Cammegh, the roulette wheel developer, and one is an in-house development called Poker 3+. We definitely are very excited about our Panthera and Panthera Curve 1.43 as well as our Enchanted Fortunes Linked Jackpots, a move into progressives. We cut a deal with Gambee and Sportradar, and so we are really very much now in the technology provider space for sports betting. We'll be doing kiosks and some neat things in the video gaming terminal markets as well. We've been running sports betting and sports betting systems in Europe and Italy for quite some time, and just launched our version of what we'll be doing in the U.S. on a trial, and it's doing very well. You'll probably hear about some more deals going forward as sports betting heats up. We have a lot of really good content on our base games, but what we're most excited about is we will have 24 brand new U.S. developed games starting in Q1, and our roadmap is robust. Operators are responding to that as they look at our product roadmap, which is exciting. 36 Indian Gaming November 2018

6 Scientific Games Susan Cartwright, Vice President, Corporate Communications James Starr Susan Cartwright INNOVATIONS: We are all about the evolution of entertainment as we ve become one unified company. At G2E, our casino customers had the chance to see the great games players love, including those that help with game ops like Jin Ji Bao Xi and James Bond. We're also extremely excited about having the number one platform and sports solution, offering a one-stop shop. The casino of the future brings cashless, cardless and other technologies that players are asking for and we're delivering and revolutionizing gaming. We are putting an overall emphasis on mobile enabling play anywhere and anytime, along with the cashless and cardless solutions that not only deliver for players, but also for our customers. FAVORITE GAME: My favorites are Jin Ji Bao Xi, and from our James Bond series of slots, Die Another Day, which features our Pepper's ghost technology. VGT An Aristocrat Company James Starr, Executive Vice President of Sales INNOVATIONS: We are most excited to be launching games on the Helix XT cabinet. These launch this month (November) and we showcased them at G2E. We also have a Buffalo Xtreme game, which is a Buffalo game for Class II only that's coming in March. Those were really the highlights of the show along with our PBR licensed WAP game. We have about 40 titles coming out this year in addition to the 60 we already have, which is the largest pipeline of Class II games I've ever seen in my lifetime. We are also going to have linked single site progressives coming in March. The Buffalo Xtreme game will be one of the first to be linked, a capability we haven't had in the Ovation platform that we're adding this year. We ll also have more of the Crazy Cash and Mighty Cash games from Gimmie Games, which we re seeing a lot of success with. FAVORITE GAME: Oceans of Beauty, one of the Crazy Cash games, and it's doing really well for us right now. My favorite game to come is Buffalo Xtreme. Video King Rusty Morin, CFO Tim Stuart, President & CEO Tim Stuart and Rusty Morin INNOVATIONS Rusty Morin: At G2E we showcased PowerPlay, a brand new Class II reel spinning game that is being delivered on Champ-e Tablets, our mobile platform. We will be running that through GLI shortly and introducing it likely in the first quarter of It pairs up with our PokerNanza Class II video poker game. In addition to that, we have a stand-alone kiosk for selling credits to devices, which will go into casinos. This will allow for easy access to additional credits for players. We also have brand new FreedomPlay Wi-Fi flashboards that take away any of the wiring requirements that used to go along with video flashboards. Tim Stuart: We continue to add additional modules to our back-end system, OMNI. This powerful system handles all of the backend everything from frequent players, PNLs, accounting, to all kinds of promotional modules and credits. It s very robust. November 2018 Indian Gaming 37