Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming August 2016 40 win that amount whenever they match three gems in a turn. As Lisani explains, Asteroids basically works like a scratch card albeit one with “a lot of power behind it.” “You use your guns and explode asteroids in space,” he says. “It’s not a game of skill but it has the feeling of skill – when you blast the asteroids you feel like you have a choice to make which is great, it’s fun. “You do have an incentive to achieve certain gems when you blast asteroids and that’s a classic translation of Atari over to the iGaming world where we’re using the brand but we’re also using the content of Atari rather than just the logo.” Staying true to the original game was, of course, high on Atari’s agenda as well when the two companies first began developing ideas in early 2015. And it’s fair to say they have a lot riding on this relationship. A pioneer of video games and gaming consoles, Atari ranked among the world’s biggest companies in the 1970s and early 1980s but after years of decline and growing financial hardship it was forced to declare bankruptcy in 2013. It was ultimately saved at the last minute by former employee Frédéric Chesnais, who is now majority owner, CEO and the man tasked with steering Atari back into relevance. Importantly, Chesnais holds the company close to his heart having previously worked in the management team from 2001 to 2007, so staying true to Atari’s legacy remains a passion despite the recent move into gambling. “The first thing we want to do is to protect the games and preserve what they mean,” Chesnais affirms. “In fact, we are always in contact with Atari’s founder Atari CEO Frédéric Chesnais Nolan Bushnell – I chat with him when we have ideas. “So it’s very important that we stay true to the brand but having said that times have changed, the 70s and 80s are gone so we also have to adapt our properties to the current environment. You have to evolve or you die. “This brand is very well-known and it means two things for a lot of people – it brings them good memories and it also means entertainment and technology. “So for all of these reasons it was quite obvious to us when we came in that after video games, online gaming would become our next big step. “The beauty of the Atari brand is that we can appeal to the parents but we can also appeal to the kids. We are one of very few brands that can do that so you have to be flexible. The fact that we are making these games shows that we are adapting to the environment.” Although Asteroids was first out of the blocks, Pariplay already has a handful of other Atari games in the works with Star Rider , Black Widow and Centipede among those nearing completion. Each, Lisani promises, will be quite iGaming Blue Pages iGaming in Depth