Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | March 2009 22 Weike Macau operators a way to save on dealer salaries and offer lower denomination bets to draw incremental mass market revenue. The Pal X electronic poker table, also in the METG range, could also help drive Macau’s nascent poker market. Platform benefits “One of the benefits of the Weike platform is its ease of game development,” says Mr Kinsman. We can put a game together, including certification, in 10 to 12 weeks, including GLI approval. We can move very quickly when an operator says to us, ‘look, we’ve got an idea for a game.’ If we’re working with operators closely, we often develop along their ideas. And sometimes we’ll even give them exclusivity on games that they want to suggest to us. “Sowe get the best of bothworlds.We’ve got our own game development concepts. We then use our client’s game development concepts, and we work together. We find that it’s a matter of trying to do some different things. Not every game is going to be a winner, but when you do get something that works, the trick is to learn what makes it work, then develop another game that might have some concept similarity, but presentation differences, and really isn’t a clone by any means. “Instead of just cloning a successful game, like some of our competitors do— you know, you’ve got one game that works so you immediately make five more of the same game but just different name, different graphics—we try to make each game a little bit different.” Weike appointed After appointing Andrew Mason as its new head of game development late last year, Weike is set to release a stream of competitively-priced new products that Mr Kinsman hopes will show the market “that one thing Weike stands for is the ability to innovate, and take a chance and do something different.” Coming soon to Macau, “we’ll have a game called Circus, and another game called Monkey King,” says Mr Kinsman. “Every operator that’s seen Monkey King is very enthusiastic about it. It’s something a little bit different, based on the famous Monkey King character, and we think it’s going to be very successful.” Other games under the INFINITY series