Inside Asian Gaming

April 2009 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 33 that returns a progressive in the hundreds of dollars on average every few thousand spins. There’s a long-standing debate among gaming equipment manufacturers serving Asia as to whether progressive or volatile games are most popular with players. Bally understands though that the ‘Asian’ market is not uniform but rather multi-dimensional, both in terms of territories and customer segments within territories. Different game styles appeal to different segments. In any case video slot technology may be rendering the progressive versus volatile debate less relevant than it once was. Quick Hit games for example are essentially progressives, but thanks to video technology, a product with progressive game logic can be made even more exciting by introducing volatile elements to the bonusing system. And even within the progressive format, individual games can be tweaked to become more or less volatile. Bally’s Quick Hit five-reel, five-level progressive games Amber Rays, Gold Storm, Silver Rain and Starlight Fire, for example, have overall hit frequencies ranging from 48.49% for Amber Rays and Gold Storm, to 31.51% for Starlight Fire. Games inside games “What makes Quick Hit a success is you can win free games with more free games inside them. Players really seem to like that. We also offer a multi-tier progressive with free games,” points out Mr Connelly. “Progressives are certainly very successful in parts of Asia, but more and more players seem to be looking for games where they may not win as often but when they do they are winning a significant amount,” he adds. ALPHA OS distinguished itself early on as a system that operates completely separately from game applications. This modular approach has allowed Bally to develop and market new games more efficiently and speedily without having to redesign the OS each time. ALPHA OS was from the beginning engineered to support server- based gaming initiatives, including download of game results, configuration and game content. The Quick Hit Diamond is a follow-up to the Quick Hit Platinum format