Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | July 2012 26 and multipliers, each bonus unique to two initial base themes, “Commanding Officer” and “Periscope Pays”. Mr Edidin acknowledges the difficulties in conveying brand-specific games across cultures. “It’s tough because the brands speak for themselves. There’s only so much localization you can do.” At the same time, there are those who weather the trip well. “Certain brands are universally recognized. And we do focus from a research standpoint on zeroing in on which of those brands do have international appeal, and which have Asian appeal.” He believes Battleship will be one of them. “The movie was hugely successful in Asia. It didn’t do as well in the U.S., or is not doing well in the U.S., but that could be a question of timing. We have a Battleship-themed game that we’re bringing into other international markets as well. It really depends on the brand.” The company also is confident its new G+ 5x4 series will be well-received across the region. Like all new WMS offerings, this enhanced version of the popular G+ video reel series is the outgrowth of a considerable amount of thought and preparation. “We do a lot of player-focused research,” noted Mr Edidin, “and we do that research bothat the conceptionandprototype stages, as well as after products are commercialized. We really want to understand the Asian players, and we have a team that’s here and working with operators and gaining access to players and talking to them. It’s really important. The best hope that you have with succeeding with a game in any market is to understand what their expectations are within that particular segment—the high roller, for instance, the high-volatility player, the core gambler, what their expectations are, what they look for when they decide what game they want to play, and then fulfilling those expectations when they sit down and play the game. So the math becomes critically important. Everything else is just the eye candy that gets them to sit down at the game. But the math is going to keep them there.” The Bluebird-powered G+ 5x4 features stacked wilds, 50- and 100-line options and scattered free-spin bonuses. Among the titles certain to be coming soon to the region’s slot floors, all available in Mandarin: “China Emerald,” with wins doubled in the eponymously named bonus; “Golden Emperor,” which offers a “nudge” feature in the stackedwilds trigger; in“Dragon’s Realm,” players get a fourth row of symbols; and “Rome & Egypt,” also with an extra symbol row and up to 50 free spins in the bonus that can be repeatedly retriggered. The series—Dragon’s Realm in particular—is doing “spectacularly well” said Mr Pacey. “We’ve seen really great uptake on that,” he said. The series has been integral to WMS’ evolving approach to game design, the fruits of whichwill be born inMacau in themonths ahead. Its centerpiece, Mr Pacey said, will be a “very, very focused product portfolio around what I would call the core gambler, someone who’s really interested in a core experience, a no-frills kind of experience. There’s a whole product line coming down the road that’s very focused into that segment. Suddenly that’s an opportunity for us. Because we’ve always been on the broader reaches of the spectrum. So to really deliver a consistent core product, I think, will be almost like a new segment for us. We always dabble in it. But we’re going to have something very dedicated there. That’s going to be really good.” Beyond Macau, Mr Edidin sees opportunities across East Asia. “The Philippines continues to grow. There are several new openings slated for the next couple of years. We know Vietnam is becoming a very hot market and is drawing some large capital investment. I think some of the principal investors are looking for a little bitmore flexibility in terms of legislation to enable a successful casino operation, but I think that will evolve as well. There’s Cambodia. And Singapore is obviously a very important market—not just the casinos there but also the clubs. Singapore is an increasingly important market, and we have a very meaningful presence there.” Also in the pipeline—bank of games on the G+ Deluxe 5x4 series Old meets new—the mechanical reel version of ALICE & The Enchanted Mirror with Transmissive Reels video overlay WMS