Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | July 2012 40 In Focus W hile episodic and persistence features have been mainstays of casual and console gaming, casino patrons may have to search far and wide on their favorite slot floor to find the few games now offering such capabilities. Waukegan, Ill.-based WMS Gaming has been ahead of the pack of slot machine developers in developing such games, releasing its first, Star Trek, in 2008. Since then, it has followed with several more, including The Lord of the Rings, Clue and its most recent entrant, Super Team. Now, however, WMS is finding new competitors in that space. The success of WMS’ games as well as the exploding popularity of social networking sites, such as Facebook, with millions playing Farmville and other popular casual games, have casino operators more interested than ever in such products and slot developers scrambling to deliver new ways to make their gaming products and the overall gaming experience more engaging to social media-savvy clientele. That’s because this type of gaming experience holds great promise for the casino gaming industry at large. “This is something I’m actually extremely passionate about. I see this as a great opportunity for IGT and the casino industry in general,”saidDarrell Rodriguez, senior vice president of IGT’s Global Gaming Studios, and a former president of LucasArts. “We are aggressively pursuing this by bringing on talent from outside the slot industry. We strongly believe in this realm and will continue to pursue these games.” Rodriguez said he sees a convergence of platforms building out to an ecosystem that includes bricks-and-mortar casinos as well as mobile, social and online gaming. “Our research is showing us that the lines are blurring and that the typical player is more and more interested [in episodic and persistence features] as they adopt the iPad,” he said. “They adopt the smartphone, and they play casual games. People’s appetites are evolving and we as an industry need to evolve as well,” he said. “We need to be there as an industry, and you’ll see more and more products as we continue to pursue this aggressively,” Rodriguez added, hinting at theWeb-centric products IGT will showcase at the upcoming Global Gaming Expo. Meanwhile, IGT has added leaderboards to some of its MegaJackpot games such as Wheel of Fortune 2 and Ghostbusters, he said.“It was really our first step to connecting our slot machines and the Internet.” The foundation for episodic gaming is having a login that will allow a casino to identify a user over and over again in order Bally Technologies’ mobile game solutions keep slot games front-and center in the minds of consumers, leading to return visits and increased play at brick-and mortar properties A Matter of Persistence Casinos and manufacturers seek new ways to make slots stickier and more interactive By Marian Green Maryland Live! Casino, which opened last month, has used Aristocrat’s nLive virtual casino with play- for-fun games to help promote the property IGT has integrated leaderboards with Ghostbusters and other popular titles as a prelude to making the devices more Internet accessible