Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | January 2013 20 HOT GAMES Enchantress of the Deep from Okada West [in Nevada]. We’ve got Atlantis Legacy from our Philippines office, we’ve got games from our True Blue studio [in Sydney] like Cat and Canary and EagleWarrior, and then from our studio out of Japan games like Dragon Rush and D’Artagnan and the Musketeers. The Tokyo studio is still our most prolific studio, but at least we’ve got a nice variety of games from our other development studios.” Inside Asian Gaming spoke further with Steve Walther at G2E to get up to speed with what Aruze Gaming America has been up to since G2E Asia in Macau last May. IAG : Since we last spoke, what products have you seen doing well on the floors of Macau and Asia? Mr Walther : It has to be the Innovator. Paradise Fishing was great when we were speaking last time, but the Innovators have just kicked up a notch on the performance. The presentation of the stepper reels, along with the lights, movements, going forward and back, the variable speeds, has really generated a new perception of what a stepper gaming product can do, both in Macau and in America as well. Even in Australia, which is traditionally a non-stepper market, the steppers that we’ve placed there on trial have had some fantastic results. So we’re really looking at that category. Any changes in the maths packages? Mr Walther : That’s a good question, because we had gone for a long period of timewherewewere focusing on high payout specifically. Now we’ve found out that it’s not just about high payout, but it’s the entire gaming experience, so we’ve flattened out a bit of our payments, and spread it around a little bit, and now we can offer a full range of payouts to our customers, so they can reward and provide their own loyalty schemes on top of the payouts to help drive their own business. So we offer payouts as low as 87% alll the way up to as high as 98% on the majority of our gaming products now. So whereas you previously sometimes specified operators had to offer minimum payouts on max bets, that’s no longer the case? Mr Walther : Correct. So you get a more wide range of payout and options. And interestingly enough, the players themselves have responded to themore wide range of payout options because the games just play better. The math works a lot better even at a lower deal sometimes, just because of the way we’ve balanced it. The players have a much more engaging and exciting experience. And that’s really what it’s all about. Defining fun—Knight of La Mancha Advertise with Inside Asian Gaming For advertising enquiries, please email: ads@asgam.com or call +853 2832 9980 Paradise Fishing