Inside Asian Gaming

MAY 2015 inside asian gaming 39 If all goes to plan, in the very near future, Cotai’s sprawling new resorts will be full of guests who’ve come for the entertainment, dining, shopping and MICE—meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions—but aren’t necessarily keen on casinos. The new casinos, meanwhile, will feature a radically different product mix to the prevailing norm in Macau. There’ll be a conspicuous dearth of gaming tables, with the government allocating only a fraction of the tables originally expected to each property. Machines, including e-tables, will have to fill the gap, and in the process will rise to prominence. Within the machine mix, it would behoove operators to include some products of the sort developed by SEGA SAMMY CREATION in order to get Macau’s new breed of visitor interested in gambling, says Takashi Maekawa, vice president of the company’s Business Management & Development Department. “When the new generation of tourists comes to Macau, a lot of them might just walk straight through the casino floor. But our eye-catching machine might prompt them to stop to check it out, maybe give it a try. In that sense I think we’re very different from what’s out there,” he explains. Mr Maekawa adds: “The situation that Macau is facing now is a big opportunity for us because we can help operators fill up their floor space with something that’s very different, very new, very appealing. And we believe we’re able to help support Macau in maturing its overall atmosphere as an entertainment destination.” It was either prescience or luck that, well ahead of the unfolding of Macau’s current predicament, led SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS to establish a new division in June 2013 with a mandate to produce revolutionary electronic gaming machines imbued with fun and excitement. Leading the charge is Hisao Oguchi, a legendary video and arcade game developer at SEGA, who, after that company was acquired by Japan’s largest pachinko manufacturer, Sammy Corporation, went on to serve as the chief creative officer of the new entity. At Mr Oguchi’s disposal are many of the talented game developers he worked with at SEGA, who were instructed to throw out established game concepts and come up with entirely new ones while incorporating his basic development principles: “Game rules should be simple. In the simplicity of the games there should be a dream of winning big and also fun and excitement in the anticipation of the outcomes.” At last year’s G2E Asia, SEGA SAMMY CREATION unveiled its first three products, which, beyond their sheer scale, also stood out with their elegant looks and high-quality finishes. They’re all also “designed specifically to appeal to players in Asian or Chinese countries, with dragons and other such elements,” notes Mr Maekawa. There are obvious benefits to having a backer like SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS. “It gives us access to a strong, experienced development team that provides considerable help in producing new games with new technology,” says Takashi Maekawa. Sic Bo Bonus Jackpot Feature On Sic Bo Bonus Jackpot, the dream of winning big is fueled by the four-level Cai Shen Progressive Jackpot.