Inside Asian Gaming

IAG APR 2021年4月 亞博匯 62 FEATURES BB: What are Aristocrat’s primary goals for the year ahead, and has the focus changed from12months ago? LR: Our goals have not really changed, COVID has just caused us to accelerate our focus on some of them. For example, there is still lots of uncertainty in the world, and as a result we know that this will invariably create some level of concern for our employees. We are committed to focusing on our employees and have multiple wellbeing levers in place to ensure our staff engagement is strong. As a content and technology driven company, Aristocrat never ceases to innovate and create new concepts that support our customer’s business and that cater to different player appetites. Our talented teams have continued to focus on the development pipeline during various lockdowns in Asia, to ensure that a robust portfolio of games is readily available for our ever- changing market, instilling confidence in the path ahead. BB: What can we expect in terms of product in 2021? LR: Aristocrat maintained our commitment to the Asian market by continuing game builds throughout the crisis. As a result, we have a stronger portfolio in 2021 than ever before. In fact, we have increased our dedicated investment for Asia year-on-year to ensure we have a suite of content readily available to support customers as players continue to migrate back to properties. In the next 12 months, we are dedicated to strengthening the Asian market with multiple new releases across a variety of Links, Standalone and Standalone Progressives. In the Link space, we are excited to debut a new product called Lucky Fortune Link, with two recognizable characters from classic Chinese literature, Da Sheng Yeah and the Great Empress Wu Ze Tian. Lucky Fortune was built in response BB：2021年我們可以期待看到什麼樣的產品呢？ LR： 整個危機期間，Aristocrat繼續通過遊戲建設來維持對亞洲市 場的承諾。因此我們在2021年的產品組合比過往更為龐大。事實 上，我們已經在逐步加大在亞洲的投資，從而保證我們可以為客 戶提供一整套現成內容來持續吸引玩家的回歸。在未來的12個月 內，我們將為亞洲市場帶來多款連線遊戲、單機遊戲及單機累積 遊戲。 在連線遊戲方面，我們很高興推出全新的「好運獎連線」，遊 戲中包括兩大中國文學經典人物大聖爺及女皇武則天。為了回應 玩家最為喜愛的Hold & Spin功能，好運獎也用上了全新的圖片 派彩功能。玩家可以在好運獎中選擇自己的幸運生肖，然後收集 生肖的圖像以取得積分及積寶獎賞，而相鄰的積分獎賞會結合在 一起變成更大的圖樣以及更豐盛的獎賞。這個連線遊戲在中國的 農曆新年期間發佈，營運商得以藉此推廣「送鼠迎牛」作宣傳。 BB：在您和當地營運商的持續溝通中，基於目前不同的營運條 件，他們對貴司的需求是否發生明顯的轉變？ LR： 營運商們的反應各異。有些不打算採取任何行動，僅是暫時擱 置了對新遊戲及硬件的投資直至博彩收入再度上升。有些則繼續 積極進取並要求提供新的內容。因此我們的重點仍是支持每一位 客戶，並幫助他們一起渡過時下的環境。 BB：繼續上一個問題，在娛樂場遊戲的組合、安裝及佈局方面是 否有任何實質性改變呢？ LR： 同樣的，根據不同的市場，情況也大有不同。一些市場一直表 達對於創新及呈現新的核心獨立內容的需求，另一些市場則想要 那個最好的連線漸進式主題及適當的積累獎金設置。佈局方面， 我們看到一些營運商們採用了分隔線。有些是間隔一台機器這樣 營運，有些則是將機器分散開來保持社交距離。我們當然會在最