INCREDIBLE TECHNOLOGIES
A revolution in volatility V
Incredible Technologies has a new casino product where the player can select how they want to win – and each play changes the paytable. Daniel Schrementi spoke to Casino International about this game-changer
olatility is often only altered according to territory; it’s fair to say that slots in Asia are largely high volatility, while in the US they tend to be somewhat lower as players want a longer and more involved gaming
experience. It all depends on the kind of customer you have coming in through the door – or it did, before Incredible Technologies came up with Magic Touch, where the player selects their volatility and sits back to enjoy… Daniel Schrementi, Director of Gaming Marketing and New Media, Incredible Technologies, told CI about Magic Touch.
Casino International: Incredible Technologies
isn’t a well-known name in the casino industry – tell us a little about the company. Daniel Schrementi: We’re celebrating our 25th
anniversary this year, and we marked it with a big party. We’ve had success in the amusement/ and coin-op industryies, we’ve been making games for that space for 25 years. We’re actually the largest manufacturer of coin-operated equipment in the US. The game everybody knows us for is Golden Tee Golf, a video golf game which can be played in group tournaments online. We were the first to connect video games online using modems in the 1990s. It’s upon the success of developing, marketing and selling games like this that we have been able to diversify into the casino game market; building games that entertain adults. It’s quite a natural progression.
CI: Your big news though, is Magic Touch,
which has been getting some rave notices in North America… DS: Our Magic Touch product is a collection of
four 14 video slot games – in separate Innovation and Traditional categories – in addition to, a variety of video poker games, and some new cutting-edge Keno games. It’s been built with the sensibilities of the new age of players and the trends they are going to expect in casino games, and of course it has superb graphics, animation, unbelievable gameplay and really it’s designed to be understandable, approachable and most importantly, to earn for casino operators. That game, which took us about four years to
develop and gain approval for, has been undergoing a test period for several months, since G2E 2009. Now we’re proud to tell people that the game is officially for sale in select jurisdictions. We’rebe moving
36 OCTOBER 2010
forward with the product because we know we have something here that’s going to shake the industry up. It’s an exciting time for us; developing a game for
that amount of time and the millions of dollars invested into its development, we’re so excited to get our games on casinothe floors and have them compete against the largest Class III manufacturers in the world.
CI: What makes Magic Touch different? There’s
a lot of great games out there, what makes it stand out? DS: If you were to ask me what makes our games
different to everyone else’s, I would have to say our Our slot games sin particular are embedded with the a technology that we call Versatile Volatility. That is the ability for the player to choose the volatility of the slot game they’re playing. It’s a revolutionary idea and its already won technology awards here in the US. There’s an interface on the screen that we call the Prize Guy, and when the player sits down to play, the Prize Guy will ask you ‘How do you like to win?’ The player then selects Often, Steady, or Big. That selection changes the paytable of the game you’re they’re about to play to a low-, medium-, or high- volatility game. That technology gives you an idea of the
development angle we took for the whole Magic Touch projectproduct. We wanted to empower the player and operator with control. We feel that if a player has more control over their experience, they will ultimately be more engaged with that experience, and the overall experience will be enriched.
CI: Where has the product been on trial? DS: There are big risks involved in the gambling
industry, no pun intended, and this is a big time for us. We have tested the games thoroughly in the casino environment, they’ve been testing in southern California and in the Midwest, with Harrah’s at the Horseshoe property in Hammond, Indiana, with 22 units, which is a very aggressive test. That site is close to our office, so we were able to work hand-in-hand with Harrah’s on tuning the games, making sure that they’re earning and doing what they need to do. Our designers We wereare also able to do more market research with the players, see what they like or don’t like, and make adjustments to the games based on that. That’s a huge process; based on that, we are now
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