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with activity wherever it’s been installed, is only one of several floor-wide applications pos- sible with the software package and the iVIEW DM hardware. The system also offers the capa- bility for customers to design their own bonuses. According to Srinivasan, it is this flex- ibility that has led to the company’s recent flurry of systems contracts. “All of these contracts involve customers
OUR CUSTOMERS ARE TELLING US
iDECK MIGHT BE THE LAST BUTTON DECK THEY EVER BUY—SERVICE REQUESTS ON THE DEVICE HAVE BEEN NEXT TO NOTHING.
—Derik Mooberry
purchasing a number of applications in the Elite Bonusing Suite,” Srinivasan says. “The overwhelming majority are buying our systems because of these floor- wide applications. All of the applications come with a unique, highly config- urable ability—two experiences in neighboring casinos can look completely different.” “These innovations were accomplished in close communication with our cus-
tomers’ players,” adds Haddrill. “That’s why customers are assured return on in- vestment. It is backward-compatible, with stronger ROI than anything out there.”
“The iVIEW DM,” says Kelly, “is a great piece of hardware, but the real ROI
lies in the applications that go with it. Every casino can have the latest and great- est games, but how do you provide that experience that allows you to really dif- ferentiate yourself? This allows us to give the best ROI to our customer, whether it’s through Virtual Racing or simple things like service integration or beverage- on-demand—having a host bring my favorite drink to me within minutes of when I sit down. “Before, you would play in a casino, go home, and get your mailer and your
comp to come back. Now, while they are playing, a casino can monitor to their last spin and give them offers based on whatever metric the casino wants to use.”
GAME-LEVEL EXCITEMENT
Naturally, all of the innovation from Bally filters down to its core products, the games. Advances such as the Pro Curve cabinet—a video screen curved in the shape of reels, for hybrid reel/video games—and a variety of new Bally play me- chanics are cropping up in games found in each of Bally’s slot categories. Kelly notes that the Innovation Lab is only the first step in the progression of
an idea through development, and that the lab itself is only one source of tech- nology ideas for Bally. “We have innovation throughout our entire organization,” he says. “There is bright talent throughout the company, and we encourage every- one to add their ideas.” Prime examples were in evidence at this year’s display at the Global Gaming
Expo trade show. The new game “All That Jazz” includes an iDeck bonus that in- volves the player actually playing a piano tune on the iDeck. The pad transforms into a keyboard, and the player selects a “difficulty level,” from simple songs like “Mary Had A Little Lamb” to Beethoven’s “Fur Elise” and other classical num- bers. In a sequence not unlike the “Rock Band” or “Guitar Hero” home video games, the tune plays while the player attempts to match highlighted notes as they appear on the iDeck. They call the mechanic “U-Play.” “Fish’n For Loot,” which won the Global Gaming BusinessGaming & Tech- nology Award for Best Slot Product this year, uses the iDeck for the first time in the “U-Shoot” mechanic, having players touch the pad to “shoot” bubbles at passing fish on the video screen. In “Betty Boop’s Fortune Teller,” players place their hands on the pad to have their “palms read” by Betty. Other innovations use the main
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video screen for interactive features. In “Skeeball,” the range of motion that fits the player shooting a skeeball in the classic arcade game didn’t fit the small size of the iPad, so Bally moved the entire game to the main screen of the V-32 cabinet. Still other games pack these innovations into every aspect. The “Michael Jack-
son: King of Pop” game is the culmination of a variety of Bally innovations, not the least of which is the manufacturer’s new immersive sound chair, which gives the player the sensation of being in the middle of one of Jackson’s pyrotechnic displays with every transition between bonus rounds and the primary game. In the end, all of the new games reveal Bally’s mantra of the worlds of systems
and games beginning to merge. “There will be technologies which bring systems right into the main base games,” says Kelly. “We’re taking game mechanics and moving them into our systems technology, but we’re also taking technology that’s out there on the internet and linking that back to the gaming floor.” Inevitably, the merger of games and systems will take the gaming off the tra-
ditional slot floor. “Think about the convergence between land, mobile and inter- net gaming,” says Kelly. “People are being trained to get their movies, emails or whatever, whenever they want them, right now. We’re integrating these core sys- tems together so the player can get the immediate response we offer on the floor across all of these channels—giving the player a compelling experience, on the preferred device at the time.” “We’re putting our games across multiple platforms,” says Haddrill. “We can
put games on your phones, and we’ve just announced Bally Interactive, which will put games online.” It’s all part of the latest Bally reinvention. It’s a good bet this is not the last one.
Global Gaming Business • November 2011
Bally Senior VP Derik Mooberry, CEO Richard Haddrill and President/COO Ramesh Srinivasan demonstrate games to Wynn Resorts CEO Steve Wynn at G2E
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senior VP of Products and Operations Bally Technologies
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