Comment NOVEMBER 2015
When Chariots of Fire director, Colin Welland, having bagged his award at the Oscars in 1981, proclaimed that: “The British are coming!,” he was forever immor- talised as a bit of a fortune-telling twit. If anything, the movie-making industry in the UK accelerated backwards. Predictions are tricky, fickle things, but the G2E exhibition in Las Vegas showed all the signs and portents of change. The absence of some of the industry’s stalwarts from the show floor was immediately visible and obvious, but what was interesting, hopping from stand-to-stand at the show, was the general enthusiasm for the US market, which predominantly came from non- domestic suppliers.
Each company we interviewed had recently opened offices in the States or were in the process of doing so. Stand after stand discussed the opportunities now on offer in the US, as if the market barriers had suddenly fallen. Where in the past we were accustomed to discussing South American visitors and Tribal Gaming opportunities with international exhibitors at G2E, the US is firmly on the agenda of companies such as Novomatic, Merkur Gaming, Ainsworth, EGT, Alfastreet, Casino Technology, Quixant, Cammegh, Interblock, etc. The diversity of product on the IGT stand (I apologise to purists, but IGT, with its head offices in the UK and Italian lottery ownership, is a ‘European’ company), was spectacular, as was the Aristocrat booth at G2E, which fizzed with on-the-nose licences and pick-up-and-play appeal, while Konami’s Frogger was a G3 favourite.
THE CALLS FOR ‘GREATER INNOVATION’ SHOWED THAT OPERATORS ARE LOOKING FOR NEW PRODUCT FROM NEW SOURCES.
EDITORIAL Editor Lewis Pek
lewis@gamingpublishing.co.uk +44 (0) 1942 879 291
News Editor Phil Martin
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Associate Editor (MALAGA) Karen Southall
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Consultant John Carroll (BILLERBECK)
carroll@carrollconsulting.de
South America Correspondent James Marrison
jamesmarrison@gmail.com
Contributors David Addison Jeremy Thompson Hill Dr. Damir Böhm
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This month we have a selection of interviews with CEOs at G2E and while there was so much empha- sis on eSports, millennials and skill-based at the show, it’s easy to miss the actual message. The mergers and acquisitions of recent years have redistributed the power in the US and there’s a rush to fill that space. The calls for ‘greater innovation’ showed that operators are looking for new product from new sources and are willing to try new con- cepts. From what we saw at G2E, everything they need is already there, they just have to look in dif- ferent places. As Colin might say: “The non-domes- tic producers of games for the US market - are coming!” (I did say he was a twit).
ADVERTISING Commercial Director John Slattery Email:
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PRODUCTION Senior Designer Gareth Irwin
Production Manager Paul Jolleys
Subscriptions Manager Jennifer Pek
Commercial Administrator John Pek
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