Insight
SLOT CABINET DESIGN Konami’s Concerto
Konami described the cabinet as having been designed with ‘human elements,’ such as the fact that when you look closely at the proportions and features, the cabinet is ‘facelike.’ None of our operator panel honed in upon this design element, though the success of the Concerto with players suggests that this subliminal aspect of the design is having an impact on the welcoming ’walk-up’ factor of the Concerto. We asked Matt Reback how Konami went about building this aspect into the design.
“We engaged a leading industrial design firm to help us with the design concept that ultimately came to life as the Concerto,” describes Mr. Reback. “As part of the design process, we decided to include aesthetic elements that were anthropomorphic in nature. Te placement and design of the speakers, dynamic button deck, lighting elements and belly glass were determined with the understanding that these elements in combination would result in an abstract, “humanesque” visage for the cabinet.
“We understand from our design firm that products with these characteristics can be more welcoming to customers and have a positive, albeit sub-conscious impact on trial and interest. While we cannot measure the impact of this specific aspect of the Concerto’s design, the performance has been very strong and we believe that this is but one aspect of the product’s design that is contributing to this success,” says Mr. Reback.
A PLATFORM TO BUILD SUCCESS In addition to the physical design of the cabinet,
the horse-power driving the Concerto - the KP3+ platform – was another major talking point when we were discussing the launch of the cabinet with Konami. But do players recognise the graphical performance, the fidelity of the gameplay thanks to the extra platform grunt? How much of the Concerto’s success is actually down to the invisible processing technology squirreled away inside the box? And how often do we need these step-changes in platform capabilities to continue to engage with players?
Kelly Pace is convinced the platform performance is a critical factor in the success of any given slot machine. “Te horse-power driving the Concerto is important because the graphic display is based on the performance of the game’s processor – so a better processor provides a better graphic display, which is important to guests. When the graphics look better, the guests enjoy the game more and will continue to be engaged and play longer.”
Chris Garrow agrees, adding that he thinks having greater horse-power is more important than ever, because operators need to be competitive. “Just the graphics alone can immediately draw a player to a game and help make it successful,” he adds. Chuck Hickey, though, isn’t convinced. “I think horsepower is
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necessary – but do players notice? I’m not so sure. What they do notice or maybe it is more important that they DON’T notice… is that they don’t get as tired. Too loud is tiring – too bright is tiring – too many hand movements and pushing too hard on a game is tiring. ”
It’s not just a question of launching with the brightest and best that appeals to Juan José Rivas Soberon, it’s the track record of success that instills confidence too. “I think the average player can recognise ‘a difference’ in the speed of the game; they appreciate the best sound quality, and enjoy a celebration theme that is different and attractive,” he explains. “Te speed at which players can change between games is a very obvious example of the benefits of greater performance. We have also had a successful history with Konami, from the K2V to Podium, then SeleXion and now Concerto. We know our players like these games and connect with them.”
Taking a purely analytical approach is Jeff Croes, who sees the new Konami cabinet performing exceptionally well across his floor. “Horse-power is perfect and you don’t see any freezing or sound outage while playing upon the Concerto,” states Mr. Croes. “My observation is that the Concerto has something in it that attracts players as this cabinet is in our top three
in terms of performance and they’re occupied all the time.”
Ideally, every manufacturer wants create the most powerful gaming machine possible, but the practicalities of cost versus performance means there’s always a compromise needing to be made somewhere along the line. When Konami hit the drawing board to create its KP3+ platform, balancing the needs of game design, with the available processing power and the obvious costs associated with that, was the ultimate equation to crack. Add in the performance needs of future game designs over the life-cycle of the Concerto, and it’s surely crystal ball time?
Matt Reback shone some light on the process. “At Konami, we are always working hard to innovate and improve the performance of our products. Launching the new KP3+ platform is a good example of this dedication because our engineers designed the new platform to have increased processing power, deliver enhanced audio, and support multiple hardware incarnations. For example, the KP3+ allows us to release Concerto SeleXion with an increased library of games, while preserving the instantaneous swapping between games, denominations, and languages that has become our signature. Similarly, KP3+ was built to power
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