Insight
SLOT CABINET DESIGN Konami’s Concerto
Chuck Hickey, V.P. Slot Operations at Barona Resort & Casino believes there are environmental factors at work too. “Games on rounds do better than games on banks (every game on a round is somewhat like an “end” seat location). Most of our Concertos are on rounds, so they start from a better environment. We also put them in good traffic flow patterns. In our case, they were all in premium locations, which certainly helps. Te next batches will go in B locations or even C locations and we will find out how well they hold their premium performance. I’m fairly confident that they will.”
Juan José Rivas Soberon, Slot Director for CODERE México considers the inclusion of an existing library of KP3 games on the Concerto as win-win scenario for both the player and operator. “A good game is always a good game,” states Mr. Soberon. “If you put this game into a better cabinet, which is more comfortable with better screen and sound quality, the result is better performance, which is a win-win situation.”
Considering Konami’s videogame heritage, were backwards compatibility is a major factor in the success or failure of consoles - allowing players to continue to play their last-gen favourite games, it’s perhaps not so surprising that the company has brought this same concept through to its latest slots cabinet and platform, the Concerto. Konami obviously expected backwards compatibility to be a success, having built it into the new KP3+ platform, even to the extent of keeping the connection with the ‘+’ naming convention. However, we asked Matt Reback if the increased popularity of Konami’s last-gen titles on Concerto had surprised them a little?
“We are in the business of helping our customers grow their businesses,” answers Mr. Reback. “One way that we do this is by ensuring that they can run proven software titles on our latest hardware. If a customer wants to run Dragon’s Law on a new Concerto upright, we wanted to make sure that they could do so. As the library of KP3+ titles continues to grow, we are providing our customers with maximum flexibility to configure their floor with the best performing game themes, regardless whether they are KP3 or KP3+. Operators have told us that this approach is greatly appreciated and sets us apart from some of our competitors.”
NEW LAMPS FOR OLD We wanted to know from our panel how
important is it to be able to offer players their favourite games on the latest hardware? Tere’s such a drive to offer players new games, creating this faster and faster churn of products, we wondered if it’s the case that backwards compatibility appeals to both an older generation players and next-gen players - though for different reasons?
Kelly Pace believes that backwards- compatibility is a great thing. “It is necessary to
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put in the older themes into a new cabinet. For some guests, they have their “favourite” games and they would like to continue to play them on a new cabinet,” states Mr. Pace. “If the classic games are high performing games, we would expect that putting them into a new cabinet would be equal if not better results. Classic themes are less risky because we know which ones are profitable and enjoyable for our guests. Newer themes are more risky for us since we aren’t able to fully gauge the guests’ interest until the game has been installed and on the floor for a while.”
And on this subject, Chuck Hickey agrees: “I think it is a huge mistake for manufacturers to ONLY put new games on new hardware. I strongly advise them to clone the game onto their new box – and also STRONGLY warn them to NOT CHANGE IT. Too often they try to tweak the game and improve it. If it was successful in the old box the players will recognise immediately these tweaks and for the most part – you will instantly lose them.
“All that said – sometimes it won’t matter – unless you totally get rid of the old boxes; they may not play the new one,” continues Mr. Hickey. “If the box is dissimilar to the old one, then I think it is important to bring that old content over, if only to help introduce the new box or to transition a player to the new one. My personal opinion is that the faster churn of games and products is more due to lack of good content, volatility of games and betting requirements. It is pretty easy to chew through someone’s budget in a high volatility game and
possibly ruin that title for the player – for life. Of course, the opposite can be true. Hit it big on your first experience on a new game and new box and you might become an evangelist for the game. But which happens more often?”
Of all the questions we asked our panel, this issue brought out the big responses. Mr. Soberon in particular very firmly believed in raiding the back-catalogue of proven games to maintain continuity with the player. “It’s a must,” he confirms. “It is very important to offer classic games, with new graphics and the same math, because players become used to a specific game, having invested in them a lot of time and money. Although they’ll certainly give new games a chance, they’re not going to abandon their favorite games easily, therefore new games must compete with the old ones for player attention.
“One of the best features… is multigame capability,” continues Mr. Soberon. “Offering several games in the same box for me it is very important, mostly on floors with reduced space (smoking areas, for example). In the same cabinet you can offer your ‘classic’ games while also introducing new titles, so it is easy to introduce new games to the players without a ‘hostile takeover’ of their favourite machine.”
Jeff Croes believes backwards compatibility is an extremely important addition, in that all generations of players are eager to try new products that give them more attractions for their dollars. However, Chris Garrow thinks that while it is important to offer new games on new cabinets, it’s also beneficial to have new games
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