Insight
SLOT CABINET DESIGN Konami’s Concerto
games and themes compete for player attention in the same way? And what are the commercial sensibilities between the two choices?
Chris Garrow feels Konami is working toward the best of both worlds, “Look at Dungeons and Dragons. It’s the same cabinet as Frogger. You switch out the wedges and sign and you have an easy fix and conversion. It makes sense to have such a simple change to improve overall performance.”
It’s also true to say that not everyone values premium IP products in the same way, with Juan José Rivas Soberon seeing distinct advantages in a more core slots floor. “Personally, I like prefer the generic cabinet with core games as it gives greater flexibility,” describes Mr. Soberon. “All the licensed games or cabinets designed for a specific game or theme is very risky for floor operation. Changing themes is not easy, you need a guaranteed pipeline to support them and they do not always perform well. Normally the life cycle of those games is very short, and while they could work in a destination casino, in the local casinos players much prefer the core games.”
Jeff Croes believes that basic generic cabinets, with no or minimal branding, must have a pretty good game theme and math in order for them to compete with the newly design cabinets equipped with all the latest IP bells and whistles. However, both Kelly Pace and Chuck Hickey point out the fact that IP games bring with them financial considerations too. “I think the two options [generic and bespoke IP] can definitely compete with one another,” says Mr. Pace. “But when you select commercial games, you’re sharing part of your profits with the manufacturer, which can be seen as a major drawback for some.” Chuck Hickey believes the link between IP and
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participation is one that dampens the appeal of this type of cabinet. “We see lots of EXPENSIVE themed cabinets designed around EXPENSIVE games and EXPENSIVE IP… but what I see is a lot of money being sunk down the participation/premium part of the game development – where IP/content/name brand are somehow supposed to save a poorly designed/no fun game from being a failure.
“Te game has to work – and a generic cabinet is still our bread and butter,” continues Mr. Hickey. “Personally, I would prefer to put a box and game on the floor and leave it there for 10 years because the players love it and keep coming back. I’d love to put a game out there and not touch it until it falls apart and we have games like that! I don’t think it was because that hardware was so great!”
Developers, of course, always want to create something new, but is there an argument that in creating proper gaming brands, we can build iterations of the same games themes over multiple platform generations, just as we’ve seen with the console generation of games such as Halo, Metal Gear, Uncharted etc.?
“When casino players discover a game they deeply enjoy, we definitely work toward making those top popular titles available in a variety of forms and formats,” explains Konami’s Vice President of Marketing, Matt Reback. “With the Konami fan favorite China Shores, for example, we expanded the game to include an Xtra Reward feature, we created a progressive jackpot version, and we even have it available as an online title through our iGaming casino partners. Te result is that these new iterations reinforce one another, benefiting both the casino player and the casino property.”
“Players have many choices when they walk through the banks of games at a venue. We look to grab their attention with something engaging and exciting. First we have our signature lighting elements that we have innovated since our early Advantage and Podium cabinets. This has evolved once again to our holographic lighting elements and LED attract routines on our Concerto cabinet. In addition to the lighting elements, we develop full motion attract graphics that utilise the full size of both 27-inch. monitors with stunning artwork to captivate the player’s attentions.” Matt Reback
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