INSIGHT TENTPOLE GAMES
Book Of Ra
Every major developer, in any industry, has had its breakthrough product that gave the company the platform it needed to become one of the best. A decade on,
Greentube's Book Of Ra remains a true classic that has spawned multiple sequels, been copied repeatedly by suppliers and revered by players alike.
Kicking off a series of features on the greatest games the industry has ever created, G3 discusses the legacy of Book Of Ra with Thomas Graf, CEO at Greentube, who tells us about the slot's creation, influence and evolving heritage.
Book Of Ra launched during an intense period of genre-defining titles from NOVOMATIC (including Dolphin's Pearl, Lucky Lady’s Charm to name a few). What was the background to the creation of these titles?
In the 1990s, the gaming markets in Europe were dominated by AWPs and stepper machines from UK companies such as Bell Fruit Games and JPM, Errel from the Netherlands, Cirsa and R. Franco in Spain. NOVOMATIC continued this formula creating a series of specialty products with similar types of AWP machines and, of course, our American Poker II videopoker was our flagship game at the time.
What changed the dynamic was the fall of the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe, as it paved the way for video slot machines in the sense that demand for new gaming machines escalated very rapidly. At NOVOMATIC we were aware that advanced markets such as Australia had already switched to 100 per cent video products, as opposed to Europe, which continued to be dominated by stepper- style Amusement With Prize machines, such as Electrocoin’s Bar-X in the UK. Every country had its own specific twist on this style of game, including the US, which was also dominated by stepper machines, such as IGT’s Red, White and Blue.
Watching closely the phenomenon in video slots – or pokies – in Australia, we believed this was a very interesting
development. Our thoughts were validated when companies such as IGT and WMS also began experimenting with video slots for the US casino market. Manufacturers in the States, however, focused mainly on entertainment driven game mechanics with multiple bonus features for tourists visiting Las Vegas or Atlantic City casinos at the time, whereas the Australian model targeted more repeat visitors of Pokies Clubs. We had to decide which route to take, follow the US Vegas style entertainment model or the Australian locals market model?
Te popularity of Aristocrat machines in German casinos, which were the leading video slot products in casinos at the time, determined our path. We began designing our first portfolio of video slots almost at the same time IGT created Cleopatra, and WMS brought out Reel Em In and later on started the successful licensing deal for its long-running Monopoly range of games; all of which were big successes in the US casino market. Despite this, we remained committed to game mechanics which would better suit frequent players and AWP players at that time.
We were experimenting with a range of different mechanics, varying from low and medium volatilities to very high volatility, such as Dolphins Pearl. I can remember that each of the games we introduced, especially Book Of Ra, took quite a long time to catch the attention of players. Changing the market from stepper to video slots was not an overnight phenomenon.
One of our earliest video slots, BeetleMania, was a game that we introduced initially to the UK casino market and across Europe. It had a distinct comic book style and an entertaining bonus feature that eventually became a big hit, but wasn’t immediately recognised by players. It was a similar story for Dolphins Pearl, and other games with above average volatility, which took two years before players adopted and started to like. Players were not familiar with high volatility games that offered the potential of large winnings while utilising a free games feature. Tey didn’t know what to make of these new features, just as initially they didn’t trust the first videoslots like BeetleMania, since it was not a fruit-based stepper game. However, in time, it became a top performing game in multiple markets.
Why do you think Book Of Ra was not an immediate success and what was the tipping point?
Te time between 2005, when Book Of Ra was launched, and 2009 was critical as this was the period in which the Russian market both opened and closed. Sales into Russia saw over 100,000 NOVOMATIC machines sold into the market, which were initially single game slots, not multi- games. Russia was a market that went from zero to more than 200,000 machines and then back to zero in a very short period. It was during this time that multi- games changed the marketplace. Multi-games became the most popular style of machines, with operators
P24 NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE / MARKET DATA
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