TENTPOLE GAMES IGT: WHEEL OF FORTUNE Fortune Telling 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. 25 years since its launch, IGT’s Wheel of Fortune remains one of the gaming industry’s most successful slot brands of all time.
IGT’s Boris Hallerbach, Director of Premium Content, and Dubravka Burda, Senior Vice President, Global Studios, offer G3 a behind-the-scenes interview on how Wheel of Fortune has created and sustained a level of success that is without equal in gaming.
Combining the expertise derived from Dubravka’s 24 years in the gaming industry with Boris’ 18 years as Product Manager for Wheel of Fortune, Dubravka begins by explaining how important Wheel of Fortune has been to the success and establishment of IGT.
Dubravka: Wheel of Fortune is our most important slot game brand without a doubt. Whilst IGT is very conscious about ensuring we have a good product mix by working with several teams internally and externally, Wheel of Fortune has sustained a high level of success for many years. It is a continual challenge for us to hold onto certain Wheel of Fortune elements whilst also developing the brand.
Boris: Wheel of Fortune really is the tentpole for IGT in our premium business. It makes up a significant portion of our premium revenue and its sustained agency for these past 25 years in a pretty major way. Dubravka and I work very closely together on the Wheel of Fortune portfolio in particular and we have studios that specialise in its development.
When Gtech acquired IGT back in 2015, one of the key things was to see how the companies could come together. We brought the best brand in gaming and Gtech brought very innovative technology, particularly in 3D. We produced a Wheel of Fortune 3D game that was very successful. A lot of that was built on adhering to the recipes that we have learned over the years that made Wheel of
Dubravka Burda
Senior VP Global Studios, IGT
Boris: It is a confluence of factors. Wheel of Fortune was really the first brand in slot gaming. Back in the early mid-90s our CEO at the time, Charles Matthewson, and a representative from Sony got together and talked about the possibilities of bringing Wheel of Fortune to gaming and so the idea was born.
Boris Hallerbach Director of Premium Content, IGT
Fortune successful, such as the wheel spins, iconic sounds and bonus frequencies. Since the successful coming together of these two companies, we've been able to extend our innovation and success with Wheel of Fortune even further.
How did Wheel of Fortune capture the imagination of players? Is there any factor or ingredient you can single out as being pivotal?
When Wheel of Fortune hit slot floors, we took a very reductionist approach. Rather than try and replicate the whole show on a slot machine, we took the elements that we thought resonated best with slot players such as the wheel bonus, the iconic sounds, the brand, the colours of the wheel, and the Wheel of Fortune chant. We carefully put these elements into the games with recognisable slot mechanics IGT has produced over the years. For example, our first games had base themes, so it was Wheel of Fortune on top of Red, White and Blue, Double Diamond and Triple Diamond.
Slot players could recognise these base themes whilst non-slot players and vacationers could walk by and exclaim ‘Oh my God – Wheel of Fortune!’ and be excited about those games. Te confluence of timing and being able to tune the brand to known slot mechanics was a big part of its success. It also hasn’t hurt that to this day we still have Wheel of Fortune on daily television in the United States and Canada. Wheel of Fortune being on the air offers a daily reminder. For many people it was the first slot machine they played, creating a very loyal following over the years.
P24 WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS
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