GAMECO
even if it doesn’t prove to be the breakthrough, it’s a huge step in the right direction. Blaine explained to us how the game was developed and what makes it – and the third generation of GameCo games – so special.
The big one? A
Has GameCo found the perfect title to bring video game gambling into mainstream casino floors? Blaine Graboyes speaks with Casino International.
s Blaine Graboyes describes it, SoulCalibur IICasino Edition is “the first triple-A videogame for the casino industry”, and he’s quite right. Will it be enough to get that new generation of players onto the casino floor? Just possibly. And
Casino International: Why go for SoulCalibur II out of all the possible titles in Bandai Namco’s incredible back catalogue? Blaine Graboyes: SoulCalibur II is the highest rated fighting franchise of all time by Metacritic. It’s a legendary and enduring game title within the fighting games community, both at home and in the arcade. We’re also coming up on the 20th anniversary of the original SoulCalibur and BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment is releasing an HD version of SoulCalibur II for consoles. It’s really differentiated on the casino floor, there is nothing else like it anywhere and we wanted to create a product that would stand out; it will have an arcade-style fight stick and control scheme, so when you walk through the casino and see that on the floor you will know right away it is no slot machine, it is a videogame gambling product. Another big reason for it, which ties into another product
release which you will see at G2E, is that it’s a perfect fit for our upcoming Multiplayer Challenge Mode. This brings multiplayer gambling to our VGM platform. We think that fighting games in particular – given their popularity and the huge, underserved, fighting games community – are perfect for our multiplayer challenge mode. This version will launch in the first half of 2019 along with multiplayer versions of Nothin’ but Net 2 and some of our other games. Also, it’s just a great game for that experience on the
casino floor.
CI: That sounds pretty sexy… Tell me more about the new mode. BG: At G2E we will show a four-player tournament mode of Nothin’ but Net 2 as a preview of what will come next year. When it launches it will include a number of tournament and competition modes, including brackets and winner-take- all… what’s really exciting about that for us is, GameCo and myself and our team have a long history in esports and video games. There is a lot of interest in esports at the casino, but to date all of that activity has been very distanced from the
32 OCTOBER 2018
core business of the casino which is operating that gaming floor. This multiplayer challenge mode will be the first product that brings the esports style competition and tournament to real-money gaming directly on the casino floor.
CI: Have you added anything to SoulCalibur, like new moves or a new character to get fans salivating and into casinos? BG: What’s interesting about this version is that it was produced by the original development team at BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment in Japan. It’s not an adaption or some gamblified version of SoulCalibur II, this is truly SoulCalibur II for the casino. For that reason we have decided to launch it with all the original characters, two of which are playable; the enemies and opponents are true to the original game. The original moves are there, there is no easy mode, it is truly the console or PC version for the casino. Same graphics, same experience, designed for true fans of the SoulCalibur franchise and fighting games in general. We want to pull them in and give them something unique on the casino floor. It gives us great potential in the future to introduce new things, of course. But from the beginning, the basis of our partnership with BANDAI NAMCO was to make the game as true as possible to the original, and I think we have delivered on that.
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