internationalcasinoreview G2e10 REPORT Innovation from every part of WMS


New and really enjoyable game concepts keep tumbling out of the development labs of WMS. The company is taking adaptability and flexibility to the next level with partnerships with other manufacturers, but also making sure its great ideas get full expression across its product range.


Marketing director


Candace Lucas with the new Yahtzee game


The Mega Multiplier bonus, which works through WMS’s Portal application, invokes all the fun of a pinball game


IntegratedApproach WMS


As we’ve come to expect from WMS, which has built its recent reputation on developing highly entertain- ing games, its stand was packed with innovations and with operators coming to look at them.


Among the game high-


lights was a standalone pro- gressive based on the popular Yahtzee dice game. Marketing director Candace Lucas said: “Last year we expanded our relationship with Hasbro and obtained some more licences, includ- ing for Yahtzee. Then the challenge was how to give the same play experience with something that’s not a


board game. So we’ve come up with a game where players need to touch the screen to shake the dice.” The version on display


was standalone, but it can be linked with others in a bank. “We’re giving that option on a lot of games now,” said Lucas, “and through the Portal application widening the number of base games that linked bonuses can be played on. For example, on Pirate Battle, which is part of the Compete to Win stream on the Bluebird xD platform, that can go on our base games and now also on Konami games as well.” The ability and willing- ness to work with other man- ufacturers is a direct result of the drive towards more


networked gaming, where content and protocols rule. Just before the show, that process was formalised as WMS announced an agree- ment with Konami to deliver integrated networked gaming capabilities. The inte- gration of Konami’s prod- ucts and systems with WMS’s WAGE-NET system means that operators will have access to both companies’ configuration and download options through a single user interface. The agreement will also allow both compa- nies to deploy non-gaming products across each other’s machines, such as WMS’s Portal application and Konami’s Player Tracking and Advanced Incentives applications.


Dallmeier to build its presence in the US


newdefinition DALLMEIER


For high definition, highly secure video surveillance, Dallmeier is among the first names that spring to mind in most of the world but less so in the US. The German firm has now appointed a new person to head up its operations there, Joe McDe- vitt, who becomes president of Dallmeier electronic USA. “The company has been in the US for about ten years but not in a huge way,” said McDevitt. “We’re now in the process of building our sales and support structure, throughout the US, which will bring it strength, and choosing high-end installa- tion and support partners.” McDevitt and his team


have a good tale to tell: in Macau, Dallmeier’s systems are in place in the world’s largest casino, The Venetian Macau, and across the road in Melco Crown’s City of Dreams, home the second


largest IP network in all of Asia.


“We have the best system.


Operators are largely per- suaded of it, anyone who has checked the architec- ture and the quality. We’re


32 January 2011 •G2ereport


first on HD video and because we offer a scaleable system, we’ve made it afford- able for casinos to install the best and latest technol- ogy where and when they need to.”


New Dallmeier USA president Joe McDevitt


Another Portal technol-


ogy application is the Mega Multiplier top box bonus also on the xD platform, which randomly awards players credits they can store and use to trigger bonus any time they choose by launch- ing a pinball into the top screen. Where it hits deter- mines the bonus: players can multiply their stored credits up to 100 times. “The flippers on the pinball screen are controlled by the application,” said Lucas. “There are just too many pinball wizards out there to allow players to control them!”


One of the biggest licences that WMS has managed to obtain is perhaps Lord of the Rings,


based on the amazingly suc- cessful trilogy of film adap- tations of the JRR Tolkien novel. The game was seen backstage at last year’s G2E but has now been installed into many properties, includ- ing several operated by Harrah’s.” As part of the Adaptive Gaming stream, the game gives regular players the chance to unlock different kinds of bonuses as well as other content the more they play.


“Some operators, includ-


ing Harrah’s, have linked the game with the players club to allow players access to the game’s options across all their properties,” said Lucas. “And players can also play the game casually online through our


website or the operators’ in order to unlock the game’s later non-gaming features and to get on to a leader board. It’s an incredibly powerful tool to help build loyalty among customers.”


Among its many new


products, the company was also showing new progres- sive jackpots, including The Godfather. With two base games, the 243-ways My Daughters Wedding and the 25-line Corleone’s Office, this local area multi-level progressive allows players to win their way up the levels. Players triggering the progressive can wager por- tions of their progressive win for a chance to move up the scale to win “an offer they can’t refuse”.


New marketing effort for Bonus Box


outofthebox GAMING SUPPORT


Bonus Box, Gaming Support’s peripheral bonus idea, has been refreshed and has now, according to the company, cleared some regulatory hurdles. “We have also brought the costs down, and there’s a good size production run under- way,” said Donald Baugh, general manager of Gaming Support USA. “We’re now able to market the Bonus Box aggressively. We have between 30 and 60 free trials coming up.”


The BaseSys Navigator jackpot controller has now been placed in various juris- dictions. “They’re doing well,” said Baugh. “We expect to place quite a few more in the US in the coming months.”


Gaming Support’s wayfinder module of the Jackpot Junction XL Casi- noVIEW, which helps resort guests navigate the venue,


Don Baugh with the CasinoVIEW wayfinder and Bonus Box


was installed in City of Dreams in Macau last year. In May, the first five interac- tive touchscreen stations were installed in Harrah’s Cherokee in North Carolina. “The number of stations there is working its way up


and will reach 23 by around next August,” said Baugh. “Guests are really finding it useful in locating not only restaurants and shops but also their favourite machines on the gaming floor.”


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