AGS, the company that prides itself on being “obsessed with the game,” is certainly obsessed with slot cabinets — and is looking to continue a hot streak.
The company is on the precipice of rolling out its new Orion Slant cabinet, which will be on display at the National Indian Gaming Association conference, April 17-20 in Las Vegas.
AGS, which went public earlier this year, began its meaningful growth thanks to its core cabinet, Icon, which officially launched in early 2016. Not even a year later, the company introduced the star of its product line — the Orion portrait cabinet — at the 2016 Global Gaming Expo. Orion, named after one of the brightest and most striking constellations in the Northern Hemisphere, has since won several innovation awards and remains one of the top performing products on many casino floors.
The Orion Slant, the newest addition to the Orion cabinet line, will be launched at this year’s NIGA. Featuring an LCD topper, 32-inch top monitor, 24-inch bottom monitor, an LCD button deck, and a USB charging port, the Orion Slant offers players an immersive gaming experience without overwhelming them. Choctaw Durant Casino (Okla.), Pechanga Resort & Casino (Calif.), and Wild Horse Pass Casino (Ariz.) currently have the new Orion Slant on field trial.
“We have our core Icon cabinet and our premium Orion Portrait cabinet, but we didn’t have anything between those two,” says Andrew Burke, senior vice president of slot products for AGS. “Slant tops are a popular form factor on casino floors, and we wanted to take the appeal and success of Orion into that market, giving us greater opportunities for growth.”
Available for sale or lease with a game library that includes such titles as Dragon Fa and Phoenix Fa, each new title includes game mechanics like pick’em bonuses, volatility pickers, crisper graphics, and 420 LED lights.
AGS’ promotional video, released last fall, tells pretty much everything you need to know about the company in less than two minutes. Employees paint on their faces and chests. A few team members line up to spell O-B-S-E-S-S-E-D, and an AGS slot tech closes the video by firmly saying, “Around here, every day is game day.”
“We really are obsessed. But in the right way,” CMO and EVP of investor relations Julia Boguslawski says. “A hallmark of our brand is passion. It’s a perfect tagline. We’re obsessed with so many facets of gaming.”
Brett Vela, product manager for the company, notes that the Orion Portrait has consistently performed above house average nearly everywhere it’s been placed.
“We couldn’t be happier about its performance and how players and operators have responded to its unique design and game play,” he says.
He also cites the games themselves: a high-volatility format, multi-linked progressives and popular bonus features.
“Perhaps one of the most original aspects is that it’s truly a player-first design—when players sit down to play, their eyes hit the main screen without having to strain their necks, and the height of the cabinet is lower than most premium cabinets, which gives it very pleasing sightlines across the casino floor,” Vela says.
Titles will go beyond AGS’ high-performing Orion Portrait titles like River Dragons and Fu Nan Fu Nu.
“Our new titles are going to include more games that link to our Xtreme Jackpots Progressive system and have some dynamic features built into them that are entirely new to AGS,” he says.
The company designed the Orion Slant based on feedback from customers who wanted to add diversity to their slot floors, Vela says.
“With Orion Slant, we’ve taken the proven design language of our Orion Portrait cabinet and transformed it into a smaller package to offer customers more options for their underserved slant-top footprint.”
