Phoenix Link has been a big success for Aristocrat Gaming, their biggest game of the year after its debut at the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in Las Vegas in October, according to an Aristocrat Gaming spokesperson.
“The U.S. launch of Phoenix Link has been extremely successful, marking it as one of our fastest game launches in Aristocrat Gaming history,” said Kurt Gissane, Chief Revenue Officer, Aristocrat Gaming, who is based in Las Vegas. “As part of the launch strategy with Phoenix Link, it was imperative we work to time the international distribution of the game as close to the U.S. launch as possible.”
Typically, there is a considerable delay between a game or cabinet premiering in the U.S., then coming to Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Not in the case of Phoenix Link – a major leap forward. January 20-22, Aristocrat Gaming will be bringing the game to ICE Barcelona, a leading exhibition in the gaming industry, with over 600 exhibitors and thousands of industry specialists taking part.
“We’ve been listening to customer and player feedback, and a big theme we heard was the desire to get new game launches in international markets at a faster speed,” Gissane said. “To be able to launch internationally within months of each other has been a challenge before—as international customers have more specific needs such as different currencies, languages and more. However, through focused efforts and collaboration across multiple teams at various stages of the creation process, we’ve been able to achieve this with Phoenix Link.”
Phoenix Link is the next evolution of Dragon Link, featuring all-new themes, features and bonuses. One interesting observation the people at Aristocrat Gaming have seen is that the addition of Phoenix Link has players almost “touring” to experience similar game families, going from playing Phoenix Link to Dragon Link to Lightning Link.
Phoenix Link puts fresh twists on features like the classic Hold & Spin with scaling Grand and Major Jackpots, Free Games that reward a player with big multipliers or Twin Spins, or the Phoenix Free Feature that rewards the player with a free Hold & Spin when all Phoenix symbols are landed incrementally. Phoenix Link is housed in the company’s Neptune cabinet.
As Victor Duarte, Executive Vice President of Gaming Product for Aristocrat Gaming, described it: “Phoenix Link and Dragon Link are the ‘Yin’ and ‘Yang’ to each other. While they come from the same family, the Phoenix has its own, fiery personality that brings together game features we know players love, and some new ones we’re excited for them to discover. This game is brought to life in a way that only Aristocrat Gaming can, with industry-leading game design, mathematics, art, sound, and software functionality.”
Slot games are evolving rapidly when it comes to consumer demand, something that was foremost in the minds of Aristocrat Gaming developers when launching Phoenix Link.
“We were able to take players’ favorite mechanics from other popular games like Dragon Link, Lightning Link and more,” Gissane added. “We know players enjoy following games with a pedigree, and, as Aristocrat Gaming, we have an industry-leading portfolio of game families with strong brand recognition and affinity that have expanded from land-based to online, creating an omni-channel experience of games players know and love.”
Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, Aristocrat has three operating business units, spanning regulated land-based gaming (Aristocrat Gaming), mobile games publishing (Pixel United) and regulated online real money gaming (Aristocrat Interactive).
Look for them at Stand 2H30 at ICE Barcelona.
