GameCo, the first company to create casino-worthy video game gambling machines, has plenty of new angles for visitors at this year’s Global Gaming Expo. There’s a skill-based game for those who wish to channel their inner Arnold Schwarzenegger, various game developments and a partnership with an electronic dance music legend.
The company is rolling out Steve Aoki’s Neon Dream, a musical endless runner game. (That means you keep going … and going… until you are stopped.)
Neon Dream is based on Aoki’s 2014 album, Neon Future. Players fly over an endless track of colors, shapes and barriers, collecting coins along the way. Naturally, the soundtrack is house and electronic dance music titles from Aoki’s Dim Mak label.
“He’s such an authentic partner,” says GameCo co-founder and CEO Blaine Graboyes, noting that Aoki is himself a gamer and owner of the esports team Team Rogue.
Aoki will appear at the GameCo exhibit at 2 p.m. Tuesday for a meet and greet.
Graboyes also notes that a Gen 2 version of the company’s Danger Arena game will soon hit the market, but that it will be relaunched as Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
“We called our original games Gen Zero, and we have moved on to Gen 2,” he says, with Terminator 2 being one of four Gen 2 games. Cosmic Candy Heist, bubble shooter Poseidon’s Deep Sea Saga, and hidden object game Twisted Worlds are the others.
“We’re already working on Gen 3 and Gen 4, to come out either this winter or next year,” he says.
The company made news late last year when skill based games launched in Atlantic City and have since been approved in other jurisdictions. Initial games included Danger Area, featuring fighting robots; Pharaoh’s Secret Temple, a Candy Crush-type game, and Nothin’ But Net, a basketball shooting game.
Meanwhile, Graboyes notes that the games now have a progressive feature, meaning the jackpot grows as the player’s skill requirement increases. In addition, the machines are now showing the odds on a paytable, similar to video poker machines. GameCo has also brought bar-top versions of several games to market, mostly sports and casual games.
“We never thought of doing bar-tops, but casino operators started asking for them,” he says.
Skill-based games are viewed by many in the casino industry as a means to diversify from traditional slot machines and attract a new generation and demographic of gamers to build incremental revenue for the casinos. Graboyes feels that gamers, in particular, are a large and under-served audience who are looking for a level of hospitality, amenities, and VIP experience that’s best – and perhaps only – provided by the casino.
“Currently there are few products on the casino floor that appeal to those who grew up playing Xbox, PC, or PlayStation games, and least of all those of us who grew up playing Atari,” he says.
That said, he’s always interested in following the industry, and using that existing knowledge to enhance his ideas.
“I like to say we’re standing on the shoulders of giants,” he says. “What has been extremely valuable to us has been the opportunity to continue to learn from our experiences on the floor.”
Another recently added feature creates a player-vs-player option, the Multiplayer Challenge Mode, instead of players just going head-to-head. For example, a basketball shooting game can now be a competition between, say, eight, players, with a higher payout for the winner. Eventually the game could become a 64-player system, in which participants would vie e-sports style.
Graboyes says that to keep the creative juices flowing, GameCo published its first white paper from its innovations panel, with Konami Gaming and Interblock, where they asked experts to drive their innovations. It is available at CasinoIAAP.com.
The title of GameCo’s G2E exhibit is Casino of the Future, Now.
“Put all that together, and yes, we have very good reason to be excited about G2E this year,” Graboyes says.
