At the recent Indian Gaming Tradeshow & Convention, International Gaming Technologies made a huge splash when Indian Gaming Association Chairman Ernie Stevens helped launch a new cabinet, Rise55.
Being able to introduce the cabinet in San Diego was an important step in cementing IGT’s ties with tribal operators.
“Instead of saying, okay we’re going to launch this for Class III and at some point down the road launch for Class II, it really goes to show how important Class II is and how relevant it is for us to have great content for (tribal operators),” said IGT Vice President Global Communications, Government Relations and Sustainability Phil O’Shaughnessy.
During IGA, the company also released “Stinking Rich: Tail Winds,” a new variation of the successful slot franchise.
The Rise55 cabinet, according to O’Shaughnessy, honors the company’s tradition of releasing “larger beautiful cabinets,” this one with 8K resolution.
And the IGT display on the IGA tradeshow floor was a really “comprehensive bundle of machines here where everything works in sync,” O’Shaughnessy noted. “This is more than just visual appeal, it’s the math. It’s math plus science equals addressing customer needs.”
The IGT team works not only on the design of the games but matching it with suitable hardware. O’Shaughnessy said that there is an extensive test process that relies on placing a new game in a casino environment for 30-90 days to get feedback. The analysis provides information on how the game performs. And if the game is too complicated and customers don’t understand how it is played, IGT’s team can make adjustments.
We know that if the game is performing at 2-3 times the house average, we’re able to say to our operator partners with conviction that this is a proven performer,” O’Shaughnessy said. “It takes a while to go through that start-to-finish process until you have a real winner.”
“It provides the environment for the operator to see it, to feel it, to touch it and to talk to us a little bit about the development process,” he added. “… It’s not uncommon for us to get an order sight unseen when a game is performing very well in a variety of jurisdictions. But (Stinkin’ Rich: Tail Winds) is still new enough where we’re still looking for those first placements.”
