IGT has recently released a slew of what it describes as “market-attuned” games in Asia and around the world. IGT Senior Vice President of International Sales Craig Churchill describes how the company set out to develop games that really resonate with Asian players
International Game Technology (IGT) showcased a portfolio of games tailored to the specific demands of Asian markets during G2E Asia 2012. The games and systems on display were “designed to deliver performance and profitably for our customers,” according to Craig Churchill, IGT’s senior vice president of international sales.
More than half the games featured at IGT’s stand were designed to focus on local markets with the themes, dual languages (Chinese and English), and math models demanded by Asian casinos and players. The array of games included classic Chinese themes such as West Journey Treasure Hunt and Golden Three Kingdom, as well as the strongly Chinese-themed Four Great Chinese Beauties, Big Dragon Lounge and Pearl Dragon.
Among the systems products under the spotlight was IGT’s sbX™ server-based experience.
Inside Asian Gaming Publisher Kareem Jalal caught up with Mr Churchill at G2E Asia 2012 for a video interview, excerpts of which can be viewed online at the IAG website, staging.staging.asgam.com. The full transcript of the interview follows.
Kareem Jalal: The watchword for IGT globally is market attuned games. What does that mean to you?
Craig Churchill: Market attuned games to me is all about ensuring that we are producing games that really resonate with the patrons and consumers. It’s all about games that consumers want to play, more than anything. It’s our job to ensure that we’re producing games and we’re designing games that are much more meaningful to the player. As an example, we’ve been doing some very extensive research over the past 18 months on getting that deep psychological understanding of the motivations of players in local marketplaces. It’s not about anymore designing games for North America and putting them into the Asian marketplace or any other marketplace. It’s about really getting to a much deeper level of understanding the Asian player and producing games that resonate with them.
So that’s been something you really began in earnest 18 months ago. How are the fruits of that processes being reflected at this year’s show?
In earnest about 18 months ago since I joined the company. I think what you’ll see here at G2E Asia is, I guess, our very first important step into bringing those sorts of games to market. It’s about not only localizing for language, but it’s also to ensure we get the themes right, we get the underlying mechanics right and we get the math right as well. And you can see some of the examples of the games here, where we think we’ve got a really good first stab at that. I think in the next 6 months and the next 12 months and the next 18 months, you are going to see the next batch of games that are even more localized than the ones previously.
So this is only the beginning?
Yes, this is only the beginning. Absolutely.
I guess it’s also happening elsewhere in the world? Here, of course, you’ve got the Asia-attuned products on display, but just briefly, what else is happening elsewhere?
What we’ve really done is identify the big growth markets for gaming, for slot and gaming, for IGT. And for us it’s all about Latin America, it’s about Asia. But also for us it’s about understanding our players in North America as well. I mean, we have an intuition, we have a really good gut feel for what those players want. But it’s like a movie. If you’re producing a Hollywood movie today, you don’t know if it’s going to be really successful or not. What we are going to try to do is bring the science and the data to that kind of gut feel and the art, to make sure that we have a higher hit rate than we’ve ever had before. So we are going systematically, country by country by country, again starting about 18 months ago, and looking forward to the next five years, profiling every single country, to ensure that we are instilling that sense of science as well as the art into all of those countries to produce better games for our customers.
It’s still early days for the Asian-themed and the Chinese-themed products that you are rolling out, but what’s been the overall reaction so far?
It’s been phenomenal, I have to say. I think the research that we’ve conducted, we’ve been told by all the operators we’ve spoken to in Macau, is by far and away the most penetrative research that has ever been done in the Asian market place. And consequently, the feedback on the games that we’re producing here has been very favorable indeed. Some of the operators are saying that these games are competing at the very, very top level, with some of our competition, which is really great news for us because it means that we really have moved the needle over the past 12 months since the last G2E Asia. And I think in the next 12 months again, we will move that needle yet again.
Can you tell us a bit more about what that penetrative research process has involved?
In Macau, specifically, it was about interviewing about a thousand patrons. Those patrons were taken through market research that lasted about 45 minutes per interview. So a really deep, consultative interviewing processes.
It was anonymous research so they didn’t know it was IGT. It was in casinos, working hand in glove with our operators. And one of the most insightful things that we have found during this process was that for Asian gamers it’s not all about the big wins, it’s not all about the high-volatility play, which is kind of the misconception and the big myth about Asian gaming. What we’ve found is that about 25% of the players really want time on device, an entertainment experience as well. So, for us, it means that we now have a very deep recipe for success for each of those different segments that we’ve identified, what is an ideal slot experience for those different segments, and we can work hand in glove with our operators to say, well, if we model your floor and we have a good understanding of the patrons that you are attracting to your floor, what kind of games do you have on your floor that fit those segments, and maybe you’re under-penetrated in some areas or maybe you’re over-penetrated in others, and how can we help you and work together to really optimize your floor for the best results for you.
So in terms of the math and volatility of games, are you trying to find a niche for yourself?
No, it’s not about finding a niche. In fact, it’s the reverse, it’s the opposite. It’s about understanding, in Macau, for example, there are five segments of players that we’ve identified that make up the slot playing base and it’s ensuring that we have games that matter to each one of those different segments. And the math quirks and the math nuances that really play into each of those different segments. And of course, it’s all about doing the right kind of marketing, in the same way you’ve seen Megabucks hit Macau in a big way. It’s about working with the operators to do the right kind of marketing to ensure those players know what games to play that are going to suit them most of all.
RelatedPosts
So although it might be a misconception to assume they all like volatile games, would you still say the largest segment do like volatile games?
Yes, I think that is the overriding factor, volatility, whether it’s in the base game itself or whether it’s in the bonus game, that is an overriding factor for the slot players in Macau. But 25% is not an insignificant number that don’t want that. So we’ve got to cater to those players as well.
Can you take us through some of the highlight products at this year’s show for you?
About half of the games on the floor at the show this year have been specifically Asia-attuned and have been built from the ground up to suit this marketplace, as we believe. We have a number of different games built on really popular themes in the Asian world, popular stories. We have a studio in Beijing and we’ve been kind of experimenting with that studio to see what they can do, compared to our Las Vegas and our Reno studios, and see how they can compare, and see what kind of games they can bring to market. So you’ll see some of those games on the floor.
This [pointing to Big Dragon Lounge] is a great example. This is a high volatility game that we’re introducing to the floor, it’s called the Big Dragon Lounge. We have the West Journey Treasure Hunt, which is all about the Monkey King, you know popular Chinese themes. A number of really good games. And also our systems products as well, which have been, again, slightly localized and slightly attuned for the market to deal with tables on mass, as well as the slot machines, and how to handle those.
In the past, IGT has been accused of perhaps not adapting to local needs quickly enough. Do you feel now there’s a great deal of extra effort taking place to make up for the past?
Yes, I can say emphatically that at no time in IGT’s history have we ever been more focused on localizing and attuning products for the needs of local marketplaces, both in our game and in our systems products as well. I am confident to say that the research we’re doing—and we’ve heard this from the operators—is so very different from what has been done in the past, not only by IGT, but also other brands in the marketplace, and really does allow us to put distance between ourselves and the competition as we bring games to market.
Also on display is your server-based offering, which has been a bit slow to take off in Asia. But do you think that is set to change?
Yes, if I look across my territory, which includes Latin America and Europe and Africa, as well as Asia Pacific, we’ve had some great successes with server-based technology in the European market and also the Latin American market. I think it’s probably a combination of the fact that there are perhaps smaller operators at play in those markets and they’re very keen to extract every ounce of operational efficiency out of their operations, and they need as much help as they can get. So they’ve embraced server-based technology to a greater degree than the Asian marketplace, and perhaps the U.S. marketplace.
We’ve recently debuted, at the ICE show in London, a new technology, which is our cloud-based technology. We’re debuting that in the international markets ahead of the U.S. market, in order that we can stress test it for the U.S. market and in order that I can get first-mover advantage, of course. And what we’re doing with that is we’re really rolling in the server-based technology, whether it’s for downloading and configuration of games, or theme changes of games on the fly. And it’s all housed on the cloud, which is fantastic for the operators because they don’t have to deal with any backend hardware infrastructure. And it’s taking off in pilot phase in Latin America and in Europe, and we’re hoping to bring it in to perhaps the smaller markets around Asia, as well as Australia at some time in the near future. Over time that cloud technology will evolve to include full casino management technologies, at which point I think it becomes a very viable proposition to introduce it to perhaps our largest customers, over a period of time, of course.
Sum up for us, if you could, IGT’s aims in Asia and Macau in particular.
It’s quite simple. I think that IGT’s aims are really two-fold. It’s to ensure that we deliver as much value as possible to our operators. So they can earn an honest living from this game, so we can enjoy greater market share and produce better games for the patrons. Stated specifically, my personal aim is to double the business in a period of 18 months here. So we are building up the infrastructure, we’ve got a great sales team here, we’ve recently introduced a brand new sales director for the territory, we’ve imported a lot of great talent from Australia that know the Australian marketplace, that know a lot of the operators here, and we’re building an infrastructure for success based around value, based around humbleness in the marketplace, and based around delivering the greatest value proposition bar none.
One of the hurdles to achieving a doubling in revenue in Macau in particular is the lull in new property openings, with no major openings scheduled for the next three years at least. Is that going to be a challenge, because, really, what you’re then counting on is the replacement cycle?
We are relying heavily on the replacement cycle, but one thing that I’ve learned about the gaming industry is it’s all down to game performance, and if you find that magic formula for a game, the market can turn overnight. It’s all about win per day, win per unit, and if you can get the successful game in place, you will turn the tide. And I’m very confident with the design work that we’re doing, with the research we’re doing, we’re going to hit that magic formula very soon.
Four Great Chinese Beauties, featured on the bluechip Neo cabinet
