WMS is sticking to its mantra of “Keeping Players in the Game™” with a new lineup of eye-catching titles and widely popular licensed themes presented on upgraded cabinets and enhanced platforms. It’s also redoubling its efforts to get more of those players in Asia.
Steven Rosen, lead producer, Game Development at WMS, was understandably gratified by the enthusiastic reaction to the expansive display of innovative games exhibited by his company at the recent Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas.
“Working in game development, we don’t always get to see people play the games. We work from Chicago, and we do have casinos nearby, but it’s different when you’re watching competitors play your products, oohing and aahing about them. That’s when you really feel good. We’ve worked 12 months to get here, and I think this is really the culmination of everything we do for the year, of which we are very proud.”
Mr Rosen and his team are also keenly focused on building their presence in Asia. “Macau is a huge market, and we believe it is important to tailor games to that market,”
he says. “We really want to learn about that player base, and we’ve done that. We believe that our content is strong, and we believe that we are equipped to reach this marketplace.”
He notes that WMS translates between 20 and 30 titles into Mandarin a year and has even formed a special Asian Advisory Team comprised of staff native to the region. “They give us feedback not only on the art, but also on the cultural relevancy, and I think it’s really added to the games. It strengthens our content.”
In particular, the company has high hopes for a local-area progressive called Yi Lu Fa™ Progressives and is adding to the portfolio with a second Asian-themed LAP, called the Sons of the Dragon™ series, with an exciting feature in which scatter symbols ultimately win the big jackpot.
Mr Rosen is also enthusiastic about a number of international licensed themes—a strong suit of WMS—that he believes will resonate in Asia as well.
“We believe that STAR TREK™ is a universal and nostalgic brand, and we believe it translates into numerous different countries,” he says. “They’ve syndicated it to numerous countries over the last 20-plus years, and we’ve fully translated that game because we believe the Asian player base will\ really enjoy that product.”
The G2E exhibit was replete with compelling licensed content, including allnew titles and longstanding favorites.
“We’ve got seven new brands here this year. The ELTON JOHN™ brand, which we believe is very universal. We have exciting new pop culture icons like the ELVIS™ and AUSTIN POWERS™ games. We’ve also got THE FLINTSTONES™, THE JETSONS™, GREMLINS™, and MAD MEN™ brands.
Then there are the “core staples,” as he terms them— THE LORD OF THE RINGS™, WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FAC TORY™, WIZARD OF OZ™ and MONOPOLY™. “We constantly enhance our arsenal of licensed themes because it’s a big part of what we do. You look around G2E this year, and you will see a lot of licensed products. We believe we do those licenses justice.”
WMS is similarly intent on localizing game mechanics. “On a lot of our Blade™ cabinet content, the math, some of the volatile product we make, is very popular with the [Asian] marketplace.”
And there is a new Blade cabinet to leverage this new and stronger content: the s32, a player-focused hybrid slant cabinet which features two 32-inch monitors and an organic light-emitting-diode touch screen button panel that is ergonomically angled for maximum player comfort.
“Our first game out on that is our Hot Hot 8™ theme,” says Mr Rosen. “Our next game is the Dragons Over Nanjing™ theme, which is an Asian-focused product. So we’ve got a bunch of different brand new cabinets and form factors which we believe will not only hit our domestic market but our international markets as well.”
