Light & Wonder says it will “vigorously defend” against a new complaint filed by market rival Aristocrat over alleged trade secret misappropriation in relation to the former’s Dragon Train slot series.
The company has, however, confirmed that it will stop commercializing another game series in Aristocrat’s crosshairs, Jewel of the Dragon, while another unreleased game will not be put to market. Light & Wonder will also expand a review conducted after the preliminary injunction granted against Dragon Train last year to cover all Hold & Spin titles released pre-2021, adding that it does not expect this review to uncover any issues, according to information contained in a lengthy statement issued Thursday morning.
Aristocrat’s latest complaint was filed with the U.S. District Court of Nevada on 14 March, adding a trade secret misappropriation claim against Jewel of the Dragon. The latest complaint also raised new issues Light & Wonder has promised to defend against.
These include an assertion by Aristocrat that replacement games for Dragon Train, including a social game called “Dragon Train Grand Central”, would “reap the benefits” of trade secret misappropriation even if none of the claimed trade secrets are used in such games.
Light & Wonder explained that there are many elements of Dragon Train that made it successful and are not contested by Aristocrat, adding that it has structured development of new games to solve the issue raised by the use of certain math in the design of the original Dragon Train game by designer Emma Charles. Charles had previously worked with Aristocrat before joining Light & Wonder in 2021.
Light & Wonder revealed that it had provided the math related to Dragon Train Grand Central to Aristocrat as part of its transparency process.
“Aristocrat has made no claim with respect to the Dragon Train Grand Central math, and we are confident the same will be true for our Dragon Train replacement land-based game that is in development,” the company explained.
In this morning’s statement, Light & Wonder referenced another unnamed and unreleased game contained in the amended Aristocrat complaint, noting that its internal review processes had identified that an early version of the game’s math model potentially presented issues relating to Aristocrat. Development of the game has been halted and it will not be released, the company said.
Jewel of the Dragon, another subject of Aristocrat’s trade secret misappropriation claim, will not be withdrawn although Light & Wonder said it has made the decision to voluntarily stop commercializing the series and will offer customers the option to replace any installed units to minimize any confusion and potential disruption. The series represents less than 1% of the company’s premium installed base footprint in North America with around 150 premium leased units, it added.
Light & Wonder has, however, acknowledged that certain members of the Jewel of the Dragon development team had been found to have access to Aristocrat PAR sheets, dated 2015, which are typically used by suppliers to describe the performance characteristics and settings of a slot machine and contain information about the game’s payout structure and odds.
While it is not uncommon for these to fall into the hands of rivals, the company said it would expand the scope of the review it conducted following the preliminary injunction to include all Hold & Spin games released before mid-2021.
“We have no reason to believe that the expanded review covering all Hold & Spin games released before mid-2021 will identify evidence of similar issues,” it said.
“The scope of our initial review included a number of later versions of games first released before mid-2021. None of those later versions had evidence of similar issues making it unlikely that earlier versions would. Furthermore, all of these games have been on the market for a minimum of three years. Separately, no one has made a claim that any of these games incorporate confidential trade secrets of any other party.”
Light & Wonder added that, following the preliminary injunction granted last year against Dragon Train, it had commissioned renowned gaming expert and former game mathematician Mark Nicely to conduct a broad third-party audit of its portfolio which it says has not identified any evidence of similar issues for Hold & Spin games released since mid-2021, when Charles joined Light & Wonder.
“We remain steadfast in our commitment to continued R&D investment to further develop our catalog of proven, evergreen franchises,” Light & Wonder said.
“The broad uplift in game performance we’ve experienced across our portfolio is a testament to the quality of the talent and culture in our organization. We are extremely proud to have a robust and diversified portfolio of the best products in the market that gives us a competitive advantage not tied to any one game or franchise. We are grateful to our customers and stakeholders for their unwavering support as we continue to execute to strategy.”
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