Light & Wonder CEO Matt Wilson has confirmed that the company is in the process of actively removing its popular Dragon Train game family from gaming floors around the world as it begins work on a new version following a recent court ruling in Nevada which found it likely misappropriated trade secrets of rival Aristocrat.
In a video statement ahead of this week’s upcoming Global Gaming Expo (G2E), Wilson said Light & Wonder is specifically working with its customers in Australia and the US – where the game already boasts strong penetration – to convert installed Dragon Train units to other titles.
“We have approximately 33,000 leased units installed in the market and Dragon train represented a mid-single digit percentage of that install base or roughly 2,200 units,” he explained.
“We are working very diligently with our customers to convert those games out in compliance with the judge’s order and are happy to say that at this point we’ve not had a single remove request from our customers. We have a line of a great games from a deep portfolio of franchises such as Ultimate Fire Link, Invaders, Dancing Drums, Huff N’ Puff, Wizard of Oz and many more that we are working on from which we can back-fill these requests.
“We’re working hard with our customers to install these new games as quickly as possible so that Dragon Train is taken out of the fleet and that’s our immediate priority.”
In Australia, Wilson said Light & Wonder has stopped selling Dragon Train since the judge’s order was issued and is in discussions with customers over other games that will now fill its local pipeline.
However, he also clarified that the company is working on “Dragon Train 2.0” which will address the specific IP concerns of the Nevada court.
“We expect Dragon Train will continue to be a franchise in our portfolio for many years to come the same way Dancing Drums, Huff N’ Puff and Ultimate Fire Link are, he said.
“When you think about what’s in question here in this order, it is really a small portion of the overall game that is Dragon Train. It is just certain aspects of the math that have been challenged but there are a lot of elements in this game that have made it successful – the Dragon Train secondary Hold and Respin feature, the art, the sounds, the animation and the brand. These things are not affected by the order.”
As reported by Inside Asian Gaming, the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada has granted Aristocrat a preliminary injunction relating to the “Dragon Train” series, finding it is “extremely likely to succeed in demonstrating Light & Wonder misappropriated Aristocrat’s trade secrets in development of Dragon Train” and pointing to “the public interest in protecting trade secrets and preventing competitors from receiving an unfair advantage.”
The injunction prohibits Light & Wonder from “any continued or planned sale, leasing, or other commercialization of Dragon Train.”
Wilson also confirmed reports that the designer who had led the development of Dragon Train, a former Aristocrat employee, had been “terminated” by the company.
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