Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | August 2008 40 In order to identify suitable content, Astro Corp. says it goes to exceptional lengths to study Chinese players’ habits in all kinds of settings. “As well as studying players in venues where we have machines installed, we visit every gaming market and also go out onto the street and find out what people in poor areas like to play. Mass market potential “Not everyone in Asia is a VIP,” explains Mr Chang. “There are going to be lots of revenue opportunities in the mass market.” When testing newmachines in a gaming venue, “The first mission,” he explains, “is to get them to stop at your machine and watch. The next step is that they be willing to take money from their pocket. You may only reach 50% of them. Once they sit down, you then have to keep them playing and pitting the money in. “That’s the trick,”he adds. Game play is key “No matter what the background of the player, we find that Asian gamblers aren’t thinkingsomuchabouttheenvironmentand service. They concentrate on the game. That means the game has to be very attractive. The player has to have that positive feeling about the game. “They have to feel that if they quit the game they may miss out on a very big prize, so they keep on playing,” says Mr Chang. In-field observation is vital because simply asking players questions about their likes and dislikes can be misleading. Words versus actions “You need to see how they react,” says Mr Chang. “Simply asking them questions isn’t enough. Even if you ask them, sometimes they cannot express exactly how they feel about the game.” Markettestingisavitalelementinsuccess, but in a highly competitive manufacturing environment such as Asia then keen pricing and fast turnaround are also important for gaming equipment makers, says Mr Chang. Local sourcing Here, Astro Corp. believes it’s well placed because many of the motherboards and sound cards used in gamingmachines across the world are sourced in Taiwan. By using its good contacts to work directly with local suppliers, Astro Corp. says it can keep down unit costs. “In a project we recently completed for Paradise Entertainment, from design, to assembly, completion and delivery it only took three and a half months,” says Mr Chang. “Some people said it was ‘mission impossible’. How did we do it? We had all our people well organised,” explains Mr Chang. “Our method is to allocate tasks to small teams but then work to coordinate the whole project.” Brand building “Our mission is first to establish a strong brand name in Macau, so people can recognise Astro Corp. gaming and Astro Corp. machines. Then our target is to have more machines operating in different locations so people will get more familiar with the machines, and so that the earnings performance will get better and better,”says Mr Chang. “We have a fixed schedule for example with the video slots,so that every year wewill have around 12 new games to be certified. “If we have a good result in Macau, then I’m sure other Asian markets will pick up on it.” Sean Chang Astro slot machines on display during the recent G2E Asia exhibition at Venetian Macao Astro Corp