Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | April 2014 10 COVER STORY casinos in Las Vegas and around the world. Electronic table games offer the perfect means to serve the large segment of customers currently not contributing to Macau casino revenues because of the prohibitive minimums. SEGA SAMMY CREATION is keeping most of the details about the machines it plans to exhibit at G2E Asia under wraps until the big unveiling at the show, but Mr Oguchi can share that there will be three games: Sic Bo, baccarat and a big wheel-style product, all of which will come in an extra-large format. “Having machines of that size is the best way for us to show our creativity and what SEGA has to offer,” he says. “But of course that doesn’t mean all our games in future will be so huge.” Inside Asian Gaming was privileged to get a glimpse of the wheel game during a visit to the company’s Tokyo office last month, when Mr Oguchi stated his basic development principles: “Game rules should be simple. In the simplicity of the games there should be a dream of winning big and also fun and excitement in the anticipation of the outcomes.” SEGA SAMMY CREATION’s big wheel encapsulates those principles. It consists of three concentric rings with numbered positions around which a ball spins. The first and second rings feature black positions marked“Go”that allow the ball to progress to the next ring. As the ball moves to each successive ring the payouts at each numbered position get bigger, and on the third and outermost ring are four positions triggering a four-level progressive jackpot. The bet screen is simple—players simply place a wager on a single number. No side bet is necessary to chase the “dream” of a big win, but larger bets have a greater chance of hitting the higher-level progressives. “The game is full of anticipation as the ball moves around the “Because our initial focus is to go into Asian markets, the products we’ll display at G2E Asia are designed specifically to attract Asian and Chinese players.” rings. For us, that anticipation is entertainment,” asserts Mr Oguchi. “Put simply, a gaming machine is just a method of determining who wins and who loses. On each of our games we focus most of our time and effort in making the determination process as entertaining as possible. Of course, there are some people—the hard-core gamblers—who don’t want to be part of the process. But our focus for now is to serve the people who want to have fun.” That segment of fun-seekers is set to grow rapidly as Macau’s gaming market matures, he contends. “As China’s economy grows, Chinese people’s standards of living are changing, and we believe they will change in what they want in life. We want to be ahead of time and already provide the Macau market with the products that Chinese and Asian people will learn to want.” In Macau, casinos still have broad appeal across age groups, but in the US the younger generations appear increasingly uninterested in casino games, particularly slot machines. “Young people are smart enough to know the operators are the ones that win,” observes Mr Oguchi. “Macau will change like Las Vegas did into more of an entertainment hub.” Thus, while he acknowledges many regional operators are currently unwilling to meddle with the profitable status quo, he is confident “They will change as Asia changes”. In the future, he would like to create gamingmachines for casinos that incorporate elements of arcade games, such as the driving or motorcycle games that SEGA used to produce. Pushing the envelope further, he proposes a game intended to take center stage on a casino floor “where the player has to go up steps to a podium and everyone is watching. Then the player has to play a certain game in front of everybody. Maybe the player has won $1,000, and he can either take