Inside Asian Gaming

April 2014 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 11 COVER STORY it or double it, but because the public is watching and everyone wants the player to keep going he has to decide whether he takes it or he has the guts to go ahead. So, again, making the casino a place where everyone’s enjoying themselves and entertained.” The casino of tomorrow, in his view, should also be more communal. “One thing I learned during my time creating pachinko and pachislot machines for Sammy is that the gaming industry must find its place in society. There are about 12,000 pachinko halls dotted around Japan—they are so connected to each neighborhood, and they also function as places for people in local society to meet up and communicate. Pachinko is only able to be so widespread because the public is comfortable with it. That’s something the casino industry can learn from. They have to be seen not just as places for people to go and gamble, but also to have fun, to be social and to network.” A Rich Parentage SEGA SAMMY CREATION’s primary objective at its inaugural G2E Asia “is to show the public our philosophy, what kind of company we are,” stresses Mr Oguchi. Across the various divisions of SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS, from pachinko and mobile games to toys and animation, the focus is entertainment, and Mr Oguchi can draw on creative talents across the group to help realize his vision. Having a deep-pocketed parent company provides obvious advantages. “We didn’t start out by budgeting the products we wanted to develop,” he notes. “We just set out to show how SEGA SAMMY has something different to offer to the industry.” While striving to break the mold, Mr Oguchi is, however, mindful of the need to make products “that fit the culture of the market.” He adds, “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.” Recently, SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS has proved well in tune with what Asian consumers want. The group’s mobile games business is going gangbusters across the region, particularly in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea. The company is also co-developing a US$800 million integrated resort near South Korea’s main international airport at Incheon with that country’s Paradise Group. Mr Oguchi’s development team will undoubtedly benefit from the insights gleaned at the foreigners-only casino there, where Chinese players will likely dominate. “We would like to do something original for that casino,” he says, though it’s not yet clear what that will be. He had wanted to do a giant projection of a casino game on the side of the property, “But that won’t be possible because of local restrictions,”he says.“Also, we wouldn’t want to distract the pilots landing at Incheon airport.” “It would be better if you spent $1,000 and got $2,000 worth of entertainment, not spent $1,000 trying to win $1 million but probably lost it all.” Hisao Oguchi “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.”