Inside Asian Gaming

JANUARY 2018 INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 47 new math models designed specifically for the Asian market. Prize Disk, which currently boasts two games – “Elephant King” and “Wolf Ridge” – introduces an innovative feature whereby potential bonus wins, free games and jackpots scroll continuously above the five reels and are won whenever a prize disk lands on that reel. Hyper Hits, featuring titles “The Golden Bow” and “Lotus Princess,” aims to take player and operator flexibility to new levels, with games available as linked progressive or standalone progressives. Operators can also configure denomination, RTP and six jackpot start-up options, with players able to win five different bonus prizes plus jackpots. “The thing that keeps coming through throughout the region is that operators are looking for a point of difference,” explains IGT Managing Director Asia-Pacific, Andrew Hely, in regards to Prize Disk and Hyper Hits. “They’re not looking for the ‘me too’ stuff, they’ve had good success from a small range of games from an even smaller range of suppliers so they want points of difference and they are prepared to trial them. “We’re still awaiting our approvals from the DICJ but we anticipate that both of these series will be approved around January, so we’re hoping to have a large part of our portfolio on the floors in Macau in the first quarter of next year and look forward to seeing some strong results when we start our trials then.” Prize Disk and Hyper Hits lead what IGT hopes will be a new era for the company, which has recently overhauled its entire business model to place greater focus on individual regions. “There has been a lot of talk about market-attuned products in recent years,” Hely continues. “One thing we’ve focused on doing is to move away from just skinning a US game with some Asian themes or graphics and trying to get to the core of the game – making TECH TALK