The Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in Las Vegas has long been the premier event for insights into the evolving landscape of land-based gaming. This year’s expo, which ran Oct. 7-10, offered a deep look into emerging trends and opportunities in the industry.
Here are 5 observations that will shape the near-term future of the environment.
Game Brand Extensions
One obvious theme at the convention was brand extensions – with far more quantity than at any other prior show. We’ll be carefully monitoring if recent popular games will become the next Buffalo.
Light & Wonder is doubling down on the Huff N More Puff brand which seems to sell itself even before performance numbers are externally reported. We find it very important that this brand contains mechanic uniqueness unlike other mainstream games, which suggests brand longevity. We would also mention other unyielding Light & Wonder brands such as Dancing Drums, which is receiving its first “triple pot” infusion.
IGT masterfully weaves its Wheel of Fortune license into Video Poker and ETGs aiming to engage a new player as well as excite the current base. IGT also expanded on its Tiger & Dragon series, a game that hit No. 1 on Game Performance reports this year, with its new Tiger & Dragon Super Gong and Tiger & Dragon Super Bonus successors in addition to the company’s efforts to expand on successful Prosperity Link and Mystery of the Lamp franchises – both hitting No. 1 in Game Performance segments in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
Konami’s successful Stuffed Coin family gets an exciting successor (this time with three cute animals instead of just one), while AGS’ Rakin Bacon sees several new titles.
Evolution of the Triple Pot and Pot Fillers
- While the common theme among games is still “triple pot” (we call this a “feature combo” game if the bonuses happen concurrently), vendors are capturing the essence of what makes this mechanic exciting. One of the obvious performance-drivers of these games is the possibility of triggering the illusive “mega feature” where all pots are activated simultaneously.
Aristocrat’s Bao Zhu Zhao Fu Ignite on the new dual-screen Baron cabinet (which is actually a 4-pot game) enhances the pot-filler experience. After triggering the “Hold & Spin” feature with only one firecracker, the player can still initiate the other three firecrackers, giving the player the opportunity of greater wins. In the original Bao Zhu Zhao Fu titles, the player needs to ignite all three firecrackers at the beginning and at the same time for meaningful wins. This distinction between the two games will likely result in strong performance.
Bluberi thoughtfully adds a “perceived persistence” meter on Berry Bucks to inform the player when the three-pot action last hit thereby increasing the number of chases without sacrificing RTP.
Goodbye True Persistence?
“True persistence” games are the topic du jour among industry experts. Some experts warn that capable advantage players can create some shocking gains at the expense of the casino operator through the means of timing and free play. But the advantage player isn’t only “robbing” the casino. If there is high exploitation, other well-meaning casual slot players suffer at the expense of true persistence games if they get caught on the beginning of the RTP cycle where player losses are greatest and unequally distributed among the customer population.
The obvious problems in true persistence have led to a noticeable decrease in the number of true persistence games demonstrated at G2E. True persistence games were still presented; however, the exploitability was significantly reduced. Some operators have vowed to remove true persistence games from roadmaps. In Ascending Fortunes, Incredible Technologies is listening to concerns and debuted some mechanics that “disguised” the true persistence elements as perceived persistence elements thereby reducing potential manipulation by advanced players.
While true persistence games typically start off strong during the player learning curve period, our prior research has shown the true persistence games have a steeper performance degradation slope compared to perceived persistence games.
Emphasis on Premium Games
- Premium games have seen impressive growth in the North American market. Prior to Covid-19 and related shutdowns, Premium lease games took 5 percent of the floor on average. This number grew after floor reorganizations during Covid and grew to 8 percent in 2022. Now, premium lease games sit around 10 percent of the average floor.
Given this trend, vendors were eager to show off dazzling new premium products.
This took effect in several avenues. One huge opportunity for suppliers was spinning off key in-house brands into the premium category. For example, AGS’ unforgettable mascot, Cornsquealius, debuts in Premium Rakin Bacon Link games.
G2E attendees would also have noticed the Light & Wonder Huff N More Puff series start in the premium space with the first WAP model, Huff N Even More Puff Grand, which introduces the “Palace” symbol – a level up from the highly-coveted “Mansion” symbol.
Eventgoers were also keen to see Aristocrat’s Phoenix Link, which looks and plays like a mature and natural evolution from the iconic Dragon Link. Aristocrat also debuted Dragon Link on the Mars X dual screen which gives operators more form-factor flexibility and opens the opportunity for incremental placements.
One of the eye-grabbing products from IGT is Wheel of Fortune – Cash Link – Big Money, which extends a large physical wheel across three banked units. Ainsworth also aims to capture the growing segment with Neon’s Bonus Blast which draws on popular features but augments them with expanding reels and sticky cash on reels.
We gather the growing importance of premium product in the industry can be attributable to a few things:
- – Operator attitude towards premium product has shifted favorably as slot revenue has increased greater than any increase in associated expenses;
- – Premium product quantity and quality has increased;
- – Effective pricing has improved for operators amongst industry fee standards and competition; and
- – Commercialization of in-house staple brands in premium segments.
Eyes on Mid-Size and Smaller Vendors
Everyone is aware of the name Bluberi and remembers when it shook up the slot machine industry with Devil’s Lock. Two years later at the 2024 show, the Bluberi stand was abundant with attendees excited to see what’s next in store. At other vendors, G2E was abundant with Devil’s Lock inspired games with most vendors having at least one concept inspired by the original cheeky devil game. However, Bluberi wasn’t the only supplier with a full stand at G2E.
Sega Sammy was busy as Railroad Riches takes top rank on our recent Game Performance Report and operators were eager to learn more about other products. Sega Sammy is especially interesting as they are already licensed in Nevada, an accolade difficult to achieve.
Zitro, a large international vendor but perhaps less known in the U.S., debuted a new 55-inch cabinet, Concept. Zitro looks to launch Legendary Sword in U.S. markets. It is already a huge success in the Latin American market as the company continues to license across major gaming jurisdictions.
Gaming Arts’ strategic partnership with Merkur also caught the attention of both domestic and international audiences. The dividends are paying off already through Big Catch Bass Fishing which ports a popular online game from Blueprint to the North American land-based market and is currently available to play in Las Vegas casinos.
