Two new cabinets – the Muso Triple 27 and Muso Curve – will lead Aruze Gaming America’s presentation at this year’s G2E, while the company will also demonstrate its ETG innovations, Lucky Roulette and Roll to Win Craps, Josh Collins, VP of Sales explains.
Casino Review: Why is G2E an ideal opportunity to present your products?
Josh Collins: G2E is the largest gaming show in our industry, making it the best place for us to show off the most exciting product we have to offer right now and show customers where we are headed. It provides us with a global audience and allows us to showcase our product in a way it could look in a live environment. Even the largest showroom couldn’t accommodate all the packaging and signage options we are able to display at G2E. This makes the show invaluable for helping customers visualise our products on their floor. Here we are also able to provide a oneon- one, hands on experience with our product and technology and highlight features and game play.
CR: What will be some of the highlights of your presentation at the show this year?
JC: This year we are showcasing how deep our games catalogue has become. We have really focused on what our customers are saying and over the past 18 months our R&D team has developed some exciting products with two new cabinets launching; the Muso Triple 27 and Muso Curve. We will also be expanding our Muso lineup with the Muso Hybrid Triple 27, Muso Hybrid Curve and Muso Limited. In addition, we have our ETG lineup that is truly innovative and showcases technology that is truly unique in the gaming industry. On the core segment side we have the award-winning Muso Triple 27 which is a dual screen video and the Muso Curve, our portrait 43” portrait single screen video. I don’t want to give away too much on the Muso Hybrid models or Muso Limited, but they are truly unique and have a very modern, sleek and premium look. You’ll have to come by the booth during G2E to check these out. The work our R&D team has done on the ETG side has really blown me away. On display will be our recently launched Lucky Roulette, which consists of a physical wheel and ball but incorporates projection mapping that allows us to create additional side bets. We will also be showcasing the much anticipated Roll to Win Craps, which is the first of its kind. Roll to Win Craps is a truly innovative product in which players throw live dice onto a table length LED display. On top of being a very attractive looking unit there are huge operational cost savings, reliability in payouts, improved and accurate player ratings and the potential for ad revenue.
CR: Looking at consumer trends, where is the North American market heading in your view?
JC: That is the million-dollar question. Our R&D team has spent countless hours analysing the North American market and fine tuning our products in order to provide an exceptional level of service and great experience to both operators and players. Over the past 12-18 months we have really dialled in our game design, configurations, features, game play, and math to target players with the right type of game. While everyone is chasing the next big thing, I think operators are looking more at the bottom line and other game performance metrics when making decisions while customer want a higher level of entertainment with the right balance of time on device and game-changing wins. I believe we have done great job at honing in on this based on the performance of our products and continued growth over the last 12-18 months. Something we have heard time and again from operators is that they are looking for truly different product. We have listened and our Activ Play series is a response to this. Without giving too much away, these games look at slot play in a completely new way.
CR: What have been some of the highlights for Aruze during the last twelve months?
JC: Aruze has seen great success with the launch and continued market penetration of its Muso Triple 27 and Muso Curve products over the past 12 months. The product continues to perform great and we have achieved consistent performance notoriety in many of the industry publications. Most recently both cabinets have been on the top performer reports distributed by Eilers-Krejcik. Another product line receiving strong accolades throughout the gaming industry is the ETG Lucky Roulette, which we have recently launched with Seminole Tribe in Florida. The initial product was co-launched at Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood and at Coconut Creek Casino. Performance out of the gate has been very strong and continues to build a fantastic customer following. A third property is planned at Hard Rock Tampa coinciding with their grand opening for the property expansion project in October.
CR: Looking forward, where will the focus be for Aruze over the next couple of quarters?
JC: We have partnered with Caesars Entertainment for a multi-property launch of our new Roll to Win Craps game. This is being rolled out in two phases, GLI and Nevada. We are expecting GLI approval shortly and will be debuting the Roll to Win Craps at Harrah’s Cherokee in North Carolina followed by installs in New Jersey and Louisiana. Upon approval in Nevada, Caesar’s Entertainment will have a multi-property launch here as well. As for new markets we are currently working to get licensed in Pennsylvania and could see this as early as Q4-2019.
