AHG SHOWCASES A HOST OF NEW GAMING PRODUCT

The 2016 AHG Trade Show was held in Brisbane last week and provided the gaming market with many more new game and machine releases than expected. The show was also very well attended by club and hotel managers from all local jurisdictions.

IGT featured their newly approved for NSW ‘Multistar World Champion’ for the new Crystal machine which follows on from their successful ‘Multistar Champion Series’ for the older Neo machine. A 6 game pack with the reintroduction of a $2 game for the first time in years would be expected to work very well. Their ‘Multistar Champion Series’ has been the only game in the market to compete successfully with Aristocrat’s Lightning Cash games so this new one should be a no risk purchase for any club. ‘Multistar World Champion’ also marks the first real opportunity for hotels to purchase IGT’s Crystal machine.

Boxer Danny Green made a guest appearance on the IGT stand at AHG for the  World Champion Release.

The other interesting introduction from IGT was a new link product ‘Cash Climb’ which featured a range of games with a 10 level link. The top two and bottom two levels are linked and all the other jackpots chase each other so Jackpot 4 could be higher than 6. It will be some time before it is released but it will be an interesting addition to their game range.

When it comes to future planning Aristocrat had plenty on their stand that is popular right now but also gave us a glimpse of their new ‘Dragon Link’ that is due for release later this year. With the huge success of their Lightning Cash games, and now many clubs and hotels adding in the Lightning Link too, showing us the next link was a smart move. It is similar in style to Lightning Link with a focus on higher denomination games. They featured their new Batman and Robin games as an interesting feature game in their licensed series, and also ‘The Red Queen’ which allows the player to hold some reels prior to a re-spin. This is an interesting introduction of a skill element (or at least a perceived one) for the players and should be an interesting development if it works.

Scientific Games launched their new ‘Lock It Link’ which was approved recently and is working very successfully in Queensland and in a few large clubs in Sydney already. There was certainly lots of positive discussion around the link from the gaming managers that attended the show. They also have a few new multigames with a focus on strong high and mid denomination games, such as ‘Rise of the Emperor’ and ‘Wings of Ra’ (20c, 50c, $1) which has long been an area of strength for them.

Ainsworth showcased their new multi-denom Cash Adventures 4 level link for their A600 machine. Their strength has always been in their Triple Shot games and this new product ads a linked level over triple shot games, with some interesting new themes. Their new 1c ‘Ultimate Gold’ range of games offers 5 different ways to trigger the jackpots and game bonuses and I believe will be popular among the regular players in any venue. The new ‘Multiplay – Big Time VIII’ will be a great option to freshen up some of the earlier Multiplay games. They also looked to the future with ‘Winstorm’ which will be released later this year and certainly looks to be one to look out for.

Konami had their new machine the ‘Concerto’ with a sleek comfortable design. The external lighting lifts these machines and makes them stand out on what can be dark gaming floors these days. Most of the expected inclusions are there on the new machine such as full width LCD screens and topper, dynamic buttons and strong sound. Happily it is also backward compatible with the existing range of KP3 games which has taken some pressure off providing a whole new rage of games and ensures they can hit the floor running.  They do have a good range of new games for the Concerto such as ‘Fortune Stacks’, ‘Dragons Law-Twin Fever’ and ‘Chilli Chilli Fire’.

As the new machines and games are released to the market and we start to see some results The Drop will provide some updates on their performance in coming weeks.