PRODUCT TEST DRIVE: IGT “GRAND GORILLA – PRIZE DISK”
IGT is certainly seeing some better results across clubs with their new games. The Prize Disk concept has been very popular with great game performances for Elephant King and Wolf Ridge over the last 6 months. A new game in the range “Grand Gorilla” builds on the Prize Disk success with a tweak in the maths that should see even stronger results. The market across Australia currently is heavily slanted towards the trend for “hold ‘n spin” style features, so any game that provides a point of difference is a plus in maintaining the interest of your regular players.
IGT: “Grand Gorilla” Prize Disk
Denomination: Multidenom (1c, 2c, 5c, 10c) game with a flexible betting structure for players (5 lines, 25 lines or 50 lines) meets most market levels of player investment.
Game Features: The Prize Disk feature is new to the market. The prizes are made up of bonus credits and free games that move across the top of the reels. Each time the reels are spun by the player the prize disk moves one reel over from right to left. The prizes pay out only on Reels 1, 3 and 5 (based on playing 5, 25 or 50 lines) which means players get a couple of chances to win the prize amounts if they are covering all the lines. The prizes are won by getting a single symbol anywhere on those reels. There is an added level of interest for the player because it is these Prize Disk prizes that are dynamic and they increase based on the players bet, rather than the on-screen jackpots or paytable prizes.
Where Grand Gorilla improves on the original Elephant King and Wolf Ridge games is that the player now has a choice of high free games with low multipliers, or low numbers of free games with high multipliers. Allowing the player to choose their own level of volatility in the feature has long been a popular feature and adds an extra level of interest to Grand Gorilla.
For the player, the Prize Disk wins are added to any line wins they achieve so there is an opportunity for the player to have multiple wins. These are all available during standard game play, but during the free game feature, the bonus credit and free game and prizes on the Prize Disk also include the Mega, Major and Grand on-screen Jackpot prizes.
SAP Profile: The jackpot levels don’t change based on the players bet but this means the club has a choice of the top jackpot of $2,000, $3,000 or $5,000 based on the level of liability the club can afford. Naturally the bigger the better from a player’s perspective but for a smaller club, a lower top jackpot may be a better option. The lower jackpots levels of $100 and $500 are large enough for players to see as achievable wins. And of course, all jackpots increment, to give the players something to chase.
Volatility: This game has a mixed volatility due to the choice the player can make on the lines they want to play and bet levels, and then again, based on the choice of free games and multipliers in the feature. For this reason the focus is on the Prize Disk wins for all players, and these are where the volatility adjustments are made, with the smaller players seeing only smaller credit win options, and the larger players, if they are placing top bets, seeing much larger credit amounts on the Prize Disk.
Floor Position: This game is best positioned in a busy, high rotation area with lots of smaller and medium players. While your high denom players can bet up on this game for some solid wins, it is more common to find small-medium players on the Prize Disk games who come to the club on a regular basis.
Performance: Grand Gorilla is starting to roll out into the NSW market next week so there are no performance results available yet. Of the earlier Prize Disk games Elephant King is still ranking at 1.07 in both NSW and QLD clubs (Denom TO Average – Maxgaming Dec 2017), and Wolf Ridge just a little below that. With the added multiplier in the feature, Grand Gorilla should be even stronger.
