Aruze Gaming Global – A New Identity

It’s been two years since Empire Technology Group acquired the slot-related assets of the former Aruze Gaming America and rebooted its business as Aruze Gaming Global, or AG2. The company’s executives spent much of 2024 expanding its footprint to new jurisdictions, going from 76 licenses at inception to nearly 200 by the beginning of this year.

Also last year, AG2 added the 49-inch Muso Summit cabinet to its legacy Muso 55, Muso Triple 32, Speed dual-screen and HyperSpeed 43-inch portrait cabinet.

This year, the company has concentrated on filling all those form factors with new content. That effort has been helped by new talent. In March, the company announced Masumi Fujisawa as its new chief innovation officer. Fujisawa has a proven track record in developing groundbreaking gaming content and driving global R&D initiatives as the holder of 155 gaming-related patents worldwide. He was formerly CEO of Rainbow Gaming, Aruze’s frequent development partner.

In August, the company announced that Srini Adiraju has joined the AG2 executive team as chief technology officer. He is tasked with driving platform innovation and strengthening Aruze’s technology teams in Las Vegas and overseas, while guiding the development of secure, scalable gaming platforms that support the company’s global growth strategy.

Adiraju, who holds 25 patents in the gaming sector, brings more than 25 years of experience leading technology, product development and system architecture across the gaming, automotive and networking industries. He spent 14 years at WMS Gaming and Scientific Games, where he led development of the NextGen Gaming Platform, which was successfully deployed across multiple markets.

With new talent and technology at AG2, the other goal this year has been to help the industry understand the new company.

“Our primary goal has been to redefine our identity and communicate who we are today,” says Tricia Lee, who joined Aruze Gaming Global as sales director in January.

“It’s important for our customers to understand that we are no longer Aruze Gaming America. One of the only things we have in common with the previous company is the brand, which is well known throughout the industry. We’re actively shifting perceptions, educating the market about our new direction and focus.”

That focus centers on expanding the success of Aruze’s hardware design on its cabinets and game content. “Triple Treasure Pot has been our top-performing title,” Lee explains. “It’s been on casino floors for over a year now—far exceeding the typical 130-day life cycle in this industry—and continues to generate up to twice the house average in performance.

“We’re also developing a roadmap built around proven game play mechanics to ensure we stay competitive in this evolving space.”

Building Success

For Global Gaming Expo, AG2 will achieve that consistency first with two reboots of its most popular game. Triple Treasure Pot Deluxe, on the Muso Summit, Muso 55 or Muso Triple 32, keeps the core mechanics of the original and adds a wheel bonus.

With inaugural games Devil Panda and Wicked Panda (a clever flip-flop of the normally cute panda character), the new game keeps all the features that made the original popular. The three collection pots enhancing the main free-spin bonus are “Coin Nudge,” which nudges stacks of cash-on-reels awards into place for big payoffs; “Jackpots,” which triggers a picking bonus for one of the four jackpots; and “Expander Reels,” which doubles the reel array for free spins from a 50-line grid to a 100-line grid.

Added to this basic formula are wheel icons, which can trigger a bonus wheel in either the primary game or free spins. The bonus wheel contains credit prizes and each of the four jackpots, including the top Grand.

Another new version of the Triple Treasure Pot brand is Triple Treasure Pot Golden Harmony, featured on the dual-screen Muso Speed cabinet. With base games Heavenly Wealth and Eternal Prosperity, the Golden Harmony version of the game again repeats the core game mechanics and enhanced free-spin round (the pots are trees in this title), combined with three randomly triggered prize actions that either instantly pay all cash-on-reels prizes, add on to the prize values before they are paid, or apply multipliers to those values.

Also featured on the three Muso cabinets is Moo Moo Cash, a fun barnyard theme that includes a unique twist on the hold-and-spin feature. Once triggered, the three-spin cycle begins on just the first four reels. The fifth reel unlocks a multiplier applied to the sum of coins on the first four reels.

Featured on the Muso 55 is Power Tower, another hold-and-spin game. In this 50-line game, with base titles Power Tower Lion and Power Tower Dragon, the hold-and-spin feature takes place on a double grid, with the spaces locked in the top grid.

Rather than the normal three-spin cycle, the player is awarded five spins, with “+1” symbols adding more spins. Every time firecrackers land on the lower grid, they fly up to unlock reel spots on the upper grid. Landing the main character in the middle spot on the screen awards all cash-on-reels values instantly.

At G2E, the company also will launch a new game family, Pow Pow Panda, on the Muso Summit cabinet. With base games Gong Jewelry Extreme and Gong Fortune, the center of the game is a free-spin round enhanced by two pots that appear as strings of firecrackers. If the 12 initial free games are triggered by the “Boost Bonus” firecrackers, all cash-on-reels values are boosted each time a special symbol lands in the free spins.

The “Rise Bonus,” triggered by the other firecracker string, increases the free-spin grid from three-by-five and 40 lines to five-by-five and 50 lines. The player can enter the free spins by triggering one enhancement and trigger the other enhancement during the free-spin feature.

When the panda lands in the middle position on the reels, all cash-on-reels symbols pay off instantly. In the Extreme Free Spins round, the panda stays in the middle, paying off cash-on-reels gongs with every free spin.

As the bonus is collected, the sound system plays “La Bamba,” the Mexican folk song that was a 1958 Ritchie Valens hit.

Another G2E launch is Qian Duo Duo, with base games Ox and Dragon. This is a ways-to-win game featuring cash-on-reels, a jackpot feature and a “Coin Spin” feature in which the player gets three free spins to land cash-on-reels awards, with extra spins landing during the feature.

Finally, Fortune Key, with base games Jade Empress and First Emperor, features a unique hold-and-spin bonus in which the first two reels are locked and the player lands cash-on-reel symbols on the other three, until landing a key symbol that unlocks the first two reels.

Lee predicts this year’s G2E lineup will advance AG2 to the next level, as far as expanding the game library’s footprint in diverse markets. “We are aiming at a small footprint, and we’ve had great success,” she says.

“This year was the first year we actually did enterprise deals with all the big names—MGM, Caesars, Station, Boyd—so that’s been a big win for us. Now, our focus is getting that second batch of Enterprise deals, as well as serving our tribal customers, who have been our biggest partners.

“We continue to grow our footprint, one step at a time. That’s our focus.”