Global Games 2015

This year, as they do every autumn, the slot manufacturers of the world bring their new “model year” to the industry at Global Gaming Expo. This year, however, is a bit different than the past.

Actually, it’s a lot different, as far as the makeup of the slot sector. What had been the industry’s top five slot manufacturers are now the top four—mergers and acquisitions accounting not just for that, but for manufacturers including WMS, Bally, SHFL and Barcrest now wrapped under the corporate umbrella of Scientific Games; the former GTECH and IGT now IGT Ltd; the former GCA and Multimedia Games now Everi; and Class II suppliers Video Gaming Technologies and Cadillac Jack now part of Aristocrat and AGS, respectively.

They will all display their wares at expanded booths on the G2E floor; there will be fewer but larger slot-maker displays. The game content that makes up those displays, while as innovative as ever, reflects another kind of change. We will see the first nods to the millennials in skill-based bonus games. We will see a continuing convergence of the system and slot-machine disciplines. We will see convergence, as well, of casino and lottery disciplines.

And finally, the displays at G2E will reflect another kind of convergence—that of land-based casino games and the online disciplines of both for-money and social slot gaming.

In short, G2E, as always, provides a vision of the future of the slot floor. As usual, many of the details on the new games that you will find on the following pages are exclusive to GGB; they appear in print here for the first time. Also as usual, we have given each of the slot manufacturers its own space in our annual Global Games section, explaining not only the games each is launching but the company’s background and focus for the year.

So, sit back and enjoy our Global Games 2015 section. Keep it as a reference to aid you on your slot purchase decisions, and don’t hesitate to provide us feedback on how we can make this annual feature better.