IGT – Keeping it Rolling
It is clear IGT will continue to churn out high-performing games.
Legendary games, even.
And at G2E it will be clear that the household names will keep pouring from the 40-year-old supplier. And new household names keep appearing.
IGT games like Prosperity Link, Mystery of the Lamp and, most recently, Tiger and Dragon have camped near the top of the Eilers-Fantini performance reports, and all will no doubt be prominent in IGT’s booth at the Global Gaming Expo.
But this year’s all about Wheel of Fortune. The 28-year-old slot family, the first TV-branded game and arguably the most popular slot game of all time, has seen over 300 iterations on casino floors. This year, IGT is taking the Wheel where it’s never been, with new versions for VLT markets, for IGT’s industry-leading video poker line, and for its emerging electronic table games solution.
“Wheel of Fortune is going to take center stage for us this year,” says Nick Khin, IGT’s president, global gaming. “We’ve had 28 years with the Wheel of Fortune brand, and we renewed the contract for another 10 years. We’re about to kick that off in in January, and what better way but a big Wheel of Fortune relaunch?”
In addition to a Wheel of Fortune VLT and a Wheel of Fortune video poker game, IGT will show off new Class III versions of the game in a bold, grand bank presentation, with a dedicated zone purely focused on the Wheel of Fortune brand.
In the premium and core video spaces, IGT is combining its latest games that are leading performance charts with an innovative collection of new games, from a new installment in its Whitney Houston Slots family on the premium side to a reprise of an old favorite on the core side in Little Green Men Return.
“The common theme for the Class III world is growth and performance, in the sense of what we have been achieving,” says Domenico Pastia, IGT’s senior vice president, global product. “The seeds we planted three years ago are bearing fruit, big time. And we have multiple superstar games.”
Those superstars include Prosperity Link and Mystery of the Lamp, two multi-level progressives with compelling jackpots, pot collection features and hold-and-spin bonuses. “And now we have Tiger and Dragon, which is probably the best of the three in terms of performance, innovation level and ultimately player appeal,” says Pastia.
Of course, the IGT booth always provides a rich mix of all game styles. As always, there will be several new specialty video poker games launched, including Wheel of Fortune video poker. The VLT version of the Wheel game will be one of a variety of VLT games displayed.
IGT has big news on the system side, as well; G2E will be the launch pad for IGT Advantage X, the new generation of the company’s casino management system.
The company also will launch its new generation of electronic table games under the GameAce brand.
And yes, there will be a Wheel of Fortune-branded ETG launched at the show as well.
Rolling the Wheel
Khin says Wheel of Fortune will occupy nearly a third of the total IGT booth space at G2E, and central to this “Wheel of Fortune relaunch” is a spectacular bank presentation of the game called Wheel of Fortune Cash Link Big Money on the new Wheel of Fortune Trio hardware.
The Wheel of Fortune Trio is something to behold. Three RiseSP cabinets sit in front of a giant wheel, filled with credits, multipliers and jackpots—including the top life-changing progressive. It is ringed by five arrows indicating paying slices.
“Wheel of Fortune Trio has a great physical presence,” says Boris
Hallerbach, IGT’s director of premium content. “It has the big physical wheel behind our new hardware, complemented by an LED sign wall that also interacts with the wheel play.”
He adds that at 12 feet high, “it’s going to be a beacon in a casino, really a focal point.”
To this backdrop is placed a concept that was a popular feature of some Wheel of Fortune video slots—Cash Link. This includes a two-pot bonus mechanic, one money pot triggering free games and the other the “Big Money Repeat Pay” feature. In the latter bonus, whenever a Big Money feature is triggered, it adds the Big Money coin value to all cash-on-reels coins on the screen.
“When the green coin lands, it throws up a coin into that pot,” Hallerbach explains. “If that pot triggers, it will throw Big Money coins on all the other coins on the screen, and give you a ‘Collect’ symbol on reel five. You can actually trigger a wheel spin in the Big Money feature as well. The excitement for the player is definitely going for that Big Money Cash Link value, and getting up into the wheel to multiply it.”
The wheel can multiply the Big Money Cash Link value up to 35 times, and depending on the trigger and the player’s wager, up to five pointers can be active for multiple prizes.
In addition, IGT is launching Wheel of Fortune Super Cash Link Bon Voyage as a wide-area progressive on the successful Peak65 large-format cabinet. It includes the Cash Link feature, the wheel bonus with multipliers up to 35X, free games and a “Respin Bonus.”
The Superstars
The Wheel of Fortune display will be complemented with new iterations of its other star games. Prosperity Link Blessings takes that hit theme to the tall SkyRise cabinet, which launched this year with the Whitney Houston Slots game.
The dramatic presentation of two curved 55-inch portrait screens fits the Prosperity Link game perfectly, providing an ample canvas for an extended hold-and-spin bonus.
Prosperity Link Blessings features a hold-and-spin Respin Bonus, and a Super Respin Bonus with cash-on-reels symbols or a “Level Up Ball” unlocking up to three additional reel sets for an extended feature. Also during the feature, a central pot can add multipliers and cash balls to the screen as cash-on-reels symbols, as well as a “Prosperous Chance” ball that awards one of the five jackpots, including the multi-site “Prosperous” progressive resetting at $500,000.
While Prosperity Link is a fitting encore to Whitney Houston on the SkyRise cabinet, the Whitney Houston Slots game family expands to the Peak65 cabinet, for an oversize display in Whitney Houston I Wanna Dance With Somebody Slots.
The new game uses the large format to reprise features like the Money Records cash-on-reels symbols, a jackpot picking bonus and free games, all with hip ’80s theming, including boom boxes and cassette tapes (as well as ’80s Whitney).
And of course, video and audio of Whitney Houston performances, including the title song, will accompany primary game and bonus events.
IGT’s other “superstar” game gets a new version in Tiger and Dragon Super Bonus, on the PeakCurve49 cabinet. It is a great match of a high-earning game to a high-earning cabinet. “Tiger and Dragon, per Eilers-Fantini, was the No. 1 premium leased WAP game for three months,” notes Pastia.
“The PeakCurve49 has been the top cabinet in the industry. It’s been 12 months since we launched it, and it’s topping the charts.”
Tiger and Dragon Super Bonus on the PeakCurve49 is a 243-ways game with collection pots, and six different bonus features.
The new game includes the hold-and-spin from the original game, plus a dragon feature that unlocks a climb-up jackpot ladder. Cash on tiger symbols combines for a “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” bonus. Arrows land on the screen to boost the cash-on-reels values.
In the Super Tiger Bonus, the tiger adds multipliers to random rows on the reels. The Super Dragon Bonus combines all cash-on-reels symbols on each row together for instant pays.
Pastia says the game is popular with digital social content creators as well, and has built up a strong following. “The social media following that Tiger and Dragon has achieved in three months from launch is incredible.”
Core Returns
IGT is showcasing a great lineup of slots in its Core Video segment, including the return of one of the legendary themes of the early 2000s in the new game Little Green Men Return. Featured on the PeakCurve49 cabinet, the new game brings back the familiar three-eyed alien characters as collection pots in a free-spin round featuring cash-on-reels symbols.
The aliens in their spaceships are marked “X-Beam,” “X-Pando” and “Boost Blast.” One, two or three of the pots can burst to trigger five free games with enhancements—X Beam adds multipliers up to 10X to the reels, X-Pando expands the reels, increasing the ways to win with each new row, and Boost Blast randomly increases cash-on-reels symbols in the free-spin bonus.
During the primary game, if the main alien character lands in the middle of the reels, all cash-on-reels values are awarded instantly. In the free-spin round, the character is locked on the center spot, paying off the cash-on-reels values with each free spin.
Other highlights in Core Video include Wolf Run Wild Moon and sister game Coyote Moon, three-pot games featuring nudging wilds, expanding wilds and “Jackpot Wilds.” Wild symbols are packed throughout the extensions of two of IGT’s most popular core slots.
Featured on the PeakSlant32 and PeakDual27 cabinets is Pharaoh Link, a colorful variation on the three-pot free-spin feature, this time with the collection pots as ancient Egyptian goddesses. The pot enhancements send frames of different shapes to the reel, duplicating cash-on-reels awards, “Jackpot Gems” awarding one of six jackpots, or wild symbols.
Also on the Peak32 and PeakDual27 cabinets is Miner’s Dream, with base games Blue Mountain and Red Mountain. This fun mining theme includes three pots triggering and enhancing a hold-and-spin feature. “Boost” increases all cash-on-reels awards, “Jackpot” adds five jackpot icons to the feature, each accumulating toward one of the prizes, and “Collect” absorbs all cash-on-reels values into one spot.
Stepper Power, Poker Power
IGT has always been at the top of the mechanical stepper market, particularly in the premium stepper category, where the company has resided near the top of Eilers-Fantini performance reports for years.
This year, IGT continues to maximize the potential of its DiamondRS stepper cabinet, launched in 2022 as the successor to the S3000 line. Among the strengths of the cabinet are technological innovations like IGT Diamond Glass, which projects video animation over the physical reels, and the 32-inch top box display, home to video-style elements added to mechanical-reel games.
Among the standouts this year in the mechanical stepper category is Cleopatra Legacy, a five-reel stepper based on the legendary IGT video title. A free-game bonus adds a unique multiplier feature: Every time a Cleopatra symbol lands, it lights up a letter above the reel. Completing L-E-G-A-C-Y increases the multiplier from 3X to 4X or 5X, applied to all free-game wins.
Cash Up Jackpots is a three-reel, nine-line stepper including a top-box bonus played out on a back-lit display, in the tradition of the legendary Top Dollar game. When a Cash Up symbol lands on one of the reels, the bonus becomes available whenever the player wants to play it. The game offers three different bonus events which require one, three or five collected Cash Up symbols respectively to play.
Once the bonus is activated, the top box comes alive, with backlights flashing among stacks of money marking credit prizes, and “Jackpot” icons corresponding to four progressive jackpots.
It is a true-persistence session-based feature, as the collected Cash Up symbols remain until the player uses them or cashes out.
5X3X2X Hot Tamales, a three-reel, 27-line game, super-charges IGT’s time-tested multiplying wild symbols, with a pay table of awards for stacking 7s on the first two reels with stacked multipliers on the third reel.
Also of interest in the stepper category are reprises of two of IGT’s most popular stepper families, Pinball and Double Red White & Blue.
The new Pinball game features a video display on the top box showing pinball “pegs” bearing credit awards. When the bonus is triggered, a pinball is launched into the top box display to bounce around and award an accumulated credit amount. Double Red White & Blue adds a flashing jackpot display, triggered by three bonus symbols on the reels, to the traditional pay scheme of red, white and blue 7s.
As usual, IGT is once again expanding its lineup of specialty video poker products, all of which add a bonus feature to a classic video poker game in exchange for a per-hand ante wager that does not affect the normal pays or game strategy.
The highlight in video poker this year is Wheel of Fortune Poker, in Triple Play, Five Play and Ten Play versions. A five-credit per-game bet activates the TV show word puzzle, and the familiar bonus wheel.
With the bonus bet made, every dealt winning hand may add a letter to the puzzle board or solve the puzzle, which will activate the wheel spin.
The extra bet also jacks up the value of a dealt royal flush to more than double the usual pay, offering players 30,000, 50,000 or 100,000 credits for a royal flush on all hands in Triple, Five or Ten Play versions respectively.
Other new video poker games offer innovative ways to secure awards beyond the normal hand payoffs. In 5 Card Plus 2 Poker, there is a five-card pay table and a seven-card pay table. With the extra five-credit bet made, every winning hand has a one-in-three chance of adding two extra cards to pay off on the seven-card table as well.
Major Multipliers Poker adds random multipliers of up to 100X on various pay categories when dealt Jacks or better, two-pair or three-of-a-kind hands. It’s offered in Triple Play, Five Play and Ten Play versions.
On Pick-A-Multiplier Poker, for a 10-credit per hand bet, a multiplier of 2X to 10X is added to winning hands. The innovative twist on this game is that the player gets to choose their multiplier, giving poker players an added level of interaction. In the new Wild! Wild! Wild! Poker title, one, two or three wild cards are added to every other hand, on average, making it easier to complete the winning hands.
On the PeakBarTop is a new game set called Extra Hot Poker. One of the many multi-hand poker games in this set is called Lucky Suit, where the player picks a lucky suit, and whenever the first card dealt is in that suit, a multiplier is added to any win. Lucky Suit joins a suite of other titles in Extra Hot Poker that includes an entirely new lineup of slot games, along with several new poker titles never seen in the bartop space.
New Horizons
IGT’s casino game lineup will be joined by a wealth of games for specialty markets, including VLTs, Class II, historical horse racing and ETGs.
For the Class II market, IGT will spotlight Lotus Flower Link, a game developed specifically for Washington’s CDS market—“a reflection of IGT’s commitment to serving those operators and retaining its market leadership,” says Khin.
For the VLT market, in addition to the Wheel of Fortune game, the company will launch new games including Cash Climb Garden of Hesperides, which features a unique hold-and-spin bonus. Another new offering is Samurai 888 Katsumi, a popular Class III title brought over to the VLT side.
IGT is set to unveil its new VLT cabinet, the Sierra27, at G2E. Designed to meet the specific needs of VLT operators, the Sierra27 boasts a sleek, modern aesthetic. “It features minimized lighting, which remains a key demand from many of our VLT customers,” says Jason Ingles, senior manager, VLT product. The name Sierra27 reflects its use of 27-inch displays, with a minimized gap between them. Additionally, it includes a 27-inch topper for three 27-inch displays and an upgraded digital player panel, now 13 inches instead of 10.
The Sierra27 also includes dual play buttons, a popular feature in many of IGT’s VLT markets. “We’ve added a wireless charger as well,” Ingles notes, “and we’re very pleased with the ergonomics and optimal orientation of the displays.”
The new GameAce ETG solution launched only a few months ago and has already demonstrated strong performance. The Eilers-Fantini quarterly ETG report shows that IGT’s Roulette solution is outperforming all competitors’ offerings by nearly two times.
GameAce’s main offering is the Mesa4K terminal, which houses roulette, blackjack and baccarat, and, as a show reveal, a new Wheel of Fortune game.
IGT’s entire GameAce solution is based on extensive market research with operators and players alike. “The 4K monitors on the cabinets allow the player to wager on up to four tables at the same time, while the screen retains maximum readability, delivers a supreme user experience and provides full statistics visibility,” says Kevin Parker, IGT director of ETG. “This is something that is very important to players, and an element of the player experience that was of great interest to them.”
Finally, IGT’s Systems Division will have a coming-out party at G2E for Advantage X, the company’s improved CMS.
“This is a big year for us from a systems perspective,” says Khin. “We are unveiling a brand new systems platform, something the team has been working on for a number of years. It’s ready for its big unveiling.
“It incorporates the very latest in technology. This system will be even more bulletproof than our previous system, which was already reliable at 99.9 percent uptime. We have significantly enhanced the user interface, making it a lot easier for operators to use and to navigate. It’s going to be a much easier system to implement and to install, and to upgrade.”
In all, IGT will bring a mind-boggling collection of innovative products to the show. “G2E is a great opportunity for us to showcase what our team members have been working hard on for the past 18-plus months,” says Khin. “We’ve got a lot to show.”
