AGS: Scaling Up

AGS ramps up production as new hardware provides a broad palette for game developers

Few gaming suppliers have had a more impressive run over the past decade than Las Vegas-based AGS.

The company had already been on a steady climb in the casino market—not only with an expanding library of slots, but with specialty table games, an interactive division, and one of the most innovative table-game progressive systems ever conceived—when equity firm Brightstar Capital closed its acquisition of the supplier in late June 2025.

That acquisition capped a seven-year run as a public company, a period in which AGS grew from what was mainly a Class II supplier into a prominent position in the slot market. The company’s market position has continued to grow since then, to the point where it is now approaching a small group of elite suppliers at the very top.

“AGS has gone through a major transformation the past couple of years,” says Loren Rosenberg, AGS vice president, commercial strategy & operations, “to where we’re knocking on the door of the Big Three.”

AGS has accomplished this new market dominance through a flurry of production that has seen it pump out new content at a remarkable pace. In fact, over the past year, AGS has released games at a similar pace to Aristocrat and Light & Wonder. “Further, if you look at our output, it’s equivalent to the next four largest competitors combined,” Rosenberg says.

“In that same aspect, we’ve been scaling our capabilities as a company. In 2024, we entered the three-reel space, we entered the large-form-factor space with the Spectra 75, and since then, we’ve had a real focus on the mid-denom segments that have really been growing on North American floors. Because of the investment we’ve made, we’ve been honing in on the things that work, and achieving a higher hit rate because of these capabilities.”

New parent company Brightstar has supported the company’s vision. “Brightstar has been a true strategic partner in this next phase of growth for AGS,” Rosenberg says. “The leadership team has stayed completely intact, and AGS has always prided itself on the culture, on really staying true to the identity that AGS has always been to our customers.”

AGS will debut the fruits of continued strong R&D investment at the Global Gaming Expo with some 50 new titles, all of which are releasing now or will hit the market within six months after the show. Much of it will concentrate on proven brands like Fortune Frenzy, Triple Coin Treasures and Lion Cash, but none will be more prominent than the game family that has been the franchise brand for AGS, Rakin’ Bacon! “Since launching the first Rakin’ Bacon! game in 2018, we’ve released 15 titles in the family,” Rosenberg says.

According to Rosenberg, the company has shipped some 20,000 software sets related to that title. Rakin’ Bacon! has served as the launch title for myriad new hardware along the way, from the Orion cabinet group to the more recent Spectra cabinet line. This year will be no different, as AGS launches the next entry in the Rakin’ Bacon! family, a game that was designed in concert with the first entry in the company’s next cabinet line.

At G2E, the company will debut the first cabinet in the new Glō family, the Glō UR43, a 43-inch portrait cabinet featuring 16 controllable lighting zones.

“It’s been four years since we launched the Spectra line of cabinets,” Rosenberg says. “Player preferences and expectations have continued to grow, so we’re really keeping up with player demands with the Glō UR43 in terms of technology, lighting effects and ergonomics. We’re very excited about the six exclusive game families we’re debuting on the cabinet.”

Additionally, AGS is creating the Glō Link, a progressive jackpot that links across all those game families, with a reset level configurable at $10,000 or $25,000. “Because it’s not tied to a single game family, that meter’s going to be moving very quickly,” Rosenberg says.

Glō will initially be available with six game families, the first four to debut at G2E. There will be two launch games in each family. Going forward, the cabinet will become part of the AGS Flexible Content Ecosystem, or AGS Flex, which features content that is transferable among various cabinets. There will be select titles that are available on both the Glō and Spectra cabinets.

Building on Success

Heading the first three launch families for Glō will be the latest in the company’s franchise Rakin’ Bacon! series, which has been red-hot of late on industry performance charts.

The most recent two additions to the game family each landed in the top 10 in two categories of the Eilers-Fantini slot performance report—Rakin’ Bacon! Fu Zhu Bao Bao ranked as No. 2 in Top Indexing New Games-Core and No. 6 in overall Top Indexing Games; paired games Rakin’ Bacon Hogger Lager and Rakin’ Bacon Hogtoberfest at No 7 and No. 9 in the same category.

At G2E, AGS will debut Rakin’ Bacon! Ultra on the Glō cabinet, with new titles Squeallionaire and Bankrollers. At the heart of the games are four collection pots represented by “Cornsquealius,” the animated gold piggy bank that serves as the game’s mascot. The different-sized pigs representing the pots are stacked over the reels, with the largest one on the top.

As cash-on-reels symbols send coins to the pigs, they squish together, with the largest one weighing down the smaller pigs, who react with grunts and sweat in hilarious animation. Any one cash-on-reels symbol can trigger one or more enhanced free-spin bonuses:

“Boost,” the smallest piggy, randomly boosts the value of three to seven cash-on-reels symbols during the free spins. Rising in pig size, “Transform” replaces the lower-paying poker symbols with cash-on-reels coins. “Multi” adds additional reel sets, up to four, and “Waterfall,” the largest piggy, causes cash-on-reel symbols to cascade down from higher to lower reel windows for additional payments.

 “The Waterfall cascading feature is robust, and overall, the game shows the versatility of the pig character, as we are using it in original ways,” Rosenberg says. “The core mechanics of this game are obvious to the players; they will pick it up quickly. We’re excited to debut the game at G2E.”

Next up on Glō is Roaring Express, a train-themed game packed with bonus features. Base titles Tiger General and Empress Warrior each feature a “Hold & Win” bonus in which filling all 15 spots with cash-on-reels and/or jackpot icons returns a Grand jackpot. Landing a “Lucky 8” symbol during the hold-and-spin feature triggers the Roaring Jackpot Bonus, a secondary hold-and-spin feature within the main feature, in which filling all positions on an eight-space grid returns a Roaring Jackpot progressive in the thousands.

Landing a train symbol on the reels triggers the Roaring Express Bonus, in which trains appear on the reels, each carrying a repeat-win cash-on-reels enhancement when the symbol lands.

“This is one of the most visually intense games we’ve ever done,” says Rosenberg. “It is graphically stunning, and has a great combination of popular game mechanics, seamlessly combined. This will just be an added dimension for AGS.”

The third family debuting on Glō is Hu Bao Bei (launch titles Tiger Bloom and Tiger Riches), featuring collection pots of gold coins that can trigger free spins with enhancements. What’s unique is that even if a single pot triggers the free spins, the other free-spin bonus features can be triggered within those free spins, creating a bonus chain.

In addition to the pots, the free spins can be triggered with different colored coins. Three or more blue coins triggers free spins with expanding wilds. Six or more red coins trigger “Spin Spree,” in which cash symbols collect above the reels to form a “Spree Pot,” won by landing a gold “Win” bag. Purple “Win” bags add a 2X, 3X or 8X multiplier to the pot.

A single green coin can trigger the “Jackpot Pick” bonus, where matching three jackpot icons during the free spins wins that jackpot.

The fourth pairing for Glō will be revealed at the show.

Premium Video and Three-Reel

AGS also will introduce several games on its premium video cabinet and on Revel, its fast-growing mechanical-reel stepper cabinet.

Heading the premium video list is Lion Cash Supreme, available on both the Spectra+ Premium Banked product line and Spectra SL75 cabinet. It is another bonus-packed game, including a free-spin bonus with sticky wilds, and a hold-and-spin bonus that can trigger two different secondary hold-and-spin features within the main feature.

The main hold-and-spin bonus is a standard three-spin cycle. During the feature, landing a Lion Cash symbol triggers a secondary hold-and-spin on an eight-spot grid, where filling all eight spots lands the Lion Jackpot, a progressive resetting at $1,500. Landing a Lion Cash Supreme symbol triggers the Super Hold & Spin, another secondary hold-and-spin on a five-position grid, for a jackpot starting at $1,000. When either of the secondary features is complete, the player returns to the main hold-and-spin bonus.

The game is an extension of the popular Lion Cash slot that debuted at G2E two years ago. “It was one of our most recent premium successes, so we’re excited to be building upon that brand,” Rosenberg says. “This adds another game with the Super Hold-and-Spin, and another secondary game-in-game layer. You’ve got two features within the feature, and a free-spin bonus that can enable the player to back-door into those features.”

On the mechanical reel side, the Revel stepper cabinet has made a smash debut, with its six initial releases all performing in the Top10 of all mechanical releases since debuting in 2024.

“I believe our talent here in the three-reel mechanical space is second to none,” says Rosenberg. “We have a clear vision of what we want to build out, and how we want to take that player forward. There is momentum, and I believe the industry is going to start seeing it play out in the charts over the coming months.”

Debuting at G2E is Jackpot Legends, a three-reel, nine-line stepper with cash-on-reels symbols appearing as gongs, adding up to form what-you-see-is-what-you-get pays. In addition to the cash-on-reels gongs are special bonus symbols. “Dragon Double” doubles any cash-on-reels wins. “Tiger Spin” re-spins any non-winning reels. “Phoenix Nudge” nudges any blank reel symbol to potentially turn a loss into a win. “Jackpot Wheel” activates a bonus wheel in the video monitor above the reels, which spins to award one of four jackpots, including the top Grand progressive.

These games will combine with a host of other new offerings in every game category for what is one of the largest G2E exhibits yet from AGS.

“We’re committed to being the best company to work with,” says Rosenberg. “It’s in the DNA of AGS. It is why Brightstar became our owner and strategic partner, it’s what they’re investing in. It proves that even after an ownership change, the company fundamentals are still truly intact—and we are excited to highlight the breadth, depth, and value of our portfolio to both players and operators.”