Japan-based gaming equipment supplier Sega Sammy Creation Inc says it has plans to expand its footprint in Southeast Asia with new slot machines and smaller electronic table games (ETGs).
So said Masahiro Kurosaki, Sega Sammy Creation’s deputy managing director of sales division, during last week’s Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia 2019, a casino industry trade show and conference held last week in Macau.
“Macau is an important market, but we also want to expand our business to other jurisdictions, like the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and others,” Mr Kurosaki told GGRAsia.
Sega Sammy Creation supplies equipment to regulated markets across Asia and to Nevada, in the United States. The company was founded in June 2013 as part of Japan’s Sega Sammy Group.
The parent’s interests include the manufacture of pachinko and pachislot machines for the Japan market, and the production of digital home entertainment products. The group also develops and operates theme parks and resorts.
Mr Kurosaki said Sega Sammy Creation is trying to install its machines in smaller gaming venues across Asia. “Our multi-station ETGs have been placed mainly in larger casino[s] due to [their] large size, but with the introduction of smaller versions and standalone types, we will be able to provide our games to smaller casinos,” said the executive.
Sega Sammy Creation launched last year a standalone product called “Baccarat Maximum Fortune”. According to the company, players of the product can view the prior game results generated by the machine immediately, by pressing an “Action Button” during bet time, even if they have not yet personally placed any bets via the device.
According to Mr Kurosaki, the company has so far installed 12 machines at MGM Cotai and four machines at MGM Macau, two properties operated by MGM China Holdings Ltd. Sega Sammy Creation has also installed 12 units of Baccarat Maximum Fortune at Galaxy Macau, run by Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd.
This title has received a “lot of positive feedback” from customers and the company is “gradually expanding” its installation in the Macau market, the executive noted.
With more slot and ETG products in the pipeline, Sega Sammy Creation debuted two new slot games at this year’s edition of G2E Asia based on the parent’s intellectual property video games, “Virtua Fighter Battle Genesis” and “House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn Battle Genesis”.
The two titles, launched by the parent company in the 1990’s, have been “successfully” adapted to arcade games, console games, mobile games and other formats over the years, said Sega Sammy Creation in a press statement. The two titles are the “first round” of a range of video slot games based on Sega Sammy’s intellectual property, the manufacturer noted.
The two games have what Mr Kurosaki calls “an industry-first” bonus feature, which “utilises the video slot reels in battle action sequences” and the credit prize is determined by the total number of specific symbols on the screen.
Both titles will be available in Macau and other Asian markets this summer, and installations have already been confirmed for some large-scale properties, said MrKurosaki. He declined to identify such properties by name.
