What drives the pay-to-play amusement industry forward is innovation, both in new concepts in operations and the use of new technologies, writes Simon Liddle.
INNOVATIVE new technologies are the lifeblood of the pay-to-play amusement industry and have, at various different stages, enabled it to evolve and sometimes re-invent itself in order to stay a relevant form of entertainment. Yet while today’s games feature technologies as far removed from those of say, 20 years ago, as possible, nonetheless they are still instantly familiar to players. There’s something about the way we play games and the type of play mechanics we enjoy that ensures continuity in style; how this is delivered is perhaps what changes the most.
Taking an overview of the pay-to-play amusements sector, whether that’s pure family amusements or street gaming, there are clear trends emerging across the sector – online connectivity, video touchscreens, app-inspired content, automated management systems… Slowly but surely, these new ideas are taking hold and are changing the way games are made available and the way operators manage them.
As has been discussed in the pages of InterGame many times in the past, often central to the appeal of pay-to-play amusements is their simplicity. What works for one generation of players seems to work equally well – and as intuitively – for the next. Given the breadth of new technologies available and what these can achieve, the temptation may be to seek to re-invent the wheel in the quest to find the next big thing. However, game design is a complex equation that has to take into account changing fashions. For example, the widespread use of touchscreen tablet technology has seen the technology applied to a host of amusement games, yet the actual play mechanics replicate traditional styles of fairground and amusements game play. Operators must also be convinced of their benefits.
“Operators need to be in tune with what’s cool,” Dietmar Straubinger of TAB Austria said. “They are open to new technologies when they see that it brings enough benefits. Developers have to focus on maximising ROI and to keep players loyal – truly no easy challenge, but there is still enough potential to meet this with innovative and value-added products.”
Read the full article in the August issue of InterGame.
