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August 10, 2006 |
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| Ingenio hits its stride | |||
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The recent announcement that Bally
Technologies had entered into a long-term strategic alliance with
Loto-Quebec subsidiary Ingenio likely left many in the gaming
industry scratching their heads, wondering what a slot machine
vendor would want from a lottery games developer.
Rip away the misconceptions, however, and this deal makes sense for both companies. Ingenio is a research and development company which initially developed entertaining and interactive extended-play games for the lottery industry, but whose mandate took a wider view when Alain Cousineau took over as Loto-Quebec’s chairman, president, and CEO in 2003. Under his new corporate strategy, the goal was to intensify R&D in other gaming fields. “A common denominator for all industries is the need to attract new players or different types of players, younger players that are very keen on more interactive products,” explained Nathalie Rajotte, director general of Ingenio, who added that industries no longer live in isolation. “For me it’s like a map that is slowly taking form. Although it may look like very separate things from an outsider perspective, for us this is all very logical and linked together.” Certainly development is intensifying on non-lottery products. Ingenio has worked closely with Loto-Quebec’s casino subsidiary in its R&D efforts, and also launched a promotional electronic bingo game for the company’s networked bingo group. The Bally alliance potentially marks the start of something big, but it was a long time coming, according to Rajotte. Ingenio first looked to the casino industry some ten years ago seeking to build alliances in research and development, but didn’t find any interest. “They were still in the culture or way of thinking that they were [hardware] manufacturers, and only slowly with the standardization of technologies did they begin to realize that they were in the content business more than the hardware business,” she said. Of course, even ten years ago most games were still mechanical reels, noted Marcus Prater, senior vice president of marketing for Bally. “We didn’t need [what Ingenio was proposing], because there wasn’t much they could have done that we weren’t already doing.” But with video slots reaching full stride, content becomes king. Parallel to that realization, noted Rajotte, was the crossover between the casino and lottery industries, as lotteries expanded their video lottery or slot machine programs. “That built bridges between the lottery industry and the casino industry,” she said. Ingenio’s work in animated interactive lottery games became more widely known, and Bally approached the company about two years ago. “From Bally’s perspective, the key thing is being able to partner with a group that has such strong creative talent,” explained Prater. “We sort of admired their work from afar, and then once we started talking, we really understood the level of creativity that they are putting into their existing business, and how that could translate to our slot machine titles. It’s just meant to bring a fresher perspective to our game development efforts.” The first game to come out of this alliance should hit casinos by the end of the year, according to Bally, which is responsible for the end distribution of the product. “There’s lots of interesting technology coming down the road here, and I’d like to think that this relationship will be paying off for many years to come,” said Prater. --Patricia A. McQueen |
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