Next Gaming taps into decades of casino operations experience to enter the nascent skill-gaming space
There are a few relatively young companies arriving at this year’s Global Gaming Expo to promote skill-based games, created in an effort that began when Nevada and New Jersey approved games with variable payback percentages according to skill levels.
Most, like Gamblit and GameCo, were founded by executives with experience in the world of video games. One company, however, breaks that mold — Las Vegas-based Next Gaming, LLC.
Unlike other companies introducing skill-based games, Next Gaming is run by seasoned executives from the operational side of the gaming industry. Founder and President Terry Caudill is the owner of the Four Queens and Binion’s in Downtown Las Vegas. CEO Mike Darley is a 35-year industry veteran who was executive vice president and chief operating officer of Majestic Star Casino, senior vice president and general manager of Fitzgeralds in Downtown Las Vegas, and vice president of operations for Trump Casinos. He also spent 18 years in casino operations at Harrah’s Entertainment.
Caudill has more than four decades in the industry. In addition to Four Queens and Binion’s, he owns Magoo’s Gaming Group, which operates several Las Vegas restaurants and gaming bars, including the Chicago Brewing Company. Caudill founded Next Gaming in 2006 to organically create games and slot machines, with an added focus on skill-based games in the past two years.
“About five years ago, Terry asked me to come into the company, and we set a strategy of designing compelling games, as everyone else tries to do for the slot floors,” Darley said. “We were familiar with it. It wasn’t too long after that the conversation of millennials and the decline in patrons started to bubble up. It was pretty evident, and it was good timing. At that point — and Terry’s a good guy with an entrepreneurial focus — we asked, where do we want to engage? Do we want to engage in what we believe fills the need of a future demographic?”
Darley said casinos are like any business that must reinvent themselves for new generations.
“In any business, people age out, but especially in gaming,” he said. “People are aging out in gaming, with the baby boomers shrinking and the millennials increasing. So, we set on a quest to start thinking about and developing skill-based games to meet the demands of all of our customers, including millennials.”
Next Gaming acquired licenses for strong patented intellectual property from video game giants Atari and Taito. According to Darley, four skill-based games are complete and two new skilll-based games are being launched at G2E.
The company’s skill-based game library includes its versions of Atari’s “Asteroids,” “Missile Command” and “Tempest,” and Taito’s “Arkanoid,” and “Bust-A-Move.” The company also has created its own game, “ZForce.”
The games are all designed to play like the arcade versions, and Darley believes the company is well-equipped to solve the math problem skill-based game suppliers face: a true arcade-like skill experience with enough of a chance element that it makes money for a casino.
“The challenge we have, and it’s not insurmountable by any means, is to design games that are engaging, that are immersive, that meet the demands of a younger demographic, and offer the general performance of a slot machine,” Darley said. “It’s revenue per square foot. That wasn’t an epiphany for us, because we’re in the casino business. So, we started out with designing games with the purpose of meeting the demands of the casino operators, in terms of the financial performance, while designing games that engage the customer.
“We didn’t start in video games, but we’re good at it,” Darley added. “The other companies started in video games, and their challenge is to make it a slot machine. We kind of reversed that, to make sure it had performance metrics that were acceptable to a casino and design a video game.”
That also applies to the physical footprints of the machines, which, although they are faithful recreations of arcade video games, are housed in standard slot cabinets.
One special feature unique to Next Gaming products is a player choice of the skill level — Easy, Normal or Hard. The novice can have an entertaining experience on the Easy setting and can move up when his or her skill level improves.
“Our intent is not to put barriers in front of our patrons,” Darley said. “To engage somebody on a slot machine, they have to have a good experience from the very start. Otherwise, you just don’t play it.
“If you’re playing on Easy, it’s not that you don’t have the chance to win — you still have a good chance,” Darley added. “But as you get up in your skill level, and you’re making skilled shots, and you’re doing all those activities that contribute to a high skill level, we want to reward you for it. When you’re in Hard, it’s challenging, but it’s not overwhelming. We’ve designed our games to be achievable. Even if you’re on Hard, we want them to get on the leaderboard; we want them to celebrate getting through 60 levels.”
Darley said the company is submitting its games for approval in Nevada and has an agreement with “a very large casino company” to install the games as soon as they are approved.
After that rollout, the next logical move will be placement at Caudill’s Downtown casinos and to spread out from there.
Darley said the company is pushing to have its games in all areas of the casino floor, not just in a special “millennial-friendly” room like MGM’s Level Up! Lounge.
“Our games look like slot machines,” Darley says. “The graphics don’t look like slot machines, they look like arcade games. But having run multiple casino floors and understanding where you’re really going to get the benefit of people playing, and get feedback, it’s my opinion they should not be entirely isolated in a dedicated room.”
That’s the message Next Gaming is promoting to its customers.
“My conversations I’ve had with multiple casinos who want our product is, ‘don’t isolate us,’” he said. “If you want to have a carve-out in a special area you’re fixing up, that’s good. But for you to measure our performance and get people acclimated to a new gaming experience, please put us on your main casino floor, because we will fit into your slot product.”
Next Gaming is also pursuing an agreement to acquire intellectual property licenses for their “core” game library, non-skill-based games, which cover multiple titles. This extensive core game library is another differentiating factor with Next.
Outside of that effort, Darley says Next Gaming products will appeal to millennials by giving them the same kind of charge they get from video games.
“We want the celebration to happen, while challenging them enough to where they have a sense of accomplishment,” Darley said. “That’s part of the whole design of our games.”
Just like video games.
Only designed by casino veterans.
