Server-based gaming has been slow to catch on in casinos, but all that may be about to change...
What we currently refer to as server-based gaming - a term that some experts believe will disappear over time - is now gaining traction after a series of false dawns.
When it was first conceived, SBG was seen as the saviour of the industry and early predictions were that it would roll out rapidly, but this did not really happen. “The roll-out has been slower than expected for several reasons,” Bruce Rowe, senior vice president customer consulting and sales support at Bally Technologies, told InterGaming.
“High-speed infrastructure did not exist in most casinos in 2003 when this was initially discussed. Also, the initial idea of game revenue management and access to hundreds of thousands of games was not required by operators, especially as the economy suffered in the last few years. For many, priorities have now shifted to marketing and customer service on every game, no matter the manufacturer.
“The idea of having the game CPU become the player interface for functions other than games was not practical given the lack of backward and forward migration across multiple manufacturers’ platforms. And applications had to be built which demonstrated pure ROI that could be measured and attributed to the investment.”
This article can be read in full in the February issue of InterGaming.
