WMS International's president, Sebastian Salat, takes InterGaming through the company's latest innovation, Ultra Hit Progressive portal technology
What are the key features of the WMS Ultra Hit Progressive portal technology?
Ultra Hit Progressive is the first commercially available portal family from WMS that enables operators to competitively differentiate their casino floors while providing unprecedented player experiences. UHP leverages the flexibility of networked gaming functionality to extend the life cycle of today’s base game themes by adding new entertainment experiences on slot machines connected to the network.
UHP adds a mystery-triggered, multi-level progressive bonus experience on top of WMS base game themes, in an effort to boost game performance, increase coin-in, keep base game themes on the floor longer, and enhance player experiences. The UHP themes spotlight imminent jackpots on the base game screen, in the top screen, as well as on optional strategically located signage. As coin-in increases and the progressive triggers are approached, robust visuals are displayed and ambient sounds are amplified to celebrate the big win across the banks of eligible games.
How do the themes work?
In the Jackpot Explosion theme, the first currently available in the UHP portal family, lava fills a volcano on the top screen while lava rises around the reels on the primary screen as coin-in builds. Excitement intensifies at the bank level until the volcano dramatically erupts, awarding one lucky player one of four progressive awards.
The second theme in the UHP portal family is the Piggy Bankin theme. This soon-to-be-released theme features coins piling into a piggy bank that grows larger and larger, shaking, swelling, and cracking, until it ultimately reaches critical mass and explodes, awarding one lucky player one of four progressive awards.
What are the key advantages for operators?
Not only do the Portal Application solutions allow our casino partners to keep base game themes fresh, boost game performance, and deliver a superior experience to their players, but WMS has created hundreds of new ways for a casino to differentiate their floor by mixing and matching base game themes to portal application themes. Early results have shown that UHP products experienced an average 30-40 per cent increase in coin-in at select locations, compared to the games without UHP.
To provide customers with maximum flexibility, UHP is available in both a bank-level solution, to allow for easy implementation, and the full Networked Gaming solution. By integrating WMS games with our portal applications operators are creating new opportunities to collaboratively build upon our Casino Evolved vision for networked gaming, enabling long-term benefits from their investment.
How does the UHP portal enhance the gaming experience for players?
UHP delivers players with an unparalleled gaming experience that combines robust visuals and ambient sounds to celebrate the big win. The multi-level progressive architecture delivers emotive lighting and visual cues that empower operators to dynamically change the player’s experience in multiple ways while immersing players in unprecedented player experience. Excitement intensifies at the bank level when players are closing in on the progressive trigger, awarding one lucky player one of four progressive awards.
Is WMS planning to develop its UHP family further over the coming months?
Other Portal application families that WMS will debut in the near future include Winner’s Share, MetaScreen and Mega Multiplier. Winner’s Share adds a secondary bonus opportunity on top of video or mechanical reel base games to provide players with an exciting progressive game experience when the bonus is randomly triggered.
Winner’s Share debuted at G2E 2010 with the Peng-Wins theme, in which a penguin slides, bounces and slips through an interactive environment, while the player collects credit card awards from one to 200 per cent of the progressive jackpot. MetaScreen provides the first true competitive slot experience with the debut of Pirate Battle, a two-vs-two community gaming competition theme available exclusively in banks of four Bluebird xD cabinets with special 32ins overhead monitors. These monitors join to form a massive, singular screen on which a bonus canon battle randomly occurs, as red and blue teams compete for credit and progressive awards.
Finally, the Mega Multiplier Portal application family is a standalone multiplier bonus application that is powered by a real-time physics engine and features individual themed displays that can be swapped out on any gaming machine connected to the Mega Multiplier Central Game Controller.
Mega Multiplier randomly awards credits to a pinball that the player can then choose to launch at any time during game play to trigger the Portal application. The ball is shot up into the top screen for a chance to multiply stored credits up to 100 times.
