Skill games challenge players in a way no other game can. InterGame discovers how their popularity and role in the industry continues to grow
For many players, there is no better feeling than walking away from a machine with the satisfaction of having beaten it simply by using skill rather than leaving it to the gods of chance. Games of skill have been a solid part of the amusement industry since day dot but it is the way they are presented and the incentive given to play that has evolved over the years.
Skill games used to be mainly found at fairs and arcades and were played just for the fun element rather than the chance of winning a prize, games that purely tested a person’s skill level, so shooting games and so on. This then moved on to include sports games and later expanded into the pub market taking the form of SWP quiz games, which generally attached themselves to and built on the success of strong television quiz licences.
Today’s market has become much more about the skill games in family entertainment environments that advertise their prizes, reinforcing the ongoing message from players that they want value for money entertainment that can be enjoyed by everyone in the family.
Skill games have continued to grow in popularity and importance in the pay-to-play industry and work to draw a wider audience into a location as Sega Amusement Europe’s Justin Burke tells us: “They give operators the chance to attract a different customer base such as females and more casual players rather than core gamers alone. With the prize vend style games the operator has the chance to also become a retailer. Skill games offer the player the chance to be more competitive, testing their dexterity.”
For Steve Bryant, international sales manager at LAI Games, skill games are big business in FECs and it is the ‘tease factor’ that keeps players coming back for more, that feeling of being so close to winning. LAI Games has had unbelievable success with its range of Stacker products which feature some of the best examples of that all important ‘tease factor’ that keeps players coming back for more.
“You have to make the games challenging yet achievable,” Bryant tells InterGame. “It is also good to have that extra level of difficulty for that added challenge but keeping it believable at the same time. The problem arises when operators get greedy and make it too difficult to win a prize. There is no better advertisement for your machines than someone walking away with a prize.”
Al Kress from Benchmark Games adds to Bryant’s point, telling InterGame: “Skill games have multiplied rapidly as players realise that by performing better they can win a prize or ticket. In non-skill games, they are playing against a computer or just taking a chance at winning. Players want to leave a location with a smile on their face and a prize in their hand.
“A skill game that gives out tickets or prizes also lets the operator determine the payout percentage by the value of the prize. On a non-skill game the payout will be all over the spectrum unless there is a random number generator in the software. A skill game can offer a player a prize or tickets that they can walk around the arcade with and let everyone know how well they’ve done. They also have the option to accumulate tickets as an incentive to try and get a larger prize. We try to make our games not too hard but not too easy; the right combination is one where the player believes they can make a difference to the outcome.”
Benchmark Games’ best performing skill game is currently Monster Drop. However, according to Kress, the manufacturer still sells a Wheel Deal machine every week and this game is now nine years old. “If you look at the charts you will see that it is still the number one game after all these years. Its appeal to all ages and both sexes makes it a true crowd pleaser,” he tells InterGame.
LAI’s Bryant also tells us that skill games offer better value for money in the eyes of the player as they generally last longer than games of chance. This is particularly true when it comes to SWPs in the pub market.
While the sector isn’t currently performing as well as everyone would like, due to the demise of the sector itself, for Bryant, even with the high-tech AWPs that include all the features, they are still a pretty quick game in comparison to a machine providing quiz games.
For Adrenaline Amusements’ Marc-Antoine Pinard, the popularity of skill games has increased as the games themselves have improved, while the players have also learnt that games based on luck alone are an extension of a casino product and that there is no way of them improving their ability to win each time they play.
“The best kind of skill game is one that is simple to play and allows the player to improve each time,” Pinard tells us. “Skill games encourage repeat business and if you attach a tournament to your games you are making a regular appointment with your frequent customers. However, I feel that the industry doesn’t understand the true benefits of a tournament as there really are not enough of them happening right now.”
One company in particular, however, has seen this potential and has had an unbelievable amount of success with tournament skill games over the years. AMI Entertainment, formerly known as Merit Entertainment and also encompassing Games Warehouse, which supports the SWP sector in the UK, is both a terminal and content provider, delivering a broad menu of skill game options from both its own development teams and external third party content providers.
For Games Warehouse’s Nick Hardy, while the number of pub and bar locations in the UK has declined, the importance of skill-based games such as the SWP has increased. He told InterGame: “Historically the AWP machines delivered strong and consistent incomes in pubs and bars and virtually all of the other product were seen as being ancillary. However, as both the number of locations and average AWP incomes declined due to social and economic change, these products naturally gained importance to operators and site owners. From a player perspective, the significance of the SWP game has also evolved because of its unique position.
Opportunities to gamble and bet are everywhere and consumers are increasingly exposed to new ways to play slot machines, AWPs, roulette, etc, in the home and via their personal computers and handheld devices. So the consumer ‘appeal’ of the terminal based gaming product is devalued, especially in the eyes of the younger, tech-savvy players. This shift is not yet applicable to the skill games sector because
skill games that pay out prizes are far more difficult to develop and manage effectively. For this reason, developers of true skill with prize games have created a strong niche for themselves with a loyal audience of non-gambling players.”
Relating back to the tournament aspect of skill games, for AMI the advantages of tournament are very straightforward. Tournament games attract much more repeat play and loyalty. Also, all tournament games are score-based and in one way or another, duration-based. This inevitably means that players have multiple opportunities to register scores and compete, ‘binding’ them to the concept. Secondly, by running a single tournament event across a connected network of machines or terminals, operators are able to offer higher prizes because they are combined and cumulative. This in turn has a logical impact on player appeal as the opportunity to win £1,000 is far more attractive than the opportunity to win £50, especially if the game is one of skill where players know that they can practice, improve and influence the final outcome.
While tournament would seem like a logical step for an operator to take when looking to boost their machine income, it does require investment as participating machines need to be networked, there is a connectivity cost and the tournament proposition needs to be marketed and promoted on site. Tournament isn’t failsafe either and it doesn’t always work in every location.
That said, AMI argues the investment is worth the risk and it reports an average overall income uplift of around 20 per cent across its tournament estate of approximately 1,000 locations.
Hardy also believes that the desire to play for the challenge and entertainment still outweighs the desire to win a prize when it comes to skill games, telling InterGame: “While the availability of prizes does appeal to a core of very committed players, who collectively make a strong contribution to the income levels, the mass of more casual players are playing for the entertainment but are smart enough to want more than a simple amusement only game. In such a situation it is possible for the level of skill required to achieve success to increase as each game progresses.
“Casual players do not expect to win immediately and nor do they expect the game to begin with a high degree of difficulty. Likewise more committed players expect the game to get progressively more difficult.”
Moving forward, the skill game will continue to play an important role in many locations and in family entertainment locations we will no doubt see more of the Stacker, Winner’s Cube and Key Master style products as more operators get into the retailer mindset, drawing their customers in by showcasing the prizes available. But for the pub sector, which has been the home of skill games for many years, what can we expect to see? In the UK the market has reached something of a plateau, especially as the number of locations continues to decline. Operators already have a stock of units that can be moved around. However, for Games Warehouse’s Hardy, the US does provide some new opportunities and while it is still early days for its Prize Farm SWP product, it is a fantastic opportunity to introduce a complete new genre of challenging entertainment product to a hungry new market.
“These games that have been so successful in the UK and also mainland Europe but significantly without the instant prizes as of yet, have the potential to extend themselves into the mainstream bar and café culture due to their broad appeal, encouragement of repeat play and lack of reliance on the delicate concept of gambling,” he says. “It is up to ambitious and creative operators in territories around the world to get their heads around the true potential of this concept and try out these amazing products in appropriate locations.”
