Increasing numbers of game designers for the street market now have an online arm to their businesses, as do the larger operators. Steph Norbury looks at why it has taken so long for the incumbent game designers to embrace the online gaming sector and how they can now benefit from taking arcades online.
THE move from machine manufacturing industry to game design industry has been well documented. It was summed up, for example, in the change of name from Bell-Fruit Manufacturing to Bell-Fruit Games, as far back as 1999. In fact, there are now many AWP suppliers who don’t actually manufacture machines any more at all, but simply supply games that can be uploaded onto cabinets in pubs, bingo halls and LBOs.
However, despite this, it seems only recently that AWP suppliers are starting to target the online market. In an excellent article on multi-channel gaming, Rhys Owen of Geco Gaming suggested that the traditional machine suppliers have been slow to embrace the potential.
