February 18 , 2008

No More Couch Potatoes

Interactive, Action and Sports combination game, the future trend of the Industry?
The video game industry originally started with simple coin-operated video games about 3 decades ago. The recent technology innovations have, and will continue to affect the future trends of coin-operated gaming industry in a profound manner that might even revitalize it.

To predict a trend in the industry, we must understand how our demographic behaves and their preferences. A game’s success depends greatly on its ability to seize the attention of customers and getting them to put money into the machine. A major part of our industry’s demographic is children and teens. Coin-operated video games need to appeal to our target demographic, which means games must be high energy, fast twitching and edgy.

Let us look at the home video game industry to predict the trends in the coin-operated video game industry.

According to a recent research on video games, approx. 27.5% of the gamers like Action Games; 17% like Sport Games; and 10.8% prefer Racing Games.

We can look at one of the best example, which is Nintendo’s Wii. According to Nintendo, they have sold more than 2.3 million Wii consoles in just the first six months of 2007, and they have sold almost 435,000 units in June alone. So why is Nintendo Wii so popular? Reason is Wii’s innovative technology turns what would have been an ordinary game into an action game that requires physical body movements. By integrating the usage of body movements into video game play, the Wii system quickly becomes something that is fresh and exciting and provides added fun for the entire family - even for seniors!

Industry researchers predict Action and Sports type coin-operated video game will be the future of the coin-operated game industry, examples such as virtual bowling, touch screen games that involve a lot of upper body movements, and multi-player action games that will allow the whole family to play together. These types of games all need physical actions, which is consistent with the recent trends that players want to play and get a good workout at the same time.

We, at UNIS firmly believe that future successful coin-operated products must utilize the latest technology that mirrors what a Nintendo Wii could bring to the living room. Family Entertainment product at its best should allow good physical action fun with appealing game content and allows multiple players to play and share.

We started off with Family Bowling, a virtual bowling game that combines action, innovation and technology. Just like real bowling, players must roll balls down the lane to knock down pins.

This ticket redemption machine uses carefully sized balls so both children and adult can handle easily and comfortably. The simulator captures the velocity and course of the actual ball rolled and transmits it into virtual image onscreen. This type of interactive Sports action game is gaining popularity amongst players of all ages, and provides fun and excitement to the whole family!

Another game that has caught on to this trend is Namco’s Jumping Jackpot. This game is also an interactive game which requires players to seriously workout! Jumping Jackpot (as the name suggests) is a game that involves a whole lot of jumping. It is a virtual jump rope game where the “rope” is essentially a trail of lights that circulate around an oval dome. As the bulbs light up one after another, players must time their jump carefully so that when the bottom section of the dome lights up, they jump. With each successful jump, the rope spins around faster, increasing the level of difficult. That is when the real workout begins!

Announcement!!

UNIS has recently licensed this game from Namco Bandai group and we have secured the deal with them for limited markets in the South East Asia and China. Buyers should expect sales to start sometime around the end of April 2008. (Since this product is within limited sales territories, please contact your sales representative for detail first!)

UFO Stomper launched by Triotech is another excellent example of a game that integrates physical body movements, exciting game play and multiplayer action!

UFO Stomper is a coin-op redemption game with an interactive touch screen floor that produces instant reaction/feedback. The game features 10 multi-player games to choose from which requires players to move around and stomp on the platform. All the games mentioned above are becoming widely accepted due to the growing preference of players who are now looking for games that involve body action and ties into physical fitness.

To Sum up:

All three games mentioned also come with ticket options. Redemption will remain strong and will use the latest technology and flow with new trends.

You can expect UNIS 2008 products and future games to echo this trend because we firmly believe innovative and cutting edge technology products are the future of the coin-operated game industry.