Not so very many years ago, casino operators would invest in a slot machine and spread its cost over several years. As gaming has spread and competition has heated up, that’s clearly no longer the case. Players are more sophisticated and fickle. They tire of game content more quickly and demand new games all the time. Add to that the march toward server-based and networked gaming and it’s clear the content crunch is likely to become even more acute.

That’s where UK-based Meta Games Universal hopes to make a difference for operators and manufacturers.

“You need to refresh your content faster, and the way in which content is developed is the issue,” said Owen Cullum, chief executive of Meta Games Universal, or MetaGU. “There are customers screaming for content. And how is it being produced? In the same old-fashioned way.”

Meta Games has come up with a system for producing tailored game generators which puts game development into the hands of game designers by providing a friendly Graphical User Interface in which virtually any type of casino or VLT game can be generated without the need to write software code because the game executables are automatically generated.

“They do their design, and the design file doesn’t actually have any software code in it,” Cullum explained. “Cargo can enable them to run and test games, but it can also protect the manufacturer's intellectual property because, optionally, it can be prevented from generating actual platform code. The manufacturer hits a different switch to deliver the real source code.”

Cullum and MetaGU co-founder Tobias Selwood are alumni of Cyberview Technology and were actively involved in that company’s pioneering initiatives in server-based gaming. The inspiration is obvious. As Cullum put it, “What we’re really about at Meta Games is producing tools to enable the manufacturer to have a much more streamlined pipeline.”

Cargo also brings significant benefits to the testing and approvals stages of development. It uses “model-based,” patent-pending code generation technology that is applicable to existing and new platforms, such as SBG. By separating design from implementation, Cargo enables the same game to be generated for multiple platforms. Software developers can extend Cargo to develop new types of games and interface Cargo with new platforms. And this enables game production to be safely opened up to third parties without exposing a manufacturer’s software IP.

There is also a need for manufacturers to respond quickly to changes in regulations, technology and customer requirements. Cargo can bring about “an order of magnitude improvement,” Cullum said, to the speed of the game development process and much-needed flexibility.

Cargo is now being interfaced with a number of regulated gaming platforms, but it is at heart an enabling technology, as Cullum put it.

“It will enable content to be created around four times faster and at probably a quarter to a third of the cost.” This opens the door for game developers to focus their creativity to reach out to new audiences and new platforms.

“It will enable lots of experiences in new forms,” he said. “Let’s face it. One of the issues in the industry is how to attract younger players. Server-based technology is the enabler of that. You can have all sorts of interfaces that previously were not possible.”

Some gaming manufacturers might think of Cargo as a threat, but it’s really not, Cullum said. “It enables the software developers to focus on actually doing new creative development work rather than churning out the same thing again and again. If they want to turn out variants of games, features that they already know how to produce, Cargo can handle that. It isn’t making them redundant. It revises their role.”

Pointing to WMS’ Top Gun sensory-immersion game as an example, he added, “I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to realize that the new generation of games are going to need to have some features that the younger players are familiar with. Cargo is going to help in that once you’ve got a formula that seems to work it’s going to be much faster generating variations.” And game designers, instead of constantly being crunched for time, are happier, “Because if they want to play around with a new game, they can do that,” he said.

Cargo, for example could enable a manufacturer to produce tailored games branded exclusively for one operator or a single property, as a point of differentiation from the competition.

“We think that’s a very, very significant selling point,” Cullum said.

Meta Games is in discussions with a couple of large manufacturers about the system and has already been asked by some to develop content.

“They feel it’s more efficient for an outside body to develop content for them,” he said. “Basically, they’re already recognizing that they can’t produce content fast enough. …

Even if server-based stuff died tomorrow, you’ve still got the problem of the shortening replacement cycle. You’ve still got the problem of games having a life cycle of six months or less.” igwb

Marian Green is editor of SLOT MANAGER magazine and IGWB’s senior editor, specializing in games, systems and technology. She can be contacted at +1 702 794 0718, ext. 8703; or by e-mail at greenm@bnpmedia.com.