@hosh your timing in relation to mentioning Yogonet is very fortuitous as this was in my news feed this morning
https://www.yogonet.com/international/noticias/2020/02/03/52243-ainsworth-to-launch-new-a-star-cabinet-at-ice-londonIt would appear that AGI has finally come to the realisation that their old cabinet line up was a little embarrassing to say the least and very dated. This Yogonet article doesn't give much detail on what they are calling A-Star but it does look like there are two "flavours" of A-Star, a 43" curve and dual 27" screens. Intrigued by the Yogonet article I went and looked at AGI's website for more information but there is absolutely nothing (and I mean absolutely nothing) about it there other than their old lineup of bricks, oops I should say cabinets. Why isn't AGI making a bigger deal of their new cabinet on their website given they have have been under a lot of pressure over their old and dated previous cabinets? All of the other pokie companies seem to heavily push their new cabinets on their websites.
I'm told by a few that work in that industry that the success of a new cabinet is heavily reliant on a solid pipeline of credible (and importantly, approved) games--note gameS and not game. Despite digging around on Yogonet and the internet in general there is very little, if no, detail on what games will be available for the new A Star cabinet. What is a bit worrying for me is that the pictures on Yogonet only show what I'm led to believe is some of their very old games on A-Star so I hope they aren't going to release the same style of games they've been releasing for the past five years on A-Star and expect an improvement in their game performance. Let us not forget that ALL released their then new cabinet, Helix, with Lighting Link and look how successful that combination was.
Never let it be said I don't have anything positive to say about AGI because their new cabinet appears to be an improvement over their old line-up but time will only tell how it is received by the market. I remain extreme bearish on AGI despite their new cabinet because it will be the new games that remain critical to their success and as yet there doesn't seem to be much detail about their new games.
What I am very curious about is that the recent CEO's comments appear to focus on regaining market share in Australia (among other things) yet their new cabinet has been revealed at a gaming show in Europe (London) where AGI doesn't derive a great deal of revenue so I am very curious to see when this cabinet will be released in Australia and more importantly the US (which seems to be the only business making money for them at the moment). For me the timing of their new cabinet release into Australia and the US--with a suite of approved and ready to go games--will be critical to them pulling in a back half figure that doesn't resemble a loss.
Will be interesting to see what if any commentary management say about their new cabinet at their upcoming interim results announcement later this month.
Maybe its time for me to go and visit a few gambling establishments to find out when this new cabinet it coming to Australian and American shores.
(20min delay)