Redemption, cranes and novelties – how hard can they be? After all, they seem to follow a set formula, whether it be prize vending, light-stopping or plush-grabbing. And yet, this sector of the industry has as many subtleties as any other in coin-op, and as many copy-cats. This is the side of the market that is aimed at children and their families and as such it relies on a certain direct appeal. Cranes and prize vendors will attract initially with the calibre of their prizes. Redemption also relies on a good prize centre – but needs to be more entertaining as a game in itself, with the game-play easily sized up by a young child, whether it be whacking, stomping, light stopping or throwing a basketball. Gordon Crompton, Managing Director of Game Concepts has a long history of producing and operating these types of machines. He sums up the various aspects of these games as follows: “To produce a great redemption piece, you must have good play appeal, it must also induce the player to want to play more than one coin. To have a game that has the player trying his or her skill to achieve the best winning result. “Novelty… it’s in the name. It must be novel, fun to play, as with most novelty games that’s all they have to offer – or a small prize. Cranes are overall about appearance. A crane is after all a showcase. The percentage control settings are also very important as these guarantee fair return to the player. Last and certainly not least, is the merchandise. If the product is last year’s throw-away – then why would anyone want to play?” Gone are the days when a few tatty teddy bears would be enough to satisfy the customer. Now the stakes are higher than ever and with children demanding more sophisticated electronic entertainment in the home, out-of-home merchandisers have to reflect this. Holly Meidl of Baytek Games explains how the market has changed. “It’s all about adding higher end prizes, iPods, home console games, digital cameras, cell phones etc. This has had a big impact on the prize redemption market and has paid off for many operators who take advantage putting great prizes in their machines that players want,” she says. Certainly there are now many successful machines on the market that now rely more heavily on the prize than the gameplay. This started with games such as Sammy’s Sports Arena and now the most successful machines of this genre are Stacker from LAI and Pile-Up from Smart Industries. As for cranes, there was a time when bigger seemed to be better. Giant cranes offering giant-sized plush certainly attracted players but some within the industry believe that the trends have moved on. Steve Bryant of Deith Group explains, “Elaut did a fine job with this format but as they (giant cranes) are available to the market used, I’d have to say they’ve had their day. I think Sega’s idea of smaller machines with limited line swag is a great way forward. If you make the prize very collectable, players will return and put more money in.” Both Sega and Namco Bandai are investing significant amounts in promoting cranes at present. Sega’s UFO Catcher has done phenomenally well in Asia and the US and the company plans to now push the European markets. In the UK, it will be sold as a game of skill (SWP), rather than just a Category D machine, in order to take advantage of better stakes and prizes. “UFO Catcher is a game of skill so there is the ability to operate it with prizes up to £40 and on £1 play. This, as opposed to 30p and £8 opens up a whole new world of opportunity to the genre,” says Sega Amusements Europe’s Justin Burke. Namco Bandai Games’ Clena-Flex was shown for the first time to the UK at last month’s Preview show. The company also believes that 100 per cent skill-based novelty merchandising will play a strong part in the family amusement mix in the UK over the coming months. “Clena-Flex, features a flexible payout system differentiating it from any other crane/novelty vending product currently in the market,” says Namco’s John Brennan. The company also showed a UK version of Deal or No Deal, licensed from the highly popular TV quiz show. Brent Sales believe this simple concept is a must have for existing ticket redemption estates, but the availability of a coupon option and deluxe and compact bar-style formats also give operators opportunities to maximise income potential from a wide variety of locations.” Licences certainly lend themselves to skill and redemption games, given that the former often takes a quiz format and the latter are aimed at young children who are easily attracted by familiar characters from films and cartoons. “A great redemption game is down to the theme and licences are very popular,” says Mike Ansell, Managing Director of Lordsvale. Gary Newman from Harry Levy Amusements agrees, “Licences have their place and can sometimes turn a great game into a real hit. Take the Crazy Frog character in The Annoying Thing whacker game. That song got on everyone’s nerves for weeks, so using the frog as a target and the audio together was an inspired idea.” “We have also had phenomenal success with our Spongebob redemption titles because the cartoon has been such a hit with a particular age group on TV. Children develop an incredible loyalty to their favourite characters and these games can tap into that. But having said that, unless the game itself is any good, children will not come back and a licence by itself is no good at all. A well-built, well-designed game without a licence, which has a clever engaging style of play can have a much more enduring life-span than something that is just thrown together with a brand,” he adds. To illustrate this point, everyone contacted to contribute to this feature was asked to name their all-time classic redemption titles and certain names kept on cropping up, such as Spider Stompin, Cyclone and Whac a Mole – and there is not a licence among them. But redemption remains something of a hard sell in the UK, where it must compete against the attractions of cash payout machines. “Operators in the UK buy very little redemption really,” says Mike Ansell. “They mostly go to the seaside where they certainly all have cranes.” As for other European and emerging markets, Ansell sites Holland as being up and coming. Gordon Crompton believes that the future may lie in Italy. Bay Tek’s strongest European markets are also Italy and Russia and the company is selling increasingly into the Middle East “But these are fairly established markets which are also influenced by the US,” says Holly Meidl, adding, “Certain territories in Africa are waking up to these machines although the cost is still an issue due to very low price of play.”

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