Bluberi prides itself on being an “inventive” game developer, and at the recent Global Gaming Expo in its hometown of Las Vegas it went big – literally – with an oversized new slot game that combines new and legacy features.
Casey Whalen, chief commercial officer for Bluberi, sat down with Gaming America during the show to discuss the very large (steel) elephant in the room.
What products/services did Bluberi unveil at this year’s G2E?
Our Novus platform and our b49 cabinets. The Novus platform is the latest Bluberi OS (operating system) with state-of-the-art math and playing mechanics. The cabinets have a single, 49-inch monitor with HD 4K graphics and a 27-inch topper. These cabinets are used with titles such as Waves of Fortune and Colossal Dragons. The combination of playing mechanics with our art and graphics is something none of our competitors do better.
Our partnership with bZillions was seen in the form of our new “Reels of Steel” game, inside what we are calling the Big Mech cabinet and Iron Derby. Reels of Steel is a mechanical reel product with metal form reels. These are not the reel strips you normally see in the interior of a slot machine, these are laser-cut pieces of steel. The Big Mech cabinet is 9-feet tall. No one else has these, so when people leave our booth that is what they will be talking about. Iron Derby is a marquee slot that evokes images of the carnival horse racing game.
Were your production timelines and/or new product reveals disrupted by the pandemic? If so, how?
Yes. We have had supply chain challenges in many significant parts of our build and materials. Specifically, we have faced shortages of monitors and parts of the motherboard. We couldn’t get sound chips. Instead of a usual single-source, we had to tap multiple sources from third and fourth vendors. With that said, we feel pretty good about where we are now. We have managed to cobble sources together.
Is this the company’s first convention in a while?
This is our first show since G2E in 2019.
What is the goal for Bluberi at G2E?
We launched a rebrand of the company, turned over the executive team. Our mantra is: we are going to be the easiest company to do business with. For this show, we are doing several unique things with our cabinets that we want to show off and we want people to know they will have a frictionless partnership with us.
What are Bluberi’s goals for the rest of 2021 and into Q1 of 2022?
Our No. 1 goal is to deliver the launch of the Big Mech cabinet before the end of the year. Also, to continue to deliver competitive content to the b49 cabinet.
