It can seem like some slots quickly come and go, while others stick around forever. Is there a rhyme or reason to these decisions?
From the time the slot machine enters the casino, how long is it before the game becomes obsolete & removed?
Mark N.
There’s no one correct answer and that’s in part because there’s a few factors that can go into the decision.
Game Popularity
If a game is really popular, it will remain on the casino floor. By far that’s the number one criteria for a slot machine sticking around for the long term. Some games can come and go quickly while others can stick around for decades, and that’s just going to come down to players and what they’re regularly playing.
Core vs. Premium
Some games (Core slots) on the casino floor are bought, which means once paid for a casino could choose to keep it on the floor indefinitely, while others (Premium slots) are leased, which means the casino pays an ongoing fee to have a game on the floor.
Core games are more likely to stick around as they don’t have the same level of investment required as a leased game, but there are examples of leased games (like Dragon Link) which continue to thrive on a casino floor for many years, so game popularity can balance that out.
Cabinet Support
As slot machine cabinets get older, it can be harder to maintain or source parts, especially after a manufacturer discontinues official support of a machine. Some machines are decades old and still hanging on in casinos across the floor, so it isn’t necessarily impossible to maintain machines once they’re out of official support options, but it gets harder and more expensive over time.
One way slot makers have counteracted this is to port an older game to a newer cabinet – in this way the casinos can simply swap out machines but still be able to offer popular games. Ultimate Fire Link and Double Top Dollar are two recent examples of this.
Takeaway
Casinos won’t let a popular game go, but they have ways to keep games on the floor a long time, even going so far as to bringing in a new machine to house the popular old game! But if you see a game disappear quickly, it generally is a sign the game didn’t succeed at that particular location.
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