Can Shoot Em Up Style Video Games Replace Slots?

There's no doubt that changes will be made to the ways in which many players in the US enjoy their slots thrills, and with slots play on the decline in land based US casinos, developers are hard at work in an attempt to almost reinvent the slot machine. Today's Vegas casino visitor is looking for something a little spicier than traditional slots play and even though modern 5 reel slots provide many great features and heaps of ways to win, players now want more than just spinning reels and the chance to hit the wins. They basically want a whole lot more action, and for that, maybe it's the entire slots format that needs to change.

There is a game in development at present, a game called Danger Arena in which players may wager from $0.50 up to $20 to shoot, bomb and battle with the bad guys in an attempt to get as many points as possible, and then those points can be turned into cash prizes, in what is a first person game in the style of Call of Duty. And it's this type of action packed hybrid casino game that could well lead the way for future slots and casino games development.

The numbers make for very interested reading and just a few sets of figures reveal the problem. In 1990, gambling made up 58% of the total revenue in Vegas resorts and casinos, and that compares to just 37% in 2014, and perhaps even more revealing is that while in 1990 a massive 87% of people who visited Las Vegas gambled, in 2014 that figure was down to 71%, and therein lies the issue. The average age of a Vegas slots player is over 50, while the average age of a Vegas casino visitor is under 50, and that issue simply has to be resolved in order for slots to continue to be viable, and while there's no way slots will disappear from Vegas casino floors, the space they take will decline, quite possibly being taken over with new hybrid games such as Danger Arena.

Slot machines have traditionally accounted for a massive 75% of all gambling revenue in the US however that figure is declining each year, and it's up to savvy games developers to tap into what younger players actually want, and provide it to them, which in the age of the video game is a tough task indeed.