New Montana manufacturer commences Billings operation
Pub Date: 1/1/2009
Picture four Montana folks sitting near each other on an airplane to somewhere.
They pass slips of paper back and forth, pondering in between.
Finally, one says emphatically, "We need a name that will reflect our grand vision."
Another says, "That's it! Grand Vision!"
The Montanans were Tim Carson, Steve Arntzen, Heidi Schmalz and Merle Frank. And "Grand Vision Gaming" is the name of Montana's newest gaming machine manufacturing company.
Carson is the former president of Summit Gaming, Montana's leading video gaming machine (VGM) manufacturer, and is the current president of Amusement Services, a gaming machine and amusement game vending route business run out of Billings.
Carson left Summit a little more than a year ago after the company was sold in 2006 to GameTech international, a Reno video gaming business specializing in wireless bingo devices manufacturing and distribution.
Arntzen is the chief operating officer and part owner of Century Gaming along with others including Grant Lincoln and Schmalz. Century is Montana's largest VGM route vendor.
If anyone, this group understands the Montana video gaming business and the ever shifting market dynamics. Today they say they've concluded that the Montana marketplace, while benefitting from a healthy, competitive variety of available equipment, could do even better with the ultimate gaming machine.
And they think they know just what that machine should be and will be and have set out to build and sell it.
The Tavern Times met with four of the five principle owners in Billings Dec. 5 at the fledgling company's headquarters in a new commercial development at 2751 Enterprise on Billings' west side.
Present were Carson and Arntzen, and principals Schmalz, who has served as chief financial officer for Century for over a decade, and Frank, who was Carson's right hand in game development at Summit since its inception. Schmalz, Frank and Lincoln also have an ownership stake in the Grand Vision Gaming venture.
The facility has an interesting, and seemingly inherently efficient configuration for what the owners have in mind.
Picture a warm, modern, inviting lobby and showroom with subdued lighting. To the rear of that is a homey break area with a kitchen set-up. To the right is a meeting room and offices. To the rear, more small work cubicles and offices, occupied this day by computer engineers manipulating keyboards and mouses (mice?) while staring intently at their high-resolution flat-screen monitors.
These rooms form a central block around which on three sides wraps a continuous space which will serve as a future production area. At one end of the "U" is a set of garage doors where parts and equipment will come in'; at the other extreme, more garage doors where finished and refurbished gear will roll out one long, continuous production line.
When we toured the facility in early December, a portion of the production area was already filled with dozens of grimy gaming devices pulled from the Century and Amusement Services inventories, ready to be torn down, cleaned up, loaded with the latest hardware and software upgrades and put back into service in the field.
In fact, a complete refurb/repair service operation is the first piece of the partners' "grand vision." They will certainly overhaul their own machines, but will also do so on a contract basis with other route operators around the state looking for more efficiency and lower costs.
They will even be parting-out obsolete or worn out devices and building a used and refurb parts inventory with the aim of keeping Montana's oldest machines running as long as practical. This will benefit all machine owners, but perhaps mostly the independent "mom 'n' pop" operators who need to extend the investment life of their gaming equipment, or who can only afford to upgrade incrementally with refurbs, the partners say.
But really the "Grand Vision" is about developing a brand new gaming platform from the ground up specifically designed for the Montana jurisdiction, filling a distinct niche the owners are convinced is currently vacant.
When asked about the company organization, Arntzen acknowledges the business structure is an LLC, but says it really lacks a formal organization per se.
"There's really no hierarchy, no job titles, formal positions or job descriptions'; no organizational chart," Arntzen says. "We want a casual work environment, a homey feel. We all know what our responsibilities are."
Push them and they'll tell you that Arntzen's and Carson's roles are to shape broad game concepts'; "the look and feel" of the game's operation. Schmalz is to oversee company finances and Frank will supervise day-to-day internal operations.
"But we all have the 'grand vision,'" Carson says. "First we need to generate a revenue stream and we will do that with our used and refurbed gear, parts and service. Then we'll do it with a proprietary game."
Carson said he is optimistic the new machine could hit the marketplace mid-year.
Arntzen is quick to add, "We want people to know the game will in no way be exclusive. It will be for sale to our route businesses and anyone else's, too. Independent operators will be able to purchase the game just like they can purchase a Spielo or Summit."
Carson acknowledges the machines will first be "Alpha tested" on their own routes, actually 20 or so preproduction units, followed by a more comprehensive "Beta test" phase. Once the confidence interval is met, a modest roll-out will follow as production ramps up.
"We don't want to pick up too much steam too quickly," he says.
Here the discussion picks up steam, with the owners tag-teaming each other.
Carson: "It will be a premium machine with high-end components. It will have many unique features. The concepts have been approved. We started from zero on everything. It even has a brand new type logic board. But it will be competitively priced with recent releases (from other manufacturers)."
Frank: "The hardware will comprise the most powerful gaming platform available'; completely state-of-the-art components designed specifically for gaming devices. It will have an intel Duo-Core processor" which is a two-processor set-up that allows each processor to work simultaneously on the wide-screen format LCD monitor.
Arntzen: "Our programmers haven't hit the (design) wall anywhere. There are no walls in this design environment," referring to the almost endless computing power being built in.
Carson: "It will run at optimum speeds. It will handle very detailed animation and graphics."
But beyond that, as the market evolves, it is becoming increasingly clear that different types of establishments with different business models, player volumes and cost structures need different types of competitive gaming choices.
Carson: "We will have solutions for everyone's needs. We will satisfy the player, the machine owner and the location operator. We will provide the options the industry is looking for."
Schmalz: "Our collective experience comes from all perspectives. Together we work with and know all types and sizes of establishments."
Arntzen: A big part of the formula for a successful gaming platform is to make it so entertaining players will stay seated. But beyond that, it has to have "perfect feel and comfort. You have to get the box right, then get the components right. Now the game itself has to take over and satisfy the customer, finish the experience.
"If we find (a game aspect) that only appeals to one segment of players, we reject it," Arntzen continues. "Every aspect should appeal to every player."
"But we also reject anything that's too complicated," Schmalz interjects. "It's easy to over-design. We want it pretty, fun and simple."
Carson: "Some terminals just have too many games - 17 kenos in three denominations, nine pokers in three denominations...? Half of the players don't know how to play them all and a lot of the games simply don't get played."
Arntzen: "It's like a cinemaplex with 16 screens. Do you want to play 16 movies, but only four of which anyone really wants to watch? Fill four theatres and have empty seats in the rest? Or do you want to play four movies everyone wants to see on your 16 screens, filling all the seats? It must be the right mix."
Carson: "That's why you're seeing the number of VGM units (under permit) go down. People are pulling out the lagging machines and not replacing them. People are learning it s better to set up 16 machines the right way than 20 machines the wrong way.
"There are a lot of good manufacturers in this market," Carson says. "But in every location there is under performing equipment" and that amounts to as much as one-third of the gear under permit, the partners agree.
Arntzen: "Everyone can benefit from more variety on the floor."
Carson: "We are players'; we understand them. There are pieces of the experience that players like (but) we'll have some things that aren't traditional."
All concede that machine play saw a steep decline September through November, perhaps as much as 6 to 10 percent.
That's why, Carson says, "we feel we don't have any alternative" to producing a ground-up new platform. "We want to bring solutions in these challenging times because...we have to! We're developing solutions based on all of our experience, but for the benefit of everyone."
Arntzen: "The best thing is We're focusing exclusively on Montana. we've never even talked about other jurisdictions. we'll provide what Montana needs."
Source: The Montana Tavern Times, January, 2009, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.