“ Creativity doesn ’ t always mean , ‘ Oh we ’ re going to do something you ’ ve never seen before .’ It ’ s , OK , if we can only make , say , 12 games this year , how do we get creative and make the best 12 games with what we ’ ve got ?”
“ When we go into a vertical , we ’ re committed , and we ’ re going to be focused there . We ’ re one of the few vendors that every game we make , if it ’ s physically possible with the mechanics , we ’ ll go to Class II , Class III and HHR verticals .”
“ Creativity doesn ’ t always mean , ‘ Oh we ’ re going to do something you ’ ve never seen before .’ It ’ s , OK , if we can only make , say , 12 games this year , how do we get creative and make the best 12 games with what we ’ ve got ?”
— Andrew Burke , Chief Executive Officer , Bluberi
we get creative and make the best 12 games with what we ’ ve got ?”
Intentionality is also a double-sided coin in that sometimes the best decisions involve pulling back , or not doing something altogether . For example , Whalen explains that for much of 2020 and 2021 , when he , Burke and Brennan joined , the company “ had to take a lot of games back just because they weren ’ t working out there and there were too many points of friction for them .”
Those initial investment years focused on “ cleaning up what our install base looked like and how we interacted with our customer ,” Whalen says , which then “ really set us up for all these opportunities we ’ ve had ” in the time since . On the subject of recognizing weaknesses , Burke also notes that he and his team focus solely on single-screen content , and spend “ 0 seconds , 0 minutes ” on dual-screen .
“ By not doing that , we ’ re actually able to spend the right amount of time and resources , and focus on things we do best ,” he says .
Conversely , historical horse racing ( HHR ) has emerged as a new vertical in which the company is investing heavily , in part because of its Class II roots and because of the fact that it is still only licensed in about half of the current Class III markets .
Devil ’ s Lock and its sister title Shark ’ s Lock , Brennan says , have been “ really fantastic games ” for the HHR format , but overall the sector has been “ massive ” for the company ’ s growth .
“ When we go into a vertical , we ’ re committed , and we ’ re going to be focused there ,” Brennan says . “ We ’ re one of the few vendors that every game we make , if it ’ s physically possible with the mechanics , we ’ ll go to Class II , Class III and HHR verticals .”
STUDENTS OF THE GAMES
The 2020s have been a foundational decade for the spunky Bluberi team , but a key reason for that success has been a focus on the past . The company has a keen sense of history and the reasons for why certain games and certain companies either made it big or crashed down to Earth .
“ We are students of the past , for what to do and what not to do ,” Brennan says . “ As they say , history will repeat itself . So we ’ ve kind of looked at how we can avoid some of the pitfalls that have happened .”
Sometimes those pitfalls weren ’ t simply the result of poor products or leadership . Some past casualties came as a result of being ahead of one ’ s time , with games or ideas that the market wasn ’ t ready for just yet . Brennan says that the team constantly references products going back 15 years or more to see past trends and why they were or were not successful .
The human element also plays a significant role in a company ’ s trajectory . Whalen points to examples of bad communication and collaboration as being major drags on performance and general well-being .
“ I ’ ve experienced scenarios where sometimes sales would blame the product and product management would say , ‘ Well , sales doesn ’ t know what they ’ re doing ,’” he recalls . “ That ’ s why we emphasize being collaborative and not being siloed off , having open communication and not being
“ When we go into a vertical , we ’ re committed , and we ’ re going to be focused there . We ’ re one of the few vendors that every game we make , if it ’ s physically possible with the mechanics , we ’ ll go to Class II , Class III and HHR verticals .”
— Mike Brennan , Chief Product Officer , Bluberi
OCTOBER 2024 www . ggbmagazine . com 23