WMS Online Casinos
WMS is currently one of the top 3 largest slot machine manufacturers in the world, although their history with slots is a fairly brief one compared to some of their competitors, having rolled out their first slot machine in 1994. This still gives them plenty of history and experience and their games have been popular enough to propel them to sit among the most successful slot makers in the world.
WMS has been around for a lot longer than this though, and the company got its start all the way back in 1943 when Harry Williams founded Williams Manufacturing Company. In 1944 their first product hit the market, a fortune telling machine called Selector Scope, and then moved on to specialize in pinball machines.
The next few years brought more new products, with the company carving out a strong reputation as a leader in pinball machines, with Harry Williams being credited for the invention of the tilt mechanism that soon became a regular feature of pinball machines that later became commonplace.
Williams was also credited with other innovations such as the world’s first flipperless pinball machine, and he continued designing machines for the company for many years, with his last creation, Rancho, being delivered in 1977, which was also one of the last electromechanical pinball games.
The new craze was solid state machines and that very year, Williams was the first company to have market success with one, which took advantage of electronic circuitry to enhance the playing experience. This new technology brought digital displays and sound effects to playing pinball.
By this time though video games were starting to take off, and Williams was in on the ground floor of that as well. Just 2 years after the first video game came out, Atari’s Pong, Williams answered with one of their own, called Paddle Ball.
The 1980s saw the video games explode in popularity and slot machines start to really die off, but Williams was working both sides, continuing on with introducing new pinball machines in addition to several very successful coin operated video games.
Eventually, as the popularity of pinball declined further, their position as the market leader meant less and less, and their coin operated video games business was good but far from delivering the profits they sought, as video game players more and more moved to consoles played at home rather than playing games at arcades.
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WMS Gets Into The Slot Machine Business
In the last year of the 1990s, WMS tried one last attempt to revitalize pinball sales with its Pinball 2000 machines, but by this time the market had shrunk so drastically that the writing was on the wall and they decided that it was finally time to move on to something different as the company’s main source of revenue, and decided to get into the slot machine business. This was a crucial turning point.
Once they began launching slot machines, the vast experience of WMS in the amusement machine industry did allow them to hit the ground sprinting. This was far from being an inexperienced company and their expertise did drive them to success from the very start. The changes were rapidly noticeable.
WMS is acknowledged for playing a big role in taking slot machines from the limited themes that they had since the first slots came out in the 1800’s, to slots using well known brands, and WMS took full advantage of that, using such brands as Monopoly, Men in Black, Powerball, The Lord of the Rings, Top Gun, and several others. Emphasis on diversification was their strategy.
Nowadays we witness a multitude of these themes with slots, but it was WMS that ushered in this age. WMS also had vast experience in video games at that point and this also gave them a boost as slot machines transitioned from mechanical reel slots to the electronic video slots you see today. Identifying trends early can be advantageous.
In 1996, WMS’s first slot was introduced, the multi line, multi secondary bonus game named Reel ‘em In. They moved all of their video games to their subsidiary Midway, which was spun off in 1998, and WMS had now made the complete transition from a pinball machine maker to a video game maker to now a slot machine maker. Their strategic vision was clear.
More slot games were launched, and by 2011 the company had already nearly doubled their revenues, from $451 million annually at the time their first slot reached the market, to $783 million just 5 years later. Financial growth was the result.
WMS Today
In 2013, WMS was acquired by competitor Scientific Games for $1.5 billion, but the WMS brand was retained and became a subsidiary. In addition to being an innovator in the lottery world, Scientific Games also owns longtime WMS rival Bally Technologies, a company they competed with for decades in the pinball business, who have also long moved on to slot machines. This merger was strategically beneficial.
While WMS continues to produce classic reel spinning slot machines, the overwhelming portion of their business these days is in producing video slots, which have dominated the industry quite a while ago. Adapting to new trends is crucial.
WMS is particularly targeted and aligned to appeal to the younger crowd, who grew up enjoying video games and have now moved on to casino gambling, and while some of the older generation still enjoy playing classic reel slots, and you can still find quite a few of them still available in casinos these days, younger people prefer more modern, immersive slot experiences. The shift in preferences is evident.
So WMS does thrive in this area and have paid particular attention to delivering this experience in their games of today, using innovations like flat panel displays and surround sound to capture and delight their players, as well as providing the more challenging experiences these players want, instead of just trying to match fruit and other symbols. Innovation in entertainment is ongoing.
In 2009, WMS entered the online gaming sector, starting by offering games to U.K. based sites, but has since grown to deliver its games to online casinos around the globe through their new subsidiary, Williams Interactive. In contrast to the massive business they do with their physical machines, WMS is more of a niche player in the online casino games sector, but they are expanding, and have amassed a pretty remarkable number of titles already. Expansion through online platforms is a reality.
WMS is a company that has always taken pride in being at the forefront of the amusement industry, and is well prepared to continue their major impact and achievements for years to come. Their legacy is preserved.