Aristocrat has welcomed a positive outcome in the conclusion of its case with its previous game designer, Dinh Toan Tran.
The case halts Light & Wonder from being able to commercialise the Dragon Train game.
Tran admitted that before he departed from the company, Tran had copied ‘a substantial amount of sensitive and valuable property onto a USB’.
Tran did however state he had taken steps to delete the sensitive material during his notice period at the firm.
Aristocrat CEO Trevor Croker said: “Aristocrat is an ideas and innovation company at heart. Our intellectual property is therefore vital to our ongoing success, and we are committed to protecting the great work of our dedicated creative and technical teams.
“We welcome this positive outcome, which follows the decisive action we took to ensure the preservation of Aristocrat’s valuable IP assets.”
Nonetheless, Light & Wonder President & CEO Matt Wilson last week provided an update after a tumultuous period at the company following a judge’s order to cease operations of its Dragon Train cabinet.
He emphasised that in the North American market the group has approximately 33,000 lease units installed in the market and Dragon Train represents a mid-single-digit percentage of that install base, or roughly 2,200 units.
He added they are “working very diligently with our customers to convert those games out in compliance with the judge’s order.”
Looking ahead, he also revealed their plans for “Dragon Train 2.0”, given the court order only finding infringements in the maths behind the game.
Wilson stated: “Our intention is to build out Dragon Train 2.0 in compliance with the order and we’re working actively on this right now. It’s a very high priority for us and we’re working quickly to get that out.
“When you think about what’s in question here in this order, it’s really a small portion of the overall game that is Dragon Train, it’s just certain aspects of the maths that are being challenged.
“There are a lot of elements in this game that have made it successful. There’s the Dragon Train secondary Hold and Respin feature, the art, the sounds, the animation and the brand. These things are not affected by the order.”
Wilson also addressed the matter of Dragon Train’s designer leaving the company earlier this week, adding: “You might have already seen the news of the departure of Dragon Train’s designer from Light & Wonder. Though we don’t discuss specifics of personnel matters, I can confirm the designer was terminated earlier this week.”
To conclude L&W’s statement to its investors, Wilson suggested that the Dragon Train case is purely an “isolated incident” and stressed that the studio is “going to continue the momentum that you’ve seen at Light & Wonder over the last five years”.
