WMS India, a development and testing centre for the Chicago-based WMS Industries Inc, is expanding operations and will double its workforce in the next 12 months.
The company which designs, manufactures and distributes games, digital gaming content and gaming machines to the worldwide gaming industry, has also shifted a 25-member team from Chicago to India to primarily work on server-based gaming. This technology enables games to be available on a back-end server at casinos and is downloadable from there.
To facilitate expansion, WMS has opened a larger facility at Pune. Mr Fred Gabbard, Senior Vice-President, Product Development Operations said, “India has a substantial and talented base of software developers and engineers who WMS sought to employ when we opened our former facility in 2010. We look forward to increasing our employee count by more than 100 per cent in the next 12 months to support the development of innovative gaming content for the worldwide casino industry.” WMS has invested $4.5 million in India so far, and has 80 employees as of now, he added.
WMS’ new facility can accommodate up to 240 employees, including game design and development, programme management, product assurance, support and interactive game teams. It houses three game development studios, four game laboratories, two product testing showrooms, and team collaboration areas.
India is WMS’ largest set-up outside of Chicago for product development.