Speed sits at the heart of Quixant’s mission: helping game developers deliver compelling gaming experiences and bring them to casino floors faster.

To support that ambition, Quixant developed Launchpad — a software platform built on the proven foundations of the Quixant Software Suite. The platform is designed to accelerate land-based game development and enable online game developers to transition their content to the land-based market, in both cases simplifying regulatory certification and significantly shorten the route to deployment. Alongside this, the company has introduced its latest hardware platforms — IQON 3 and IQON Air 3 — high-performance gaming PCs built to support faster development cycles and the next generation of casino cabinet designs.

In conversation with SBC Americas, Senior Architect of Gaming Platforms James Simpson and Director of Gaming Hardware Eddie Ho explain how these solutions are helping developers bring new gaming experiences to market faster — and what lies ahead.

SBC Americas: To begin, let’s take a look back at last year. What would you highlight as the key milestones that defined the year for yourselves and set a platform from which to build through 2026?

James Simpson: One of our key priorities was finding new ways to help our customers reach the market faster.

Quixant has traditionally been known as a hardware company, but we began looking at how software could complement our platforms and remove some of the barriers developers face when entering the land-based gaming market.

That is where Launchpad came from. Typically, when a game developer looks to launch a new game, or an online gaming developer wants to move into the land-based sector, it can often take from two to three years to navigate development, integration and certification.

With Launchpad, we have created a platform that can dramatically reduce that timeline, enabling developers to reach certification in as little as 12 weeks.

The platform has already gone through GLI testing – the global standard for gaming certification – and we have validated it successfully against the five major SAS communication protocols used across casino environments.

Launched at ICE this year, we have seen strong interest from developers looking to bring Class III games to market faster, and differentiate from the competition.

SBCA: When bringing something down like that by such a significant timeframe, how do you ensure that there’s not a certain degree of quality loss and that everything’s still at the highest level as expected?

JS:That’s a really important point, and it is something we were very conscious of from the start.

As I mentioned, Launchpad has already gone through GLI evaluation, which is the industry benchmark for regulatory compliance. That ensures the platform meets the standards expected by operators and regulators.

My personal background is in game development, so when I joined Quixant I brought a slightly different perspective. I wanted to make sure that the platform truly worked from a developer’s point of view.

During development we began working with a number of early adopters, testing Launchpad with different game types and market requirements to ensure the solution is reliable, robust and versatile. They provided valuable feedback throughout development, helping us refine the platform and ensure the platform met all critical elements.

That collaboration has been really important in making sure Launchpad delivers both speed and reliability.

SBCA: Where did this concept start? Was this an idea that started internally to plug a gap that was identified, or were clients coming to you saying that this is what they need?

JS: It was really a combination of both.

As an embedded hardware provider, we spend a lot of time talking to developers about the markets they are focusing on, and what is important. We understand the land-based gaming space very well, and the differences between jurisdictions, but we were increasingly hearing from online developers who wanted to enter the casino market and were not sure how to navigate the process.

Moving into land-based gaming involves a lot of different steps — regulatory approvals, licensing requirements and integration with casino systems. It is a complex, timely journey.

So we started asking ourselves how we could simplify that process and give developers a framework that allows them to focus on building great games rather than worrying about infrastructure and integration.

One of the key things we looked at was what technologies are common across most casino environments. That includes peripherals such as bill acceptors, printers and player tracking systems.

By identifying those common elements, we were able to build Launchpad with support for the peripherals and systems developers are most likely to encounter on the casino floor.

Integration with casino communication protocols — particularly SAS — is often one of the biggest hurdles for developers entering the land-based market. It takes anywhere from 12 to 24 months to effectively implement. We already provide customers with a software solution to manage SAS, so we integrated that directly into Launchpad. That allows developers to begin building and testing their games within a compliant framework from the start.

SBCA: Let’s move over to the introduction of the IQON 3 and IQON Air 3. Could you briefly tell us a little bit about the solutions and what they bring to the table?

Eddie Ho: These platforms represent the next generation of Quixant’s all-in-one gaming platforms.

Powered by AMD’s latest Ryzen 8000 series processors, they deliver significantly improved performance and graphics capability to support increasingly sophisticated gaming experiences.

We have also introduced a redesigned chassis that reflects our evolving understanding of modern casino cabinet requirements and improves overall system integration.

The future-proofed hardware platform incorporates DDR5 memory, enhanced I/O capabilities and support for faster storage technologies. These enhancements ensure developers have the performance they need to deliver the ultimate player experience, while maintaining compatibility with both modern and legacy devices.

The new IQON series solutions are available in both a passive or active cooling configuration, giving customers flexibility depending on their cabinet environment and performance requirements.

SBCA: As we’ve said, this is one of the newer members of the IQON hardware family. Why was this a necessary addition? Were there gaps in the market that you needed to address?

EH: In the gaming industry, developers and designers are constantly pushing the boundaries of the game content and graphic resolution they can deliver.

They want richer graphics, smoother animations and more immersive player experiences. Traditionally, some developers look to add dedicated graphics cards to achieve that level of performance.

But with the processing power available in modern platforms like the IQON 3 and IQON Air 3, that capability is already built in. That allows developers to create more advanced games while keeping their hardware architecture efficient and reliable.

SBCA: Looking at the year that lies ahead. What key accomplishments will Quixant achieve through 2026?

JS: For me, the biggest milestone through 2026 is continuing to grow Launchpad from what it is today into a truly global, developer-first route to market. That means expanding support for more peripherals and integrations, so more developers and studios can build once and deploy across more cabinet configurations and operator environments with less friction.

It is also about widening adoption beyond North America and Europe as new opportunities emerge — Brazil is a key example — so developers everywhere can move from development to certification and onto casino floors far faster than the traditional timeline.

EH: On the hardware side, success through 2026 looks like accelerating adoption of our latest platforms — IQON 3 and IQON Air 3 — while also driving broader uptake across our established portfolio. We want customers to choose the right platform for their cabinet design, performance requirements and deployment model, and still have a consistent Quixant foundation underneath. As Launchpad scales, that combined hardware-software approach should make it easier for developers to standardise on Quixant ‘s solutions, across multiple product lines, shorten development cycles, and enter both existing and emerging markets with greater speed and confidence.

Together, Launchpad and Quixant’s latest hardware platforms create a tightly integrated ecosystem designed to simplify development, streamline certification and accelerate the journey from game concept to casino floor.