The main challenge for games developers is ‘balancing an entertaining base game with excellent win potential’, Andrew Booth, director of games at Microgaming, told SlotBeats.
Speaking with us ahead of this week’s CasinoBeats Slot Fest, Booth provided insights into some of the titles on show within its virtual showroom, the importance of virtual events in the absence of physical while also emphasising the need for more collaboration with smaller/independent studios.
SlotBeats: With our much-anticipated Slots Festival only a few days away, which games are you looking forward to showcasing at your virtual showroom?
Andrew Booth: We’re excited to be showing off a truly diverse range of titles from our network of exclusive independent studios, including the first two unique takes on Megaways™ from All41 Studios, Shamrock Holmes and Forgotten Island. We’ve also got Hyper Strike™ (Gameburger Studios), which is performing amazingly well, and our third successful HyperHold™ release, Assassin Moon (Triple Edge Studios).
I’m personally most excited to show off mobster-themed Chicago Gold, which launches globally just in time for the Slots Festival! Created by one of our newest exclusive studio partners, Montreal-based PearFiction Studios, the game’s packed with features and introduces new cash collection and jackpot reveal bonus features.
Graphically stunning with wonderful characterisation, you really feel the 20s gangster vibe shining throughout gameplay. And with some of the strongest retention performance we’ve ever seen during a period of exclusivity, we’re expecting great things when the game drops globally on 4 February.
SlotBeats: Given the current absence of physical events, how essential would you say events like these are for connecting the industry and highlighting your future titles?
AB: We’re all missing that personal interaction with our customers, so it’s fantastic to see events such as the Slots Festival populating the calendar, as these provide a fresh way to engage with audiences on a global scale.
At Microgaming, we’re constantly exploring new ways to reach out to our partners and to the industry. Yes, as an online sector we’re perhaps already more set up than many others, but that human element is still vital to keep things moving in the right direction.
For us, digital tournaments for our B2B customers were already in the pipeline before lockdown, so it was more a case of adapting quickly to the situation as needs arose. It’s proven to be a fantastic engagement tool over the last few months, consistently attracting over 100 players, week in week out.
With studios located around the globe, it’s not so often we can get in a room together in front of customers— now even less so. With the launch of our Microgaming Spotlight webinar series, we’ve ensured we can continue to connect our game creators to our customers, wherever they are in the world, presenting the game story in an interactive and fresh way. With four successful sessions under our belt, we now plan to present once a month on specific titles.
Of course, we can’t wait to be able to showcase our new games in person once more, but for now it’s great to do so virtually.
SB: Looking towards the next 12 months, what do you believe will be the highlight within gaming development this year?
AB: We’re constantly looking to learn from the industry, but also to create the next winner for players.
At Microgaming, we’re looking forward to seeing lots of new and innovative ideas and features coming through our network of exclusive studios. With so much incredible talent, we have high hopes that we have multiple winners on the horizon!
Building on the growth and success of our progressive jackpot network in 2020, we’ll continue to bring additional Mega Moolah and WowPot tiles to the mix, with even more exciting jackpot games to come throughout the year. We’re also super excited for the first top-tier payout of the WowPot jackpot, which currently sits at more than €12.5 million – a massive milestone for Microgaming and for our progressive network. In 2020, we had 12 winners taking home the top Mega Moolah prize and, with a raft of new titles going live, it would be fantastic to see even more players hit the Mega jackpot in the coming year!
In terms of the wider industry, we’re expecting to see the maximum win potential pushed to epic new levels in the next year, enhanced by unique themes and new bonus features.
SB: What kind of experience are players looking for right now and how do your games cater for the current demand?
AB: Players are looking for both the entertainment value and the big wins. The challenge is finding that sweet spot, balancing an entertaining base game with excellent win potential.
Titles such as the recently-released Hyper Strike™ from Gameburger Studios were created specifically to meet the growing appetite for high variance entertainment, with frequent wins and a high-octane base game.
High-volatility gaming experiences continue to come from our suite of jackpot games, but not just from the top prize. While often overshadowed by the top prize, we see more than 450 wins every hour from the lower jackpot levels, offering regular payouts at a significant number versus a player’s stake. These games are certainly hitting the spot, with top performance across multiple KPIs.
SB: Microgaming collaborates with various independent studios within the slot sector; how important do you believe supporting smaller developers in evolving slot titles?
AB: It really is a mutually beneficial arrangement – we benefit from bringing our customers and their players an increasingly diverse range of content, while up-and-coming studios have the opportunity to tap in to our vast distribution network, with the potential to reach many of the top gaming brands worldwide.
Working with more and more new studios in recent years, we’ve proudly witnessed the growth of over a dozen studios, each with different approaches, styles and personalities. We’re looking forward to seeing them achieve even more in the future, continuing to create the most imaginative game worlds and innovative features. This year we expect to see SpinPlay Games, PearFiction Studios and Alchemy Gaming really coming into their own, as well as others who are yet to bring their first game to players’ fingertips.
We can’t wait for what’s in store!!
