Open the lobby of any online casino and you will be presented with a vast array of video slot games of all description. It can seem that every genre and niche interest under the sun is represented by one slot game or another. Take a closer look, however, and you will start to notice the huge percentage of licensed slot games which feature prominently. In the war to attract the interest of easily distracted slot game players, the ability to brand your game with a recognizable product or image is a major weapon, and one which is becoming increasingly popular among games providers.
More of the major game developers are now going down the route of obtaining the rights to movies, TV shows, musicians, cartoons and other famous faces and products. It’s an easy way to attract attention to a game, and to tap into the affection felt by the player for a favourite movie or show. Sometimes a rather mundane slot game can attract unwarranted popularity simply due to its links to a cherished TV show. Of course, not every game provider chooses the expensive licensing option when it comes to creating games. For example Scandinavian outfit Yggdrasil produce some of the best online slots games available, but tend to prefer in-house designs when it comes to the themes of their releases. Play’n GO is another popular design house which steers clear of licensed slots, but the ‘big three’ of Microgaming, NetEnt and Playtech all rely on licensed slot games to varying degrees.
Playtech are perhaps the biggest adopter of branded online slots, and it is a policy that has proved spectacularly successful. Of course, the choice of which movie or character to style your games with is a very important factor, and one which makes the difference between a smash hit and an also-ran. The most famous series of games from Playtech were the linked progressive jackpot games from the Marvel Universe. The Marvel movies have broken box-office records in recent years, so it is no surprise that the slot games proved to be similarly enthusiastically received. Games such as Iron Man 2 & 3, Captain America, Wolverine, Ghost Rider and The Avengers were a smash hit with players, many of whom were presumably fans of the original movies.
You will notice the use of the past tense in the previous paragraph, which highlights one of the problems with using branded games. When the Star Wars and Marvel Universe came into the hands of the Disney Corporation, they decided to discontinue the arrangement whereby these brands could be associated with gambling products. A major headache for Playtech, although fortunately there is more than one superhero-filled universe to choose from. That’s why you can now find a range of linked jackpot slots from Playtech featuring images from the old Batman series of the 1960s as well as the Christopher Reeve Superman movies.
Superhero slots are not the only game in town, as there is a vast range of licensed slot games, from the sublime to the ridiculous. NetEnt had a major hit with its trilogy of musically themed slots: Guns ‘n Roses, Motorhead and Jimi Hendrix. These games boasted quality animations, music from the artists, and feature-packed game play, making them a big hit with players. Microgaming has made high quality games based on movies such as Jurassic World and TV shows like Game of Thrones – both have proven successful, aided in no small part by their connection to the blockbusting originals.
While there is no guarantee that a licensed slot game will live up to the movie or show that inspired it, that doesn’t mean those games are not worth trying. It costs a lot of money to obtain the licensing rights to major properties, so we can safely assume that an equivalent amount of time and money is going into the mechanics and design of the game so as to make the initial investment worthwhile. As in the case of the Playtech superhero or NetEnt musical tie-ins, you get a high-quality game featuring popular branded images, as well as video and/or musical clips. The marriage between slot games and popular culture has proved to be a lucrative one, and looks set to continue for the foreseeable future.
