A deep analysis of the landscape of the global social slot industry revealed that the two main areas of innovation were in the live operations offered to players, and the techniques in which players were monetized. Therefore, players and suppliers alike brought with them their traditional expectations of what a core game experience is. On many occasions, social slot players migrated their play habits from the offline land-based entertainment providers to the readily available social online offering – first on their PC, and then on their smartphone. The online social slot industry is not much different. Can you see the pattern? Even in this very traditional world of offline slots, we see movement in product innovation, but at a glacial pace. In the past 10 years, we saw the introduction of the hold and spin mechanic, and the rise of persistent state games. Thirty years ago, the first multi-line low denomination machines started appearing 25 years ago, free games were introduced 20 years ago, wide area progressive jackpots became popular and 15 years ago, these jackpot mechanics became symbol driven.
Therefore, the rate at which an innovative new slot feature will penetrate the main-stream product offering is very slow. For suppliers, this means there are diminishing returns on new experimental lines of products. The simple reality is that most players will ask for what they do not want, and will only play what is most familiar to them.
An internal study commissioned recently found that 80 per cent of players in land-based casinos would like to see more variety in slots’ reel array sizes and layout, but when asked to list their favourite games, 80 per cent listed a game that featured a 5×3 reel format. Slot players are very traditional in their preferences. What about games of chance in general? Sure, live dealer rooms and crash games are becoming more popular, with many content providers jumping on this trend and offering their own variants, but what about core slot mechanics, and is this the end of the era of the slot machine?
Is it just more of the same? Are we at the end of the line in product innovation for online slots? Nevertheless, many showgoers commented on the lack of innovation in slots year-over-year. ICE London 2023 featured an impressive line-up of new slot titles from content producers all over the world.
Dr Eyal Loz, Chief Product Officer at RubyPlay, explains how casualising slot games in the midst of little slot innovation will help to attract the next generation of players.
0 kommentar(er)
