Microgaming Slots

Microgaming past and Microgaming present

Today, Microgaming is a giant. They are based in the Isle of Man, a UK territory that is popular with businesses because it is off-shore in terms of tax and company laws.

They say they made the “world’s first true online casino software in 1994” and “the first mobile casino in 2004”.

The company also runs the world’s largest progressive jackpot network, which has paid out over €1.2 billion.

All that adds up to a massive five-storey tower block HQ on the Isle of Man that really stands out in the slots world where there are a lot of small operators.

What Microgaming Does

We suspect a lot of our visitors skip over sections like this. DON’T!

Obviously, do as you see fit, but understanding how the casino and online slots business works is the best way to navigate it safely.

In the communications, these companies put out to each other – the so-called business-to-business sector (b2b) rather than business-to-consumer (b2c) – the player is the product.

The player is to be delivered to the casino site and persuaded to spend as much time at the site playing games as possible. This is because players playing games is where all the revenue and all the profit in the online casino business comes from.

This works because games are set up to deliver these profits, which are all lost player bets. This does not mean that players don’t win, that games are unfair, or that you won’t win in the long run, but it means that that is very unlikely.

Games are random, but they are randomly running through a series of options that in the long run will end up with the game owner making a profit.

This is a good thing to know and a good way to understand the casino industry.

Microgaming Products

Microgaming produces both games and the casinos that host those games.

So, Microgaming will supply the software to run a casino to a casino operator, they will then stock that casino with games that include their own.

This gives an awful lot of power to Microgaming, whose games are going to be in a huge number of casino sites simply because they make the casinos and recommend the games to the operators. The situation isn’t unheard of in business, it is very similar to the situation in the UK pub market for example, where breweries owned large numbers of pubs that sold only their beers.

Where can you Play Microgaming Slots Legally?

You need to be sure you’re safe when you’re playing any casino product, and Microgaming is one of the most regulated companies in the world.

The company, based in the UK is regulated to provide its products in these markets:

• The UK since 2014 with 1,211 regulated games.
• Denmark, since 2012 with 228 regulated games.
• Sweden, since 2019 with 696 regulated games.
• Spain since 2012 with 333 regulated games.
• Italy since 2011 with 324 games.
• Belgium since 2012 with 664 regulated games.
• Bulgaria since 2015 with 150 regulated games.
• Colombia since 2018 with 45 regulated games.
• The Czech Republic since 2019 with 14 regulated games.
• Estonia since 2010 with 652 regulated games.
• Latvia since 2011 with 202 games.
• Portugal since 2019 with 37 regulated games.
• Romania since 2016 with 98 regulated games.

Microgaming Jackpot Games and Networks

Microgaming owe a good deal of their popularity to the enormous prizes they can pay out.

Progressive jackpots are a special part of the casino industry and beloved of fans.

Progressives work by networking, so big companies who run casino sites have a bit of an advantage here already.

Progressive jackpots take a small slice of every bet made on the game and put it into a prize pool. By networking these games across hundreds of maybe thousands of sites they can bring in enormous amounts of money very quickly.

These games have big followings and websites dedicated to following every new development on these games.

Microgaming has three big progressive games or networks.

They are:

Major Millions

Major Millions, a game released in 2009, with a progressive jackpot. The RTP is typically low at 89.37% and the game is low variance, but the progressive game is why most players play this title and at the time of writing it was worth nearly 500,000 coins.

Mega Moolah

Mega Moolah is possibly the world’s most famous slot game. It is now a family of titles, all offering access to the massive Mega Moolah progressive jackpot that has broken the world record for online pay outs on at least two occasions by paying out tens of millions of euros to lucky winners. Mega Moolah was first released in 2006 and the prize when we wrote this article was nearly €13 million.

WowPots

WowPots is a networked progressive jackpot, worth at the time of writing over €13.25 million. Wowpot has paid out nearly 1 million jackpots, the highest one 362.722 coins, and making a total of nearly €24 million.

The jackpot is a four-tiered prize that seeds with €2 million as the starting prize. It has no limit on the pay outs.

It can be won from many games, of which the first two were, Wheel of Wishes, and African Legends, but you should look out for many more titles coming in time.

Microgaming Development

Microgaming are big developers in their own right. The titles we have mentioned so far, all of them progressive jackpots, are straightforwardly Microgaming titles.

Recently though the company has been reaching out, and it is now a multithreaded hydra in the development world.

Microgaming has teamed up with, so far, 11 independent game developers, which it allows to build games using its systems.

This is not something that Microgaming are alone in doing. Big companies are, in the minds of business theorists, not nimble or innovative enough. Smaller companies, with new people, are new ideas are supposed to be more attuned to new ideas – more disruptive. So, Microgaming, a massive and in internet gambling terms positively ancient, organisation is buying up some new ideas.

It’s easy to see the attraction of this for Microgaming, who get to pick from a slate of ideas pitched to them from designers all around the world.

For those design studios, there is also an obvious attraction: they get their games into a huge network of casinos around the world. We can assume that they are well paid for what they do as well.

Microgaming Partner Studios

Aurum Signature Studios

Aurum Studios make “bespoke” online slots. Their titles include Frank City Robberies, the Tale of Elves, a Mega Moolah title, Jungle Mega Moolah, and Deadmau5.

The company was founded in 2020 and has a slate of 15 games.

Alchemy Gaming

This company was founded in 2019, but is already just outside the top 100 slot developers in the UK, despite only producing 4 games. Those titles are Goldaur Guardians, Reel Gems Deluxe, Wheel of Wishes (that Wow Pot game), and 10,000 Wishes.

Neon Valley Studios

This company has 6 titles to its name, few enough to list in full here, they are Augustus, Age of Conquest, Noble Sky, Atlantean Treasures Megaways, Aurora Wilds, and Queen of Alexandria WowPot. The company was founded in 2019 but is already just outside the top 20 UK producers, an amazing success.

Gameburger Studios

Tuck into Gameburger titles and you’ll find a tasty portfolio of seven titles. They are 9 Pots of Gold, 9 Masks of Fire, Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar, Hyper Strike, 11 Champions, Break Da Bank Again Respin, and Playboy Fortunes. The company was founded in 2019 but it is rated as a top 10 developer in the UK.

Pulse 8 Studios

Pulse 8 say they are inspired by the Dragon’s Pulse, and that their games are Fearless, Ferocious, and Enigmatic and their slate is – they say – the most diverse.

Currently, they have 8 slots in their portfolio after being founded in 2019. Their games have an East Asian theme in general and they are: Carnaval Jackpot, Basketball Star on Fire, 777 Royal Wheel, Treasures of Lion City, Relic Seekers, Lucky Twins Jackpot, Ladies Nite 2 Turn Wild, and Alchemist Stone.

All41Studios

This company is slightly older, having been launched in 2018, and they are generally listed as a subsidiary of Microgaming. They have a slate of 20 games that are labelled as premium slots. The top ones are Arena of Gold, Book of Atem WowPot, 6 Tokens of Gold, Lock a Luck, Wanted Outlaws, All Win FC, Alchemy Fortunes, Book of Atem, Electric Avenue and Forgotten Island Megaways.

Switch Studios

This company was also founded in 2018 and has produced 16 games, 12 of which are card games, 3 of them are roulette games and 1 a dice game, and none of them are slot games, so we’ll move on!

Fortune Factory Studios

This company does make slots and has produced 8 of them since 2018. Their titles are Aliyas Wishes, Tiki Mania, Village People Macho Moves, Romanov Riches, Holly Jolly Penguins, Showdown Saloon, Long Mu Fortunes and Amber Stirlings Mystic Shrine.

Stormcraft Studios

This company was founded in 2016 in South Africa, though their branding could easily be Nordic. Their 11 games are available on Microgaming frameworks and they have worked their way into the top 50 providers listing in at least one jurisdiction. Their titles are: Fortunium, Break Away Lucky Wilds, Fortunium Gold Mega Moolah, Agent Jane Blonde Returns, Football Star Deluxe, Break Away Deluxe, Wild Catch, Jungle Jim and the Lost Sphinx, Dragon Shard, Fire Forge, and Thunderstruck Wild Lightning.

Triple Edge Studios

This company has made 22 games and was founded in 2017 or 2018 (depending on what source you believe). Their games are often tie-ins and we can’t list them all here, but the most popular ones currently are: Adventures of Doubloon Island, Ancient Fortunes: Zeus, Book of Oz, Lara Croft Temples and Tombs, Absolootly Mad: Mega Moolah, Sisters of OZ WowPot, Assassin Moon, Wicked Tales: Dark Red, 109 Heroes Multiplier Fortunes, African Quest and more.

Playing Microgaming Slots for Real Money

You can play Microgaming slots for real money at almost any casino site in the world. All you need to do is to find a site that is legal and licensed where you live, you need to set up an account (for which you may need ID documents in electronic form), and you need to have money in your account, which you can transfer in via a bank or debit card, a credit card, an e-wallet (like PayPal, Skrill or Neteller), a pre-paid card or a Bitcoin account.

Then you can play, but please play them safely!

Playing Microgaming Slots for Free

Playing Microgaming slots free is perhaps just as easy as playing them for money.

Most developers, including many of Microgaming’s partners, host demo versions of their games on their own sites. You can also read up on the details of the game there. You will, in most places, need to prove your age – or at least sign to say that you are of legal age to gamble – in order to access them.

There are also demo versions of games at many review sites. Casino sites should also allow you to play games in demo mode. And you may be able to find Microgaming offers that give you free spins on games, but you have to read and understand these offers fully before you start playing.

Top 10 Microgaming Slots

These are 10 of the biggest Microgaming slots of all time.

Immortal Romance

This game is very much based on the Twilight series of vampire movies and is one of the most visually striking and sophisticated games ever made, despite being released in 2011. It has a big prize of 12,150-times stake on a classic five-by-three grid game.

Thunderstruck II

Play Thunderstruck II demo

This is also an oldie, released in 2010, but with a major league top prize of over £2 million. It’s a high volatility game with Viking theming and a number of bonus games including free spins with multipliers that will give you the big prizes.

Mega Moolah

Play Atlantean Treasures: Mega Moolah demo

This is one of the most famous slot games in history, and it is very old, very simple and extremely popular, almost only because of the massive progressive prizes you can win – you wouldn’t pick it out today because of its graphics or game play.

Break Da Bank Again

Released in 2008 this is another massive prize game with a long history. It’s quite a standard game, with a very low betting starting level that makes it a good value for a high variance game.

Terminator 2

Tie-ins are reliably good business in the slots world, and this game remains popular after more than 7 years on the market. It has a lot of material from the blockbuster movie that it is based on and it is an exciting and adventurous game.

Game of Thrones 243 Ways

Another tie-in from 2014 with one of the biggest TV series in history. This is a 243-ways-to-win game with a big top prize of over 120,000 coins from betting that starts at 0.01. This is a classic Microgaming hit with lots of excellent design in both the aesthetic and the mechanical sense.

Avalon

Dating back to 2006, this is a mythic fantasy of England that is very typical of Microgaming titles of that era. It’s very comparable to Thunderstruck in fact and is quite a standard design with quite standard mathematics.

Lucky Leprechaun

Every company needs a Luck of the Irish game it would appear, and this is the top one from Microgaming. Like all such games, it is quite hackneyed in its portrayal of the Irish and focuses on big prizes and simple gameplay to bring in players. A 2019 release.

I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here

The global reality franchise was slotted up back in 2013. It racks up the bonus features for a really involving game that’s long on connections with the UK version of the show and its biggest stars.

Wacky Panda

This is an East Asian-related title from 2017, with cartoon graphics on a 3-reel game that is obviously designed for the mobile market and that has been a worldwide hit.