When PartyGaming started making proprietary casino slots back in the day, the management of the company would never expect that almost 10 years later, this could become one of the Groups main assets, leading the way for its casino profitability and also the race in possible acquisitions.
Melon Madness and the beginning of Partygaming Studios
In the year 2008, a group of ambitious and very skilled creative designers of PartyGaming (mother company of Partypoker, Partycasino and Gamebookers at that moment) came up with the idea of the group not just buying slots from third party providers (such as Net Ent, Playtech and Microgaming) but also proceed with creating their own, in-house games. Together with the proposal, the Group’s designers came up with the mock-ups for a game called Melon Madness, a fruit themed slot that would pave the way for some of Partygaming’s most influential slots. The project was hailed by most people in the company including its management that decided that it was high time the company uses a breakthrough idea to get through the Dark Ages for the group that followed the UIGEA and the subsequent exit of the company from the US market (in September 2006).
From Melon Madness to Melon Madness Deluxe and Space Venture
The rest is history. Audience and casino aficionados accepted Melon Madness and made it an instant hit. Players embraced the new game in such a degree that Partygaming management decided to enrich it with its own, exclusive jackpot. The jackpot easily reached and exceeded the one million dollar mark, making it immediately one of Partygaming’s highest paying casino jackpots.
The designers’ team that was responsible for the project was naturally assigned with more headcount, including its own developers and casino web-designers. The group’s aim was to make this an independent unit that would not only design exclusive games for the company’s casino brands (at that time Partycasino, gamebookers casino and Empire Casino) but also sell games to other online casinos. Some of the project’s benchmarks were games such as Melon Madness Deluxe (successor to the first ever success for the brand), Loot ‘en Khamun (Egyptian themed classic slot), Luck o’ the Jackpot (Irish always bring luck to casino players), Going Nuts and Mega Bars. The epitome of creativity was the super luxurious Space Venture, a projected that required little over a year but the end result set new standards in 3D animated slots and positioned PartyGaming Slots Studios among the A-List of casino game producers.
Godfather, Gone in the Wind and The 300
In the early 2010’s, competition was moving quickly onto continuously adding more games to the casino offering. Online casinos’ portfolios would easily reach and exceed 500 games and some of them even signed the rights for the creation of some branded slots. Themed after famous movies, novels and even music bands slots such as Rocky and Batman entered the market.
PartyGaming saw an opportunity there and its B2B unit registered trademarks from world known titles: Godfather, Gone with the wind, The 300 and The Terminator first appeared on Partycasino and the other groups brands in the years 2011-2013 where they acquired thousands of loyal fans. The merge with bwin and later the acquisition by GVC helped the Studios games become known in more regions, transforming its games into a world famous casino phenomena.
Partygaming Studio slots in 2018
Although the studios keep producing new games (the aim is to have at least 5 new releases each year), the company decided not to extend the rights agreement with the movie studios that own rights for the film related slots. That hasn’t stopped the company’s own copyright slots from becoming more popular over the years and their jackpot from paying millions to players. The project of bringing Bwin Casino, Party Casino, Foxy Casino, Sportingbet Casino, Vistabet Casino and Casino Club under the same group has meant that the player pool that contributes to the Partygaming slots jackpot has multiplied over the recent years and it is now easier than ever to reach 4 or 5 million for a single win. With the Ladbrokes brand joining the network as of the beginning of 2019, you can expect that party casino will rank almost as high as Net Ent and Microgaming in the list of successful and more profitable – for players – online casinos.
