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Keep rockin’ in the reel world
Matt Broughton knows it’s only rock and roll, but he likes it. Leander Games are hoping to appeal to rocking gamers as they team up with heavy metal giants Megadeth to present a new slot experience.
The use of well-known brands has been gaining more and more importance in the video slots industry with various companies looking to capitalise on this trend. When Leander Games called a meeting to discuss how best to tap into this potential, a TV in the background streamed live news showing a huge line of fans waiting to get tickets to see their favourite band. Leander quickly realized that no matter how much someone likes a movie brand, rarely will you find more active fans than with a rock band. Leander Games’ Founder and CEO, Ramiro Atucha, explains further: “With bands it’s common to see fans purchasing merchandising and signing-up to receive newsletters about new releases and upcoming tours. If you were a big fan of a band and a slot game was released featuring them, there’s a strong chance you’d play just for fun even if you weren’t a gambler.”
Having decided that this was the way the company wanted to go about producing its first branded game, Leander’s Daniel Schultz reached out to some of his close contacts in the music industry, searching for a rock band that might have some interest in licensing their name to a slot game. “One of our key criteria was that this band needed to have a strong international fan base since Leander Games doesn’t license content to any operator doing business in the US market,” explains Atucha. “A key contact at the largest management company in the world suggested the band Megadeth as they’re very active (i.e. constantly touring) have a huge following all over the world that they enjoy a very close relationship with, and are also very active online in marketing their brand. When we presented the concept they immediately understood exactly what we were trying to do and jumped on board, giving us their full support.”
VERY LARGE DEMISE
Megadeth were founded in 1983 by Dave Mustaine and bassist David Ellefson after Mustaine was dropped from the now world-renowned heavy metal group, Metallica. Since then Megadeth have released twelve studio albums, three live albums, two EPs, 26 singles, 32 music videos, four compilations and one box set, ultimately selling over 25 million copies world-wide, with five consecutive albums being certified Platinum or Multi-Platinum in the US.
Apart from their impressive rock credentials, the band’s commitment to the project also made them the perfect choice, as Atucha explains: “We didn’t just license Megadeth, we partnered with them - indeed to the point that Dave Mustaine gave a personal statement for our press release:
“We have an amazing fan base that is incredibly loyal to our music and everything we stand for, and we never dreamed that one day we would have a ‘MEGADETH’ slot game for fans to play. With the assistance of Leander Games’ vision and creativity, we have produced a fantastic game that will appeal to anyone that already appreciates the band while also giving us an opportunity to continue widening our appeal to a new casino-playing audience.”
Megadeth will also be actively working with us to promote the game to their fan base, and will even provide some exclusive memorabilia for some lucky players.”
CRASH SYMBOLS
The game concept was built from scratch to fully feature the band, and a handful of Megadeth fans within Leander’s staff were immediately made a part of the project to ensure the fans’ point of view was being considered. The band members and their instruments are the main reel symbols (Dave Mustaine appears as the “Extended Wild” on the main game and the “Sticky Wild” on the free spin bonus) while some of their greatest hits are present musically, including Head Crusher, Symphony of Destruction, and Hangar 18. Further to this, the “Head Crusher” bonus is based entirely on the band’s famous “Head Crusher” video (if you’re feeling brave you can find it on YouTube; just be sure to plug in headphones if you’re in a shared office!)
“We put a great deal of effort into producing a really creative game,” explains Atucha. “Megadeth will be our first branded product and we want to deliver an impressive experience.” And does he think Megadeth fans will take to slot gaming? “Absolutely! The band has a strong fan base ranging in age from 20 to 45 – an age that’s very comfortable with computers and surfing the internet. Those fans that are not gamblers will certainly want to try the game for fun, and we believe that once some of the exclusive memorabilia becomes available to our clients’ slot players, even the fun players will convert to real money players.”
Many of Megadeth’s fans have already contacted Leander with positive feedback on the initial arts that were published (although one online fan comment did offer… “I’m not sure how I’d feel putting my money into a land-based slot game called Symphony of Destruction!”)
END GAME
With the game’s release only weeks away, I ask Atucha for his favourite of the game’s features. “I would probably go with the “Meta Screen Side Bet”,” he offers. “At all times the player will be able to turn on three levels of side bet through which the game will check all the possible winning combinations, not only within the symbols he sees, but up to one, two or even three positions off-screen. The game is a five-reel by four-row, 40-lines slot game. But with the “Meta Screen Side Bet” activated, if a better combination appears outside of the screen the player will still win!”
This project also appears to have whet Leander’s appetite for band-related games, as Atucha explains: “We expect to become specialized in building the best slots for the best bands. We are already in conversations with a few important bands that will hopefully join the Leander experience.”
Leander holds the exclusive worldwide license for the Megadeth game, for both online and land-based. Through its existing partnerships with GTS and OpenBet they are securing strong distribution to the main online operators as well as holding initial conversations with potential partners regarding land-based distribution.
Considering that in the band’s 26 active years there have been over 20 individuals that have all officially been part of the group at different times, I can’t resist asking Atucha if Leander are prepared to constantly upgrade the game if the band line-up chops and changes. “Megadeth has had a few changes… usually around Dave Mustaine’s charisma and leadership. All of them have played an important role in the band and are held in high esteem by the fans. If the current line-up happened to change (hopefully not!) the game will remain a strong image of this stage of the band’s life.”
