If you follow the iGaming industry and are lucky enough to head off to one of the huge conventions like G2E or ICE, you will see some fabulous stuff on the convention floors in places like Las Vegas. The casino industry is hugely competitive at the developer level, and you would be amazed at the new technologies that companies like Evolution Gaming, IGT and Playtech are working on: Slots that play like interactive video games; virtual reality live casino games; immersive poker rooms; skill games that change the whole idea of “the house always wins”.
It’s an exciting time for the industry in terms of innovation, and it’s very possible that the whole casino landscape – both online and in the land-based casinos – will dramatically change in the coming years. Yet, simple games, across all formats, are still incredibly popular at casinos. The question is why?
Card and Table Games Have Stood Test of Time
It’s a difficult question to answer. Of course, we can look at games like blackjack, roulette and poker and term them classics. They have stood the test of time, becoming iconic in their own right. If you head off to a swanky casino, you might find yourself thinking of James Bond or Dustin Hoffman’s Rain Man. The games have entered into popular culture, mainly through cinema, and that has helped cement their legacy.
Yet, there is more to it than people simply enjoying games because they have been around for a long time. Consider modern slots, which can be as ambitious in their gameplay and graphics as contemporary video games and represent the majority of games you will find at a casino. Despite the prevalence of big budget premium slots, there is still a huge appetite for stripped back slot machines.
Developers like NetEnt are at the forefront of design and tech in all types of slots, many of which are based on elements of popular culture. Yet, games like NetEnt’s Starburst still ranks among the most popular slots at casino.com and other sites that stock games from the top developer. Starburst is a simple game, one that arguably taps into the same sort of psychology as video games like Tetris and Candy Crush Saga.
Simple Slots Still Retain Huge Popularity
The point is that people do not always want to be entertained by the most complicated media outputs. A game like Starburst, with its 10 paylines and simple Cosmic Wild Feature, taps into that desire for simplicity, which is part of the reason that it has remained so popular for several years. Players now that logging in and playing is not going to be a psychological drain.
There is, however, a challenge being thrown up to the modern casino industry; namely, millennials and the generations coming up after them aren’t as interested in casino games as those that came before. Casinos are coming up with all sorts of strange ideas to lure them onto the gaming floors, and some of that will include the skill games mentioned earlier. The idea is to create casino games that will all but mimic video games in terms of gameplay, allowing players to compete with each other and against the house.
Yet, one feels that simple games will still retain their place in all types of entertainment, regardless of how the next generations feel about casinos. Despite those new technologies that will be harnessed to bring stunning iGaming experiences, there will still be a place for games with simple premises.
