Evolution to revitalise NetEnt portfolio with highly volatile Starburst slot
CPO Todd Haushalter scraps NetEnt’s slots release roadmap and demands development team focus on quality over quantity
Evolution has vowed to inject NetEnt’s legacy portfolio with a new lease of life after scrapping the Swedish slots supplier’s existing roadmap of game releases.
EGR has learned that Evolution CPO Todd Haushalter pulled the plug on several NetEnt slots – some on the verge of release after eight months in development – to instead focus the firm’s resources on newer, fresher titles designed for a modern online audience.
A new, high volatility version of the supplier’s hugely popular Starburst slot will go live in the summer as the first of nine games launched as part of a refreshed package, in what Haushalter describes as “the rebirth of NetEnt”.
The original Starburst has dominated EGR Technology’s iGaming Tracker rankings by topping the charts for sixth consecutive months between October 2020 and March 2021.
When asked why such a popular slot needed a high volatility remake, Haushalter said: “We don’t want to make a game for existing Starburst players. We want to make a game for players that played it at one point, enjoyed it, but then left because they wanted to win big.
“We want to invite them back to a game with a mechanic that they love on a brand that they trust, but with modern volatility where they have a chance to quit their job if they have a big winner.”
He added: “Starburst and Book of Dead [by Play’n GO] are great, but they wouldn’t be great if they were launched today as new titles because they survive on their legacy. They’re just not rich enough mechanically or volatile enough. I’m not saying they wouldn’t be good games, but the market has moved on.”
Haushalter, who has spent nearly six years with Evolution, has instructed NetEnt’s slots development team to focus on quality rather than quantity after the live casino supplier’s £1.6bn takeover.
“It isn’t about how many games we can launch in a year,” he told EGR. “It might be nine, it might be 24, but I just know that the games are going to be stone-cold quality, which is going back to NetEnt’s roots.
“I started talking with the team here about it and they had a bit of an identity crisis. They had the DNA of great game making and rich games, but they had been asked to become a volume house.
“Luckily for us, a lot of those same people were still here and as soon as I started asking them about quality, their eyes lit up as that hadn’t been the mandate,” he added.
EGR can reveal that Starburst will not be the first brand in the NetEnt back catalogue to get the Evolution makeover treatment.
A virtual reality (VR) live casino gameshow starring Gonzo from NetEnt slot Gonzo’s Quest is primed to launch in May and will become the first crossover game between the two companies.
The 4K game will be Evolution’s first full VR release and Haushalter has promised consumers an active playing experience where they are partially in charge of their own destiny.
He said: “The player is in control and can influence the outcome of the game. In Gonzo’s Treasure Hunt, you go around selecting boxes to see if you find treasure. It is a light strategy game and very different from the rest of our stuff.
“Gonzo has left the slot arena for this game and this is very much a live strategy-style gameshow. There’s nothing slot about it, but we’re hoping that a familiar friendly face will invite slot players in.”
The rejuvenation of historic NetEnt characters is a sign of things to come at Evolution and Piggy Riches might be next, while EGR understands the more agile Red Tiger slots business has largely been left to its own devices since completion of the takeover.
“I look at the NetEnt library and see the best treasure trove of intellectual property in online slots,” said Haushalter. “We are going to dig deep into that library and modernise it.
“We’re not going to do more of the same. A game that just has a standard jumping wild or an expanding reel simply will not cut it. We’re looking for rich new games with layered worlds,” he concluded.