Genius Gambling gets an insight into the success of the slot studio, AvatarUX, by picking the brains of its Managing Director, Marcus Honney ahead of their next slot release!
Since AvatarUX launched you have released countless hit games, but where did it all start?
We created AvatarUX in 2018, before exposing the studio to the whole online gambling industry, at SiGMA 2019 iGaming conference, in Malta. However, the real story behind the creation of AvatarUX, comes together from a fusion of iGaming professionals and casino enthusiasts; we created the concept of combining decades of industry experience, with a real passion for slot machines! As an example, I have over 25 years of experience in the gambling industry, including bringing NetEnt’s live casino to the market, heading-up Table Games at Yggdrasil, and working as a Gaming Consultant. Soon enough, the idea of creating an innovative slot gaming studio, gained momentum – and AvatarUX became a reality. The ethos of the brand from day one, was to create a flexible and streamlined slot studio, with the capacity to rapidly create in-demand games, that trend fast, feature innovative bonus mechanics, and have some of the most impressive themes and visuals in the industry. This is why we've been able to create and release seven games within 18 months of launch – Lilith's Inferno, PopRocks™, WildPops™, CherryPop™, BountyPop™, TikiPop™ and HippoPop™.
What is next for the popular Popwins™ series and the mechanic as a whole?
The PopWins™ mechanic, features in all our current games, aside from our debut slot, Lilith's Inferno – and it's quickly become one of the hottest trending concepts in the casino gaming industry. Thanks to 'Pops' after winning spins, games such as CherryPop™ can expand the reels as to create up to 33,614 ways to win! The latest news in the PopWins™ series, is the release of HippoPop™ at the end of May – an exotic game themed on African chimeras and psychedelic visions. Players can spin with bets between €0.20 to €40.00 and enjoy an average win rate of 20.5%, plus the chance to hit max win of 48150 times their bet!
The PopWins™ feature continues to attract huge spin numbers, so players can expect to see more games in the series, later in 2021.
What does 2021 hold for AvatarUX?
In 2021 at AvatarUX, our goal is to create and launch 4-5 games in total. We've already released TikiPop™ in February, with HippoPop™ coming at the end of May. That leaves us the scope to release another 2-3 games in the second half of 2021, but the themes and names of these slots, remain inside the AvatarUX studio, for the time being. We have big plans for 2021, in terms of increasing brand visibility and penetrating new player zones across the internet. We've signed deals with brands including Hub888.io, Azure Tech, CasinoGrounds and Solid Gaming, to gain exposure to streaming and social media audiences, as well as enhancing exposure to the Asian slot market.
What separates AvatarUX from the competition in the gambling sphere?
At AvatarUX, we have a very flexible approach to game creation, meaning we can rapidly evolve our slot dynamics and themes, to meet player demand. We feel we're perfectly set-up to evolve with the digital world and any new gaming trends, that may appear virtually overnight. As a developer using Yggdrasil's YGS Masters platform, we've already demonstrated our innovative approach to leveraging game development and evolve faster by embracing innovative concepts. The creation of our unique PopWins™ mechanic, is a perfect example of our ability to innovate and give players powerful new features. The success of our games are also visible proof that we're creating slots that players love, and we've already featured in Yggdrasil's 80K Lucky March promotion, with our own 20K Prize Drop mini promo.
What's been the biggest win on one of your slot releases?
The power of our PopWins™ mechanic, creates huge winning potential for the luckiest players, by expanding the reels to create a huge number of ways to win. And considering we're still a relatively new brand, there have already been some amazing wins. The biggest to date, was gained by a Swedish player, on BountyPop™ in December 2020, who scooped around €170,000! However, we hope to see bigger wins coming soon, since most of our PopWins™ slots, have max wins exceeding €1,000,000 on the max bet. All our slots feature big max win multipliers, such as CherryPop's™ max win of 56386x the triggering bet, BountyPop's™ 55,000x, and PopRock's™ 72,1888x payout. If you're wondering about the payout range available on our games, let's use our most popular slot, CherryPop™, as an example – players can win between €11,277.2 and €2,255,440, depending on the triggering bet, if they hit the max win of 56386x.
As a whole what do you think the gambling space has in store for us in the future?
As the world becomes increasingly digitised and concepts such as blockchain and web 3.0 go mainstream, the possibilities for online gambling is very exciting. Games are likely to become visually more impressive and immersive, while streaming of video slots and gambling contests, is likely to be huge. It's hard define whether slot games will look entirely different in 5-10 years time, but at AvatarUX, we're positioned to push boundaries and evolve with player demand.
AvatarUX's upcoming release is HippoPop!™ which will be live to play on the 31st May 2021, you can read our full review by simply clicking below and be sure to follow Avatar UX's continued exciting journey on their social media @AvataruxS website AvatarUX.com and of course a big thank you to Marcus Honney for his time and insight.