Stargate Megaways exclusive with the newly rebranded Light & Wonder
The team at Slot Gods gain an exclusive insight into Light & Wonder and Stargate Megaways
Last month, Scientific Games (also known as SG Digital) announced that the company was transforming into Light & Wonder and will be taking a cross-platform approach to bring game franchises to players anywhere in the world and anytime with games available in both land-based casinos and online casinos.
This exciting news comes after the announcement of the huge upcoming slot, Stargate Megaways, which looks to be one of the biggest online slots of the year. Thankfully, as media partners with the company, the team at Slot Gods has been given an insight into both the new rebranding and the highly anticipated Stargate Megaways slot.
We spoke to Julian Beck, the Creative Director at Light & Wonder, to find out about the reasoning behind the change and what players can expect from both Light & Wonder and Stargate Megaways in the coming months.
Congratulations on your transition from Scientific Games to Light & Wonder. Firstly, can you tell us the reason behind the decision to rebrand?
Beck: Ultimately, the time was right for the company to take a bold step in a brand-new direction amid changes both internally and within the wider industry. After giving it a lot of thought internally, we partnered with global branding experts and began canvassing the opinions of our stakeholders across multiple departments and jurisdictions.
After going through an extensive list of over 2,700 potential names for the company it was eventually agreed that we’d move forward as Light & Wonder. The name and overall identity were born from our winning strategy and desire to become the world’s leading cross-platform game company.
Of course, we didn’t take such a huge move lightly. We’re incredibly proud of our long and successful history and we’ll continue to showcase everything we’ve achieved over the years both online and in the land-based gaming sector.
Can we expect any big changes in the way that Light & Wonder operates?
Beck: Despite having rebranded, we have no intentions of making any drastic changes. We have a strong business model and our varied portfolio of games has long proven to be a huge hit with players worldwide. If you take a look at our future roadmaps in Europe, the United States and Canada, you’ll see that we’ve not deviated from the path we’d been following when we were operating as Scientific Games.
We have a real strong belief in our games, therefore you can expect to see a whole host of our most popular titles return in one form or another in the next twelve months. This includes even more additions to our legendary Rainbow Riches franchise, a brand-new Cluedo title as well as games such as Chicken Fox JR developed by our talented partner studio Lightning Box.
We’ve always been mindful not to back ourselves in a corner by only offering our players one type of game, that’s why our portfolio is so rich and diverse. You’ll always find games to suit every type of player at Light & Wonder, regardless of whether that’s based on theming, volatility or game features and mechanics.
Stargate Megaways, Light & Wonder’s headline slot of 2022 launches later this month, can you tell us more about this game and what players can expect?
Beck: Stargate Megaways is set to be unlike any other Megaways game you’ve seen produced by Light & Wonder before. We’ve opted to stray from what you’d consider being the ‘traditional’ Megaways format in favour of a fresh approach that we believe offers even more excitement.
This slot features the Trail Ways mechanic, which you may have seen before in other games. In Stargate Megaways, the Trail Ways mechanic increases the player’s chances of reaching the bonus. Each time a consecutive winning cascade occurs a segment of the Stargate Trail will light up, leading them ever closer to activating a top-level bonus.
- Name:
- Stargate Megaways
- Developer:
- Light & Wonder
- RTP:
- 96.00%
- Max payout:
- 25,000x stake
- Volatility:
- High
- Reels:
- 6
- Win lines:
- 117,649
- Theme:
- Space, TV/Movie
- Release date:
- 19th Apr 2022
When players reach the fifth segment of the Trail a random modifier will be activated. Once they achieve 7, 8, or 9 consecutive cascades they’ll automatically activate the legendary Stargate. An impressive portal opens to the bonus round and players will automatically receive up to 7 Free Spins boasting lucrative modifiers. These include random wilds, wild reels, expanding reels, mystery symbols and regenerate, which clears the game grid and sees a re-spin occur with the same number of Megaways in place.
We’re confident this highly anticipated branded slot will capture the imaginations of an entire cross-section of players, not just those that are fans of Stargate. We’ve gone above and beyond to fill Stargate Megaways with some brilliant bonus features and mechanics, and we can’t wait to see how well this game is received.
There’s no denying that Stargate is hugely popular worldwide, but can you give us a little bit more insight as to why you chose that franchise specifically?
Beck: Our land-based gaming team in the United States has established a strong relationship with MGM Studios over the last few years, and it just so happens that MGM Studios holds the license to the Stargate IP. We made some enquiries about licensing and developing a Stargate-themed Megaways slot, and eventually, it all clicked into place nicely and here we are.
We chose to go for Stargate for a couple of reasons, first and foremost because of the opportunities it brings. Stargate has been rebooted multiple times over the years and the franchise spans novels, television series, movies and video games. There are generations of people that enjoy it, which means we have a large captive audience from the word go.
Secondly, there are also plans to release a brand-new Stargate film in the future, which just shows how popular the franchise is, even 28 years after its initial launch. We’d be foolish not to see this as a golden opportunity to tap into such a large fanbase.
Finally, are there any other upcoming games on the Light & Wonder roadmap that you think we should be keeping a close eye on?
Beck: Of course, there’s a lot to look forward to from Light & Wonder, ELK, Lightning Box and Authentic Gaming in the coming months across all major jurisdictions. Players in Europe will soon be able to sink their teeth into a whole host of new
titles designed to meet their unique specifications. These include feature-heavy games such as Blazin Hot 7’s Big Bonus, Cluedo Mighty Ways, Disco Dawgs and Book of Fusion.
- Name:
- Blazin Hot 7s Big Bonus
- Developer:
- Light & Wonder
- RTP:
- 95.98%
- Max payout:
- 2,300x stake
- Volatility:
- High
- Reels:
- 5
- Win lines:
- 40
- Theme:
- Fruit Machine
- Release date:
- 27th Apr 2022
Players in the United States and Ontario will be introduced to a number of iconic slots that have proven popular overseas that we think will resonate will a North American audience, these include Outlaw Waysfecta, Dave Lame Bad Magician and Dancing Drums Prosperity, just to name a few.
Play on Stargate Megaways when it releases here:
