Microgaming are one of the largest providers of casino and gaming software around today, and they provide software solutions and games to hundreds of online casinos, including some of the most reputable brand names on the planet with the likes of 32Red and other big-name players. Offering both desktop and mobile games, Microgaming’s current game-selection totals over 600 titles with the company rapidly expanding to cover the growing online gaming demand.
Microgaming Games
Microgaming offer a superb selection of games for players to enjoy and they offer one of the most comprehensive selections for players to take advantage of. Known for being unafraid to branch out, and try something new, start playing any Microgaming game, and it becomes clear that they are serious about the products they put out. ALL their games, whether Casino Table Games or Video Slots, are developed so players can enjoy them – it’s as simple as that. Let’s look at some of Microgaming’s most popular games:
Casino Table Games
Microgaming offer all the typical casino games you’d expect to see with Roulette and Blackjack making up the majority of their range.
Roulette
Head to the Roulette, and you’ll find multiple titles, including Premier Roulette Diamond Edition, High Limit European Roulette, Premier Roulette, American Roulette, and French Roulette making up just a small portion of their games.
Blackjack
Equally as comprehensive, Microgaming’s Blackjack section boasts over 26 different titles with High Streak Blackjack Pays, Atlantic City Multi-Hand Blackjack, Classic Blackjack Gold Series and Perfect Pairs European Blackjack being some of the more popular titles on offer.
Poker
In terms of the poker games on offer, you’ll find a few varieties of 3 Card Poker and Caribbean Stud Poker and Sic Bo are also on offer, as well as Craps, amongst others.
Video Slots
Microgaming’s Video Slot range is fairly impressive, and they were one of the first gaming providers to adopt the unique 243-ways-to-win format, that’s become increasingly popular over the last couple of years. The 243-ways-to-win format takes away conventional reels, instead requiring players simply to land a symbol on a reel – positioning is irrelevant. Microgaming have released some of the most popular Video Slot games around (both including 243-ways-to-win variations, and ‘regular’ games), and some of their most notable games include Immortal Romance, Game of Thrones, Lost Vegas, Thunder Struck 2, Lucky Leprechaun, and Jurassic Park.
The graphics within their Video Slot games are continually improving, and you simply need to look at any of their latest games to notice how crisp and defined the graphics and animations are. In fact, Microgaming’s use of HTML5 technology ensures both desktop and mobile players can take advantage of this, and most devices can run any Microgaming slot without worrying about lag, delays, or glitches.
Jackpot Games
Part of what has made Microgaming as famous as they are, is their jackpot game range, and their signature title, Mega Moolah, is well-known in the online gambling world, as it has – at times – held the record for the Video Slot with the highest jackpot amount (totalling over £10 Million), and their second ‘follow-on’ to this popular title, Mega Moolah ISIS has proved just as popular. Other jackpot games Microgaming offer include Major Millions, Fruit fiesta, Tunzamunni, Treasure Nile and Cash Splash: 5 Reel Drive. They also offer a selection of non-slot jackpot games with Jackpot Deuces being one of the most popular games here.
Live Dealer Casino
Microgaming may not be as well-known for their Live Dealer Games as other companies, but that doesn’t mean their game-selection and high-standards aren’t followed! In fact, Microgaming offer a great selection of Live Dealer Games with Blackjack, Roulette, Baccarat, Casino Hold’em, Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em and 3 Card Poker being the most popular titles on offer. Microgaming also offer less-common games, such as Caribbean Stud Poker, French Roulette Gold, and (occasionally), Sic Bo – although not every Microgaming casino will offer these games.
Microgaming’s Live Dealer Games are commonly said to be some of the fastest and most reliable around today, and much like their Video Slot development – the live games are designed to run on both computers and mobile devices, and mobile players typically report very few problems – something that can’t be said for many other gaming providers!
Unusual Games
No software provider would be complete without a selection of ‘weird’ and wacky games and Microgaming is no different. Fish Party is one of their strangest games, and, using the 243-ways-to-win format that some of their most popular slot games use, this underwater game has become a player-favourite, owing largely to the overly-animated fish appearing on screen, and the fairly dramatic music that accompanies the game.
Red Dog is another game that Microgaming offer, and it’s one that many players won’t have encountered before; Red Dog is – at its core – a poker-based game, and it’s played with a 52-card deck of cards. While Red Dog used to be popular in land-based casinos, its popularity has dwindled online (mainly due to players not having a clue how to play!), but nevertheless, Microgaming still offer it, and it’s one of those ‘different’ games that’re fun to enjoy… once in a while!
Operating Jurisdictions
As a game-provider, Microgaming are required to have licenses for countries they want to provide their games in (even if they’re not directly delivering the games themselves), and Microgaming currently are licensed with some of the biggest licensing regulators in the world, including the UK Gambling Commission, and the Malta Gaming Authority, allowing them to offer games to players in a fair number of countries. They’re also part of the Remote Gambling Association (usually abbreviated to the RGA), and this means that they agree to operate to the highest standards of probity, integrity, and social responsibly. When it boils down to the core, this basically means their games are fair, and aren’t designed to be overly-addictive.
Unfortunately, there are some countries that Microgaming don’t offer games to, although as of June 2016, Microgaming offer games to 12 regulated European markets, with expansion plans in place to offer even more countries access to their game-range. South African and American players are unable to play Microgaming games, and players in Hong Kong, the Philippines and Singapore will also struggle to play their titles, due to licensing rules and disputes.
About Microgaming
Microgaming are generally credited with developing the very first (working) piece of online casino software, and while those days are long in the past, their industry-driving approach to game and software development has remained strong with Microgaming setting a high bar for any competitor to follow. Microgaming actually started out as an online casino itself, back in 1994, and while they achieved moderate success in delivering games to players, they soon realised they’d be able to make more money by creating the games instead, and allowing casinos to use these games for a fee – doing away with the actual running’s of an online casino and focusing solely on game-creation.
Over the course of the next few years the company grew exponentially with their 1997 joining with the Interactive Gaming Council proving to be an important moment for the company, helping them grow their reputation even further, and thus being contacted by many gambling operators in search of a reputable provider of online games. Just one year later in 1998, Microgaming rose to fame once again with the launch of their Video Slot, ‘Cash Splash’. Cash Splash was ground-breaking in the online casino world, as it was the first slot game to offer a progressive jackpot, pooled between multiple casino operators.
A few months later, Microgaming completely re-vamped their software, so that players now had the choice of whether to play the games online, through their browser, or whether to play through their downloadable software client. As Microgaming’s game range grew, so did their reputation, and by 2001, Microgaming’s software was available in over 8 languages with Casino Player magazine naming them the ‘Best Software Supplier’ – one of the first (and many) awards the company received.
Fast-forward to 2009, and Microgaming hit the headlines once again (and more importantly, they become featured in mainstream media) thanks to a lucky player scooping their Mega Moolah Jackpot, which, at the time, totalled $6,374,434. The win was widely publicized, and while it’s subsequently been beaten, it remains a focal point of Microgaming’s history, as – at the time- is was the largest jackpot ever won on an online slot, and showed regular folks at home that they could be in with a chance of becoming a multi-millionaire, simply by playing a slot!
2013 saw Mega Moolah change another life, as Jonathan Heywood, a UK-resident playing at Betway casino managed to scoop a whopping £13,209,300 jackpot. Once again, Microgaming were thrust into the headlines, and media coverage was – again – beneficial to the company, with the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, and the Guardian news outlets all running major features about the win.
Today, Microgaming focus on containing to expand their game-range, and after creating Quickfire games in 2010, Microgaming now offer a more robust white label casino platform service to gambling operators, as well as providing casino games. Most recently, Microgaming have been experimenting with Virtual Reality gaming, using the Oculus Rift headset, allowing players to play like never before. It’s not known if, and when the technology will be released, but with the Oculus Rift headset alone costing over £500, it’s likely to be a while before it really catches on. That said, it’s an amazing development, and it’s likely than in the next 5-10 years we’re going to see some very significant changes in the way casino games are delivered online.