I’m willing to bet however much you want that some of your absolute most beloved slots of all time are licensed – “The Avengers”, “South Park”, “Game of Thrones”, “Spider-Man”, “Gladiator”, “The Dark Knight”, “Aliens”, “Jurassic Park”, the list goes on and on and on. Licensed slots are absolutely fantastic, in every way. Sure, some of them are just cheap imitations of their source material with some popular brand name plastered on it, but most of them have a lot of effort and love put behind them. Developers know that the names will make people come, but it’s the games that will make them stay, and thus try their hardest to make their creations as enjoyable as possible. Licensed slots seem like a win-win-win situation, as the developers win more due to the brand recognition, the players get to experience a high-quality slot featuring the characters they know and love, and even the license holders get a share of the profits for doing absolutely nothing. But licensed slots, and licensed properties in general, have a pretty bad dark side, too, and it’s one whose effects we’re already seeing play out.
Today, Marvel announced that they’re shutting down two of their videogames – “Avengers Alliance” and “Avengers Alliance 2”. The former of those had been around for over four years now and had literally thousands of fans who payed millions in microtransactions in an attempt to support the game they enjoyed. The latter, while not nearly as well-received as its predecessor, still had quite a lot of loyal fans. That, of course, isn’t the first time Marvel/Disney have pulled their license from their games – currently, you are unable to legally buy most Marvel titles, such as the “Marvel vs Capcom” series or “X-Men Destiny” (the latter of which wasn’t very good, but still), and for years fan-favorites “Marvel Ultimate Alliance” (which inspired both “Avengers Alliance” and “Marvel Future Fight”) were also unavailable for purchase.
But hey, that’s just for videogames, right? The same thing can’t possibly happen to slots, can it? Oh, you bet your beautiful behind it can! In fact, it actually did. Have you ever wondered why you haven’t seen any new Marvel slots in the last few years? Or why the ones that exist aren’t featured as prominently on the front pages of your online casinos as they once were? Well, the secret lies, once again, in licensing issues. Marvel/Disney decided that gambling wasn’t family-friendly enough, and as such decided to pull their license from all of their deals with their casino partners (Playtech and Cryptologic). So chances are you’ll never see any more Marvel slots, ever – as a matter of fact, Playtech themselves jumped ship and are currently developing DC slots for Warner Bros. Thankfully, Marvel’s slots don’t have expiration dates… But what if other slots do? “Game of Thrones” is officially coming to an end in 2018 – what if HBO decides to pull the slot after that? It’s something to think about when you play any licensed slot.