There’s no other way of describing Triple Edge Studios in slot industry terms other than as an enormous success story.
And it’s also a story about how the online video slots industry is changing.
Let’s take you through the world of Triple Edge Studios.
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The History of Triple Edge Studios
Triple Edge Studios is a new company. The company was founded in February 2018, we think. It’s then that they announced the big deal that is the main narrative item in their story so far. Some websites date their foundation to 2017, but we can’t find a source for this.
Here’s how they present the story themselves: “Launched in February 2018 on a mission to deliver the next big thing, and the one after that, the team of gaming innovators are constantly exploring new and original ways to embrace and harness technology to perfect their craft. Headline games released under the Triple Edge shield include Playboy™ Gold and Halloween®.”
The reason why this story is such an indicator of where the slots industry is going is that Triple Edge Studios aren’t really indies any more.
On 6th February 2018, Microgaming, one of the world’s biggest gaming companies put out a press release announcing their partnership, exclusively, with Triple Edge Studios.
Who the Hell Are Microgaming?
You probably know who Microgaming are – you’ve almost certainly played their games if you like online video slots at all.
Microgaming are probably the people who made the first online casino, way back in 1994. They also claim to have produced the first mobile casino software in 2004 (we take them at their word on this).
They make casino games and software, poker software, bingo, and live dealer casino games. And they also make software that helps run online bookmakers sites.
Microgaming has more than 500 slots on the market, including some massive hits.
As they say themselves, “Our progressive jackpot network is the largest in the world, having paid out more than €1 billion to date.”
That’s largely down to Mega Moolah, and its family of games, the world’s biggest progressive jackpot slot game.
The company regularly wins awards, both for games that customers can play and for the software they produce for the industry. As we write this on 24th July they have announced that Microgaming has won the Platform of the Year at the EGRB2B Awards.
The company is very big by slot industry standards. They are based in the Isle of Man, a sort of quasi-off-shore UK territory that is popular in the online gaming industry (largely for tax and regulatory reasons). There they have a tower block HQ, and they employ hundreds of people.
So What Does Microgaming Want with Triple Edge Studios?
It’s a cliché of a business theory that large companies can become conservative. And the slots industry thrives on innovation and novelty.
For a big company, it can make sense to introduce new blood, not by regularly sacking and replacing your own design teams, but by teaming up with smaller, nimbler companies who might be closer to the cutting edge of games design or gameplay innovation.
This is happening more and more. In fact, Microgaming is now operating as a platform for other game designers. NetEnt bought up Red Tiger last year.
There’s also a straight business case. Whatever anyone tells you about capitalism, it is a system that tends towards producing monopolies or near monopolies: hugely rich and powerful companies that dominate markets. These companies often “compete” simply by buying up smaller companies, or taking smaller companies under their control.
This might seem like nothing players need to worry about, but it can have implications for you as an online video slots user.
The competition probably is a good thing – though it is almost entirely a theoretical concept, it barely exists in the real world – so the competition that is not actually competition is not so good. This doesn’t imply anything underhand is being done by these companies, but if what you think is that a small indie company is actually part of a giant multinational then you want to know. The fact is you might be being offered games from a much smaller group of companies than you think, and – as a result – they may be offering you a much more similar experience than you would like.
The Games
Most gaming companies have far too many titles for us to cover them all in any detail, but Triple Edge Studios have a catalogue of just 17 titles at the moment, so we are able to give you a brief guide to all of them.
We’re sharing them here in reverse order of popularity as judged by an online UK slots market audit that we trust.
So, starting with the currently lowest rated here they are:
Action Ops: Snow and Sable
This game is a futuristic, super-hero adventure title with realistic cartoon graphics. It is based on two female superheroes, one black and one white, who rules over a 5 by 3 grid with 10 pay lines. Action Ops was released on 5th December 2018. The game has a 96.03% theoretical return to player, and a top prize of 10,000-times stake, which you can win with betting from 10p to £100. The main bonuses are expanding symbols, a free spins round and wilds and you can play Action Ops on mobile, desktop, and tablet platforms. It is currently rated as the 2,687th most popular and visible game in the UK market.
Oink: Country Love
This game is rated as the 2,386th most popular and visible in the UK. It is a cartoon game themed around, erm, pigs playing country music. Oink was released on 2nd August 2017, with a very generous 96.5% theoretical return to the player with medium variance. The top prize is 500,000 coins, and you can bet between 0.5 coins and 125 coins. It’s a classic 5 by 3 grid layout, with 45 pay-lines, and its main bonus symbols are a free spins round (triggered by scatters) and wilds. It’s got a great soundtrack and is themed on rural life, the American south, country music, and farm animals.
Halloween
Halloween is a movie tie-in based on one of the all-time classic Hollywood horrors, starring Jamie Lee Curtis, who is faithfully rendered in this shock horror spinner with a 5 by 4 reel grid. It’s one of the titles that Microgaming chose to flag up when they took over Triple Edge, and it’s a high profile one, though now it is rated only as 2,358th most popular and visible title in the UK. That’s not bad when you consider it was released on 4th October 2017. It has medium to high volatility with a top prize of 2,000-times stake from betting that runs from 0.5 to 200 coins. There are 50 pay-lines on the reels and a load of bonus features: free spins, double reels, character choices, and wilds. It has photorealistic graphics and is themed on horror movies, Hollywood movies, and horror.
Bookie of Odds
This horse-racing-themed game was released on 6th March 2019. It’s a high variance game, which is not uncommon with games like this that are very obviously aimed at betting-friendly markets. You can stake from 10p to £25 on this game, and win 5,000-times your stake with a 96.3% return to player. We’re back to a classic 5 by 3 grid with just 10 pay-lines. The bonuses are expanding symbols, a free spins round, buy-in respins, wilds and scatters.
Wicked Tales: Dark Red
This super-dramatic slot is at the gothic end of the fairy tale spectrum, with a sexualised edge to it too. A take on the Red Riding Hood tale (which is often seen as a metaphor for something more adult), Dark Red plays out on double reel sets with a 3, 3, 4, 4, 4 row set on 5 reels with 25 pay-lines. It’s a medium variance game with a theoretical return to player of 96.1%. The top prize is 200,000 coins from betting that runs from .25 coins to 200 coins. The main bonus features are massive symbols delivering big wins and a number of prize picking games. There’s a free spins round too.
Playboy Gold Jackets
You can’t really say that a game is sexualising the Playboy brand, that’s already well established! It’s fully in place here with this glamourous game based on club life and bunny girls. There’s a jackpot on this game that was released on 25th November, 2019. Playboy Gold Jackets has a 96.08% theoretical return to the player with medium volatility. The top prize – a jackpot – is 2,500-times stake, and you can bet from 0.1 coins to 60 on 30 pay lines with a 5 by 6 reel set. The bonus features are a bonus wheel, giant symbols, multipliers, and stacking symbols.
Playboy Gold
The Playboy brand is back in this title from 7th March 2018. It’s a low variance game with a 96% RTP and a top prize of 100,000 coins that can be won on betting from 0.5 coins to 500 coins. The massive reel set – 6 reels and 10 rows – deliver 100 pay-lines, and there aren’t many fewer bonus features, with loads of prize pick games, respins, various styles of a wild symbol, and a free spins round that is where the big wins are found.
Attack on Retro
We’re into top 1,000 games now, and this recent release, from 3rd March 2020 is completely up-to-date in its look back to the future. It has a 5,000-times stake top prize, awarded from a classic retro-futurist slot with a 5 by 3 grid and superb quality graphics and sound. There are 10 pay lines, and betting from 10p to £20. The RTP is just below the industry average at 95.58% but it operates in a range that is raised with the Hyperspins feature, potentially. The other bonus symbols include random wilds (delivered via drones and laser attacks). Free spins come with total control for the
player, who can set volatility and multipliers against the number of spins. The game as a whole is highly volatile.
Africa Quest
This game came out in January 2020, and was an early tie-in with Microgaming. It’s a wildlife/safari-themed game with a 5 by 4 grid and independently re-spinnable reels. The RTP is generous at 96.52%, with high volatility meaning a big top prize of 5,600-times stake. Bet from 0.1 coins to 15 coins. Instead of pay lines, you get 1,024 ways to win, and tons of extras like free spins, game modes, multipliers, hyper spins, stacking wilds and more. This game is the 785th most popular game in the UK.
Book of OZ Lock and Spin
Book of Oz is a big hit for Triple Edge and is now a game series rather than just a single game. It uses the Hyperspins feature, which allows you to lock or spin reels independently, for a fee, as its big base game bonus. The stats are good, RTP of 96.35%, high volatility, and a top prize of 125,000. This game was released on 12th June 2020 so is very much still around in casino lobbies and likely to become more popular.
108 Heroes
Released back in 2017 the 108 heroes here are Chinese martial artists, and you can watch them win fights while you hope to take home 100,000 coins from a big betting range up to 37.5 coins. That odd figure is a feature of the layout and 9 pay lines, giving us some non-standard numbers. Respins, multipliers and wilds are the main bonus features.
Diamond Empire
Released in April 2018 this is a real classic with very retro styling and a 3 by 3 grid with 15 pay lines. Decent (95.8%) RTP delivers a 50,000 coin top prize that reflects this games high volatility. For Triple Edge, this is a game that is relatively light on bonus features, but that simplicity reflects the classic, retro styling perfectly and this is a great game.
Ancient Fortunes: Zeus
Ancient worlds take us into the top 250 with a game charting at 247 in the UK. It’s been around since April 2019 and you can see why players enjoy this game, with its innovative gameplay, including 2-way pay lines, and rolling reels, and potentially big prizes at the top of a bet range that goes right up to £70. This is quite a classic game, but the Ancient civilisations genre never goes out of style.
Lara Croft Temples and Tombs
Lara was a massive hit on games consoles, then on movie screens, and now on slots! Tie-in titles are usually something of a guaranteed hit, which is why companies make them. Triple Edge did a great job with this one too, keeping the graphic style everyone loves from the games series, and delivering great gameplay, good value betting, a top prize of 7,300-times stake (this is a highly volatile game), with a load of bonuses that deliver the sort of gameplay that gamers like. This game was released in June 2019.
Mega Moolah Absolootly Mad
Here we’re in firm Microgaming territory. This game joins the legendary Mega Moolah family, home of the world’s best known progressive jackpot, and a world record-breaker. This game gives the title an Alice in Wonderland-makeover (and a terrible pun for the title!). There’s a load to enjoy that you’ll recognise from Triple Edge and Microgaming titles like rolling reels and multiplier trails. This is a game that really updates the Mega Moolah series for the modern market.
Book of Oz
The original of the Book of Oz series is the company’s second-biggest hit still, despite being on the market since December 2018. The set-up is very standard, but it introduces the single-reel respin feature that we’ve seen in a number of these titles. This feature also allows you to boost your RTP, and it seems to be Triple Edge’s signature feature – look for Hyper Reel branding.
Diamond Inferno
This game is Triple Edge’s biggest hit at the moment and is rated as 31st in the UK market. It’s a take on a classic slot that was released in July 2020 and confirms that retro-futurism is the dominant trend in the UK market at the moment. This game chucks all sorts of features at players. It’s medium variance, with a top prize of 11,750 times stake from a 5 by 3 grid. The RTP is 96.19% and the hit frequency suggests 32.1% of the spins will be winners. Multipliers, changing reels, wilds, and the respins feature all add novelty to the gameplay.
Play Triple Edge Studios Games Safely for Free and For Real Money
We described Triple Edge Studios as a major hit in our introduction because despite the company’s youth it is now rated as one of the most popular and visible studio in the UK.
The link with Microgaming will only make them more visible and more popular. Microgaming exclusive sites and their games are available everywhere. Make sure you only use games that are licensed on sites that are licensed by the UK gambling commission. Play for fun rather than to make money, and where you can verify your age and try out Triple Edge Studios games for free.