Marvel And Playtech – The Beautiful Romance is Over
Playtech: Why Dropping Marvel Makes Perfect Sense
Stand in any real land-based casino and your ears will be under assault from the noise of slots machines. The racket from their bells, rattles and metallic sounds, appear to fill every sq ft of available space. It’s not just the sheer noise, but also the flashing lights and animations. And then there’s the branding of each slot that’s put into place to attract all different types of players. In fact, for today’s slot machines, branding, with something like Marvel or a famous video game franchise, is probably one of the most important and essential features. When you take a stroll around the different slots on the gaming floor, you’ll find all sorts of branded slots are on show. Following on from this, any slot machine with premium branding behind it will always be a bigger deal by slots players. They flock to them like bees around a honey pot.
As you can imagine, snagging a global brand is both a hugely difficult and hugely successful endeavour for the game developer. Having a renowned and instantly recognisable brand will inject all that provider’s jackpot games with a huge dollop of kudos. Examples of this are Call of Duty and Tomb Raider. Along with any other big-name video game titles that you might find on some specific slots machines today.
Marvel And Playtech
In the whole history of slots, Playtech’s contract with Marvel has to represent one of the most bankable pieces of paper in the history of iGaming. Owning the rights to such titles as Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and all The Avengers, put Playtech well ahead of any competition. In those days all casinos featured a range of Marvel slots. This was because, not only are they world-renowned, but they also represent a guaranteed money-spinner for the casino in question. Instant brand recognition meant that they were played by all types of players. Yet more recently Playtech decided to drop Marvel altogether. In a move that surprised the whole iGaming industry, they signed up with Marvel’s nemesis, DC Comics. Many industry insiders were blindsided by this move and found it bewildering.
One of the first movie-themed slots games that Playtech lined up was Superman, Man of Steel. This forms part of the DC Extended Universe. Other slots soon followed including Batman and Catwoman Cash, Batman and the Joker Jewels, and Batman and the Riddler Riches. These are all 5 reels, 25-pay line jackpot slots which had a huge number of fantastic retro features and symbols. As well as the well-known Cat Burglar bonus feature. The online casino, Bet365 Casino has Superman and Batman slots, among many other excellent casino games.
bet365 Casino is full of jackpot slots. Check it out on your own!
The Avengers
On the face of it, Playtex’s decision to dump Marvel and move over to the competition of DC seems to be a terrible business decision. Especially bearing in mind that Marvel has had huge successes with all of their comic properties. For example, the Avenger franchise has pulled in $623 million. This compares to the $330 million that Batman vs Superman – Dawn of Justice, managed to take. It seems almost crazy that you’d have such a massive cash cow of this size in your hands, and yet walk away from it. But looking at the decision under a financial microscope, and you’ll see it begins to make sense. Sort of.
One of the main arguments is that the central characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are coming to the end of their lifespan. An example would be Robert Downey Jr, who is no longer wants to be playing Iron Man. Likewise, Chris Evans has given up the mantle of Captain America after Infinity War. Some might say that the whole MCU is suffering from character bloat. There are over 60 Marvel characters for writers to play with. This means that the next Avenger movies are more likely to be a reset rather than a continuation of any previous story arcs. Even the CEO of Marvel, Kevin Feige, told Collider magazine, “Certainly, as we get to Infinity War there is a sense of a climax if not a conclusion to the first three phases of the MCU,”
Justice League
Looking over at DC’s roster, we can see they are more or less just beginning their movie slates. The DC Avengers started with Ben Affleck’s Batman in Justice League. This forms a continuous arc from Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight series. Solo movies featuring Aquaman, Wonder Woman, The Green Lantern and Cyborg have also proved to be huge box-office successes. Though maybe it’s better we’re not talking about Wonder Woman 2, which was just horrible. Black Panther, which came out between the two-part Infinity War story arcs, proved to be one of the most successful DC movie properties of all time. Captain Marvel also did pretty well, though it was, like Wonder Woman 1984, a horrible and pandering product for simps.
There may be many Marvel slots in the real casino right now. But there’s no telling what the future will hold in a few years. The general thinking is that the MCU will expand to such a degree that no one property will be able to rise to the level of their previous solo superheroes. This is where DC steps in. They appear to have a longer-term strategy that involves both their extended universe and individual comic book characters. It means you” probably have a greater possibility to win the the jackpot online with a DC slot.
Marvel is Drowning in Mediocracy
If we take a step back and take a look at the larger picture, we can see how various MCU characters are gradually losing their polish. Many of their character follow-up excursions into the cinema complexes have not proved so popular with the public. On the whole, the cinema-goer wants entertainment with something new. New ideas. New concepts. Not simply a rehash of previously successful franchises, with more CGI. Has the relative failure of Joss Whedon’s Batman vs Superman (until the much-requested Zack Snyder helmed cut) and the incredibly lame Wonder Woman 1984, which hopefully represents the death of this character franchise and a career end for its inept director, Patty Jenkins.
On the other hand, DC has a huge roster of upcoming character-based movies. These include Batgirl and Nightwing, along with more Superman and Batman. Then there’s the focus on female characters including Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Catwoman. Franchise leaders at Marvel including Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man, are now taking time off. The vacuum left by their absence will be filled by DC and its staple of recognisable characters. You can find a whole range of DC slots from Playtech at Bet365 Casino. All new players receive a nice welcome bonus o 100% up to €/£100!
Warner Bros
With this in mind, we can see that Playtech’s decision to move from Marvel to DC maybe makes a touch more sense. They recently also signed a deal with Warner Bros who will act as distributors for their character-based movies. We feel that Playtech dropping Marvel has probably a lot to do with the exclusivity of the deal with DC Comics. Obviously, no company wants to lose such massive brands as Iron Man or the Avengers. But with branded contracts being so expensive, it’s not surprising that the company needs to choose between one set of superheroes or another. It’s been reported that the most recent Playtech contract with DC is the most expensive in the whole history of iGaming.
Conclusion: Marvel And Playtech
If you’re a business that wants to attract new customers then using superheroes to do so seems a no-brainer. In some ways, this represents a remarketing of the whole slot machine genre within the culture of casinos. Traditionally, slots are one of the most appealing games for boomers. It’s one of the main reasons they go to casinos to win the jackpot. But in order to increase profits casinos have to find ways of selling the slots machines to the younger millennials and zoomers. And that’s where current culture comes into play. With cinematic characters from the present day being put to use to entice younger players.
