What Online Slots Are Likely to Look Like in 2015

November 17, 2014

We're at an interesting time when it comes to the online slot industry. For the past several years, video slots in particular have been dominated by a handful of concepts. You could more or less take a well-known brand, archetype or common theme, add some mediocre graphics, a wild symbol and a scatter that activated a free spins bonus feature with multipliers and make a game that would become relatively popular. Those days are long gone, and players are wanting more and more from their online slot experiences. Along these lines, and along the lines of some major changes that have happened over the past 18 months, we can get a pretty good idea of what new games are going to look like in 2015.

The first thing that's going to continue changing is the level of graphics and general visual quality that players are expecting. With companies like BetSoft producing high-quality, 3D games on a regular basis, the old guard is going to have to change up their typical plain-Jane 2D ways if they want to stay on top. This leads into some other changes that have slowly started to take hold.

One of those changes is the variety of bonus features. While these features are critical to the success of any video slot, the fact remains that most software companies have been using the old stand-bys like free spins features and pick-a-box style bonus games. While there isn't anything wrong with these features in and of themselves, the lack of innovation is something that players are growing tired of. There are going to be new types of features that take over and that become popular in 2015 out of sheer demand and the tension that has been building between newer software companies and older developers.

Finally, we're going to have to start to see new formats other than the normal five-reel game with three rows. Some games use four reels, and some games use four rows, but there are plenty of other options than a rectangular grid. A few software companies have experimented with diamond-shaped grids that include more symbols in the middle rows than the first and last, and this allows for atypical distributions of paylines. No matter what they do, big change and innovation will be the key to success in online slots in the new year.

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