Hefner lifestyle is visible in these four Playboy-themed slots to try

Back at the end of July, Gameburger Studios took on the mantle from Triple Edge Studios, chosen by Microgaming to design and deliver the fourth installment of the Playboy Slot series. This famous series of games, which stretches all the way back to the original slot released in 2013, is one of the most enduring of all slot game licenses.

While some might find Playboy a little unsavoury in these modern times, it is worth remembering that the original publication that spawned the Empire was good for a lot more than just the naked flesh of attractive young ladies.

Back in its day, Playboy Magazine was as famous for the quality of its articles and writing as it was its pictures. Some of the most famous authors in the world had stories published in the magazine, often long before they became famous. J.G.Ballard, Vladimir Nabokov, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, P.G.Wodehouse, Arthur C. Clarke, Roald Dahl, Frank Herbert, Stephen King, Norman Mailer, Philip K. Dick, Ray Bradbury and Annie Proulx are just a few of those whose words have graced the pages.

However, it is the Playboy bunnies and Playboy mansion along with the magazine that its creator Hugh Hefner became most famous for. His lavish parties became the place to be and be seen in the 1960s and 1970s and virtually every A-lister in Hollywood and the music business either did, or wanted to attend one.

Nowadays, Playboy has expanded its empire into other regions. The Playboy brand has become globally iconic and is now featured on a multitude of items including clothes, perfume, decorative items for the home, phone cases and of course, online slots.

Let's now take a look through the four different Playboy online slots games that have been developed as part of the licensing deal with Microgaming, starting with the game that began things back in 2013, the original Playboy Slot.

Playboy - Released in 2013 by Microgaming

It was a real feather in the cap for Microgaming to tie up a lucrative slots deal with Playboy, with the company being globally recognised, it was a massive boost for Microgaming to get the deal done and the result of that was revealed in 2013 when the first slot, simply entitled Playboy, hit casinos.

The first thing that became apparent with this 5x3 reel, 243 Ways to Win slot was that Microgaming had erred on the side of tasteful rather than tacky and the same can be said for all of the subsequent releases in the series since.

The graphics on the first slot were designed in a cartoon style and one nice touch was the inclusion of Playboy Magazine front cover as the Scatter symbol in the game.

However, what really caught players eye was the jackpot of 1,215,000 coins and the chance to play through four different Free Spins bonus games, which you unlocked consecutively one after the other, landing the second game after 5 triggers of Free Spins, the third after 10 triggers and the fourth game after 15 triggers. Each of the Free Spins games was associated with its own Playboy bunny girl, Kimi, Sofia, Ashley and Jillian, and each combined a number of Free Spins (between 10 and 25) together with another bonus feature, which included an early version of Rolling Reels and a rather more exciting Wild Night feature.

It is fair to say that the first game was generally well received and was well designed, following in the same kind of template as the popular Thunderstruck II and Immortal Romance slot games. For around five years, the game was the sole development as part of the deal with Playboy, but by 2018, Microgaming's way of operations had changed significantly and they had shipped out development of a new Playboy game to one of their partner studios.

Playboy Gold - Released in 2018 by Triple Edge Studios

After agreeing a deal with Microgaming to produce exclusive content for the company, Triple Edge Studios were handed the task of developing the second slot in the Playboy series. The result of this was the Playboy Gold slot and it proved to be a very different take on a slot to the original.

As is customary in the world of Playboy, bigger tends to be better and Triple Edge decided to follow that precept by developing a 6x10 reel slot with 100 different pay lines in play. Spins began at 0.50 per spin and the game also featured the introduction of the Jumbo Block symbol into the Playboy universe.

These 4x4 sized Jumbo blocks could be combined with other symbols of the same type (which were the four playboy bunny girls, Hiromi, Stephanie, Gia and Carlie) to create longer line wins and across multiple pay lines.

Jumbo blocks also paid out a 5x multiplier win when landed in the base game, a cash prize of 30x your total bet, or up to 4 free Respins of the reels. The Jumbo Block also featured heavily in the Free Spins bonus round, with one of them guaranteed to land on the reels on each Free Spin, offering the chance of some big money wins. You could also win further cash prizes on the Wheel Bonus game. With its famous black and gold livery, this was a slot that was given a real touch of the famous Playboy glitz and glam.

Playboy Gold Jackpots - Released in 2019 by Triple Edge Studios

After the success of Playboy Gold, it wasn't too surprising that Triple Edge Studios were given the task of producing the third slot in the Playboy series; Playboy Gold Jackpots. The only surprise was that it came just a year or so after the release of the second.

This new game was essentially a slight reworking of their original Playboy Gold slot, reducing the reel size down to 5 reels with 6 symbols on each and 30 pay lines in play. The cost of this new game was also drastically reduced as you could play from just 0.10 per spin, which certainly caught the attention of low and micro stakes players.

There were lots of similarities between this version of the game and the original Playboy Gold, including the use of Jumbo Block symbols on the reels. One great addition though was that of Multiplier Wilds, which could increase the value of your win between 2x and 5x the usual amount.

In another echo of the previous game there was a Wheel Bonus which was triggered when you landed the Wheel Jumbo Block on the reels in full. This bonus saw you awarded either 10 ret-riggerable Free Spins, or a shot at the Jackpot prize that gives the slots its name. If you landed a shot at the Jackpot Wheel then you would spin for a prize of between 20x and 2,500x your bet.

Once again, this release proved to be popular with customers and it was pretty apparent to all concerned that the Playboy brand of slots still had plenty to offer, which is why barely a year later, Microgaming asked another studio to bring their talents to the series in the form of Gameburger Studios.

Playboy Fortunes - Released in 2020 by Gameburger Studios

Released in July 2020, Playboy Fortunes slot is a 5x3 reel game that offers 20 pay lines and spins start at just 0.20 per spin, although this can be ramped up considerably to £60.00 per spin if you are a higher roller and want to play for bigger cash prizes. The new game features a jackpot prize of 2,000x your bet, which equates to £120,000 if you play for the highest bet amount.

Gamburger used Triple Edge Studios game design as the basis for their game and built a sold new slot on top of that. The Casino Chip is the in game Wild and offers the chance to land some sizeable wins either as a substitute symbol or landed across the reels on its own.

To land the Free Spins bonus game, you need to land the Free Spins bonus symbol on the middle three reels. This will give you a chance to spin the Free Spins Wheel, which will award you between 10 and 30 Free Spins together with a multiplier of either 2x or 3x the standard amount. You can retrigger your Free Spins bonus and earn more of the same spins you earned when spinning the Free Spin Wheel.

The Scatter symbol is linked into the Jackpots which are listed to the left of the slot. The more Scatters you land on the reels, ranging from three up to the maximum of nine, will see you win a prize ranging from 1x your total bet for three Scatters up to 2,000x your total bet for nine Scatters on the reels.

The new game certainly echoes many elements of the more recent Playboy titles but is a fun and enjoyable game in its own right and is well worth a closer look if you enjoyed any of the titles in the Playboy series.

It remains to be seen whether this fourth instalment in the Playboy Slots series will be the last for a while, but given how popular both the slots and the Playboy brand remains, it seems likely that we will soon have another game to be added to the list.