Megaways slots coming to Microgaming casinos soon!

A little while ago, we brought you news that Microgaming casinos, or at least some of them, would have the opportunity to offer a new game from Big Time Gaming called Chocolates.

The arrangement came after a deal was struck between Microgaming and Big Time Gaming and now it seems the companies are looking to further strengthen that partnership with a new announcement.

Without doubt, one of Big Time Gaming's most popular and well-known features has been its Megaways game mechanic and over the years, a number of companies have struck deals with the provider to use the trademarked feature on their slots. Now after an agreement between the two companies, Microgaming are going to be the latest to offer this particular type of game.

While a new release featuring the Megaways mechanic is not expected until January 2021, it is thought that Microgaming will instruct its partner studios to develop a number of games on different themes all of which will offer the Megaways mechanic as part of the game-play.

This is the first time that Megaways will be used on a Microgaming slot and many people are excited at the prospect of Microgaming getting their hands on the famous mechanic and seeing what their teams of development studios across the world can make of it.

Speaking about the agreement, the CEO of Microgaming, John Coleman, stated in his companies press release:

"Megaways has had huge success and we're excited to be integrating the mechanic into some of our future games. Big Time Gaming are proven innovators, and we are delighted to extend our relationship with them and grow their presence on our platform."

Nik Robinson, the CEO of Big Time Gaming, also struck a positive chord when he commented:

"We're on a mission to bring the Megaways revolution to a bigger audience, and they don't come much bigger than Microgaming. These guys were industry pioneers and today they remain one of the biggest forces in the gaming space. As ardent slots fans, we're delighted to be contributing in a small way to the Microgaming story."

The company launched its first Megaways slot back in 2016 and it has proven to be one of the most popular reel-modification bonus features in slot games ever since. A large number of slot games now feature Megaways, including progressive jackpot slots and standard slot games.

What are Megaways slots?

There is no doubt that the announcement of Megaways coming to Microgaming is great news for all casinos that take Microgaming games, but what exactly is a Megaways slot game and how does it work?

One of the features of a Megaways slot, indeed what gives the bonus its name, is the fact that it can create many more ways to win across the reel than you would get in even a standard slot game. As such, Megaways games tend to have at least five reels, often more and they also tend to have a greater number of symbols landing on each reel (up to five seems to be a pretty standard amount, but it could also be more than this number).

When you play a spin on a Megaways slot there are no pay lines in play. Instead, the slot is based on the ways to win principle, which you can already find in many Microgaming slots. However with Megaways, the number of Ways to Win on each spin depends on the number of symbols that will land on each reel. The greater the number of symbols that appear on each reel, then the greater the number of Ways to Win there will be for that spin.

Indeed, as the spin resolves itself, many Megaways games will show just how many potential Ways to Win there are on that spin based on the finishing position of reels that have concluded and this will update as the reels slowly come to a halt on each spin.

A slot game that features 6 reels, with up to 5 symbols on each reel, could have up to 15,625 ways to win, which is why the feature is called Megaways. Of course, games that have more or fewer reels, or that have more or fewer symbols on each reel, will have a different number of ways to win available.

One interesting feature of many Megaways slots is that there will often be a standard version of the slot game, as well as a Megaways version of the game released. We have already seen Microgaming do something similar with their Sisters of Oz Wowpot progressive jackpot game recently, when the progressive jackpot version of the slot was released at the same time as a standard jackpot version. So it will be interesting to see whether any new Megaways slots from Microgaming are released as standard slot games too, or whether they are solely Megaways games.

Do we know any forthcoming Microgaming games that will feature Megaways?

At the moment, we only know that Microgaming have one game in development which is set for a release in January 2021 that will definitely feature the Megaways dynamic and that is the Shamrock Holmes slot game, which appears to be based on an Irish theme and also of course, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's super-sleuth.

While Shamrock Holmes Megaways, White Rabbit Megaways and Flower Fortunes Megaways, may have been a few of the first Megaways game to hit casinos from Microgaming, these are unlikely to be the last and it would be very surprising if Microgaming have not asked at least a few of their partner slots development partners to come up with an idea for a game that can incorporate the Megaways mechanic into it.

As such, throughout 2021 and beyond, I would expect to see Microgaming release a number of new Megaways games as part of the bonus following the release of the Shamrock Holmes slot.

For slots gamers, the news is good news as it means an even greater diversity of slots and features will now be available on the Microgaming platform, which is precisely the outcome the developer wanted when it started signing deals with slots development studios and agreeing partnerships with content providers just a couple of years ago.