Why does the African Legends slot only have the Major Progressive available?

A quick glance through all the top progressive jackpot slots that Microgaming have produced over the years reveals some pretty uniform results.

In all the different Mega Moolah slots (and there have been nine in total over the years, with a tenth set to be released later this year too in the form of Juicy Joker) and in the three different Wowpot Progressive Jackpot slots, Wheel of Wishes, Book of Atem Wowpot and Sisters of Oz Wowpot, all four of the progressive jackpot games could be won on any of the games.

Indeed, a quick look through the Microgaming progressive jackpot network and I can't think of any game that only offers access to just one of a number of progressive jackpot prizes, which makes this month's release of the African Legends slot all the more intriguing.

This latest slot from Slingshot Studios looks to be your standard 5x3 reel slot that has 243-ways to win and incorporates the very popular Rolling Reels feature into the game, alongside a rather impressive Multiplier Trail. However, alongside those and the other main game features, the one distinguishing feature of the slot is that it offers a progressive jackpot prize.

That prize being the £50,000 minimum seeded Wowpot Major Jackpot prize. The same Major Jackpot prize that you could win when playing any of the other Wowpot progressive jackpot slot games that we have listed above.

Now this raises many questions and not least among them is if the Wowpot progressive network has four jackpots available, including one that is now approaching the 8 million mark at the time of writing, why would Microgaming release a slot that offers a chance to just win one of those jackpot prizes, and the second largest progressive jackpot prize at that?

There are other things to consider such as how do the mechanics for the African Legends slot work compared to other Wowpot progressive jackpot games, what are your chances of winning the Major jackpot prize on African Legends compared to the other Wowpot progressive slots? In this article, we are going to take a look at these issues and try to answer the main question as to why Microgaming chose to release the slot.

Breaking the uniform order of Progressive Jackpot slots

The first thing to note here is that the African Legends slot does somewhat break the uniformity that was in place on Microgaming progressive jackpot slots. What do I mean by that?

Well, on games like any of the other Wowpot progressive jackpot slots, or the entire selection of games available in the Mega Moolah progressive jackpot network, players knew exactly what they were getting with each game.

You would pick your bet size and then play the game and you knew that a certain percentage of your bet would be added to the progressive jackpot fund for the four jackpot prizes. You also knew that regardless of which game you played in the Wowpot or Mega Moolah network, your chances of winning the jackpot prizes on each game were the same for each progressive.

So, for example, if you played the Atlantean Treasures Mega Moolah slot, you knew that your chances of triggering any of the four jackpot prizes were the same as if you were playing the original Mega Moolah slot, or Mega Moolah Absolootly Mad or the new Fortunium Gold Mega Moolah game.

That meant that across the network, there was uniformity, even if the amount you bet on each game was different and that each game had different features, different set ups and even different progressive jackpot bonus games.

The same is true with the three Wowpot progressive jackpot slots, Wheel of Wishes, Book of Atem Wowpot and Sisters of Oz Wowpot, but the new African Legends slot does break that mould somewhat.

Firstly, with a minimum bet amount of 0.25, how does that equate into a progressive jackpot contribution from your bet? Do you contribute the same amount to the Wowpot Major progressive jackpot on a spin as you would the other games, as seems fair, or do you make the same size contribution as if all four progressive jackpot prizes could be won, which doesn't seem right as it would then inflate the value of the Major Jackpot prize.

That could be problematic if many players play the African Legends slot, but then someone wins the Major jackpot playing one of the other Wowpot progressive games which has not been contributing to that jackpot prize.

Similarly, if your contribution to the Wowpot Major jackpot prize fund is the same percentage as on other Wowpot games, why should you pay that much when you only have one of the four progressive jackpot prizes available to be won?

Of course, Microgaming always keep the way in which progressive jackpot contributions are calculated a closely guarded secret, and you do have the knowledge that a regulatory team has checked the software on the African Legends slot and ruled it fair and safe for users to play, so there is no suggestion that anything untoward or unfair happens.

But it is a problem when players do not clearly understand how their contribution to the progressive jackpot works and that could be one issue that the African Legends slot faces.

What are the chances?

Tied in with the size of your progressive jackpot contribution is the notion of what are your chances of landing the Wowpot Major jackpot on the new African Legends slot, compared to the other slots in the Wowpot Progressive network?

Assuming your percentage contribution to the progressive prize in African Legends is the same as the other games, you would assume that your chances would be the same too. However, if you are contributing a greater percentage towards the Wowpot Major jackpot, are your chances of winning this jackpot greater playing African Legends than the other Wowpot games?

Again, this is not something that is easy to clear up without further clarification from the game designers as to how the game is set up in this regard.

Innovative and brave

As you can see, there are a lot of questions that we don't really know the answer to regarding the African Legends slot, but we do know that the decision to break the mould with this game was an innovative and brave decision. Whether it proves to be a wise move or not remains to be seen and will be decided by how popular the game proves to be with players.

Which brings us neatly around to the question we posed at the start of this article about why the slot only offers one of the Wowpot progressive jackpot prizes to be won. In truth, I think it is a case of trying something new for Microgaming. They know that when they release a new progressive jackpot game, it is likely to be a big hit with fans, especially when it is adding to the selection on an already established network.

I think if the African Legends slot proves to be a hit with players, then we could well see more games that target just one progressive element of a jackpot game.

It is worth remembering that the Major jackpot on the Wowpot is a considerable prize in its own right and at a minimum of £50,000, and often awarding prizes up to six times that amount, the amount you can win playing African Legends dwarfs many of the other progressive jackpot games on the Microgaming network.

The real question is whether the slot gamer will elect to play African Legends and a chance at one progressive jackpot prize, when they can play the Book of Atem Wowpot, Sisters of Oz Wowpot or Wheel of Wishes Wowpot slot, potentially for less money and with a chance of landing any of the four progressive jackpot prizes.