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Cleopatra. Wolf Run. Hexbreaker. If you spend enough time in the casino, you recognize slot brands that have stood the test of time, appearing in different forms as the brands, and casino floors, evolve. Then you’ll see newer themes, like Tiger and Dragon or Prosperity Link, which have proved successful and yield follow-up games that build on their legacy.
Like other forms of entertainment, the world of slots leverages a combination of popular brands and themes that players enjoy seeing the latest edition, and entirely new formats that could certainly become that next enduring brand.
We often get questions from our readers about why we see the same brand popping up with new versions, and there’s a variety of reasons that factor into it. To help illustrate this and share a bit about how these slots come to live, we partnered with IGT to share insights from some of the gaming professionals who help guide what you see when you visit the casino.
Players Enjoy the Familiar
Think about your visits to the casino. How often do you sit down at new games vs. ones you’re more familiar with? How often will you play a new version of a slot whose previous version you enjoyed? As it turns out, many players, as well as casinos, look favorably on familiarity.
This means brands prove important to companies like IGT and play a major role in their strategy through well-timed brand extensions.
“Brands can be very powerful,” said Robin Hare, Creative Director Encore Studio for IGT. “They bring with them recognition, nostalgia, and loyalty among our players. We have identified a select group of existing brands that we believe are strategically important to continue to invest in across studios.”
Caitlin Harte, VP, Product Management, agreed. “Extending an existing brand offers a strategic shortcut to player engagement. Familiarity breeds trust, and in a crowded market, a recognizable brand can cut through the noise.
She added, “Players who have had positive experiences with a game are more likely to try its extension, so out of the gate the game has a built-in audience. Faster adoption also usually occurs as players are familiar with the theme and its mechanics.”
Pete Post, Sr Content Director, Premium MLP, emphasized the need to have a balance between classic brands, recent favorites and all-new themes.
“We have had great success in recent years with games like Tiger and Dragon and Magic Treasures,” he said. “We also have a rich history of legacy brands that players love like Cleopatra, Wolf Run and others. That familiarity can translate to players’ ease and comfort to try a game, so we try and have a good chunk of our game releases focused on both the classic and emerging brands.
He added,“We also know we can’t break new ground without trying some new themes so we also have a healthy portion of our games that are new brands that we hope become player favorites.”
Harte agreed. “From a design perspective, game families allow our studios to iterate on proven formulas while introducing fresh, new features, keeping innovation grounded in familiarity. All that said, creating a new brand is essential when engaging a new player demographic, exploring new mechanics, or breaking into untapped themes.”
How Slot Brand Extensions Come to Be
The ideas for a fresh brand extension can come from different directions. Like other creative endeavors, inspiration can be found in a variety of places!
“Sometimes a designer may play a classic brand and propose a design that evolves it,” Hare said. “This was the case with Hexbreaker to Hexbreak3r where boundaries were pushed with the mechanic by introducing a new reel matrix and true persistence, while still preserving the look, feel, and quirks of the Hex brand.
Other times, we explore merging an existing brand with a popular brand mechanic. A great example is Wolf Run Wild Moon and Coyote Moon Desert Nights, where we combined the strong brand recognition and iconic WILD stacks with a three-pot mechanic to create an exciting new evolution of the brand.”
Post noted that for newer slot hits, the recency can be beneficial for other ideas. “For a recent brand like Tiger and Dragon, the originating team has ideas for follow ups and so do other studios around the company since it’s so fresh and top-of-mind.”
Harte added that sometimes a new idea can then get woven into an existing theme. “Many of our games come from a sketch of bonus mechanics and ideas from our math and design teams, which we will then pair with a proven brand. This approach gives players something fresh while anchoring the experience in familiar territory.”
Balancing the New With the Familiar
What can be done with a brand depends on a few things, such as the age of the brand and the components of the brand.
“Each brand is different,” Post said. “The newer the brand, the more familiar it is to players and we know they’ll have an expectation for the game to feel like the OG version. The older the brand is, the more latitude we have since it’s not as present in players’ minds.”
Over time, IGT has developed processes to review what they’re more likely to be comfortable tweaking, and what key brand tenets deserve protection.
“We have established brand guidelines based on market research and player intercepts,” Hare said. “These help us identify the core pillars we should keep to preserve the identity of the brand. If there is a compelling reason to push boundaries or align a brand with current market trends, we are always open to it. As the market shifts, so does our desire to revisit legacy brands and evolve them for current players.”
In line with industry trends, IGT has in recent years been leaning into brand extensions, both for legacy brands as well as their recent successes. For each Wolf Run Wild Moon, you’ll also see a Tiger and Dragon Super Gong. This is by design.
“With the legacy brands, the impetus has really come from players and operators,” Post said. “If you look at industry performance charts, you see a lot of older IGT games that players still love and seek out. We constantly get requests to refresh and reinvent these brands as they’re still popular.
He continued, “As for the emerging brands, we’ve been fortunate to have some recent successes from Prosperity Link in 2022 all the way to Magic Treasures Gold in 2025. It just makes sense to capitalize on that success as there’s a recognition and a demand for those games and those themes in the market. Both approaches are working.”
Harte noted that along with the benefits of trusted brands, there’s a bit less risk involved. “There is a growing trend with suppliers extending existing themes on a more frequent basis. There is usually less risk involved and faster time to market with extensions – as studios can repurpose proven mechanics and game assets which speeds up production.”
Ultimately, the sales numbers of previous installments matter too. “If we shipped 5,000 copies of something, we’re more apt to take another run at it as opposed to a game that shipped a few hundred, no matter how much internal passion there is around it,” Post said.
When is the Right Time for a Brand Extension?
Timing is a key element of when a brand extension will be a good approach.
“Is the brand still fresh or are players experiencing fatigue?,” Harte said. “A brand extension is an opportunity to deepen that brand’s equity, not just repeat its success.”
Harte added that players and the game itself are also factored into any decisions. “We consider the brand’s player affinity looking at performance, social engagement, and player feedback. We also identify what makes the brand unique in terms of theme, tone, mechanics, art, etc., as any extension should preserve these elements while introducing meaningful innovation.”
Looking Ahead
The new IGT, which melds the amazing slot portfolios of the legacy IGT and Everi organizations, is positioned to deliver a slot portfolio with unmatched depth, breadth and content-hardware interoperability. IGT is also working on next-generation versions of popular game themes.
“Recent good examples are Cats and Twin Win, but expect to see new takes before long on brands like Enchanted Unicorn, Fort Knox, Diamond Queen and more,” Post said.
Hare expanded on Post’s list with even more popular IGT brands “You will see new games coming out of our studios that evolve iconic brands like Cleopatra, Stinkin’ Rich (in both the Class II and Class III markets), Kitty Glitter, Pinball, and Top Dollar in the linked core and mechanical reel verticals,” she said. “We are also listening to player demand and exploring other brands such as Texas Tea, Cats, Party Time, Twin Win, Betti the Yetti, Aztec Temple, Black Widow, and White Orchid.”
Other upcoming brand extensions are calling back to legacy Everi’s portfolio of recognizable hits. “Players should keep an eye out for new brand extensions of Smokin’ Hot Stuff Wicked Wheel, The Vault, and Black Diamond” Harte said. “These are highly anticipated extensions that we believe will resonate with both new and loyal players.”
With the annual Global Gaming Expo (G2E) coming up, Flip The Switch will be on hand to explore some of these new concepts from IGT, so stay tuned for coverage from the expo floor!
Looking for more behind the scenes around slots? We previously spoke with IGT’s Pete Post around how a slot machine comes together.
My favorite is, was, and will probably remain the Planet Moolah line from Light & Wonder. However, the expansions in this line seem to take forever, especially compared to the Huff-N-Puff line that seems to roll out a new variation every month.
I’ve been fortunate to capture a Unicow or two on all three of the current releases – Aliens Attack From Planet Moolah (the original), Journey to Planet Moolah (the second), and Aliens Attack AGAIN From Planet Moolah (the newest). One very lucky evening I actually hit the Unicow twice in the same session on a Journey machine. I guess the guy sitting in the back room was in a good mood and flipped the switch to “win” just for me!! ;–)
I am, admittedly, a bit of a Cow-niac, and refer to any variation as “the Moo Machine” (as in “I’ll be at the Moo Machine”, and people know where to find me. For me, the Unicow is the “Mega Moo” (such as when texting a photo and caption), and the Baby Unicow is the “Mini Moo”. But for some reason, the Cow-cano is still the Cow-cano. (yeah, I probably need professional help)
Is there any word from your sources as to when any new versions of Planet Moolah are scheduled to be released, and what features they might contain?
We are aware of another Planet Moolah game being showcases as part of their next cabinet launch (we expect to have details in our Global Gaming Expo coverage when we go to the conference this week!). We also have begun seeing a three-pot version hitting casinos recently, Planet Moolah Triple Blast, which works similarly to other three pot games and how each pot can upgrade the bonus. So not to worry – there’s more Moolah on the way!