Pragmatic Play was the big winner at last night’s CasinoBeats Games Developer Awards, where it secured three prizes including the coveted Slot of the Year 2022 title for Gates of Olympus.
The second edition of the Awards took place at the Hilton, Malta in front of an audience of industry executives, who saw 20 honours handed out to winners ranging from the biggest names in games development to the best emerging studios.
Pragmatic Play’s team walked away with a pair of trophies in the Game Performance section of the Awards, winning the Slot Legacy Title category for Sweet Bonanza, before Gates of Olympus saw off competition from NetEnt’s Starburst™ XXXtreme and Relax Gaming’s Top Dawg$ to be named Slot of the Year.
Book of Destiny by Print Studios claimed the Slot Studio Debut 2022 title, while Playtech’s Buffalo Blitz MegaWays was named Slot to Watch 2022 and the Game Performance section was completed by Relax Gaming and CasinoGrounds winning Slot Collaboration of the Year for Beast Mode.
Habanero’s Orbs Of Atlantis won the Game Innovation award, ahead of Evoplay’s Star Guardians and AvatarUX’s Lollipop, with the category decided by a vote of delegates at the CasinoBeats Summit conference earlier in the day.
The Game Creation section also saw wins for Blueprint Gaming’s The Goonies Return (Game Licensed Content), Stakelogic’s Up6Timer (Game Retro-Style), Peter & Sons’ Xibalba (Game Narrative), Evoplay’s Star Guardians (Game Design & Art Direction), and Relax Gaming’s Top Dawg$ (Game Design & Art Direction).
In the SlotCatalog section of the awards, which were decided based on performance data from the leading analytics platform for the slots industry, Pragmatic Play recorded its third triumph of the evening in the Game Studio of the Year – Large category. The Medium and Small studio awards went to Nolimit City and Triple Edge Studios respectively.
The Outperforming Game Studio of the Year awards, which honour the developers that have seen their SlotCatalog Slot Rank rise most over the past 12 months, went to Hacksaw Gaming (Large Studio), G.Games (Medium Studio) and 4ThePlayer (Small Studio), while Reel Kingdom was named SlotCatalog Rookie of the Year.
Completing the evening’s winners were CasinoGrounds’ LetsGiveItASpin, who was named Streamer of the Year, and Bojoko, which landed the Innovation in Marketing prize for its ‘Are You Sure the Game’s Fair? (National Anthem)’ video ad campaign.
Rasmus Sojmark, Founder and CEO of the event’s organiser SBC, said: “Huge congratulations to all the winners at the second annual CasinoBeats Game Developer Awards.
“The high quality of the shortlists that our independent judging panels and voters selected the winners from really showcased the industry’s commitment to innovation and creativity. From established major players continuing to come up with stunning original ideas to new studios making a splash with their imaginative releases, the games development sector is in great shape.”
CasinoBeats Game Developer Awards Winners
Slot of the Year 2022
Winner: Pragmatic Play – Gates of Olympus
Silver: NetEnt – Starburst™ XXXtreme
Bronze: Relax Gaming – Top Dawg$
Slot to Watch 2022
Winner: Playtech – Buffalo Blitz MegaWays
Silver: Relax Gaming- Money Cart 2
Bronze: AvatarUX Studios – Lollipop™
Slot Studio Debut 2022
Winner: Print Studios – Book of Destiny
Silver: Wizard Games – Gods of Kemet
Bronze: Atomic Slot Lab powered by Bragg – Egyptian Magic
Slot Legacy Title
Winner: Pragmatic Play – Sweet Bonanza
Silver: NetEnt – Starburst™
Bronze: Games Global – Mega Moolah
Slot Collaboration of the Year
Winner: Relax Gaming and Casino Grounds – Beast Mode
Silver: Peter & Sons and Yggdrasil – Valkyries
Bronze: 4ThePlayer – 90k Yeti Gigablox
Game Innovation
Winner : Habanero – Orbs Of Atlantis
Silver: Evoplay – Star Guardians
Bronze: AvatarUX’s Lollipop.
Game Licensed Content
Winner: Blueprint Gaming – The Goonies Return
Silver: Slingshot Studios – Game of Thrones™ Power Stacks™
Bronze: Playtech – The Walking Dead
Game Retro-Style
Winner : Stakelogic – Up6Timer
Silver: Inspired Entertainment – Space Invaders
Bronze: EGT Interactive – Hot Deco
Game Narrative
Winner: Peter & Sons – Xibalba
Silver: Quickspin – Big Bad Wolf Megaways
Bronze: Betsoft – Return To Paris™
Game Design & Art Direction
Winner : Evoplay – Star Guardians
Silver: BF Games – Cave of Fortune
Bronze: Peter & Sons – Xibalba
Game Music / Soundtrack
Winner: Relax Gaming – Top Dawg$
Silver: Stormcraft Studios – Thunderstruck® Wild Lightning
Bronze: Hacksaw Gaming – Chaos Crew
Innovation in Marketing
Winner : Bojoko – Are You Sure the Game’s Fair? (National Anthem)
Silver: Call to Action – Taste for Classics
Bronze: Blexr – Popeye
Streamer of the Year
Winner: CasinoGrounds, LetsGiveItASpin
Silver: Hideous Slots
Bronze: Classybeef, League of Entertainment
SlotCatalog Rookie of the Year
Winner: Reel Kingdom
SlotCatalog Outperforming Game Studio of the Year
Winner – Small Studio: 4ThePlayer
Winner – Medium Studio: G.Games
Winner – Large Studio: Hacksaw Gaming
SlotCatalog Game Studio of the Year
Winner – Small Studio: Triple Edge Studios
Winner – Medium Studio: Nolimit City
Winner – Large Studio: Pragmatic Play
