Mergers with other companies are not always a smooth sailing process, however, Silverback’s first 12-months under the GAN banner has been just that, according to Raph Di Guisto, Founder of Silverback Gaming.
Following GAN’s acquisition of Silverback in December 2021, Di Guisto stated that the team has “almost quadrupled in size” with its production rate “increasing rapidly”, while citing that the studio has a “long and successful” future as part of the GAN organisation.
Looking more deeply at the hiring process, something which was a main focus upon the acquisition completion, the studio’s Founder noted that although setting up new processes and getting people to work in different ways was a challenge, it took this task “very seriously”.
He noted: “We took this challenge very seriously, and now have the foundations to ramp up growth during the coming 12 months. Operating the business under the GAN banner has been game-changing – it’s allowed us to scale at pace and deploy our games with big-name operators in global markets.
“Silverback has a long and successful future as a part of the GAN organisation.”
One of the main questions through any integration/acquisition is how will this merger elevate a company to new heights. On this point, Di Guisto pinpointed that having GAN’s “financial firepower” behind them has, over the last 12-months, allowed the firm to produce nine games off its conveyor belt this year.
Of these nine slots, three have been released via Relax Gaming’s Silver Bullet program, an alliance formed in January of this year, with the remaining six set to debut in the US, Canada and Italy in coming weeks.
Silverback’s Founder added: “Without being a part of GAN, we would simply not have been able to increase game production to such an extent, nor would we have been able to so easily launch our games in markets such as the US, Canada and Italy.”
Taking a step back to the first few days/weeks of the newly formed merger, Di Guisto reflected that, though the company is “very much on track” with the expectations set out at the time of the deal, the early hiring stages were “a bit difficult”, pointing to the skills and talent shortage in the wider industry.
He also revealed that the bedding in period took time with the team needing to start working together as “a unit” to deliver “quality games at pace”.
However, once the team had found its feet, Di Guisto exclaimed “there’s been no stopping them” with Silverback actually “over-delivering” in 2022.
“We’d conservatively planned to deliver seven games throughout the year, but ultimately managed to produce nine instead,” he stated.
Reminiscing on the highlights of 2022, the Silverback Founder expressed his joy at finally being able to release games again, following an 18-month hiatus between the release of its third game, The Golden Sail, and fourth title, Golden Calaveras.
“It felt really good to be back at it, especially considering that every single one of our releases has topped the previous one in terms of performance,” Di Guisto continued. “Our games are getting into more operator lobbies and players are playing for long periods of time.
“This has been a great metric to highlight this continual performance improvement from one game to the next.
“We also had an amazing team-building experience in June where the entire team got together in the Bulgarian countryside for a few days. I know for a fact everyone really enjoyed it and is looking forward to doing it again next year.”
Casting its gaze into the new year, Silverback confirmed that it will have an “avalanche” of games coming up for release throughout the US, Canada and Italy for GAN’s existing operator network.
He also hinted at future movements, both in jurisdictions and with operators. He concluded: “We’re also exploring other jurisdictions and looking forward to releasing our games with the new operators which GAN is signing up via its Super RGS strategy.
“We have some very innovative features in terms of mechanics, we’re developing our own progressives and have a number of game series coming up.
“All in all, we should deliver around 22 games next year, half of which are already in production, so we’re really excited for people to see what we’ve been working on.”