Professionals work for years to create true video game masterpieces, delivering astonishing, immersive and innovative titles with scintillating graphics. While they have a big appeal, there are still plenty of users out there who prefer a simple online game like classic fruit slots.
Online casino operators, whether it is min deposit £3 casino sites or platforms with larger initial deposit requirements, can launch plenty of new slots every month. That high turnover is possible because they get those games supplied by different software developers.
But even the biggest video game software houses in the industry can make fans wait 5 or more years for a big launch of a new title, and that’s accepted because of the extra that it takes to create a video game compared to a casino slot. But in terms of money, time and tools, just how far apart are these categories?
Online Casino Games: Not Easy, But…
Casino game products can vary greatly, and there is a lot of complexity in developing them. You can visit any reputable online casino platform and find everything from hundreds of slot machines with various game mechanics, to live dealer table games, crash, gameshow style features and instant wins.
Some of those games have a lot more complexity than others too. A major 3D slot machine, for example, is going to have a lot more going on in terms of game mechanics and features, than a classic-style three-reel fruit machine.
But in general, new games can be built on the back of old ones, so it’s not always totally starting from scratch. It’s possible to develop a casino game in months or even weeks, especially if the provider already has a basic structure in place. But how much and what resources does a publisher need to develop a game from scratch?
The Costs Involved With Casino Game Developments
It is estimated that the general cost for producing games like basic slots can be up to $50,000, while more complex titles may cost upwards of $100,000 minimum.
The budget behind developing a casino game usually sees the money go to investments in areas like:
● Game algorithms experts
● Regulatory compliance experts
● HTML5 frameworks for web-based games
● Mobile development and testing utilities
● Random Number Generator (RNG) software
● SSL encryption for data protection
● Regulatory compliance experts
Video Game Creation Costs
High-grossing video games (GTA, Red Dead Redemption, Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed, etc.), developed for consoles and PCs are produced by giant companies, and cost orders of magnitude more to design, create and develop than online casino games.
Grand Theft Auto V for example by Rockstar Games had a reported budget of $265 million to develop, while GTA VI was reported to cost $2 billion. As for time, the hugely popular Last of Us game took six years to make. Console and PC games just need a much bigger budget for things like:
● Animators
● Sound designers
● Game algorithms experts
● Motion capture
● Voice acting
● Software developers and programmers
● Graphic designers
● Game engines like Unity or Unreal Engine
● Specialized programming languages and development platforms
Video Games vs Console Games: The Differences
How many casino games could be made with the budget used for one massive product like The Last of Us, Final Fantasy or Cyberpunk 2077? A pretty high volume would be the answer because, at the low end, it’s estimated that simple casino games take around US$ 25,000 to develop.
Naturally more advanced games require a more complex system of graphics, requiring 3D design and modelling, animation, visual effects, audio, rendering tools and of course, testing. For players, there are major differences too as video games require many hours to complete and can be played over and again, and patches are purchased to add things like new missions.
But slot machines are not designed for long, complex play. They are meant to be immediately engaging, fun, quick and easy to play which is reflected in the development time and process. That’s by design so that there are no entry-level requirements for playing them, and that way they can appeal to everyone.
Because they are quicker and easier to make than fully fledged video games, casino games can be produced with much more frequency. Simple casino games don’t need things like hours of motion capture like video games do for example, and teams of developers are a lot smaller, so they can be produced more quickly.
Sometimes They Are Easier, But Never Easy
Casino games are one-dimensional compared to the massive open-world, multi-levelled games with very complex physics engines, and AI systems to run NPCs and to control the behaviour of enemies. But everything is subjective, of course.
Just because casino slot games are easier to produce than video games, that doesn’t mean that they are in any way easy to make. There is still a great deal of coding expertise, security requirements and regulatory guidelines to meet in creating slot games and many fall short of being published.
