Aristocrat Gaming: The Reign Continues

Aristocrat continues its residency at the top of the slot market

It is instructive that Aristocrat Gaming is calling its newest cabinet “Reign.” The company’s reign as the top slot supplier in the business has lasted nearly a decade, and while competition has certainly gained ground, Aristocrat has remained on top of Eilers & Krejcik Gaming’s (EKG) slot performance reports on a consistent basis.

At EKG’s annual Slot Awards in February, Aristocrat collected its eighth straight award as Best Overall Supplier. No other company has won EKG’s top award.

Aristocrat is likely to continue its success by focusing on what has worked well, and refining not only its rock-solid stable of proprietary brands, but new gaming operations titles, none less than the newly acquired Monopoly brand, licensed exclusively to Aristocrat in a 2025 deal with Hasbro.

In April, Aristocrat released its first take on the famous board game with Monopoly Big Board Bucks, which replicates all the memories from the classic board game in the form of bonuses that have the player choosing a token and traveling around the Monopoly board cashing in on properties, houses, hotels and utilities. Initial reports are all positive—the game debuted as the No. 1 Top Indexing Game-Premium IP on the EKG U.S. & Canada Game Performance Report, and has recorded No. 1 rankings in seven different categories on the report.

Also on the gaming operations side, Aristocrat will arrive at G2E with several new games in the Buffalo franchise, and a new entry in the Tarzan game family. In for-sale games, there will be more new Buffalo games, as well as proprietary offerings including a new title for the Spooky Link family.

“This year, we’ve been focused on extending the current franchises we have,” says Andrew Sackey, Aristocrat’s senior vice president, commercial strategy and execution. “It’s going to be a bigger show for the collective Aristocrat family, but for us, the show is going to focus on the new hardware, Reign. We’ll also be showing new titles for the Baron Portrait and Baron Upright cabinets.”

A major highlight of G2E for Aristocrat will be the launch of the for-sale Reign Single cabinet, along with three launch titles. The Reign Single is an imposing piece of hardware. At its core is a curved 52-inch 4K touchscreen portrait monitor, along with a 27-inch connected topper.

According to Jared Terry, senior director of commercial strategy, game sales at Aristocrat Gaming, the cabinet was designed to have the same visual impact as the Neptune cabinet, its large-format predecessor, but with a lower profile to satisfy sightline preferences. The monitor is three inches larger than the 49-inch Neptune, but it’s shorter and smaller in depth.

“There also is a 20 percent energy efficiency gain,” Terry says. A “Gen10 Electronics” platform, enhanced sound quality and multi-colored LED edge lighting complete the package.

While the Reign is making its debut in game sales, Terry says there will be gaming operations entries on the cabinet as well, to be revealed at G2E. “We’ll have more than 20 titles available on Reign within the first year of release, and it will be hitting floors right ahead of G2E,” he says.

The new Reign cabinet will be accompanied by several game launches on the Baron cabinet range. “Last year was the first time in five years we didn’t show any new hardware,” Terry says, “so our focus was all about extending The Baron Portrait and The Baron Upright with great games, which I feel we did successfully last year, and which we’re going to continue this year. We’ll have 11 new games on both The Baron Portrait and The Baron Upright.”

For-Sale Push

Overall, Aristocrat will bring 37 for-sale titles to G2E, 100 percent brand-new—never shown at any trade shows. “Also, everything will be available to customers before summer of next year,” says Terry.

Many of the G2E launches on the Reign are extensions to current hit game families. Heading the list are three new entries to the Spooky Link series of progressive slots that began with Mo’ Mummy and continued with Go Ghost and Yo Yeti, each containing a spooky but funny game character hosting the bonus events. Spooky Link’s three titles have earned the top three positions on the Eilers Core Video report for 13 consecutive months, while maintaining performance above 2X Theo vs. House for over 15 months since release.

Aristocrat will launch three Spooky Link titles at G2E, each with a new spooky-but-funny character. Mo’ Magic features a witch; So Scary, a vampire; and Wo’ Wolfie, a wolf. There are three collection pots in each game, which enhance a free-spin bonus.

The Hold & Spin feature is in a “win-zone” format, with all symbols paying that land in the floating “Cash Collect” box. The two pots common to all games are “Mo’ Spins,” which extends the bonus; and “Mo’ Symbols,” which adds winning symbols to the pay zone.

The middle pot, carrying the title and character of the game, grants a different enhancement in each title. The witch in Mo’ Magic grants an additional spin within the Cash Collect box to land additional prizes. The vampire in So Scary releases bats from the top of the screen that fly down to add multipliers and additional spins to the landed values. The wolf in Wo’ Wolfie reveals moon symbols on the reels that award prizes.

Next up on the Reign is Buffalo Big Blocks, which features a large bonus wheel behind and above the reels, which the player spins whenever triggering the Buffalo Free Games. With a special wheel coin on reel 5, slices on the wheel include the Major ($1,000-plus) and Grand ($10,000-plus) jackpots, plus a variety of extra-free-games slices that add spins to the bonus, plus enhancements to the spin that include Double, which doubles the reel array; and the Blocks feature, which sends giant buffalo symbols to the reels that count as Buffalo symbols for a block of reel positions.

There also is a “Double Blocks” slice on the wheel that activates both enhancements. A coin displaying a wheel can land during the feature that gives the player additional spins on the wheel to activate more extra spins or upgrades.

Also on the Reign Single is Fee-Fi-Fo Fortunes, a game themed around a fairy-tale giant with three overlapping metamorphic features combined with two wheels that determine the number of free games and award additional enhancements to the free games.

The pots are Giant Swap, which upgrades picture symbols to wild symbols on reels 2 to 5; Giant Loot, which adds cash values onto each wild symbol that pay when the wild forms a winning combination; and Giant Wild, which adds wilds to the reels that combine into giant wild symbols.

Gaming Operations

The other game featuring a two-level pot enhancement feature is a highlight of the gaming ops division. Buffalo Super Rush, on the Baron Portrait cabinet, features “Super” levels for each of four collection pots that can trigger and enhance a Hold & Spin bonus feature.

The game comes from the same studio as the venerable Mo’ Mummy, and includes the “Cash Collect” feature launched in that title. This is the first time it’s applied to the iconic Buffalo game franchise.

Coin symbols in the base game feed any of four pots, which can randomly upgrade to “Super” level in the Hold & Spin feature. “Extra Spins” adds one spin on Diamond or Coin symbols; “Super Extra Spins” adds two spins. “Extra Reels” grows the bonus matrix from four-by-five to seven-by-five; “Super Extra Reels” adds another two rows for a nine-by-five array.

“Extra Power” awards a 2X multiplier to the active grid; “Super Extra Power” adds a 3X multiplier. “Extra Symbols” lands two prizes in one position. “Super Extra Symbols” awards three pays in one position.

 There also is a free-spin feature with pays landing in a moving win zone.

One of the highlights in this year’s gaming ops lineup is a return of the Tarzan brand. Tarzan Unleashed, on the Baron Portrait cabinet, includes a unique Hold & Spin feature that has the ape man swinging on a vine across the screen to add perks to the bonus.

The basic Hold & Spin feature begins on a four-by-five array, but reaching thresholds of coins unlocks up to seven additional rows, for an 11-by-five array. Randomly during the feature, Tarzan will swing across the screen and add cash-on-reels prizes (the “Super Feature”). In another feature, Tarzan appears at the corner of the screen and shoots arrows at the reels to add cash-on-reels prizes or multipliers to existing prizes.

Landing a Gold Lion symbol during the feature triggers a secondary hold-and-spin feature within the main feature. A three-by-three grid appears, with four more rows to unlock, rising to the Gold Lion on top, which retriggers the feature.

Also on The Baron Portrait is another entry in the Buffalo game family, Buffalo Super Eclipse. This features a unique free-spin round in which bronze, silver or gold symbols trigger up to three reel arrays for the feature. It’s called “Super Eclipse,” because the cash awards sit behind eclipses, to be revealed at the end of the bonus.

A gold buffalo on the first reel pays all cash values left to right.

Finally, Aristocrat will continue to release new titles on the giant King Max cabinet this year, the jumbo format including a 63.5-inch monitor and vertical LED panels that display text or images, first introduced in 20

Aristocrat will be showing support titles for the King Max such as Spooky Link Grand and Buffalo Mega Stampede Grand. Timber Wolf Mega Stampede will appear on The Baron Portrait. It is an extension of the popular Buffalo Mega Stampede.

 “This G2E is really going to be about our brands,” says Jack Ismay, senior manager, product training at Aristocrat Gaming, part of the gaming ops team. “You’re going to see a lot of Buffalo games. We’ve got the revival of Tarzan. And we’re really looking forward to follow-ups of the Monopoly brand based off the initial launch.”

Ismay says there will be four new Monopoly titles released over the next 12 months. “We’re going to be leaning into that and extending it out. We’re going to be using it with different mechanics. We’re going to be combining it with some Aristocrat brands as well.”

“We’re connecting product strategy, customers, innovation and product all together to give us great launches, and give the customers key value,” says Sackey. “That’s the driver.”