Bluberi: Growth and Innovation

Bluberi continues to grow its R&D team while creating new experiences for players

Las Vegas-based slot supplier Bluberi has come a long way since it was a Class II supplier with a single game development studio in Drummondville, Quebec. In fact, in the past five years since Andrew Burke became CEO and moved the company’s headquarters to Las Vegas, the company has seen a constant state of growth—in R&D capacity, game production, and its market footprint, which got a big boost at the end of last year with licensing in Nevada.

This year, the company added seven new jurisdictions, including Mississippi, Iowa and Saskatchewan, bringing its total to 218 active licenses across 244 jurisdictions. New Jersey approval is expected next. “Growth has been our story for the past couple of years,” says Brett Vela, vice president of product management & analytics at Bluberi, “but it’s not just growth in addressable markets. We’ve done a lot more in terms of investment in R&D, and building out our studios.”

The number of game design studios keeps growing. Between 2022 and 2025, three studios were added to bring the total to four, plus a third-party studio creating games exclusively for Bluberi. This year, the company increased that number to seven internal studios, with the addition of its newly formed Las Vegas team, Blu Chip, a new Atlanta studio, and its first dedicated iGaming studio in Montreal. Furthermore, two additional third-party content providers were brought on, for a total of 10 game development outlets.

“We are firmly committed to growing Bluberi’s market presence, and that starts with the teams behind our products,” says Mike Brennan, chief product officer.

 “Our multi-studio strategy allows us to avoid one studio from becoming a factory that sacrifices game quality. We want to stress how aggressive we want to be in growing and continuing to earn more floor share. And the way you do that is to have more studios producing more great games. The path we’re following is open to more content sources. We opened three studios in 2026, which is a big endeavor. We’re trying to show our customers that every dollar we’re getting from them is being reinvested in R&D at the fastest pace in the industry.”

Brennan says each of the studios reflects a unique discipline, creating a product mix that is diverse, and appropriate to each market. “These cities all have different cultures, and we’re finding the right mix of people and culture in each,” he says. “It’s great to have that diversity. Everyone who joins us learns something, but they bring us new ideas, and that’s how we stay successful.”

Sights and Sounds

An important part of Bluberi’s expanded R&D efforts has been the development of new hardware to enhance presentation of its diverse content. In the first half of 2025, the company launched Beacon+ Lighthouse, a new cabinet design that creates an immersive environment that heightens player excitement and deepens engagement using synchronized lighting and reactive audio. And at G2E 2025, the company introduced the Beacon Jumbo cabinet, featuring a 75-inch high-resolution C-curve monitor.

This year, the sights of Lighthouse will be accompanied by a new revolution in sound. Called SoundWave, it is a new banking solution that combines immersive audio, synchronized lighting and engaging game content to create a more dynamic experience for both players and operators. SoundWave is available in a back-facing sixpack configuration or a four-game version for banks on walls.

The system releases bursts of audio to enhance custom bonus triggers, win celebrations, jackpot celebrations, and theme-specific audio profiles, which are called Wintones. “Unlike visual elements that require a player’s attention, sound extends beyond the screen, creating floor-wide excitement that draws players in and amplifies the energy of every significant event,” says Brennan. “Players can choose where to look, but they can’t avoid hearing the buzz of a winning bank.”

“It completely integrates into the games,” says Vela. “There are not only standard Wintone celebrations when you get a jackpot or win event, but also custom options for many of our games, whether it’s a volcano erupting or panther roar to help celebrate events within the game.”

With six woofer speakers and one tweeter, the audio system definitely packs a punch, drawing attention from across the floor with a barrage of sound, effectively announcing that players are winning on Bluberi games.

At Global Gaming Expo, Bluberi will launch the first two games equipped with the SoundWave audio package, Ashes to Riches and Reign of the Panther.

Ashes to Riches is a three-pot game with some unique enhancements. In the base game, cash balls (cash-on-reels symbols) land and accumulate on a meter above the reels. When four are collected, they pay off the cash-on-reels values, sometimes with a multiplier. If five are accumulated, all cash values are doubled, and six trigger a bonus wheel that can lead to any of the game’s jackpots.

“Normally, you look forward to bursting a pot with cash-on-reels symbols, but we wanted to make them even more important than that,” says Vela. “So, we added this game-in-game. It adds a little bit extra to the base game. It’s a simple mechanic, but it adds something to look forward to in every spin.”

The pots serve as enhancements to a hold-and-spin bonus that plays out on a five-by-one grid. The “Boost” pot increases the amounts on locked cash balls. “Multiply” applies multipliers to random cash balls. “Merge” collects all cash values in a column into one cash ball. Pot enhancements beyond the triggering pot are awarded by landing volcano triggers.

In a feature similar to the stacking cash symbols in the hit game Timber Jack, cash-on-reels values landing in the hold-and-spin feature stack above the reels, randomly awarding the accumulated amount as a bonus beyond the total of the locked cash balls.

In all, there are many incidents to celebrate with audio, from landing volcano symbols to triggering bonus events, to completing the hold-and-spin round. There are even trumpets in one celebration, creating a medieval fanfare. “The goal is to showcase that win so people 30 feet around and on the other side of the bank can hear it,” says Brennan. “We want our operators to understand that when people are winning, we’re going to let others know about it. The whole environment becomes more exciting.”

The other launch title for the SoundWave attraction is where the panther roar comes in—Reign of the Panther. It features five enhancement pots, which apply to a hold-and-spin bonus. The five pots are “Instant Win,” “Free Games,” “Jackpot,” “Panther Extra Boost” and “Panther Multiplier.”

Instant Win, also active in the base game, collects all cash ball values on the screen for an instant award. Filling one of the pots or landing six cash-on-reels symbols gives the player a choice of bonus features—the Panther hold-and-spin feature or Panther Free Games, with the enhancements.

There also is a repeat-pay feature in the hold-and-spin round. Every time a special cash ball lands, the cash ball that triggered the feature is boosted, becoming more valuable with each spin.

Again, the multiple features lend themselves to the audio burst in SoundWave. “You can’t ignore sound,” comments Brennan. “You can’t look away from it. So, we’re trying to use sound as the sister to math and art. Everyone realizes how iconic sounds are, and that’s what we’re communicating with SoundWave.”

Expanding Beacons

In addition to the SoundWave games, Bluberi will launch several other titles on the Beacon Elite and Beacon+ cabinets. Heading the list is Rocket Gong. It duplicates the program math of Gold Bomber, a surprise hit for Bluberi earlier this year. The new game replaces the Irish clover-and-leprechaun theme with an Asian theme.

The new game retains the unique “bookending cash balls” feature, in which cash balls (cash-on-reels symbols) landing two or more reel spots apart will merge horizontally or vertically, filling in the middle spaces to trigger the hold-and-spin in the free games. Also, like Gold Bomber, Rocket Gong features generous fixed jackpots of $45 for the Mini and $90 for the Minor in the penny version of the game. These land alongside cash awards in two hold-and-spin features.

There is one central pot—a gong, in this case—that can trigger the main hold-and-spin feature. Six cash balls in the primary game also trigger the feature.

According to Vela, the game is designed to award blackouts (all 15 spaces filled in the hold-and-spin) with great frequency. Filling all 15 spots in the hold-and-spin bonus with cash and jackpots (before three spins without a prize) triggers the “Rocket Wheel,” which spins to either a multiplier (2X-5X) applied to the accumulated cash awards or one of the top two progressives—a Major resetting at $800 or the Grand, starting at $10,000.

Landing a special symbol in the hold-and-spin round triggers a secondary hold-and-spin nested within the main feature. The three-spin cycle here applies to eight spaces, represented by gongs. Filling all eight returns the Rocket Gong Jackpot, a progressive resetting at $1,000. The Rocket Wheel also can be triggered in this feature, offering a crack at the Grand jackpot.

Speaking of gongs, another Beacon Elite title being launched at G2E is Bang a Gong, which Vela says is Bluberi’s “next elite game.” It is a two-game family cloaked in a groovy 1960s hippie vibe.

The animated host characters are “Lucinda Luck” and “Dari Diamond.” This game features a hold-and-spin round including a unique cascading award feature. The bonus plays out on a full board of prizes. Frames cascade down, awarding cash balls where they land. Those prizes are awarded instantly, and new values cascade down to lock in place.

The prizes include large cash balls that rise in value for a random number of times, one of Bluberi’s “Where Will It End?” features that stack up multiple awards.

The feature plays out on a seven-row grid, with the top three rows locked. Landing a “Bang a Gong” symbol unlocks the next row. The goal is to unlock the top row, which includes high cash awards and jackpots.

There are three pots that can trigger the hold-and-spin feature marked “Instant Win,” “Bang a Gong” and “Wheel Bonus.” Each provides an enhancement to the hold-and-spin feature.

Also featured at G2E will be Blazing Rhino, a three-pot filler game with the pots enhancing a free-game feature. The pots are “Split,” “Wheel” and “Multiplier.” Split breaks cash balls into two cash symbols. The others add jackpot symbols to the bonus or multiply cash-ball values. The Rhino character doubles as a fourth pot, triggering a “Rhino Stampede,” which floods the screen with Rhino symbols for multiple awards.

During the primary game, credit values appear above the reels, changing with every spin. Landing a Rhino symbol awards the displayed credit value. In the free games, credit values accumulate above the reels. Arrows can push the credit values to the middle position, for a guaranteed award at the end of the bonus round.

In addition to all the games being released in the fourth quarter, Bluberi will continue to draw on its growing studio system for new ideas and more brand extensions.

“In addition to our studios, we work with three third-party studios to develop content,” says Vela. “It’s an exciting way to boost our roadmap, and we’re starting to see the dividends. In 2022, I believe we released four games. This year, we’re going to release about 20 games, and next year it will be closer to 25 or 27.”

“We’re known for our fun cartoon games, and we still have a little of that, but you’ll see we are diverse,” says Brennan. “You see Asian themes, non-character themes, aggressive mammals, different mechanics. We’re making sure we have different studios with different styles.

“We went from almost non-existent on the Class III front to approaching the top four or five in the industry. The way you do that is investing in games, investing in culture, investing in people, and giving them experiences that are diverse.”