Halloween unofficially starts the holiday release season with a plethora of new titles, but the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving in the US and the rest of those preceding the New Year everywhere present players with a chance to discover more new games than usual.
While Christmas and winter-themed games add to the deluge, there are also industry-based reasons behind the opening of the floodgates this time of year.
Studios are meeting their quotas, contracts are being fulfilled, and businesses are getting ready to close the books on another calendar year. Competition begets more competition and market trends tend to stay in motion, even those that are cyclical or seasonal in nature.
Where to Find New Games
A few industry media outlets like iGaming Business and European Gaming News feature new games regularly in their news and press releases emailed directly to their clients. Online review sites like LCB.org and others in their network also cover news games, often before they are released for play by the general public.
Another good place to find them is at your favorite online casino. Nearly all of the gaming lobbies have a section for new games, and since the vast majority of online casinos now use game aggregators, you are likely to find new titles by a variety of studios and providers at most sites you visit.
Even today, however, some platforms such as RTG, Playtech, and Microgaming maintain the legacy model of providing games by a single provider on some of their sites. If that is the case, the selection of new games will be minuscule or even non-existent. However, you can search through the site’s library for holiday titles. There are well over a dozen Christmas-themed games on the RTG platform including the two most recent releases; Epic Holiday Party and Big Santa.
Greentube’s Diamond Link: Mighty Santa
This five-reel, 25 payline game feature’s Greentube’s proprietary Hold N Spin mechanic and four progressive jackpots. It adds features like Sticky Spins, Wild Spins, and Colossal Spins to the franchise that already includes the Diamond Link titles Mighty Elephant, Mighty Emperor, Mighty Sevens, and Oasis Riches.
Director of Games Development and Operations at Greentube, Steve Cross, said: “The Diamond Link series continues to go from strength to strength and by introducing our rocking new Mighty Santa character into the festive fun, we believe we are onto another winner for players all over the world. The new neon Diamonds bring an element of added spice into the Hold N Spin feature, and we are confident that players will enjoy aiming for big wins including the Grand Jackpot, which could put the icing on someone’s holiday cake this year.”
BetSoft Gaming’s Stay Frosty
“Stay Frosty is fabulous festive fun with big win potential. It’s full of our hallmark cinematic visuals while offering quality entertainment and a player experience for all levels. We expect this release to quickly become a firm favorite,” said Head of Account Management at BSG, Anna Mackney.
Stay Frosty is a more traditional Christmas game relying on a 96.2% return to player percentage (RTP) as well as imagery such as snow globes, gingerbread cookies, golden bells, and Christmas presents backed up by atmospheric sound effects and a Christmas theme song to conjure the Christmas Spirit in players.
Iron Dog Studio’s Santa’s Big Bash! Megaways
There’s nothing quite as big in the online slots world as the BGT Megaways slots and Iron Dog Studio has put the mechanic to work in another title just in time for the holiday season.
This slot 6-reel slot offers between 64 and 117,649 ways to win on every spin. The RTP is relatively middling at 96.04% but high volatility creates the opportunity for jackpot-sized wins. Look for free spins with multipliers and respins on this tumbling reels slot game.
Look for these games and more as we wrap up the month of November and start the journey toward Christmas and a prosperous 2022!
Belatra: Pirate Jackpots
BGaming: Zorro Wild Heart!
Big Time Gaming: Diamond Fruits Megaclusters
Blueprint: King Kong Cashpots
Endorphina: Solar Eclipse
Evoplay: Hot Triple Sevens Special
OneTouch: Beats EX
Play’n GO: Merlin and the Ice Queen Morgana
Pragmatic Play: Book of Fallen
Pragmatic Play: Super X
Relax Gaming: Santa’s Stack
Spearhead Studios: Book of Souls Remastered
SpinLogic/RTG: Big Santa
Stakelogic: Old Fellow
Stakelogic/Hurricane Games: Lost Riches of El Dorado
Swintt: Rock n’ Ways XtraWays
Yggdrasil: Gator Gold Deluxe Gigablox
Yggdrasil: Monster Blox GigaBlox
