Peter Cowsley, CEO of Lightning Box, spoke with SlotCatalog and shared a lot of interesting things. About his history in gambling, about the history of the company and what principles they follow when creating slots. He noted that today players do not tolerate mediocre slots, so you always need to work at your maximum. And one of his favorite slots from other providers is Aloha from NetEnt. Read the translation of part of the interview below.
Hello Peter! First of all, thank you for taking the time to chat with us. Can you tell us a little about yourself, your story, and Lightning Box?
I am a country boy from northern New South Wales, raised by Australia on a sugar cane farm on the Clarence River. I started in gaming with Aristocrat in 1993, working in game design and product marketing in Sydney and later in the US. Then, in 2004, David Little and I co-created Lightning Box with IGT, with the goal of delivering exclusive games to their North American land-based casinos. The global financial crisis hit in 2009 and we parted ways with IGT, entering the online market with Chartwell in 2010. Since then, we haven't looked back, becoming predominantly an online gaming provider from 2015 onwards.
What is the Lightning Box's vision?
As players, our goal is first and foremost to invent games that people enjoy and play. Nothing complicated. We definitely like to keep up with trends and know what is happening in the market, but we are not fixated on innovation just for the sake of innovation itself. We want to have a wide slot portfolio that is available to the maximum number of players, wherever they are, be it online casino, social or land-based. Judging by the number of our casino partners who enjoy offering these games, and many of whom want to operate on an exclusive basis in the beginning, we are pretty close to that goal.
What is it like working in the Lightning Box?
We are a fairly compact company, but we are constantly growing as we expand both in Europe and North America. In 2018 we moved to a new office in Darling Harbour, Sydney, which was a big step for us as a business, it's a pretty cool place to work and it really helped in terms of creativity to come up with new and innovative game concepts.
Lightning Boxhas been in the industry since 2004 and has released a pretty impressive amount of quality games. What would you say was your most educational experience for the company over the years?
I think we have learned to be flexible and understand the individual requirements of our clients or their players. We had an idea of what kind of games we wanted to make when we started and we still have it, but the point is to make games that appeal to the audience and are commercially viable. There is a lot of competition and there is no shortage of options for players. You have to give them what they want and make sure your products work in different markets. Few companies are successful in real money gambling, social and land-based casinos at the same time.
According to SlotCatalog, your games are popular in several regions. What markets would you say are the most important to you, and why do you think your games were well received there?
The online scene in Europe has been important to us for many years and you will find our games in many of the leading casinos. In recent years, we have also significantly increased our presence in the North American market, a region in which we plan to expand further. We already launched in 2020 on the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) website and Ruby Seven Studios social casinos, and recently signed a deal with Japanese manufacturer Konami, which also has a strong presence in North America.
This is a very exciting time for us as we continue to expand our operations globally and hope to have more of our games available in other markets in the not too distant future.
SlotCatalog and our readers love stories. Do you have any funny or interesting stories behind the scenes of your production?
Heh, are you asking me to reveal some embarrassing team secrets here? I think that the funniest conversations we have are related to the choice of the name for the next game! Talking about "foxes in the chicken coop", "foxes running away from chickens" and the like when calling from home, it sounds very strange to family members nearby!
Let's say you're stuck on an island and can only play two Lightning Box games and two games from other providers. Which games will you choose?
It's complicated! We have so many great games, but if I had to pick two, it would be Chicken Fox and Silver Lioness 4x - both pretty well received by players. As for slots from other providers, I really like NetEnt's Aloha and Aristocrat's Where's the Gold.
The competitive environment in the online gambling industry has changed a lot in recent years. What do you think is the main difference and key aspects of creating a quality slot today compared to two years ago?
Now the players are demanding a lot more. There have been so many great games on the market that they can't stand mediocrity anymore. I think that they need to immediately understand that the game is interesting, otherwise they will move on to something else. Of course, you can't have a smashing hit every time, but you have to try to deliver the best you can every time or you'll be in trouble. There is very high competition here.
What popular features or other trending developments do you think will appear in the next two years?
Megaways with leprechauns juggling burning fruit! To be honest, I don’t know, and if I knew, I wouldn’t talk about it yet!
Source: https://slotcatalog.com/en/read/interviews/QA-with-Lightning-Box-founder-Peter-Causley
