LEANDER GAMES
Keep rockin’ in the reel world
Matt Broughton knows it’s only rock and roll, but he likes it. Leander Games are hoping to appeal to rocking gamers as they team up with heavy metal giants Megadeth to present a new slot experience.
T
Leander Games Founder and CEO, Ramiro Atucha
he use of well-known brands has been gaining more and more importance in the video slots industry with various companies looking to capitalise on this trend. When Leander Games called a
meeting to discuss how best to tap into this potential, a TV in the background streamed live news showing a huge line of fans waiting to get tickets to see their favourite band. Leander quickly realized that no matter how much someone likes a movie brand, rarely will you find more active fans than with a rock band. Leander Games’ Founder and CEO, Ramiro Atucha, explains further: “With bands it’s common to see fans purchasing merchandising and signing-up to receive newsletters about new releases and upcoming tours. If you were a big fan of a band and a slot game was released featuring them, there’s a strong chance you’d play just for fun even if you weren’t a gambler.” Having decided that this was the way the company
wanted to go about producing its first branded game, Leander’s Daniel Schultz reached out to some of his close contacts in the music industry, searching for a rock band that might have some interest in licensing their name to a slot game. “One of our key criteria was that this band needed to have a strong international
fan base since Leander Games doesn’t license content to any operator doing business in the US market,” explains Atucha. “A key contact at the largest management company in the world suggested the band Megadeth as they’re very active (i.e. constantly touring) have a huge following all over the world that they enjoy a very close relationship with, and are also very active online in marketing their brand. When we presented the concept they immediately understood exactly what we were trying to do and jumped on board, giving us their full support.”
VERY LARGE DEMISE Megadeth were founded in 1983 by Dave Mustaine
and bassist David Ellefson after Mustaine was dropped from the now world-renowned heavy metal group, Metallica. Since then Megadeth have released twelve studio albums, three live albums, two EPs, 26 singles, 32 music videos, four compilations and one box set, ultimately selling over 25 million copies world-wide, with five consecutive albums being certified Platinum or Multi-Platinum in the US. Apart from their impressive rock credentials, the
band’s commitment to the project also made them the perfect choice, as Atucha explains: “We didn’t just license Megadeth, we partnered with them - indeed to the point that Dave Mustaine gave a personal
52 JULY-AUGUST 2011
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