Everyone, meet Pixiu Gaming, a London-based games developer delivering the hottest online keno and video slot games straight to players across North America’s regulated markets.
This year promises to be big for Pixiu Gaming, and we are excited to see what happens, especially when it comes to new games that this company plans to roll out in the upcoming months.
Pixiu Gaming’s co-founder Tony Plaskow was kind enough to sit down and answer a few of our questions about the company in general, their plans for 2023, and most importantly, their newest release Money Megaways, which is the first Megaways slot for the company. Enjoy!
- First of all, hello Tony, and welcome to CasinosOnline, we are delighted to have you here. Why don’t we start with a quick introduction? Tell us a bit about yourself!
Firstly, thanks for having me, much appreciated. I have been in iGaming since 1999 when I co-founded easyodds.com, the first-ever odds comparison service. Since then I have worked with various interactive casino companies. I love food, travelling, Arsenal and I firmly believe that we should all do a lot more to be kinder and more charitable, to those less fortunate than ourselves.
- Now, you are one of the co-founders of the company, having built it in 2014. That’s almost a decade of existence, which undoubtedly translates into a lot of knowledge, insights, and experience. Tell us more about the creation of the company!
Pixiu came to life when we built the first ever online keno titles for Loto Quebec and British Columbia Lottery Corporation. Where every other developer had turned down the chance to develop these titles we jumped straight in and established a powerful suite of products in a niche genre underpinned by close bonds with the lotteries in Quebec and British Columbia. We listened and delivered what they wanted, not what we thought they needed.
“I firmly believe that we should all do a lot more to be kinder and more charitable, to those less fortunate than ourselves.”
–Tony Plaskow, Pixiu Gaming
- What makes Pixiu Gaming, Pixiu Gaming?
For games, we build high-quality content where we have a distinct advantage, deep keno expertise (borne of many years of trial-and-error), games that incorporate tier 1 IP (we have an exclusive licence for Deal or No Deal Keno for keno in Canada and a global deal with Dan Marino), or where we integrate an established, proven mechanic into a game – more about this later in the year! For us, as a team of humans, we are hard-focused on creating Meaningful Change for people less fortunate than ourselves whether that is food poverty or physically challenged children – Pixiu is a vehicle to help people.
- So far, you’ve mostly focused on regulated markets in North America, including Canada. Are there plans to expand into Europe, Latin America, or any other markets?
We have just started to release our first set of slots and cluster-mechanics into Europe via our partner platform, Playzido, and we hope to enter LatAm early next year.
We saw a clear opportunity to provide keno titles to the Canadian lotteries at a time when no one else was willing to develop the games for them. My co-founder, Sovanna Phan, is also a global expert at keno game development so it was a natural focus for us. Our slots are really an extension of the brands we have created from our keno success where we are providing players with similar game mechanics in the form of a slot or cluster-mechanic.
- What is your take on the current position of online keno games in the industry? Is there room for growth? And if yes, how do you envision the keno niche would expand in the future?
In land-based gaming, keno is an established, large segment of the wider market, so we see a natural extension of that into the online arena. At present there is a dearth of keno games for operators to promote. With less than a handful of titles available in the US market, there is a strong opportunity to provide a suite of keno titles which will drive new revenue streams for operators, outside of the core slots and table offerings. The key to that is operators housing keno games in their own dedicated tab so that players can find the titles easily. As an example of that, Loto Quebec built a Keno tab with just 2 of our keno games and they saw massive successes from day 1 to the point that keno now drives more revenue than their table games, poker, and bingo sections added together.
- We know this might be the hardest question here, but we’ve got to ask: what’s your favorite game in Pixiu’s portfolio?
That is a toughie – however, we have a new keno title coming to market soon called Coin Collector Keno which has ultra-high design quality, multiple base game mini-features when the player hits specific grid numbers and a full Hold’n Spin bonus round – it is a thing of beauty. Later in the year, we are releasing Dan Marino Gunslinger, a slot where you get to be Dan The Man which looks so so good…… watch this space!
- Now that we’ve breached the subject of games, we are eager to talk about the star of the show – your new game Money Megaways. What can you tell us about your first Megaways slot?
Money Megaways is a graphically rich game with base game modifiers with 2 full bonus rounds featuring Free Spins and Hold’n Respin mechanics. We also incorporated 3 jackpots where the top one is hit if you get 6 Bitcoin symbols which add a fun and contemporary feel to a well-known, proven base in a Megaways mechanic.
- Three jackpots, Free Spins, Hold & Respin, and Symbol Upgrades await all lucky players who enter the Money Megaways universe, which is an impressive line-up of game boosters. What are your predictions for the release? How do you feel your fans will react to the new game?
As a new slot supplier, piggybacking off our keno success, we are hoping Money Megaways will be an exciting and engaging first touchpoint for players to Pixiu’s brand. We wanted to load the game with features which are already well-established as we felt this was a more sensible decision than trying to create something new, which may have failed to engage.
- You’ve worked with Light & Wonder and Playzido to deliver the game, and Money Megaways is now live across Light & Wonder’s OpenGaming platform. What is your experience of collaborating with Light & Wonder so far?
We are globally exclusive to Light and Wonder, building all of our games onto their Playzido Remote Game Server. This provides us with the widest possible distribution and the most flexible, efficient technology to build games onto. We hugely value the partnership and we are incredibly excited for the future as Playzido rolls out into more Canadian Provinces, US States, and wider global regions – we’re just getting started!
- Can we expect more games to roll out across OpenGaming’s platform? Without revealing too much, can you tell us what else is in store for your fans for 2023?
For a small team, we have been developing a huge number of games to be released in the coming year or so. In 2023 alone we have 14 new games slated for launch which include brand new keno mechanics, 2 Dan Marino-branded titles, plus a collaboration with Light and Wonder on the first-ever MultiPlayer Slots which we are hoping to reveal at G2E in Vegas in October. We will see MultiPlayer slots as a powerful way for players to enjoy games together, a rare, genuinely-unique, development for our industry.
- Thank you so much for taking the time to answer all our questions! We look forward to seeing more of you in the future. Is there anything you’d like to say to our readers?
Thanks for listening!
