Issues with Street Fighter II Slots by NetEnt
NetEnt is one of the biggest slot developers and award-winning gambling software providers out there. Located in Sweden, they were founded in 1996 and they are licensed and regulated by the UK Gambling Commission – play Gold Factory slot.
Chances are that you will have played some of their games and their titles include The Invisible Man, Gonzo’s Quest, Starburst, Creature from The Black Lagoon, and Street Fighter 1 and 2.
Game Planning
When games are created, a lot of planning is put into them before they get the go-ahead to be produced. Things that are considered include the potential audience, addiction issues, and ease of marketing with the finished product. However, sometimes unforeseen circumstances do arise once a completed game has been released on the market.
Street Fighter II Slot
Street Fighter is an ultra-popular video game series that was released in 1987. The success of this game spawned an even more successful sequel that hit arcades in 1991. The game later became a retro classic that still garnered praise, even in the age of mind-blowingly realistic video console games.
When it comes to slot developers, they search high and low for inspiration and video gaming is a creative channel that has been tapped into many times before. It was NetEnt who decided to turn the two Street Fighter games into slots and the first release was a success. Street Fighter II also had the potential to be a big hit as well. The game utilized a 5×5 grid with cluster pays. The design reflected the original style of the video game and this also scored highly with slot and video gaming fans. However, the game was plagued by issues on its release and this caused it to vanish completely from many casinos.
The Issues Explained
It is thought that the way punters were staking on the slot, made it easier to trigger certain special features and bonus rounds. This essentially was leading to more winning spins and was seen as a manipulation of slot games. This came about due to technical issues within the game itself and only the eagle-eyed amongst us, spotted this fault. In a leaked email created by the Head of Communication at NetEnt, it explained that player staking behavior was thought to be impacting the gaming experience of Street Fighter II. There were also concerns that the fault could lead to gambling addiction and irresponsible wagering, as punters were thought to be placing high stake bets to make the most of the design fault. The resulting investigation led to NetEnt pulling the game from casinos after just one week on general release.
Final Thoughts
Online video slots cannot be tampered with 99 percent of the time because punters are not having one to one contact with an actual machine. Even if you did, then you would need access and specialist knowledge of RNG microchips and coding. The fault here lied directly with NetEnt for releasing a game with a design fault. The punters were not to blame, but the game showed much promise and would be welcomed back when the issues have been resolved.
Note- The article is guest post and in no way affiliated to Yogsoft.