Movers and Shakers: Creating noise in the shark tank: what it takes to build a successful slot studio

Fredrik Johansson, CEO and Founder at Fantasma Games, on the challenging environment and organizational focus it takes for developers to create a sustainable business amid ever-increasing levels of competition.

Five years ago, the market entry barrier for a new game studio was relatively low.

This, combined with the low cost of accessing global and local distribution networks through well-established aggregators, led to an influx of studios moving into the space.

The result? Today, there are more than 750 game studios that released close to 11,000 new titles during 2023 alone – on average, an operator takes content from more than 60 providers.

One of the main challenges is that game themes and mechanical similarities now exist between the vast majority of games, and this is impacting the wider competitiveness of the market, and ability to position a unique player experience.

The market barrier entry for a new game studio is now incredibly high and for those who can get up and running, actually staying in the game is almost impossible.

Why? Because studios need to build trust with their portfolio and product roadmap and have a proven track record of creating premium content that hits the market with players.

If you can’t achieve this, you quickly find there is no demand for your games.

Does this mean new studios can’t succeed? Of course not. Fantasma Games is proof that with a clear focus and strategic direction you can get in on the action and find meaningful and trustful place in the market.

We have been able to establish ourselves as an innovative and premium provider of player-centric games that go beyond gambling to truly engage players.

We also keep our promises, and our customers are confident in our ability to continue to deliver games that perform highly and generate outstanding player engagement KPIs.

For me, this is crucial to the success of any studio.

Studios must be able to deliver premium, high-performing games that resonate with a wide range of player audiences in multiple markets, but they must also earn the trust of their operator partners.

Operators need to be confident in the studio’s strategic growth agenda and ambitions and that they will not only meet but exceed the goals they have set.

Of course, the success of a studio’s games comes into this and that is why the product roadmap must be balanced.

For Fantasma, this means daring to innovate and try something new while at the same time capitalising on existing high-performing mechanical frameworks that we know hit the mark with players.

The studios that take this approach can find they quickly move on from being the new kid on the block to being a major player in the content provision space.

For Fantasma, this has been achieved by working with a clear strategic plan and having a truly talented and passionate team always willing to go the extra mile to make a difference.

Hard work, focus and dedication from all our teams have been key to unlocking the strategic milestones that have enabled us to become established in this industry.

Again, I can’t downplay how important it has been to foster trusted relationships with our customers who believe in our roadmap and organisational capabilities just as much as we do.

Of course, you must always ensure the business is moving forward and that’s why we recently launched our own remote game server, FantasmaXpand.

This allows us to capitalise on existing partnerships and expand our joint collaborative initiatives in a way that ensures our customers are integral to how our roadmap is prioritised and developed.

It means our teams can focus on enhancing the technology roadmap, tuned and calibrated to our customer’s specific needs which in turn allows us to bring even more value to our partners.

This includes being able to deploy our content into new markets – another important capability for a studio to not only survive but thrive.

It has been natural for us to expand our geographical footprint alongside our international customers, as well as build strong local partnerships in key markets such as the US.

This ensures we stay relevant and allows us to keep optimising our global and local games roadmap in tight collaboration with our partners.

So, when you look at what goes into making a studio a success today compared to five years ago, it’s perhaps easy to see why some companies simply don’t make it.

Thankfully, Fantasma is a success story, but it has taken a great deal of passion and hard work to get to where we are today – and this is just the beginning.