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New Slot Announcement Ping Pong Star (or MG Bonanza)

brianmon said:
The companies who paid a licences fee to BTG, are going to be rather pissed off.
If it transpires that they could have just copied for free
Click to expand...

They all know they could have copied it for free... but a lot would have considered the brand worth paying for.

Also, we dont know if BTG pressured casinos in to not taking games that used the megaways mechanic but weren't called Megaways... which they may well have done

"If you take a non megaways game that is a rip off, we wont let you have any licenced megaways games..."

I'm not saying they did that... I'm speculating, but that's what I may have done
 
The mechanics may be slightly different here and there but there's little doubt these are brazen clones, which I'm sure wouldn't just get legally dismissed out of hand. So if I were BTG I'd be peeved too that others are tweaking one or two things and calling it 'unique'.

Even Thunderkick are at it in one of their recent releases, that I noticed in the Battles. It was like a pocket-sized Bonanza to all intents and purposes, not to mention the 'heartstopper' scatter moments etc

In a nutshell Ping Pong Star is MG's belated attempt to jump on the Megaways craze whilst hoping no one notices
 
Last edited:
brianmon said:
The companies who paid a licences fee to BTG, are going to be rather pissed off.
If it transpires that they could have just copied for free
Click to expand...
well, probably not for free; id guess still a costly endeavour
 
goatwack said:
The mechanics may be slightly different here and there but there's little doubt these are brazen clones, which I'm sure wouldn't just get legally dismissed out of hand. So if I were BTG I'd be peeved too that others are tweaking one or two things and calling it 'unique'.

Even Thunderkick are at it in one of their recent releases, that I noticed in the Battles. It was like a pocket-sized Bonanza to all intents and purposes, not to mention the 'heartstopper' scatter moments etc

In a nutshell Ping Pong Star is MG's belated attempt to jump on the Megaways craze whilst hoping no one notices
Click to expand...

Sadly, you're wrong. Copies of games are perfecty legal... as long as you don't copy the maths that you have gained illegally
 
trancemonkey said:
Sadly, you're wrong. Copies of games are perfecty legal... as long as you don't copy the maths that you have gained illegally
Click to expand...
I think you'll find I'm never wrong about anything. Except maybe what you said :eek::(
 
I have just spoken to Nik and this is certainly not an authorized Megaways as we guessed and finding out who supposedly made it is not easy as the suggested studio in this thread doesn't appear to make slots. It's clearly the same maths and mechanic with a slight variation in the top pay and card values. As people said, the proper developers pay for this mechanic and trademark with Netent on board now they have Red Tiger and Pragmatic too, as well as Blueprint and the SG companies already making them.

The nearest example to this I recall was Play'n Go and their copy of BoR Deluxe and I do believe they did eventually need a legal agreement with Novomatic. Play'n Go and Novo are proper companies though, this rip-off looks like it was designed on the back of a Rupert The Bear annual.
 
Well, I wouldnt expect it's an authorized Megaways (I mean it says Epic Ways on the screen)
Is it lazy, maybe immoral to copy and cone; probably a debate. As trance says, I'm not sure it's illegal...different images, different game title, different paytable, albeit slightly.
But again, I don't see it as any different than the million Book of Whosits; I'd expect knock-offs are part and parcel of any consumer product.
 
dunover said:
I have just spoken to Nik and this is certainly not an authorized Megaways as we guessed and finding out who supposedly made it is not easy as the suggested studio in this thread doesn't appear to make slots. It's clearly the same maths and mechanic with a slight variation in the top pay and card values. As people said, the proper developers pay for this mechanic and trademark with Netent on board now they have Red Tiger and Pragmatic too, as well as Blueprint and the SG companies already making them.

The nearest example to this I recall was Play'n Go and their copy of BoR Deluxe and I do believe they did eventually need a legal agreement with Novomatic. Play'n Go and Novo are proper companies though, this rip-off looks like it was designed on the back of a Rupert The Bear annual.
Click to expand...

That's almost guaranteed to be simply untrue... there are an enormous amount of BOR clones. You can not, I repeat, patent or copyright a game design in Europe.

The only reason they would need to settle with Novo is if they somehow got the maths and then, stupidly, used the exact same maths.
 
dunover said:
I have just spoken to Nik and this is certainly not an authorized Megaways as we guessed and finding out who supposedly made it is not easy as the suggested studio in this thread doesn't appear to make slots. It's clearly the same maths and mechanic with a slight variation in the top pay and card values. As people said, the proper developers pay for this mechanic and trademark with Netent on board now they have Red Tiger and Pragmatic too, as well as Blueprint and the SG companies already making them.

The nearest example to this I recall was Play'n Go and their copy of BoR Deluxe and I do believe they did eventually need a legal agreement with Novomatic. Play'n Go and Novo are proper companies though, this rip-off looks like it was designed on the back of a Rupert The Bear annual.
Click to expand...

Also, it can't be "the same maths" if the paytable has changed. Ergo, it's not a copy. Ergo BTG have no leg to stand on.
 
trancemonkey said:
Also, it can't be "the same maths" if the paytable has changed. Ergo, it's not a copy. Ergo BTG have no leg to stand on.
Click to expand...
'Same' as in for example the Chinese make a car that's a knock-off of the Land Rover Freelander, but with a different set of alloys and badge. Which to 99% of the world's population is obviously copied, except to the Chinese authorities.

I didn't realize that a multi-billion industry has risen in online gambling without a single legal, statutory or patent protection against plagiarism and intellectual property theft. Quite remarkable really.
 
dunover said:
'Same' as in for example the Chinese make a car that's a knock-off of the Land Rover Freelander, but with a different set of alloys and badge. Which to 99% of the world's population is obviously copied, except to the Chinese authorities.

I didn't realize that a multi-billion industry has risen in online gambling without a single legal, statutory or patent protection against plagiarism and intellectual property theft. Quite remarkable really.
Click to expand...

It does, but not in Europe...
 
nikantw said:
I took the screenshots from the download version of a CR casino. It must be developed for MG, I don't think it can be anything else.
Click to expand...

I am sure MG knows about the game since they have to integrate it on Quickfire and as it looks the Viper client. Rabcat and Fortune Factory are integrated on Viper, so I assume it is possible. I didn't download the CR client although I have accounts with most of their brands, hence, I called it "...... from ZeroFox Entertainment powered by Microgaming's Quickfire platform".

I approached my old VIP host at CR and he checked with the relevant people before telling me that ZeroFox is a subsidiary of CR. That's what I have from them directly and that is what I am going with until I hear something different.

It could very well be a veiled MG attempt to make a Megaways game and to "hide" it for a test run they released it at an MG-only casino group as it wouldn't be totally in the open compared to when they would go global with all multi-platform casinos.

PS. AFAIK, the name "Megaways" is trademarked, not patented. That is quite a difference. I don't think there is a lot BTG can do as long as ZeroFox didn't use the very exact math formula to determine the reel positions.
 
Last edited:
trancemonkey said:
They all know they could have copied it for free... but a lot would have considered the brand worth paying for.

Also, we dont know if BTG pressured casinos in to not taking games that used the megaways mechanic but weren't called Megaways... which they may well have done

"If you take a non megaways game that is a rip off, we wont let you have any licenced megaways games..."

I'm not saying they did that... I'm speculating, but that's what I may have done
Click to expand...

BTG certainly do pressure casinos into not taking non-megaways branded games, with the threat of not allowing licensed megaways games
 
I got a 40 free chip from CR so it was time to try it. Very Bonanza feeling to it. Very hard to get a bonus. My best of 3 was this one with a retrigger

115426

110x and 55x the other two. Best base game win was 126x from loads of the small monkey.
Went 150x lost twice and 250x lost once before any bigish win or a bonus.

The last time was when I upped the bet to 1.00............ completely dead spins with lots of 3-scatter teasers till bust..
 
nikantw said:
So @Harry_BKK , I read your update in the review. Looks like this game was made for CR only and will remain at CR only?

I don't mind. They have been very kind to me.
Click to expand...

I have tried to revive some old connections at MG but it all ended just with friendly chit-chat. No comment on the game.

MG must be somehow involved since they control the VIPER client. No casino can integrate a game into the client without MG's assistance.

I assume though that because CR is MG's biggest customer for the VIPER client that they allowed them to integrate it. It is definitely a development from a studio that is connected to CR. How much of a connection, I don't know and TBH too lazy to do more research.
 
Harry_BKK said:
I have tried to revive some old connections at MG but it all ended just with friendly chit-chat. No comment on the game.

MG must be somehow involved since they control the VIPER client. No casino can integrate a game into the client without MG's assistance.

I assume though that because CR is MG's biggest customer for the VIPER client that they allowed them to integrate it. It is definitely a development from a studio that is connected to CR. How much of a connection, I don't know and TBH too lazy to do more research.
Click to expand...

And it already has a clone! Majestic Dragons

118044
 
I wouldn't touch CR with a barge pole if for no other reason than they exert 0 effort coralling their affs that run amok with their never-eending spam emails and outright fabricated ads, doing more to set back the reputation of casinos than streamers and rogue outfits combined
 

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