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I noticed something was wrong, or at least something had changed. It was subtle, a negligence that you don't want to admit to yourself. Perhaps their marketing manager is on holiday or maternity leave you think to yourself. Maybe it's just a small oversight. I mean, it's not such a big deal for a press release to be posted late with a date much earlier than its actual publication, right? And how important is it to have their regular new games posted with a press release on their website? The online casinos do a posting and email newsletter so that they don't have to. Even still, it got under my skin. I kept going back to the site to see what I'm missing. Something was wrong, I just wasn't figuring out what it was, until today. How my powers of perception missed it I have no idea. Typically I'm much more astute. I'm detail oriented. I'm one of those people who notice when a picture is out of whack or when someone changes the color of their hair just a bit, so how could I miss the new banner at the bottom of the page that says "The Microgaming brand is evolving… more"? My guess is that it has been on their site for almost a month now without me focusing on it. New site coming soon is a good reason why their site isn't being updated with its usual promptness and detail. I clicked on the "…more" and found out, "We are currently developing a new site which will be up and running soon." The best way to lose interest on your current website is to put all of your effort into developing your new one. Which leads me to wonder, why are they developing a new site? Their current one is perfectly lovely with easy navigation, nice colors and plenty of information. The explanation is simple – rebranding. On May 8th (according to their website) Microgaming announced its intentions to re-brand itself and consolidate its various arms into one unit. Microgaming wants to bring "Jackpot Madness and The Prima Network under the single Microgaming brand." It is an example of antics versus semantics. The change is significant, but subtle. In the press release they stated, "The resulting change will mean that Microgaming Poker Network and Microgaming Progressive Network will replace the old names and that a new ‘Powered by Microgaming’ seal will appear on all the sites which use the company’s software." Ok, so maybe the change won't be so significant. My guess is that none of their players will even notice the change. I mean, it's all obviously Microgaming isn't it? It just means instead of three logos there will be one that players will see over and over again. For some reason Microgaming thinks this will be a shock to their players system, so they want to phase it out slowly. "Both the Jackpot Madness and Prima Network brands will be phased out by late summer to give players a period to adjust to the changes. Both of these websites will be integrated into a new microgaming.com website." It turns out that this is somewhat more than a logo switch. This change will have an affect on some of their players. The ones who love Monte Carlo Millions may be left in the lurch. "In the case of The Prima Network the company will no longer run Monte Carlo Millions; however the company is looking at a number of exciting new marketing opportunities." The goal is to streamline. "The move further signals Microgaming’s industry-leading position and will serve to simplify all future communication. By focusing on one single brand, the company believes it can create greater impact in a consolidating market and that ultimately, the Microgaming badge will give players added confidence in an operator’s ability to deliver fair, intuitive, involving play." Consolidating market, these are key words. They mean that the market has reached its maximum growth before it starts to eat itself and downsize. This started last year with the PartyGaming acquisitions. By bringing all of the various sections of Microgaming into one entity they don't have to have two people doing the same job in two places. My guess is downsizing the staff will come with these branding changes. I decided to do a small check to see if layoffs have happened yet. I looked up Microgaming on f*ckedcompany.com and came up with nothing, a total blank page. Either Pud's site isn't working correctly, they haven't done any lay-offs, or none of their employees have narked on them for laying people off. Back to the consolidation, just because they are combining their different focuses into one brand doesn't mean that they have lost their eye on the main goal. "The company is also reaffirming its commitment to ever richer game playing experiences - with constantly evolving software using cutting edge technology, together with fraud control and transparency innovations. There is a programme of 60 new game releases in 2006." Microgaming’s CEO Roger Raatgever says. “We have led the industry for over a decade during which time separate brand names have served us brilliantly and helped our operators attract millions of new players to online gaming. Now we are entering a new stage of growth and we believe that by making these changes we are ready for this new era.” Microgaming is one of the first online casino software providers. They launched their first internet casino over a decade ago and have been leading the pack ever since. We can thank them for the first wide area progressive jackpot, Cash Splash™, introduced in 1998. Currently they power 120 internet casinos and have developed over 300 online casino games. As world leaders in the internet gambling industry they pride themselves on their mass appeal. In order to accommodate a wider array of customers they have "developed games in eleven languages and the software to support six major currencies." They aren't slouching in the online poker arena either. They power over 40 online poker rooms. Microgaming is far and wide my favorite game developer and I'm certain these changes will mean more consistency across the board and a wider selection for their customers. Even if it does mean that their main website won't be updated for a little while. Related Links: Posted on: June 25, 2006
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