Sydney
Big Time Gaming
The Australian studio that invented Megaways and licensed it to much of the industry.
Reference last reviewed 27 October 2026
A studio that moved from instant-win scratch games into some of the most played high-volatility slots.
Hacksaw Gaming started with scratch cards and instant-win games, a category most studios treat as filler, and used it to build distribution before moving into slots. Wanted Dead or a Wild became one of the defining titles of the high-volatility wave, and the studio's stripped-back visual style has been widely imitated.
Its growth is the clearest recent example of how quickly the content market can reorder itself. A studio founded in 2018 reached near-universal distribution within a few years, something that would have been impossible before aggregation platforms made it feasible for an operator to add a new supplier without a bespoke integration.
The companies that design and build the games themselves, principally slots. They are paid a share of the revenue their games generate rather than a licence fee, which is why a studio's commercial fortunes depend on a small number of titles performing across many operators.
Sydney
The Australian studio that invented Megaways and licensed it to much of the industry.
Isle of Man
The business that took over Microgaming's content operation, combining a studio network with aggregation.
Las Vegas
The former Scientific Games, now a cross-channel supplier of land-based machines, online slots and social casino.
Stockholm
The studio that defined the modern online slot, and whose catalogue remains a fixture in every lobby.
Stockholm and Malta
A studio defined by extreme volatility and deliberately uncomfortable themes.
Växjö, Sweden
A Swedish studio that stayed independent and slot-only, with Book of Dead as its signature title.