RubyPlay’s newest studio has only one market in its sights. Shawn Collette, GM & Chief Designer, Jason Gilmore, VP of Game Design, and Adam Baldwin, VP, Math and Systems Design at xSlots, speak with Gaming Americas about its land-based heritage, social gaming experience and the product philosophy behind the studio built exclusively for US players.
xSlots is the latest studio to join RubyPlay’s multi-studio ecosystem. What was the thinking behind creating a venture specifically for the US market?
Shawn Collette – As the newest addition to RubyPlay’s multi-studio structure, xSlots has a unique focus. We have built the studio specifically for the US market with a team boasting decades of experience designing content for American players. With just the one market in focus, our content is built specifically for American players by a team that has spent its entire career understanding this audience and their preferences.
After 12 years in social gaming, the team identified a shift in the market and decided to launch xSlots. The goal was to bring the experiences players love most into the online gaming market. With decades of experience across land-based gaming, social casino and game development, we saw an opportunity to create content specifically designed for US players and their preferences.
The team has a deep collective history in the US casino industry. Can you tell us a bit more about the journey that led to xSlots?
Adam Baldwin – The entire xSlots team has extensive experience of the US casino sector that cannot be matched. Every member has a background in the land-based arena, some of which have worked together for over two decades. The core team has collaborated for over 13 years and between us hold more than 30 gaming-industry patents, having contributed to titles built around some of the world’s most renowned IP such as Willy Wonka, Wizard of Oz and Monopoly.
We have also worked on projects that have redefined what slots can offer, with product lines including G+ Deluxe 5×4, Double Money Burst, Colossal Reels, Awesome Reels, and Alice, a Bonus Bank transparent video and mechanical slot game that received significant industry recognition and media coverage.
The team has been refining its craft across the full arc of American casino gaming for years, making it the perfect foundation for a studio with serious ambitions, underpinned with expert credentials.
The xSlots team has over a decade’s experience in social casino. In what ways will this influence the content you develop for real money gaming in the US?
Adam Baldwin – We led the design and development of slots at social casino brand House of Fun, growing its daily average revenue from around $65,000 to more than $600,000 in under five years. That metric shows the talent and understanding of what makes players come back. The team subsequently formed the central studio behind House of Fun, Caesars Casino and Slotomania, three of the most recognized social casino brands in the industry.
The key advantage of our social gaming experience is that it produces clarity around what resonates with players, such as the mechanics that maintain attention and where the gap sits between what players say they want and what they actually engage with.
How does that experience shape the way xSlots now approaches game development?
Jason Gilmore – The goal at xSlots is to bring the experiences US players already love from the casino floor into the online environment.
That means taking traditional casino insights and building around them with the design expertise and production value the online market now demands. It means not assuming that a game built for a European audience will perform in an American lobby simply because the mechanics are solid. It also shows understanding that for a US player with years of land-based experience, the bar for what feels authentic is genuinely high.
The operator case for this is direct too. A crowded online lobby is a problem of differentiation and that comes from content that players recognise as distinct, not just a variation of a familiar template. xSlots is focused on creating bold, memorable, high-performing content that stands out in crowded lobbies while delivering operator-ready reliability.
What can players and operators expect in the near term?
Jason Gilmore – The studio’s first titles give a clear indication of where xSlots is headed long-term.
Plum Wild is our debut title, launching exclusively on July 9th. Frankenstein Triple Volt is set to follow shortly afterwards on August 13th. Both reflect the team’s core approach – seamless execution of land-based applied to online, with the US player as the frame of reference throughout development.
The team has been building towards initial launch for years, and the release schedule and broader roadmap reflect that preparation.
Where does xSlots sit within RubyPlay’s wider ecosystem and what makes its position within that structure distinct?
Shawn Collette – RubyPlay’s multi-studio structure is built on a straightforward principle – different markets and different player profiles require different creative approaches, not variations of a single house style.
Mad Hat Games works in casual-first mechanics and is focused on emerging markets while Firerose exists specifically to deliver bespoke, branded and white-label content for operator partners. Each studio has its own creative identity and its own lane.
The US online space is now occupied by xSlots and does so from a position that no other studio in the group can replicate.
