Evolution’s Product Chief Explains Why Its Boldest Live Games Flopped

It’s rare to hear a major studio talk openly about its own flops, but that’s exactly what Evolution has done this week. Chief product officer Todd Haushalter has walked through a handful of live casino titles that never found their footing, from an augmented and virtual reality treasure hunt to a bonus round that players simply ignored, offering a useful reminder of what UK players actually respond to at the tables.

Gonzo’s Treasure Hunt: too much tech, not enough pull

When Evolution launched
Gonzo’s Treasure Hunt in 2021, the game aimed high in terms of technology, mixing live play with slots, adding an augmented-reality Gonzo, and even a virtual-reality mode, with Evolution calling it the first online live game show with VR.
Despite the ambition,
players were less impressed, with Haushalter saying Gonzo’s Treasure Hunt failed probably because the entire premise was too technologically advanced.
The game’s setup centred on a
wall of 70 stones hiding the treasure, but players weren’t won over.
Evolution tried to rescue it with a bonus round, but according to Haushalter the addition
reflected that the technology may have been more advanced than players wanted, the large wall likely discouraged them, and adding a bonus round did little to improve interest in the game.

Gold Bar Roulette and the problem of extra bookkeeping

A simpler-sounding idea also missed the mark. Evolution expected titles like Lightning Blackjack and Gold Bar Roulette to be quick and easy, but
giving players more control also meant they had to pay more attention, and despite Evolution thinking the games were simple and quick, players begged to differ.
With Gold Bar Roulette specifically,
players had to track their saved bars as well as place their roulette wagers
, which added a layer of bookkeeping on top of a game that’s usually valued for being instant and intuitive.

Mega Ball’s card overload

Not every underperformer is a straightforward flop. Mega Ball, Evolution’s bouncing-ball bingo-style format, still attracts a decent crowd, but
it has lots of players yet enjoys rather modest traction.
In Mega Ball,
players buy bingo-style cards and watch as drawn numbers are marked on them, with a completed line producing a win, though Haushalter said the number of cards a player could buy made it difficult to follow the draw and see which ones were close to winning.
Evolution appears to have learned from that when building MONOPOLY Big Baller, where it
capped the main game at four cards per player, saying the limit helped players follow the draw and recognise when a card was nearing a winning line.

What this means for the games UK players already use

None of this is framed as a one-off misstep. Haushalter’s wider point is that attention is harder to hold than ever, since
live casino games now compete not just with Netflix and YouTube but with players using several screens at once.
He’s also careful to note that complexity itself isn’t the enemy, as
Evolution has many complex games that are quite popular, with the lesson being that games must be interesting enough to retain players’ attention despite the complexities.
There’s also a payout-pattern angle to player fatigue: Haushalter pointed to the way
a game can attract an early audience through its theme, presentation, or bonus features, then lose players as they spend more time with it.

For UK players browsing the live lobbies at their usual sites, this is a handy bit of context next time a flashy new format appears. The games that have stuck around longest tend to be the ones that keep their core mechanic legible at a glance, rather than the ones piling on the most features. It also hints at how Evolution is likely to approach its next wave of launches, with simpler core loops and more selective use of flashy tech like AR and VR layered on top rather than built into the foundation.

Sources

• Evolution – Art of the flop: What Evolution’s failed games reveal about technology, simplicity, and knowing when to fold
• Bonus.com – Evolution Gaming CPO on Why Casino Games Fail
• PlayNJ – Evolution Product Head: What Makes an Online Game Work?
• Play USA – Evolution Reveals Why Complex Live Casino Games Failed to Win Over Players
• PlayMichigan – Evolution Product Chief Says Less Can Be More with Live Casinos