No More Clones: EXCO's Pledge to Original Slot Making
No buffalo. No pharaohs. No reskins.
That's our opening statement. Not a suggestion. Not a maybe. A hard line in the digital sand.
The online slots industry drowns in copycats. Players scroll through endless galleries of the same recycled themes. Ancient Egypt slot #47,291. Buffalo clone #83,002. Viking reskin #29,384.
We're done with the laziness!
The Clone Factory Problem
Walk into any online casino. Count the original slot games. Actually original, not "Egyptian tomb but with blue gems instead of gold."
You won't need many fingers.
The slot game studio landscape reeks of copy-paste mentality. Studios pump out familiar themes because familiar sells. Buffalo variants perform. Egyptian slots convert. Pirates draw clicks.
But here's the brutal truth: players are bored senseless.
They want fresh slot games. Unique slot games that don't remind them of seventeen other titles they played last week. The market saturation isn't just bad, it's insulting to everyone involved.
Operators know this. They're drowning in pitches for "Egyptian-themed slots with a twist." The twist? Maybe the pharaoh wears sunglasses. Revolutionary stuff.
Players abandon games faster than ever. Retention plummets. Engagement dies. Because when everything looks the same, nothing matters.
Fred's War Declaration
Fredrik Elmqvist didn't start EXCO to build more buffalo clones. His stance cuts deep: the industry got "tired and lazy."
Fred's not diplomatically suggesting improvement. He's calling out an entire ecosystem that prioritizes safe bets over player respect. Studios chase quarterly numbers instead of creating slot game mechanics that matter.
"We won't ship what we won't play," Fred declared when launching EXCO.
Translation: if it bores us, it's not hitting your servers.
This isn't business as usual wrapped in rebellious marketing. This is fundamental philosophy shift. Quality over volume. Player engagement over corporate convenience. Original content over recycled trash.
Fred's building EXCO as the antithesis of everything wrong with modern slot development. No shareholders demanding Egyptian theme #47,292. No suits pushing "buffalo but different."
Just games that hit different.
Killing Tropes: The EXCO Method
How do you murder tired themes? Start from concept.
Every EXCO slot begins with one question: "Has this been done before?"
If yes, we scrap it. Immediately.
No "putting our spin" on oversaturated concepts. No "fresh take" on ancient civilizations. No clever wordplay around buffalo herds.
Our art team doesn't browse competitor catalogs for inspiration. They create original visual languages. Character designs that don't remind you of twelve other games. Color palettes that haven't been focus-grouped to death.
Math models built from scratch. Not tweaked versions of industry standards. Our proprietary GAMEX mechanics suite: Wrapper Stacks, Power Field, Boss Fights: exists because we refuse existing templates.
We don't research "what's working" in the market. We research what players actually want to play. Different conversation entirely. This approach terrifies traditional studios. Building original slot games costs more upfront. Takes longer. Carries risk. We embrace that risk. Because playing it safe produces garbage nobody remembers.
The Creative Workflow: Build or Burn
Our development process breaks industry norms.
Step one: Concept validation. Not market research. Not competitor analysis. Pure creative validation.
Does this excite us?
Does it solve a player problem?
Does it introduce mechanics they haven't seen?
If we can't answer yes to all three, concept dies. No exceptions.
Step two: Prototype ruthlessly. Build quickly. Test internally. If it doesn't grab our attention within thirty seconds, it won't grab yours. Back to step one.
Step three: Art that serves gameplay. Not pretty screenshots for marketing departments. Visual design that enhances mechanics. Character animation that supports narrative. UI that disappears into experience.
Step four: Math that matters. Win frequency that creates engagement. Volatility patterns that build tension. RTP distribution that respects player investment.
Step five: Polish until perfect. No launch deadlines dictated by marketing calendars. No "we'll patch it later" mentality. A game drops when it's ready.
This workflow costs us speed. While competitors ship monthly releases, we craft each title like it matters. Because it does.
Our debut roadmap spans 30+ planned releases. Not 30+ reskins. Thirty completely original experiences. Each one designed to stand alone. Each one built to last.
VEGASCALINE kicked off our catalog. Not because it tested well with focus groups. Because it represents everything we believe about fresh slot games.
What's Coming: The Future We're Building
We can't spoil everything. Some surprises deserve protection.
But here's what operators can expect: themes that don't exist anywhere else. Mechanics that create new player behaviors. Art styles that photograph well because they're genuinely striking. No ancient civilizations. No animal stampedes. No pirate ships. Instead? Concepts that make players pause mid-scroll. Settings that spark conversation. Characters that stick in memory.
Our pipeline includes genres the slot industry hasn't touched. Storytelling approaches that break format expectations. Interactive elements that blur traditional game boundaries.
This isn't evolution. This is revolution.
Independent slot games built by people who respect the medium. Who understand that players deserve better than recycled content. Who believe original slot games should feel original.
We're not here to blend in. We're here to stand out.
EXCO - We aren’t here to blend in
The clone wars end now. EXCO's pledge isn't marketing copy. It's our operating system.
No buffalo. No pharaohs. No reskins.
Just games that hit!