RABCAT
CASINO FOCUS
SPONSORED EDITORIAL
Quality not quantity
Florian Schmid and Thomas Schleischitz of Rabcat talk about their innovative game developments, Rabcat’s market entry and plans for the future
It is not always the case that egaming success is achieved by inundating the player with choice and developing a huge number of games. With players already facing a plethora of different operators to choose from, attention is turning more to an emphasis on quality instead. eGaming Review talked to Thomas Schleischitz, CEO, and Florian Schmid, head of production, of Rabcat, to ?nd out more. eGaming Review (eGR): Can you brie?y introduce your company to our readers? Thomas Schleischitz (TS): Rabcat is a supplier of high-end premium applications for the egaming industry. Our range of products includes premium video slots, as well as video poker and innovative game concepts based on our own trademarks. Besides the Austrian territory – where we have been operating since 2003 – we are eager to enter the international market in Q1 2013. eGR: What makes Rabcat games unique compared to its competitors? TS: Thanks to our roots lying in the AAA videogame industry, we have a clear focus on quality and innovation. We try to see the current game offering through the eyes of the end consumers. Today, they are facing an almost unmanageable range of games. Most of them are old and simply use new skins. We tend to follow another path as we believe there is no demand for ‘just more games’. There is a demand for more quality in games. In our opinion, quality and innovation has to include more than just noisy advertising, so we pay special attention to the inner core of each game: usability, game mechanisms, maths design and use of new technologies. eGR: Is there a speci?c potential target audience your products are designed for? Florian Schmid (FS): We are trying to reach a wide range of customers by providing different ways of game play. While we have complex games like Forsaken KingdomTM, targeted at more serious hardcore players, we also have games like Castle BuilderTM, which is an innovative, level-based slot machine, inspired by social games. I am also very excited to reveal our latest game Dragon’s Cave™ at this year’s ICE. eGR: How do you distribute your products? Which channels do you use? TS: We recently inked a games supply deal with Microgaming’s Quick?re platform, which enables Rabcat to enter into new territories and bene?t from QuickFire’s extensive portfolio of operators and partners. FS: The ?rst Rabcat game we will add to the Quick?re portfolio is called The Legend Of Olympus® and will be available in February 2013. It achieved the 'Game of the Year 2011 Award' on Austria’s biggest online casino platform, win2day.at. eGR: How does the future look for Rabcat? FS: We make ourselves aware of the probability that a player of video slots, for example, may also be a passionate video gamer, a cineaste or a fan of F2P games. The industry must avoid losing touch as it is surrounded by many other entertainment industries, which are raising the bar higher. From a technical point of view, we are driving a twin-track strategy. In addition to our ?ash-based portfolio, we are adapting our games to HTML5. Therefore, we are in the position to support all sorts of devices, including mobile. TS: Our dedicated HTML5 content will be available through the brand new Odobo platform, a company which specialises in getting the best out of HTML5 and targets the regulated gambling industry with a new breed of B2B marketplace. We are in close collaboration with them and currently preparing for a joint appearance at the upcoming ICE event. Overall, we are prepared for future challenges and are indeed looking forward to 2013.
FLORIAN SCHMID
Florian Schmid joined Rabcat in 2007. Since 2009 he has taken over the position of head of production for all gambling related products.
THOMAS SCHLEISCHITZ
Thomas Schleischitz founded Rabcat in 2001 and has been acting as the company’s CEO since day one. He has been working in the videogame and egaming industry for 12 years and was, among other things, involved in the production of numerous AAA game productions.
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