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About WMS
WMS is currently one of the world’s longest-running companies to work in casino games development. It can trace its roots all the way back to 1943 when it was first founded as the William Manufacturing Company. For a long while, this company specialised in producing arcade games and pinball machines, while eventually branching out into video games in the 70s. Towards the end of the millennium, however, its arcade games and pinball machines started to become less prevalent thanks to the ongoing rise of video games and the advent of the internet.
In 1991, a subsidiary of the company, Williams Gaming, was launched which enabled the company to develop video lottery terminals. A few years later would see the launch of Williams Gaming’s first slot machine, Reel ‘Em In. This was just the first of many, with branded themed slot titles like Top Gun, The Lord of the Rings, Men in Black and even Monopoly created.
October 2013 saw Williams Gaming merge with Scientific Games to become one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries. The developer’s collection of land-based games has proven popular, especially since they tried to do something different and launch slot machines not based on the commonly favoured fruit machine theme. Along with slot machines, WMS established a series of video poker machines, video slot games and video lottery terminals.
Strengths
WMS may not be one of the most popular and well known of online casino game developers, but it’s undoubtedly one of the top names when it comes to land-based casino. The company has gained a lot of experience in gambling over the course of its pervasive and productive history.
At present, WMS is focused on developing online versions of its physical tried and tested titles. Some of these games are adjusted and therefore deviate slightly from the original to make them more suitable for online players, but on the whole, the games are still very faithful reproductions of the originals. What’s more is that it isn’t just the slots WMS is adapting for the online market; the company has digitised table games, video games and a whole suite of casino games for online players.
It is also worth pointing out the company have been very prolific in producing online casino games with broad appeal.
Weaknesses
The company’s online presence isn’t as impressive as its real-world one. While WMS has plenty of online games available adopted by a diverse mix of online operators, its library of games isn’t as vast or even as significant compared with many of its direct competitors.
All the online titles created by WMS are based on pre-existing games, and there is a general lack of the sort of innovation and creativity possessed by some of its rivals in the online casino game arena.
Key Facts
- Being a well-established company, it should come as no surprise that WMS is fully licensed to operate in a multitude of markets. One of the regulatory authorities the Chicago company is licensed by is the Alderney Gambling Control Commission.
- The developer has won some significant industry awards thanks to its physical slot machines and other gambling games; as of yet, it doesn’t appear to have won too many awards for its online gaming content.
- Many of the games that WMS has created are fully compatible with almost all mobile devices, including iOS, Windows and Android operating platforms.
Final Verdict
WMS has a vibrant and colourful history in the gambling sector which has over the years had a considerable influence on the land-based gaming industry. They have built up an impressive portfolio of online games with plenty of high-quality and generally popular game titles in many different categories. We would expect a lot more to come from WMS in the future. There aren’t any casinos exclusively powered by WMS just yet, but they are undoubtedly moving in the right direction, and more is sure to come.