Introduction
This is the second part of From Max Win to Max Experience: Redefining How Slots Build Towards Big Moments.
While the pursuit of a max win remains a powerful motivator for many players, today’s most successful slot experiences are increasingly defined by the journey rather than the destination. In the second half of our roundtable, contributors explore how studios balance ambition with entertainment, whether players remember the win itself or the moments leading up to it, and how developers can continue to innovate in a market where progression, volatility and escalation have become common design themes. 
Contributors
NR – Nik Robinson – CEO Big Time Gaming
DG – Danny Gordon, Head of Studio, DEGEN Studios
ES – Edvardas Sadovskis, CPO, ICONIC21
SB – Shalva Bukia, CPO at SPRIBE
AR – Alex Ratcliffe, CPO at 1X2 Network
Question 5
Is there a risk that players become too focused on chasing max win potential, and how do you balance that with overall entertainment?
NR:
There is indeed a risk, particularly in high-volatility formats. We mitigate it by designing experiences that deliver consistent engagement across all phases. The base game must remain compelling, medium wins satisfying, and near-misses thrilling in their own right.
Our focus remains on crafting complete packages where the pursuit of exceptional outcomes enhances, rather than supplants, broader entertainment value. Player feedback and performance data guide us in striking this balance, ensuring volatility serves excitement without diminishing day-to-day enjoyment.
DG:
There will always be players who are focused on max-win potential, and I do not think that is necessarily a problem. The key is making sure the whole game does not only serve that one player type.
Specific max-win modes can be useful because they give completionist players a direct route into that chase. We have done that with Aztec Ritual, which includes a Max Mode for players who want to go straight into that high-risk, high-reward experience. That satisfies a very specific mindset without having to shape the entire game around it.
The broader product still has to entertain different types of players. The max-win chase can sit within the game, but the full experience needs to work for people who are there for the journey, not just the end point.
ES:
Player preferences exist along a spectrum. Some engage with games as a whole, valuing design, theme, and ongoing variation, while others focus primarily on potential, evaluating each session against the maximum win figure. Both approaches are valid, but designing solely for the latter can result in an experience that feels relentless.
Achieving balance requires ensuring that the journey is genuinely rewarding regardless of the outcome. When entertainment value is present at every stage of play, not only at the maximum win, the experience appeals to a broader audience and incorporates pacing that encourages healthier play behaviours.
SB:
There is always a balance to maintain. Entertainment should remain the core objective, not purely the chasing of large payouts. That’s why sustainable game design is so important.
In crash games, frequent interaction, short rounds and social engagement help create entertainment value beyond the occasional big multiplier.
Responsible gaming principles also play an important role in keeping the experience enjoyable and balanced. The healthiest long-term engagement comes from players enjoying the gameplay itself, not just focusing on extreme outcomes.
AR:
This is part of why we’ve favoured a more attainable max win range. A 5,000x or 7,500x ceiling is still a genuinely significant win, but it sits within a range where the journey to it feels realistic rather than lottery-like. When max wins are pushed into the tens of thousands, the gap between what players experience in a typical session and what the headline promises becomes so wide that it can distort how people engage with the game.
Our approach prioritises the session experience. The big moments should feel like the game delivered on its promise, not like an outlier that defied the odds. That balance is better for players and, frankly, better for operators too.
Question 6
Do players respond more to the moment a big win lands, or to the build-up that leads to it?
NR:
Both elements are vital, yet the build-up often creates the most enduring impact. The landing delivers an immediate, powerful release, but the preceding escalation generates anticipation and emotional investment that players recount and relive.
Data from player sessions and community discussions consistently highlight how the journey fosters stronger attachment to the game. We therefore prioritise mechanics and presentation that heighten this preparatory phase, making the eventual win more rewarding and memorable.
DG:
It depends entirely on the mechanic. Some games are designed around very visible build-up. Tile-marking games are a good example because players can see the potential developing on the grid. There are clear visual markers that something bigger could happen, so the build-up becomes part of the excitement.
Other games work differently. With something like Gates of Olympus, players are often waiting for that one big trigger, that huge multiplier moment that suddenly changes everything. The path to the big win is much shorter and more explosive.
Both approaches can work. What matters is whether the mechanic gives players a reason to care before the outcome lands. Sometimes that is a long visible build. Sometimes it is the anticipation of one major hit.
ES:
Anticipation is frequently experienced more intensely than the reward itself. The build-up, such as locked reels, accumulating multipliers, and the final stage of a bonus, sustains player engagement until the win moment provides resolution. It is the journey that fosters entertainment and that’s where we put out focus on when we build games.
SB:
Both matter, but increasingly the build-up is what creates the lasting emotional impact. The anticipation, split-second decisions and shared reactions with other players often become more memorable than the final result itself.
In multiplayer crash environments, players experience those moments together in real time, which creates a stronger emotional connection. The big win is important, but the journey leading up to it is what keeps players engaged round after round.
AR:
Both matter, but the build-up determines how the win lands.
A big number appearing on screen with no context is just a number. When the same win arrives at the end of a sequence the player has invested in, it carries emotional weight. The difference between those two experiences is entirely in the build-up.
What the data tends to show is that engagement and retention correlate strongly with how often players experience meaningful moments within the feature, not just with how big the eventual win is. A player who felt the Goldstar Express build through three unlocked carriages before landing on the locomotive is having a different experience from one who hit a feature cold and exited. Engagement is built in the journey. The win is just the confirmation.
Question 7
How do you differentiate your approach when so many games now use similar language around escalation, momentum and volatility?
NR:
Differentiation stems from execution and heritage. While terminology around volatility and momentum has become widespread, BTG’s foundation in pioneering mechanics, such as Megaways, allows us to deliver these concepts with greater depth and originality.
We emphasise seamless integration of innovation with narrative, ensuring escalation arises organically from the game’s identity rather than formulaic application. Our commitment to pushing technical and creative boundaries, combined with an unwavering focus on player-centric design, sets our work apart in a crowded field.
DG:
I am not sure you should try to differentiate the approach on every game. If players enjoy a journey with escalation, progression and a chase, then maybe the real question is not how you change that structure, but how you make the game itself unique within it.
Differentiation comes from mechanics, features, themes, style and product-level choices. At DEGEN, the visual style already helps us stand apart, but the mechanics also have to earn that difference. You cannot just use the language of volatility and escalation; you have to give players something they have not seen or felt in quite the same way before.
We have some very strong mechanics coming through in H2, and those will become an important part of how DEGEN continues to define itself.
ES:
For our team, the answer lies in customisation. Our principal distinction as a company, across both slot games and our broader portfolio, is the extent to which we collaborate with clients to create tailored experiences. Games designed for specific markets, operator contexts, or player demographics perform differently from generic releases because they achieve greater resonance. The more comfortable a player feels within an experience, the more naturally engaged they become. Personalisation is our superpower.
SB:
Differentiation comes from authenticity of experience, rather than terminology alone.
SPRIBE focuses on gameplay that genuinely creates interaction and emotional involvement instead of artificially adding complexity. Aviator became successful because it introduced a fundamentally different type of experience to the market – fast, social, transparent and skill-influenced in feel.
Multiplayer interaction, real-time decision-making and accessibility remain key differentiators for crash games, compared with more traditional content categories.
AR:
By treating data as a design input, not just a performance metric.
Many studios talk about escalation and momentum as design principles. We try to treat them as testable hypotheses. When 3 Hot Chilli Peppers launched, we closely monitored engagement across the feature, focusing on how players responded to the pot presentation and celebration moments. Those learnings directly shaped the visual and audio treatment in our upcoming title Gods of Goalympus, where the pot mechanics have been upgraded based on what we observed players responding to, including layered audio cues timed to the maths of the build, not just the visual animation.
The mechanics in Gods of Goalympus are themselves an iterative development of the engine we built for 3 Apex Treasures, which has been one of our strongest performers in 2026 so far. So the lineage is deliberate. We’re not rebuilding from scratch with each title. We’re compounding learning across a connected suite of games.
That approach produces something that’s hard to replicate just by adopting the same language. The escalation in our games isn’t designed in isolation; it’s informed by how real players behaved in the previous generation of those mechanics. That closes the gap between what a feature is designed to feel like and what it actually feels like in a player’s hands.
Question 8
Looking ahead, how do you see this concept developing—more extreme volatility, more structured progression, or something else?
NR:
I anticipate a sophisticated evolution combining refined structured progression with continued innovation in player agency and immersion. While extreme volatility will retain its appeal for certain audiences, the greater opportunity lies in creating more meaningful, responsive journeys—potentially incorporating advanced narrative branching, real-time adaptation and next-generation presentation technologies.
The goal remains to deepen emotional connection and replayability, always guided by our core mission of delivering experiences that resonate long after the spin concludes.
Innovation remains in our DNA, and we are excited to explore these frontiers responsibly and creatively.
DG:
I think structured progression has a much bigger role to play. Extreme volatility may already be close to its peak. There are games now with huge max-win figures and very low base-game hit rates, and while that will appeal to some players, it is not the only direction the market can take.
Players want instant entertainment, but they also understand progression. That comes from wider culture, from mobile games, console gaming, streaming and the way digital entertainment is consumed today. Everything is available quickly, but people still like structure, achievement and unlocking the next stage.
So, for me, the future is not simply more volatility. It is better progression, better products and more complete journeys that understand the culture players are coming from.
ES:
In reality, all three developments are likely to occur. Player audiences are diverse, and the market will continue to segment accordingly. Some players will seek greater volatility, characterized by higher potential rewards, sharper fluctuations, and less frequent but more dramatic outcomes.
Others will prefer structured, narrative-driven progression, where the journey is clearly defined. Additionally, a substantial segment of the audience will prioritize theme and design quality, valuing the aesthetic aspects of the game over its mathematical structure.
Studios that succeed will be those that maintain a balanced portfolio across these categories, as a broad offering is essential to appeal to this audience in its entirety.
SB:
The future will likely focus less on pure volatility escalation and more on deeper engagement ecosystems centred around gameplay. The SPRIBE team believes social features, competitive mechanics, personalisation, tournaments and community-driven experiences, all of which are already well established of course, will only continue to grow and become even more important to the player experience.
To put it another way, players increasingly want games that feel dynamic and participatory rather than passive. We also expect a further merging of gaming, entertainment and social interaction. This has already begun and shows no sign of slowing down.
What this all means is that the next generation of successful products will likely be those which create long-term engagement through experience design. It’s not enough to offer the potential of a big win any more. You have to take players on a journey and entertain them along the way, as well – which is exactly what SPRIBE does, in every game, every time.
AR:
More structured progression, informed by better data, is where we see the most meaningful opportunity.
Extreme volatility has a market, but it narrows the audience and makes the session experience unpredictable in ways that are hard to design around. Structured progression, where the player can feel the game building towards something and understand their position in that build, has broader appeal and more room for craft.
What we expect to develop is a more sophisticated use of audio and visual language to communicate that structure. Not just ramping a soundtrack as a feature approach, but creating systems where the presentation genuinely reflects the mathematical state of the game in real time. Players are increasingly literate about how slots work. The studios that thrive will be the ones whose games reward that literacy by making the mechanics readable, building a relationship between the player and the game rather than just a reaction to it.
The max win number will remain a reference point. But the games that define the next few years will be remembered for how they made players feel on the way there.
Closing Thoughts
The industry’s relationship with max win is clearly evolving. While the headline figure still matters, contributors agree that players increasingly value the experience surrounding it—the anticipation, progression and emotional payoff that make big moments memorable.
As studios continue to innovate, the future appears less focused on simply increasing volatility and more centred on creating richer, more engaging journeys that give players reasons to invest in every spin, not just the biggest ones.
