High 5 Games

About the Company

High 5 Games (H5G) is the land-based casino industry's largest independent game developer. The NYC-based company of more than 200 employees also provides land-inspired slots to the online and mobile sectors in all regulated markets.

Founded in 1995 by software engineer and CEO, Anthony Singer, many of the most famous games from IGT, WMS, Bally, and Konami are actually H5G creations.

More recently, Singer launched VAULT, the company's remote game server (RGS) at London's ICE Totally Gaming gaming show in February 2014. This avenue gave H5G the ability to enter the online New Jersey casino market with game deployment at Caesars, Tropicana, Virgin, and Golden Nugget Casinos.

Never a company to rest on its laurels, H5G then procured a Remote Gaming License from Gibraltar, enabling them to roll out any of their 300 RGS ready games throughout regulated markets in Europe. More than half a dozen online casinos carry their games through partnerships with NYX Interactive and Gamesys Ltd. under license from the UKGC, Malta, and Sweden.

In April 2019, LeoVegas Mobile Gaming Group announced that they would be rolling out a minimum of eight new releases each month from H5G. The move expanded their global reach with the popular Stockholm-based online casino group. Their games can also be found among the offerings of the Kindred Group, Mr Green, Bet365, and many others.

Company Timeline

• 1995: Founded
• 2002: First Video Slot
• 2005: In over 50 countries
• 2008: Davinci Diamonds released
• 2009: Milestone - 200 games
• 2010: Noah's Ark awarded Game of the Year
• 2011: Golden Goddess, Black Widow released
• Fastest growing casino on Facebook, Asian casino Shake the Sky, 20 year anniversary, real money games in UK, High 5 Vegas white-label tech, 250th slot released, 300th slot, Jan. 2019 online launch in Sweden

Software and Games

The company offers a variety of software solutions for land-based, social, and online real money casinos. Many of the brick and mortar casino games are optimized for online and mobile play. The social games under their Asian-focused Shake the Sky brand have made major inroads into the Eastern mobile gaming market while the High 5 Casino on Facebook has received over 1 million "likes". Visitors to Shake the Sky can play new H5G games before they are released to real casinos.

Three of the company's most popular land and online games are Golden Goddess, Cats, and Davinci Diamonds. However, with their expanding profile and ever-increasing global footprint, many more of their legacy games and new creations will find a wider audience and broader recognition.

Further titles that many will already be familiar with include Secrets of the Forest, Noah’s Ark, and Black Widow. Each of the games presents not only world-class artwork, animations, and soundtracks, but innovative and addictive feature mechanics. While not all bonus rounds appeal to online players as much as those in a casino environment, most translate perfectly well and remain engaging and exciting.

• Golden Goddess features Super Stacks
• Cats has Split Symbols
• Davinci Diamonds has split symbols and a split boot feature

HTML5 Framework

All of the new releases online through the VAULT are developed and deployed on the HTML5 framework. Superior to the antiquated Flash Player that most online games were formerly accessed by, HTML5 is device agnostic and operates in any orientation on a mobile device with lean fast and efficient execution. The same packets also optimize resolution and display on high definition widescreen desktop monitors.

The quality of their games is one thing. The fact that they rolled out 50 new titles for Vault between April 2018 and April 2019, is simply amazing. Granted, these weren't all new creations, but the conversion rate of time-honored classics along with new game releases is truly impressive by existing industry standards.

The company owns exclusive online marketing rights to nearly 200 games commonly known on land as IGT and Bally Tech titles. Among these games are the well-recognized Thundering Buffalo, Golden Knight, Hoot Loot, Jaguar Princess, Valkyrie Queen, Gypsy, and CHICAGO The Musical.

As of review time, we count over 330 titles. There is some crossover, so the numbers can't simply be added up for a total but we find:

• 333 web and mobile 'fun play' games
• 169 land-based titles
• 78 real money games online
• 48 real money games licensed by the UKGC

The Final Analysis

High 5 Games has been quietly shaping the industry for over two decades with state-of-the-art games that were until recently always released under another manufacturer's brand. While that's not unusual, as can be seen by reading our review of Lightning Box, among others, it is interesting to see them taking such a prominent position in the online casino landscape.

Legal wrangling with IGT and others seems to have come to conclusion and they are taking their content to new places on the still-developing frontier.

We're looking forward to future game rollouts and will bring you reviews of some of their games here, as well as point our readers to where they can play the games for fun or money at real online casinos. H5G is a true pioneer in the industry and we expect them to take their rightful place among the fierce competition in due time.