Building franchises: the strategic power of the Piggy Prizes™ series

Building franchises: the strategic power of the Piggy Prizes™ series

Richard Ganster, Director of Games Strategy and Games Portfolio Management

In a market saturated with content, the instinct is often to innovate loudly and chase new formats and new mechanics. At Greentube, we take a different view. The titles that achieve lasting commercial success are rarely those that reinvent themselves with every release. They are the ones built on a foundation strong enough to evolve from and with a deep respect for why players connected with them in the first place.

That philosophy is at the heart of how we approach game families. Franchises are not a byproduct of success at Greentube; they are a deliberate strategic commitment. Every series we build is shaped by a clear understanding of what drives player loyalty, what operators need from their lobbies, and what makes a mechanic worth returning to. Done well, a franchise delivers something no standalone title can.

No series in our portfolio illustrates this more clearly than Piggy Prizes™.

What began as coin-collect gameplay built around exploding piggy banks has grown into one of our most commercially significant franchises, one that has expanded across multiple titles, themes and markets while retaining the core DNA that made it resonate. The centre-reel wild mechanic, the piggy banks building toward a pop, and the cascade into Free Games are the elements players return for. Our job, with every new instalment, is to honour that familiarity while giving them a genuine reason to come back.

Piggy Prizes™: Wish of Riches™ introduced a genie character to the format, bringing Magic Spin and Magic Rewind modifiers that added a new layer of unpredictability to the familiar piggy bank fill system. Piggy Prizes™ Wand of Riches 2™ then elevated the sequel formula further still, with Magic Rewinds, Super Free Games, and Bonus Buy functionality layered over the mechanics players already trusted, delivering multiple dimensions of anticipation and win potential.

The performance figures speak to the strength of the approach. Since launch, Piggy Prizes™ Wand of Riches 2™ has attracted nearly 1.7 million players worldwide, generated over 628 million rounds played, and is live across more than 348 operator sites globally. These reflect sustained engagement built on a mechanic players know, trust, and keep returning to. More recently, Piggy Prizes™ Jingle Jackpots™ extended the family into a festive setting, and Piggy Prizes™ Railroad Rumble took the franchise on a high-energy journey across the frontier rails, complete with roaring locomotives, gold-laden trains and rugged Western styling. It’s the same trusted coin-collect base game, reimagined through distinct thematic lenses to maximise local appeal, and further evidence that the Piggy Prizes™ franchise is not simply growing in volume, but growing with purpose.

Each release is approached as an opportunity to refine and expand, not to replace. The creative brief is always to ask what genuine new depth we can add. Knowing what not to change too is harder than it sounds, and it is what separates a franchise that compounds in value from a series of sequels that dilute it.

The commercial case for this approach is equally clear. Operators working with an established Piggy Prizes™ title know what to expect - proven performance metrics, identifiable branding, and a player base already primed to engage. That trust translates into lobby placement and longer lifecycle performance, better than any new IP can match at launch. 

Building game families requires restraint as much as creativity and a long-term view of player value over short-term novelty. But in a market where retention is everything, it is the most durable competitive advantage we have.