An Overview of Iron Dog – Its History, Games & The Future
Ah, at last. In amongst the big brand, international behemoths that seem to increasingly dominate the gaming industry, here we have what appears to be an innovative little start-up company which produces great games and is based in Hove, a provincial town / city in the United Kingdom.
As ever in the gaming industry world though, things are not quite as simple as that. Iron Dog Studios is not in fact an independent outfit, but is instead a brand created by the already established game design company 1 x 2 Network.
The parent company now known as 1 x 2 Network was founded in 2002 under the name Football 1 x 2 Limited. As the title implies, it was originally focused on producing digital football games and built up a solid reputation for designing entertaining if basic games. The simplicity was intentional, because the whole ethos of the firm was based on a love of football rather than a commitment to pixel perfect cutting edge graphics and lifelike match action. The soul of the game was more important than the mechanics of programming.
Since those early days, the company has moved on to other skill based game designs, initially all built for consoles and desktop PCs. Improvements in processing speeds saw the a diversification into 3D gaming design, while the advent of the smartphone era led to an increasing interest in HTML5 technology and mobile gaming. The advent of the smartphone era
It is this commitment to continuous progression which saw the setting up of the Iron Dog brand, which continues to be wholly owned and operated by the 1 x 2 Network, based in Hove. This new subsidiary is dedicated to the design of new slot and table games for the online casino industry.
At the time of writing, the Iron Dog portfolio consists of over a dozen games, with more in the pipeline all the time. Popular slots include titles such as Blood Queen, Cosmic Crystals, Neon Jungle and Rainbow Wilds. They are all well designed, innovative games with a noted commitment to excellent graphics, unlike the cheap and cheerful look of its parent company’s early efforts.
These slot titles have been supplemented by some impressive 3D table games. Baccarat, Blackjack and Roulette have all been produced in this spectacular looking format.
Iron Dog is quickly earning a positive reputation for itself within the gaming industry and their games are already widely available on many of today’s most popular casinos. This increase in availability received a further boost in 2017 with the signing of a licencing and distribution agreement with Microgaming. This arrangement enabled Iron Dog’s games to appear on Microgaming’s popular Quickfire platform, widely used by casinos compatible with the UK market.
Both 1 x 2 Network and its Iron Dog offshoot are licenced and regulated by the UK Gambling Commission. Their games are also compatible with casino licences held in Gibraltar, the Isle of Man and Malta, so they can be regarded as safe to play for players based within the United Kingdom.