Last updated: 6 September 2026
01 / U88 GUIDE
How does PG Soft's portrait-first design change the way its slots play on a phone?
Hold your phone the way you normally hold it and open a typical online slot. One of two things happens. Either the game demands you rotate the screen, or it squeezes five reels into a horizontal strip across the middle with dead space above and below. The symbols shrink, the spin button lands wherever the layout dropped it, and the paytable needs pinching to read.
PG Soft, whose full name is Pocket Games Soft, built a large part of its catalogue the other way round. The reels fill a tall screen, the controls sit within thumb reach at the bottom, and nothing asks you to turn the device. It sounds like a small thing. Play for an hour on a bus and it is not.
The studio operates out of Malta with development work carried out in Asia, which shows in the catalogue: mahjong tiles, fortune themes, qilin and neko motifs sit alongside Aztec temples and spaghetti-western outlaws. The art is animated to a standard that goes well past what the format requires, with character intros and cut-scenes on feature triggers. Whether that is charming or a delay you will want to skip depends entirely on you.
Underneath the animation, though, the maths is fairly consistent across the range, and that consistency is what makes the studio worth learning as a studio rather than as a list of games.
02 / U88 GUIDE
The cascade ladder is the mechanic that defines the catalogue
Most PG Soft slots pay on a ways system rather than fixed lines. Matching symbols pay when they appear on consecutive reels from the left, regardless of which row they land on, which removes payline geometry from the equation entirely. If you have only ever played line-based games, the short version is that position within a reel stops mattering.
The distinctive part comes next. Winning symbols are removed, symbols above drop into the gaps, and fresh ones fall in from the top. If the new arrangement also wins, it cascades again. Attached to that chain is a win multiplier that steps up one rung for each consecutive cascade rather than climbing smoothly. Break the chain and the ladder resets to the bottom.
Free spin rounds usually start that ladder from a higher rung and, in several titles, stop it resetting between spins so it only ever climbs. That single change is what separates a good PG Soft feature from a disappointing one, and it is the reason these games feel flat in the base game and frantic inside the bonus.
The trade is the same one every cascade studio makes. Value is stored in a rare feature and taken out of ordinary spins, which is a design choice rather than a defect. If you would rather have steadier, smaller wins, the calmer studios on the provider index are the better fit.
03 / U88 GUIDE
The Mahjong Ways titles are what this market actually plays
Mahjong Ways put the studio on the map in Southeast Asia. The symbols are mahjong tiles, the pay system is ways-based, and gold tile symbols transform into wilds as the cascades run, which keeps chains alive longer than they otherwise would. The multiplier ladder does the rest.
Mahjong Ways 2 keeps the structure and adjusts the tuning. The tile set differs, the pacing differs, and the free spin round handles the multiplier ladder differently enough that the two games feel like siblings rather than twins. Players tend to have a firm preference for one and struggle to explain it, which is usually a sign that the difference is in the symbol frequency rather than the rules.
The wider catalogue applies the same frame to other themes: fortune animals, prosperity motifs, Aztec temples, outlaw comedies. Once the cascade ladder makes sense, most of the range reads at a glance.
| Aspect | Mahjong Ways | Mahjong Ways 2 | Typical other PG Soft title |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay system | Ways-based | Ways-based | Ways-based, occasionally lines |
| Core mechanic | Cascades with wild transforms | Cascades with wild transforms | Cascades or expanding reels |
| Multiplier behaviour | Ladder climbs per cascade | Ladder climbs per cascade, higher in free spins | Ladder or fixed feature multiplier |
| Orientation | Portrait friendly | Portrait friendly | Portrait on most releases |
| Session feel | Quiet base game, sharp feature | Similar with different pacing | Varies, generally medium to high variance |
04 / U88 GUIDE
Published returns sit mid-range, and only the info panel is authoritative
PG Soft prints a theoretical return figure and, on most titles, a volatility indication inside the game information panel. Across the slot catalogue those return figures land in the mid-90s, which is the ordinary band for modern video slots rather than anything the studio should be praised or criticised for.
Do not take a number from a review site, this one included. Studios sometimes supply the same title in more than one configuration and the operator selects which runs, so the only figure that describes the game in front of you is the one that game prints. It takes a few seconds to check, and what slot RTP actually means is worth reading once so you know why that figure says nothing about your next hour.
Volatility across the range is generally medium to high. That has a practical consequence for stake sizing: the higher the variance, the more spins you need before the feature has a realistic chance of appearing, and the more a large stake shortens your session. Sizing a bankroll against volatility covers the arithmetic.
05 / U88 GUIDE
Try the demo on your own phone before you commit a stake
Searching for a PG Soft demo is one of the most common things players do before depositing, and for this studio it is more useful than usual. The reason is the portrait layout: whether a game feels comfortable depends on your screen size, your thumb and your grip, and no description substitutes for holding it.
What a demo can honestly tell you is how often the feature triggers in ordinary play, how the multiplier ladder behaves, how quickly a balance moves at a given stake, and whether the animated intros charm you or irritate you by the twentieth trigger. What it cannot tell you is whether the game will pay, because a couple of hundred play-money spins is far too small a sample to say anything at all. The demo play guide explains how to run a test that is worth something.
06 / U88 GUIDE
What to check before opening one on U88
PG Soft titles sit in the U88 slots lobby under the studio name, alongside the other providers on the platform. U88 has run since 2020, prices everything in Ringgit, and takes deposits from RM30 through Maybank, CIMB, DuitNow, Touch n Go eWallet and USDT.
Before your first spin, open the info panel and read the return figure and the volatility rating for that specific title. Set your stake from the size of your budget rather than the size of the jackpot on the loading screen, because medium-to-high variance games punish an under-funded stake harder than anything else you can get wrong. And if you are playing through the welcome offer, check the turnover condition on the promotions page rather than assuming a slot session clears it.
Understanding the cascade ladder will not make a PG Soft slot profitable. Nothing does; these are negative-expectation games and the maths is not on your side at any stake. What it will do is stop you sitting through a base game you find dull under the impression that something is wrong with the game, and let you tell quickly whether this studio suits the way you like to play.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
What to remember
- PG Soft designs a large share of its catalogue in portrait orientation, so the reels and controls fit a phone held in one hand.
- The house mechanic is a cascade ladder: each consecutive winning drop steps the multiplier up a rung, and free spins start it higher.
- Games use ways-based pay systems rather than fixed paylines, so matching symbols pay by reel position rather than along a drawn line.
- Mahjong Ways and Mahjong Ways 2 share a structure but differ in symbol mix and pacing, so knowing one makes the other readable.
- Published returns sit in the mid-90s and volatility is typically medium to high, but the in-game info panel is the only reliable source.
- PG Soft supplies demo builds of nearly every title, which is the sensible way to test the portrait layout on your own phone.