Pragmatic’s Dice City: Faster, Fairer, and Better?

Pragmatic Play’s upcoming live game show, Dice City, brings back the dice board format first seen in Boom City—but this time, it’s being pitched as leaner, cleaner, and better-paced. While much of the layout looks familiar, the structure and bonus logic appear reworked to offer faster access to features, more consistent pacing, and less of the friction that weighed down its predecessor.

The core idea remains: two dice determine the outcome on a 6x6-style betting grid. But with simplified mechanics and clearer resolutions, Dice City looks like a more focused take on the original concept. It's scheduled for wide release across Pragmatic casinos on Thursday, July 10th.

A Simpler Setup

Based on early materials, the game board features 24 betting spots: 16 number tiles, 3 bonus tiles, 3 PowerUps, and 2 busts. Numbered spots pay between 2x and 5x, sometimes boosted up to 10x with random multipliers. PowerUps return too, but they now seem to act as instant-value modifiers—upgrading the values of adjacent tiles when hit.

It’s a shift away from the drawn-out PowerUp chains and stat mechanics seen in Boom City, aiming instead for quicker outcomes and a more session-friendly rhythm.

Bonus Rounds

Players who land a winning bet on one of the bonus tiles can trigger a side feature. Each of the three bonus rounds is designed to offer different pacing and payout profiles.

• Dice Battle – Pick red or blue. The higher roll claims the full multiplier (up to 1,000x); the other still gets a partial return.
• Lucky Drop – Choose a number. Every time it rolls in, you climb a multiplier ladder that can reach 5,000x.
• Boom or Bust – Navigate through levels with rising multipliers. Avoid bust tiles and you could reach the game’s 10,000x maximum payout.

It’s hard to judge flow without playing, but on paper, these bonus modes appear more streamlined than their counterparts in Boom City, with fewer interruptions and more direct connections between input and outcome.

A More Focused Direction Than Boom City

Dice City clearly builds on Boom City’s foundation—same betting layout, same dice mechanics, same visual theme. But the gameplay philosophy seems notably different.

While the top win is now 10,000x instead of 20,000x, the core elements have been rebalanced for clarity. Bonus features are triggered through straightforward bets. PowerUps are integrated passively into the board instead of branching into additional mechanics. Bust tiles remain, but their role appears more defined.

Assuming these changes work as intended, the experience should feel tighter and more approachable.

Where It Fits in the Dice Game Lineup

Dice-based live games have carved out their own category. Lightning Dice keeps things bare-bones. Marble Race leans heavily into visuals and unpredictability. Lightning Bac Bo introduced big multipliers but came with an RTP trade-off.

Dice City seems to fall somewhere in the middle. It’s structured, relatively fast, and features enough variety to stand out—at least on paper. It doesn’t try to overstate its randomness or dress it up as strategy, which might be part of its appeal.

Final Thoughts

Dice City marks Pragmatic Play’s only foray into live dice game shows—and it looks like a considered attempt to get it right. The pacing appears sharper, the bonuses more direct, and the grid mechanics cleaner than those in Boom City. It doesn’t come across as a spectacle-first release, but rather one designed to hold up in real play sessions.

Whether players take to it remains to be seen, but for now, Dice City stands out as Pragmatic’s most disciplined effort in this space.