Playtech software has announced that it has secured a licensing deal with Platinum Studios, the entertainment company that owns rights to the Cowboys & Aliens comic book characters. As part of the deal, Playtech will create a slot game based on the popular outlaws.

Playtech is hoping the slot game will follow in the very successful footsteps of its Marvel comic slot games, which include Iron Man I and II and Incredible Hulk I and II. The software company is aiming to launch the Cowboys & Aliens slot game in summer, 2012, and place it on all of the gambling sites it supports.

According to Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, Platinum Studios' CEO and creator of the Cowboys & Aliens comic, gaming is a completely new playing field for the company and the characters, and one he hopes will yield as much success as the Cowboys & Aliens film.

Sara Harari, Head of Content at Playtech, said that it was the movie that made the characters so ideal for slots games. Visually impressive games need recognizable characters. Thanks to the Cowboys & Aliens movie, which features superstar Daniel Craig in a lead role, the characters are exactly that.

The story, created as a graphic novel in 2006, is set in the 19th century. It centers on a rich cattle rancher, a female traveler and an outlaw who suffers from amnesia. The three attempt to save a small town from an alien invasion.