Playtika Lays Off Over 600 Employees And Closes Three Mobile Games

Playtika has carried out a new round of layoffs, the second one this year. The Israeli mobile publisher is now cutting 15% of its workforce as part of a wider restructuring.

New round of layoffs at Playtika affects 15% of its total workforce

What happened?

As reported by TechCrunchPlaytika has laid off 615 of its 4,100 employees in Europe, Israel and the US.

This is the result of the company’s decision to close three games:

Merge / strategy fighter Merge stories – $850k in lifetime earnings and 987k downloads (via AppMagic);
Farm sim Dice life – $59k in revenue and 111k downloads;
Hidden object title Ghostbuster – $52k in revenue and 399k downloads.

The developer of the first two games on the list is Jelly Button Games, an Israeli mobile studio acquired by Playtika in 2017. Ghost Detective was made by the German developer Wooga which Playtika acquired in 2018.

The company did not specify the reasons behind this decision. However, these titles probably did not live up to the expectations of a publisher known for operating popular social casino games. And these three projects stand out from the pipeline of its core products.

What is known about Playtika’s restructuring?

Playtika CEO Robert Antokol said in an email to staff that the company’s planned restructuring includes rebalancing teams, redeploying talent, closing non-core initiatives and consolidating some of its internal studios (via MobileGamer.biz).

This should help the publisher focus on “strategic high-growth potential new game investments.” Wooga will also be responsible for “evaluating new game concepts.”

“We believe the structure announced today further leverages our core strengths to deliver superior in-game experiences and scale mobile gaming to global franchises in continued growth,” Antokol told TechCrunch.

Earlier this year, Playtika 250 employees laid off, closing development centers in London and Montreal. In October, it also shut down Serious, the Helsinki-based studio behind it Best devils – one of the publisher’s biggest hits, with lifetime earnings of more than $430 million.

It’s also worth noting that Playtika has lost billions in market value since it went public last year. In June 2021, the company debuted on the stock exchange at a valuation of more than $11 billion at a price per share of $27. However, its market capitalization currently stands at $3.1 billion, with a share price of just $8.61.