Playtika, an Israeli game studio, has announced the layoff of 610 workers from their Tel Aviv studio and the closing of three of their online gaming titles in a broader restructure that has impacted the giant game studio’s workforce.
This restructuring announcement was accompanied by Playtika’s CEO, Robert Antokol, saying that the game studio was in a better financial position now than ever before, to which he credits the restructuring “that has allowed us to focus on the projects that are core to our mission of making industry-leading (free-to-play) games.”
The company has seen revenue growth of 50% over the last two years, which was a key driving force behind the strategic restructuring of the company. Despite the layoffs, Playtika has added 120 new positions in their studio in the last couple of months.
The restructuring that led to the layoffs and shutdown of titles included a number of initiatives such as decentralizing the game studios, creating development hubs in other parts of the world, and streamlining their production output. This was done in order to maximize the efficiency of their remaining resources and shifts more focus towards their more successful titles.
With the layoffs, Playtika has closed down three of their online gaming titles. These included “Dragon Knights”, “The Tribez”, and “Mafia Wars”. While these titles had dedicated fanbases, they failed to reach the commercial levels that Playtika had in mind. It appears that the game studio is choosing to focus on their larger titles, such as their popular “Wizard of Oz” platformer series.
Overall, though these layoffs and restructuring may have been difficult for some fans of the games affected, it appears that the company is making a move towards more successful projects and increased efficiency. This has no doubt been a challenging move for Playtika, but one that could spell better results for the company in the future.
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