There was no update on Playtika’s proposed M&A activity as part of its Q1 financial results today, but it did confirm a couple more things.
Switchcraft, a recent release from Playtika-owned studio Wooga, has not met expectations, so marketing support has been pulled and the game team is being redeployed within Wooga.
Jelly Button’s new title Merge Stories is set to launch in Q3 this year, and two more unconfirmed Playtika games will enter soft launch by the end of 2022.
And Redecor was singled out as a big opportunity going forward, and a game that will receive significant investment in the next few months.
Playtika Q1 2022 financial highlights in brief:
- Revenues were $676.9m, up 6% YOY
- Casual portfolio grew revenue 20.7% year-over-year, becoming 52.5% of total revenue (versus 47.5% social casino)
- Solitaire Grand Harvest revenue up 41.7% YOY
- June’s Journey revenue up 30.4% YOY
- Caesars Casino revenue up 8.2% YOY
- Playtika anticipates $2.73bn in revenue for the full year 2022
Playtika president and chief financial officer Craig Abrahams explained the Switchcraft decision in the earnings call that followed:
“While we’re proud we developed an innovative game that enjoyed a positive reception from early reviews, ultimately, the KPIs did not meet our internal metrics and the ROI could not achieve our threshold to continue to invest,” he said. “Therefore we made the decision to hold marketing and redeploy the Switchcraft team within Wooga.”
He continued: “We’re going to invest where we see potential to become $100 million franchise or greater. If we don’t see that potential, we will shift resources to better opportunities for growth, which includes other new games and development and core franchise support.”
