Israel’s one of the biggest mobile game companies, Playtika decided to close its offices in London, Los Angeles, and Montreal, per the news coming from Globes. Playtika will continue operating in Germany, Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, and Romania. The studio in Helsinki (Finland) is being considered and may shut down depending on several conditions.
Earlier in May, the Israeli firm announced that it had over 4,000 employees. Parting ways with nearly 250 employees mean the studio is losing about %6 of its workforce and more may follow. Most of the games being developed by the closed studios —if not all— will be terminated, and other responsibilities will be transferred to main offices in Israel.
A Playtika spokesperson talked to Globes about the layoffs and downsizing saying:
“The company is working to unify parts of its activities. Consequently, development centers in London and Montreal will be closed. The activities of the Seriously studio in Los Angeles will be transferred to Israel and Poland. The studio in Los Angeles will be closed and closing the studio in Helsinki is being considered, out of the belief that there is a large potential for the game that has not yet been realized.”
The spokesperson then added:
“As a leading company in the market, working for growth and profitability, we have chosen Playtika to examine various measures. The company will continue to invest in long-established games and new games while seeking investment opportunities and growth in games.”
The world is slowly recovering from the covid pandemic, and the video games industry has seen some economic fluctuations recently. This alone doesn’t mean much, especially given how the layoffs happen even after when industry giants break financial records left and right.
