Playtika latest results show decreases in revenue & paying users | Pocket Gamer.biz

Playtika’s latest financials indicate slim decreases in revenue with their main highlight being the new acquisition of the Governor of Pokerfranchise.

The financial report saw a decrease in revenue by 2% down to $642.8 million, while daily paying users decreased by 5.8% down to 307,000. Playtika also saw decreases – albeit relatively minor – in revenue for a number of their titles such as Solitaire Grand Harvest and Slotomania despite their intent previously to focus on growing their existing titles rather than new developments.

The company has previously seen itself bounce back somewhat after previous rocky financials when their stock was upgraded from “underperform” to “neutral” by some analysts.

President and chief financial officer Craig Abrahams commented, “We adapted to the changing mobile gaming environment early on and, as a result, are in a strong position to pursue M&A deals, like Governor of Poker, fortifying the growth profile of our portfolio.

“Our top casual titles showed impressive growth year-over-year and our direct-to-consumer platform generated record revenues with strong sequential and year-over-year growth. We continue to benefit from our close player relationships and LiveOps expertise and remain committed to leveraging our technological solutions and established brands to drive payer conversion.”

Playing up

The acquisition of the Governor of Poker franchise represents an injection of new revenue, representing a lower risk than engaging in new developments. Similarly Playtika had also been looking to acquire Rovio, thus focusing their efforts on growing existing games, even if that means spending cash on acquisitions in the short term rather than long-term spending on development.

However, although it may be a feasible strategy, there may be some who wonder whether this acquisition strategy is wise. Playtika only last week acquired the Youda Games portfolio from Azerion to the tune of $89.1m, and while the company is hardly cash-strapped many will be wondering how long the company can spend their way into growth.