Media: Playtika is preparing to close its office in Minsk
February 29 will be the last working day of the Minsk office of Playtika, the portal dev reports.by with reference to sources. He has been working since 2012 and was one of the top 20 largest IT companies in Belarus.
As dev writes.by, the employees announced the imminent closure of the office at a meeting on January 10. The management said that it had made the decision due to legal problems, but it did not specify which ones specifically. Employees assume that the reason could be possible difficulties with transferring money from Israel to Belarus, since earlier the director of the Minsk office said that while there are no problems with money, they will not curtail the activities of the office.
According to sources dev.by Half of the employees from Minsk will be laid off — that's about 150 people. For the remaining players, Playtika will offer three options: relocation, switching to a remote work format and B2B.
In addition, according to dev.by, Playtika is going to lay off some employees in Romania and Poland. How much is unknown. The reduction of staff both in these countries and in Belarus was the result of the company's financial problems and the difficult situation in the IT market.
Recall that in June 2022, Playtika closed offices in Los Angeles, London and Montreal, laying off 250 people as a result. In October of the same year, she closed Seriously, the Helsinki studio that developed Best Fiends. Two months later, Playtika announced plans to lay off 15% of its staff, or approximately 615 employees across the company, and stop supporting three mobile games.
Although by the end of 2022, Playtika's revenues increased (by 1.3% to $2.6 billion), in March 2023, the company decided to suspend the development of new games until it becomes economically feasible. Playtika has not yet reported for 2023, so it is impossible to say exactly how its revenues have changed. But in the first three quarters of 2023, the company earned $1.93 billion compared to $1.98 billion in the first three quarters of 2022.
