Social casino game firm Playtika has launched a new in-house division that will focus on rapidly creating casual games.

The Casual Games Lab will be based in Tel Aviv, Israel, and will look to increase the firm’s game output with multiple new titles a year.

The new studio will house 150 staff, while the games developed will be “analysed and developed” according to market data.

Playtika has been making several moves to expand its casual games division, purchasing Jelly Button Games in October 2017 and Pearl’s Peril developer Wooga in December 2018.

Strategic shift

“This strategic shift will help the company spearhead our growth to meet our goal of becoming the world's largest casual gaming company,” said Playtika CEO and co-founder Robert Antokol.

“In the past two years, Playtika has heavily invested in the world of casual gaming with a series of successful acquisitions, most recently it acquired the Austrian company Supertreat. A few months prior it acquired Berlin-based puzzle and hidden object leader, Wooga, and before that the Tel Aviv-based creative studio Jelly Button.”

Earlier this year, Playtika opened a new R&D office in Bucharest with an initial investment of $6 million.