Playtika has opened a new studio in London focused on casual games development.

The new office is part of the recently announced in-house casual division called Games Lab, which will employ 150 staff. As well as London, the Games Lab also has a studio in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Speaking at Casual Connect Europe today, Playtika UK GM Boaz Levin discussed how the company has ambitions to lead the casual games market, having become a leader in social casino.

To that end, the company has acquired developers such as Jelly Button Games, Wooga and Supertreat.

In Jelly Button's case, Levin said since its acquisition the studio has grown by 25-times.

Fresh mindset

Elaborating on Playtika’s casual games ambitions, Levin said that to tackle a new market, the company needed a mindset change. He explained that while it’s still implementing things that have worked in the past, it's shifting them enough to fit the new products it’s building.

Must of that change revolves around rapid games development. Playtika aims to discuss new game ideas quickly, and then test them within two to three months.

The London studio, for example, had a game in production within two and a half months.

Levin said that changes like this and its expansion into casual meant that the company is completely different to what it was two years ago.

It currently employs 2,500 staff across 16 offices around the world. It has 20 active and in-development games and currently has 27 million monthly active users across its live portfolio.

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