Newsbrief: Playtika, the Israel-based mobile game developer behind social casino games like Poker Heat and Slotomania, has acquired June’s Journey developer Wooga and its 180 employee-strong team for an undisclosed sum, though some reports say the price was over $100 million.
In a press release, Playtika notes that the acquisition serves to help the company branch out into casual games, a genre Wooga has long made itself comfortable in through narrative-based puzzle and hidden-object titles. Wooga’s current CEO, Jens Bergemann, is slated to stay at the head of the Wooga team following the acquisition.
This isn’t the first time Playtika has looked to studio acquisitions to diversify its own game portfolio. The company purchased another casual games developer, Jelly Button Games Limited, in late 2017. Following the acquisition of Wooga, those ‘casual games’ now make up half of Playtika’s library.