Playrix
Playrix is an international developer of free-to-play mobile games headquartered in Dublin. [3][4]. The company has offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Dublin, Almaty, Yerevan, Kyiv, Vologda, Voronezh, Ivanovo, Kaliningrad, Petrozavodsk, Kharkiv, Novosibirsk, Novi Sad, Chelyabinsk, Veliky Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, and Minsk.[3] At present, Playrix has over 2,000[5] employees working from its offices or remotely.[6]
Private | |
Industry | Mobile games |
Founded | 2004 Vologda, Russia |
Founder |
|
Headquarters | , |
Number of employees | over 2000 (2018) [2] |
Website | www |
History
The company was founded by Dmitry and Igor Bukhman in 2004 in Vologda, Russia.[6] Playrix originally specialized in developing casual computer games.
Since 2011,[7] the company has been developing free-to-play games for smartphones and tablets.
In 2013 Playrix launched Township, its first free-to-play mobile game in the App Store for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. It later became available on Google Play,[8] the Amazon Appstore,[9] the Mac App Store,[10][11] and the Windows Phone Store.[12] The game is a combination of city-building and farming.
In April 2015, the company announced[13] the launch of its second free-to-play mobile project. Fishdom: Deep Dive,[14] a match-3 puzzle game, was released worldwide in the App Store in August 2015.[15]
In August 2016, Playrix released another[16] match-3 game — Gardenscapes.
In September 2016, the company became the highest grossing mobile game developer in the CIS and Baltic states region according to App Annie.[17] In the second quarter, Playrix ranked in the Top 20 biggest mobile game developers in the world.[18]
In the summer of 2017, the company launched Homescapes — a Gardenscapes spin-off that is also a match-3 game.[19]
In August 2017, the company became the leading mobile game publisher in Europe[20] based on revenue from Google Play and the App Store. In 2018 Playrix became the No. 9 highest grossing game publisher globally on iOS and Android.[21][22]
In April 2019, Igor and Dmitry Bukhman made it onto the Bloomberg billionaire index. Their net worth is $1.4 billion each.[6]
In the fall of 2019, Playrix has launched a new free-to-play game called Wildscapes, also a match-3 game like Homescapes and Gardenscapes.
Games
- Township
- Fishdom
- Gardenscapes
- Homescapes
- Wildscapes
- Manor Matters (Soft Launch)
- Royal Envoy
Awards
- In 2014, Township was named one of the best Mac games of the year according to Apple.[23]
- By the end of 2016, Fishdom was on the Top Trending list according to Google Play.[24]
- In 2016, Gardenscapes was listed as one of the best apps in the Best Games category on iPad Russia in the App Store[25] and in the Most Irresistible category on Google Play.[14]
- In 2016, Gardenscapes was named Game of the Year by Facebook.[26]
- In 2018, Gardenscapes won in the Best Game Management & Live Ops category at the Mobile Games Awards.[27]
Criticism
Playrix has been criticised for its use of deceptive or false advertisements on mobile advertisement platforms such as AdMob.[28] Advertisements for many of their games like Fishdom, Gardenscapes, and Homescapes display gameplay that does not represent the actual gameplay of the product in question.[29][30] For example, Homescapes advertisements represent the gameplay as repairing a home by selecting the correct tool, while in reality, it is a match-3 game.[31]
References
- Владислав Новый, Дмитрий Шестоперов Playrix выросла в рейтингах Коммерсантъ
- Anastasia Karpova Как братья Бухманы построили одну из крупнейших игровых компаний в мире — Playrix — и стали миллиардерами Forbes (Россия)
- "Playrix Games". Playrix. Retrieved 2019-07-12.
- ""В России наши игры в топе. Но бренд не знает почти никто" Два брата из Вологды сделали компанию Playrix и попали в список миллиардеров Bloomberg". meduza.io. Retrieved 2019-07-15.
- "Как братья Бухманы построили одну из крупнейших игровых компаний в мире — Playrix — и стали миллиардерами". www.forbes.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2020-04-01.
- "Russian Gamer Brothers Are the Newest Hidden Billionaires". 2019-07-11. Retrieved 2019-07-12.
- "Company - Playrix". www.playrix.com. Retrieved 2019-07-12.
- "Township - Apps on Google Play". play.google.com. Retrieved 2019-07-12.
- "Township". www.amazon.com. Retrieved 2019-07-12.
- "Township: Farm & City Building". App Store. Retrieved 2019-07-12.
- "Township: Farm & City Building". Mac App Store (in Russian). Retrieved 2019-07-12.
- "Township — Microsoft Store". Microsoft Store (in Russian). Retrieved 2019-07-12.
- "Playrix: "Fishdom: Deep Dive была готова почти 2 года назад"". app2top.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2019-07-15.
- Fishdom: Deep Dive release
- "Fishdom and Gardenscapes have been featured in Apple's and Google's Best of 2016 lists! :)". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2019-07-15.
- "Playrix анонсировала новую три-в-ряд — Gardenscapes". app2top.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2019-07-15.
- "Game of The Year". Facebook. 21 December 2016.
- "Russia, CIS and Baltic Publishers Outpace the Global Gaming Market". App Annie Content. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
- "Gardenscapes developer Playrix soft-launches sequel Homescapes". pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
- Михайлова, Лера (2017-10-13). "Российская Playrix возглавила рейтинг европейских издателей игр по объему доходов в августе 2017 года". vc.ru. Retrieved 2017-10-22.
- "App Annie's Top 52 Publishers of 2018 | App Annie Blog". App Annie Content. Retrieved 2019-07-12.
- "По итогам 2018 года Playrix вошла в десятку самых зарабатывающих мобильных компаний мира". app2top.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2019-07-12.
- "Township for Windows Phone".
- "Fishdom". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2019-07-12.
- Playrix анонсировала новую три-в-ряд - Gardenscapes
- App Store Best of 2016
- Chapple, Craig; Editor, Senior. "First ever Mobile Games Awards winners revealed". pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 2019-07-12.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
- "Playrix false advertising breaks Google Developer Policies. What can be done about it? - Google Play Community". support.google.com. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
- Nelson, Noah (20 March 2019). "Why We're Stuck With Fake Game Ads: They Make Big Bucks". YR Media. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
- "Why Mobile Games Use Fake Ads? One more point". StoreMaven. 24 October 2019.
- "False advertising in mobile games overview". Blog - Apptica. 9 August 2019.
External links
- Official website (in English)
- Official website (in Russian)
- Russian Gamer Brothers Are the Newest Hidden Billionaires (in English)
- «В России наши игры в топе. Но бренд не знает почти никто» Два брата из Вологды сделали компанию Playrix и попали в список миллиардеров Bloomberg. (in Russian)
- По итогам 2018 года Playrix вошла в десятку самых зарабатывающих мобильных компаний мира (in Russian)
- Playrix scores another big match-3 mobile game hit with Homescapes (in English)
- The making of Gardenscapes spin-off Homescapes (in English)
- Official website (in English)