Playtonic Games SWOT Analysis

The company Playtonic Limited, colloquially referred to as 'Playtonic Games' or simply 'Playtonic', is a relatively new company defined by the SIC number 62011; a "ready-made interactive leisure and entertainment software development". They are based in the United Kingdom, so instead of having a 10-K Form, they have an AR01 Form. This form is not the same as a 10-K, but is treated like an equal; because of this, no viable information was found.
The strengths of Playtonic are owed mostly to their team. A variety of the members of the Playtonic team and those who worked on their flagship game Yooka-Laylee are industry veterans that came from the company Rare Ltd., known for both critically acclaimed and long-time fan-favorite games such as Banjo Kazooie, Golden Eye 007, and Perfect Dark. These members include Gavin Price, Steve Mayles, Jens Restemeier, Steven Hurst, and Grant Kirkhope (Playtonic, 2021). The full list of their full-time team members is available on their website. This veteran team led to another positive for the team, that being the series of awards their games have won and/or been nominated for. The numbers for their two games are a total of six nominations (MCV Staff, 2017) and one award. (Tiga, 2017). The award won was gifted by TIGA, a group that Playtonic is part of. TIGA (The Independent Game Developers' Association) is the equivalent of a video game workers union in the UK. Playtonic's membership with TIGA allows them to contribute towards an impact on legislation to help out the gaming industry.
Playtonic's greatest weakness is its dependency on other gaming companies to properly distribute games. As per their website, the game is officially sold on five main platforms: Nintendo, Xbox, PlayStation, Steam, and Gog. These five, along with Epic Games Store, essentially dominate the gaming industry for distribution of digital copies of video games across the four major consoles: Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC. According to studio director Gavin Price, this causes issues because of the time taken to create various versions of the game to be compatible with each system, and the price cut that these distributors take. For example, Price mentioned that Steam takes 42% of sales. (G. Price, personal communication, February 18, 2021) Playtonic's other weaknesses are part of a double-edged sword, as their strength in doing well relative to being a new company contains its weakness: it's a new company. They were established in 2015, and because they are new means it could be harder and/or take longer to establish relationships with other companies or gain publicity comparable to major companies. Another weakness, which admittedly is being worked on, is having a relatively small company size to work on their in-house games. Playtonic has a full-time staff of 27 workers with an unofficial extra four members (Playtonic, 2021). And while Price says that aspects like communication are made easier by having a small team, there are also the obvious issues of having fewer people to work on projects. For reference, Atari has a team of around 400 employees, SEGA has around 5,349 employees, and Epic "Games" Systems has around 9,000 employees. (Zippia, 2020).
Whether it be due to the nature of the video game industry, the products Playtonic puts out, or the structure of Playtonic themselves, they have a variety of opportunities at hand. There has been a growing interest and growing profit for the gaming industry. According to Newzoo's forecast, in 2020 "console game revenues to $45.2 billion, growing at +6.8% year on year". (Newzoo, 2020) This analysis proved accurate, meaning that a company like Playtonic can seize this increased market size to increase their sales. The types of games they have created are referred to as '3D Platformers' and 'Collect-A-Thons'. This genre, once popular in the 1990s, is seeing a growing resurgence. Within the last five years, the 3D platformer/collectathon genre has grown with both indie games such as Yooka-Laylee and Humble Bundle's A Hat in Time, and decades-old popular game series with new games such as Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, Spyro Reignited Trilogy, and Super Mario Odyssey. These games by other companies have all scored at least 8.0/10.0 by players (Gamespot, 2021). This growing trend means that Playtonic can likely see higher sales should they continue to pursue 3D platformer games. Specific to Playtonic is the growth opportunity they have created for themselves by starting a publishing label known as 'Playtonic Friends' as of February 12, 2021. This allows them to work with other independent studios and help them publish their games, and in return receive a portion of the game's profits.
No company is immune to threats, and Playtonic is subject to ones not only of the industry itself but also politically. The present zeitgeist in the gaming industry is the battle royale, above all other genres. Most noted to the game series Fortnite, battle royale games have grown throughout 2020 as a combined result of increased interest in gaming, the addition of mobile device gameplay, and the 'freemium' nature of these games- in which some of the games are free-to-play but involve an in-game currency that can be received in exchange for real money, and then used to unlock more features of the game. Epic Games' Fortnite has made approximately $15 billion in revenue since the game released in 2017. (Business Apps, 2021). Comparatively, the critically-acclaimed Super Mario Odyssey was released only five months after and has generated a lifetime total of $1.2 billion in revenue (Nintendo, 2021). This poses a threat because the general market of people who play video games will be more inclined towards these battle royale games instead of the types of games Playtonic has made. However, when speaking with Price he mentioned that the genre of battle royale seems interesting to him and that the company plans on branching out towards various genres. These big companies are not the only threat. The same way Playtonic games came fast and hard in such a short timespan, the theoretical ability for others to do so is only becoming easier. The video game industry is becoming increasingly saturated with the ease-of-access to industry standards such as Unity, so long as the profit of the company is under $100K annually (Unity, 2016) or Unreal Engine which offers a model in which the use of the software is free and a 5% royalties fee begins once the lifetime revenue of the product exceeds $1 million (Unreal Engines, 2020). The most significant threat for Playtonic Games is not specific to the gaming industry but rather is specific to their location. Being located in the United Kingdom means that Playtonic Games is subjected to any political and economic impacts of Brexit. The withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union on January 31, 2020 means that any legislation once aiding gaming industries such as the EU providing grants to SMEs (small/medium enterprises) and start-ups aren't accessible anymore. Also, it could more difficult to employ contract workers for games, which is increasingly common in the industry. Citizens of all countries in the EU had relative ease working in non-home countries within the EU, but now working papers, visas, and the like will be much harder to obtain and likely come with a financial cost if a company such as Playtonic wishes to employ workers from the EU as they have in the past. After speaking to Price, he responded that while Brexit posed threats, he and his team were able to overcome them and have been operating smoothly.
Playtonic Games' current standing overall shows the company to be in a good place, with room for growth and a highly skilled in-house team.


References
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https://tiga.org/awards/2017-winners

The Team So Far. (2017, April 15). Playtonic Games. Retrieved February 19, 2021, from https://www.playtonicgames.com/team/

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https://www.mcvuk.com/development-news/develop-awards-2017-the-finalists/

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https://resources.newzoo.com/hubfs/Reports/2020_Free_Global_Games_Market_Report.pdf

Super Mario Odyssey. (2017, October 27). Gamespot. Retrieved February 19, 2021, from https://www.gamespot.com/games/super-mario-odyssey/

Spyro Reignited Trilogy. (2018, November 13). Gamespot. Retrieved February 19, 2021, from https://www.gamespot.com/games/spyro-reignited-trilogy/

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy. (2017, June 30). Gamespot. Retrieved February 19, 2021, from https://www.gamespot.com/games/crash-bandicoot-n-sane-trilogy/

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