Talk:Playrix

False advertising

Who agrees with me that Playrix should be sued for creating false gameplay in their adverts? It really pisses me off that they make advert gameplay that is completely different to the actual game. I don't want to play Candy Crush nor complete spelling games in order to restore a home, I want to use those actual items in the adverts. Their adverts are disgusting and abysmal, and I'm not just talking about Playrix, I'm talking about the other games in general, such as Words Story, Matchington Mansion and so many more. What was also shocking, a developer had threatened someone on YouTube who exposed their adverts with legal action. It's them who should be facing it. Someone needs to sue them! Who agrees with me? Let's teach Playrix and those other shoddy games a lesson they shall never forget!--Brainiac Adam (talk) 15:46, 10 June 2019 (UTC)

Not Free

These games are not strictly free. They are free to download, but in order to advance in the game, you need to buy packages of boosters and coins. You could continue to play without them, but it becomes increasingly frustrating. I am also dubious about the way they charge for the packages. When I paid through PayPal, there appeared to be many additional charges that I didn't make. When I switched to a credit card, $1 was added to the amount I authorized. In addition, when I was using PayPal, I never authorized a single payment after the first one. In other words, my log-in was saved and automatically applied.DreamersRose (talk) 19:22, 8 January 2020 (UTC)

April 2021

• In general, I rewrote the whole story to get away from quasi-lists to a meaningful text. Removed all links to affiliated sources and all that is posted in social networks. I removed the Award section — there are no normal sources. In the future, it would be good to reduce the number of Russian-language sources. Some of them are detailed and good, but some of them can most likely be replaced with English-language counterparts. --Hayald (talk) 00:16, 12 April 2021 (UTC)

Previous Games

When I was a child, Playrix used to offer a lot more games, mostly match-3's. 4 Elements, 4 Elements II, Atlantis Quest, Rise of Atlantis, Call of Atlantis, The Path of Hercules, Call of the Ages, Royal Envoy, Royal Envoy 2, Royal Envoy: Campaign for the Crown, Royal Envoy 3, Brickshooter Egypt, Around the World in 80 Days, Fishdom 2, Fishdom: Spooky Splash, Fishdom 3, Gardenscapes: Mansion Makeover, Farmscapes, Barn Yarn... the list goes on. I used to be one of their biggest fans, and I played most of them. But why can't I find them on the App Store, their official website, and most importantly, this page? Do they want to scrub them from history or something? 49.144.204.127 (talk) 08:08, 27 May 2022 (UTC)

Playrix Requested Edits June 2022

I work for Playrix as an employee. There are a number of important details that are out of date or missing from this article about the fourth-largest mobile gaming company in the world. The Wikipedia Help page says I should bring these issues here so that independent editors can decide what to do.[1] I have also reviewed the Conflict of Interest policy and many other policies to help me shape these suggestions.

1. The lead inaccurately describes the company as “Russian-Irish.” While the company was founded in Russia, it moved to Ireland in 2013 and its corporate headquarters are solely in Dublin, Ireland.[2] It has other offices around the world, with an equal number of developers in both Russia and Ukraine, and additional development offices in Belarus, Serbia and two dozen other countries. It is accurate to say the company was founded in Russia and still has an office in Russia. But it is inaccurate and misleading to say the company is “Russian Irish” since this implies the company is legally both Russian and Irish and/or that it has HQ in both countries. It does not. The founders, who still run the company, left Russia in 2016, so the relocation to Dublin is not just a legal fiction.[3]

PROPOSED REPLACEMENT LANGUAGE

Playrix Holding Ltd., also known as Playrix Entertainment and Playrix Games, is a developer of free-to-play mobile games behind titles such as Township, Fishdom, Homescapes, and Gardenscapes. The company was founded in 2004 by Dmitry Bukhman and Igor Bukhman in Vologda, Russia, and moved its headquarters to Dublin, Ireland in 2013.  Done

Here are the relevant excerpt from the May 2022 cover story of Forbes Magazine Billionaires issue story about the co-founders:

Fifteen hundred miles from Kyiv, Playrix’s discreet offices in a business park in Dublin’s suburbs lie nearly deserted while outside the Irish celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Bukhman snaps down the boardroom’s blinds to dim the sun streaming over the craggy Dublin Mountains. “Some of us work on the Russian calendar,” he says with a shrug. Playrix has billed itself as an international company, albeit a mostly Russian-speaking one, since the brothers moved it to safe (and low-tax) Dublin in 2013. The company’s comfortably plush offices now nestle among neighbors like Microsoft Ireland. It’s a world away from Playrix’s origins in the bedroom the Bukhman brothers shared growing up in Vologda, a small Russian city some 300 miles northeast of Moscow. …[The founders] had long yearned to move away from their hometown, but the situation became urgent a decade ago, when Russian police appeared at their office with questions about their finances. Turns out they’d been sold land by someone who didn’t own it. “It’s not even about the money. I lost my belief in the system and the feeling that we could be safe,” Bukhman says. He and Dmitri immigrated to Israel in 2016. The brothers then moved to London in 2020. Like several other Russia-born billionaires, they asked Forbes to be listed as Israeli rather than Russian for the Billionaires rankings. In instances where they had long since relocated, we agreed. …..But years of rapid growth from the remove of Dublin were poor preparation for the current crisis.

Here’s the relevant excerpt from the Sunday Times article from May 2022:

The youngest of the 11 euro billionaires linked to Ireland in today’s UK Rich List are the Russian-born brothers Igor, 40, and Dmitry Bukhman, 36, who founded Playrix, a Dublin-headquartered online gaming company, in 2004 when they were mathematics students in Vologda. Playrix’s most popular mobile phone games include Homescapes and Fishdom. Now Israeli citizens, the London-based Bukhmans have avoided sanctions faced by other wealthy Russian businessmen over the Ukraine war.

2. To the Criticism section, I propose adding a paragraph updating Playrix’s response following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Nearly half of their employees are based in Ukraine, and the company’s challenges and response were widely covered by international media:

Playrix was criticized by some employees after it removed discussion of the February 24, 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine from Slack. During the days following the invasion, the company deleted Slack posts by Ukranian employees about the war. The company shut down Slack channels March 3, 2022 after “outbursts of uncontrolled hatred between employees.” Co-founder Igor Bukhman defended the decision, and told Forbes “The only thing we’re asking of our employees during this crisis is that they keep our few official work channels solely for business communication.”

Hours after the invasion, Playrix put its approximately 1,500 Ukrainian-based staff on paid leave, and in the following days the company provided hotlines to help Ukrainian employees evacuate the country. By February 28th, Playrix gave its 4,000 employees, including the 1,500 in Russia, a bonus equivalent to a month’s salary.

On March 11, 2022, Playrix’s Ukraine-based subsidiary Hit Games donated $500,000 to the Ukrainian Red Cross.  Done

Here are excerpts from the March 2022 issue of Forbes Magazine about the Slack criticism:

Playrix moved its headquarters to Dublin, Ireland, in 2014. But a majority of its employees–about 3,000 of its 4,000 person workforce–are still based in Russia and Ukraine, about 1,500 in each. The company’s offices in Ukraine are in Kyiv and Kharkiv. Playrix’s moderation of its employees’ war-related discussions was first reported on Thursday by Forbes Ukraine, an independent, licensed edition of Forbes. Later that night, Playrix’s founders–the billionaire brothers Igor and Dmitry Bukhman (worth $8.1 billion apiece, according to Forbes’ estimates)—told workers that they’d made the decision to shut down some of the company’s mass channels on Slack. Playrix is in a “very difficult situation,” the brothers wrote, according to a copy of the email obtained by Forbes (and translated from Russian). “We are literally between two fires. It’s difficult for us to make decisions but we must do it.” Igor Bukhman, who moved from Israel to London with his brother two years ago (they hold both Russian and Israeli citizenship), said Playrix purging certain messages from the Slack channels was not political. “We have never censored and will never censor the expressions of opinions or the creation of any channels to discuss these opinions,” Bukhman told Forbes. “The only thing we’re asking of our employees during this crisis is that they keep our few official work channels solely for business communication.” He confirmed that Playrix went on to shutter these channels altogether, a decision he said was caused by increasingly frequent “outbursts of uncontrolled hatred between employees.” “That is why we have temporarily archived several channels and kept open only those intended for communication about work and supporting our colleagues in Ukraine,” Bukhman said.

Here’s the excerpt from the May 2022 cover story of Forbes Magazine Billionaires issue story about the co-founders:

Hours into the invasion the brothers put their Ukrainian staff on paid leave. In the next two days they set up hotlines to help employees evacuate, and 48 hours later paid a bonus equivalent to a month’s salary to their entire 4,000-person workforce, including the 1,500 in Russia. Bukhman says the payment reassured staff about the company’s stability and supported not just Ukrainians on the front lines but Russians hit by the collapse of the ruble.

3. In the second paragraph of the lead, I propose updating information about the number of employees, office locations, and that it’s now the fourth-largest mobile game developer in the world:

DELETE:

As of 2020, more than 2,500 people were employed by Playrix in 25 offices around the world. It is ranked the third-largest mobile game developer in the world in terms of revenue. According to Bloomberg, Playrix was worth approximately $7.8 billion in 2020.

PROPOSED REPLACEMENT LANGUAGE — Preceding unsigned comment added by Interstellar108 (talk • contribs) 15:52, 10 June 2022 (UTC)

Playrix was valued at $8 billion in 2021. As of 2022, Playrix was the fourth-biggest mobile game developer in the world in terms of revenue, and employed 4,000 people across 100 cities, mainly in Eastern Europe, including 1500 in Russia and 1500 in Ukraine.​​  Done

Here’s the excerpt from the May 23, 2021 Sunday Times regarding the valuation:

The wealthiest newcomers linked to Ireland in the UK Rich List, with a 6.4 billion fortune, are the Russian-born Bukhman brothers. Igor, 39, and Dmitry, 36 this month, are the founders of the games developer Playrix, which has its global headquarters at the South County Business Park in Leopardstown, Dublin. The Bukhmans, who live in London, are big winners from the pandemic, during which the number of users for their app-based games, such as Homescapes, Gardenscapes and Fishdom, soared to 180 million a month to give Playrix a valuation of at least 8 billion.

Here is the excerpt from the May 2022 cover story of Forbes Magazine Billionaires issue story about the co-founders:

Playrix boomed during the pandemic, with revenue jumping 53% thanks to savvy marketing that hoovered up players stuck at home. It’s now the world’s fourth-largest mobile gaming company (by revenue) behind China’s Tencent, NetEase and Activision. The net worth of the Bukhman brothers, who together own 96% of the company, has more than doubled since 2020.

And finally, the relevant excerpt from the May 23, 2020 issue of the Financial Times:

In recent years, Playrix has attracted interest from investors and takeover offers from other games publishers. "All the biggest players approached us," said Mr Bukhman. "At some point we realised we didn't really have any reasons to sell. We loved what we were doing. We didn't have any financial constraints because we have always been profitable, very profitable." Some prospective investors balked at Playrix's distributed workforce, which is scattered across more than 100 cities, many of them in eastern Europe. "Now of course, that's changing. It gave us a competitive edge."

4. In the History section, in the seventh paragraph, second sentence, there is a sentence about Playrix investing in Nexters, but it doesn’t say what Nextes is or how much of a stake they have in the company. Is it possible to update and slightly rewrite the sentence to include those details, as they are important to Playrix operations:

In the summer of 2018, Playrix acquired a 43% percent stake in Nexters, one of Europe’s largest video game developers.  Done

5. At the end of the History section, can you please add the following sentence (in chronological order):

As of 2021 the company’s valuation was $8 billion, and it had approximately 180 million monthly average users.  Done

6. At the end of the History section, can you please add the following sentence (in chronological order):

Based on revenue, as of 2022 Playrix was the fourth-largest mobile game developer in the world, earning $2.9 $2.7 billion in 2021.  Done

Thank you. Interstellar108 (talk) 15:47, 10 June 2022 (UTC)

Thank you for disclosing your conflict of interest. I suggest you also add something about the company's past games which I've mentioned in the section above. 49.144.204.127 (talk) 02:31, 11 June 2022 (UTC)

As far as i'm aware, the founders still hold Russian citizenship, so the "Russian-Irish" descriptor in the lead is appropriate. Quetstar (talk) 21:36, 11 June 2022 (UTC)

The Russia descriptor is appropriate because sources (e.g. Reuters) describe it as Russian. If there is a preponderance of sources describing it solely as Irish, then we can change it. The above rationale for describing it as Russian is obviously nonsense, the citizenship held by its founders is utterly irrelevant. 192.76.8.64 (talk) 10:55, 17 June 2022 (UTC)

The citizenship of a CEO or founder doesn’t determine whether a company is American, Chinese or Russian, though it might be mentioned in the article if relevant, as it is here. FYI, Forbes listed the Bukhman brothers as Israeli citizens in the March 5, 2022 Forbes Billionaires list. [4]But that doesn't make the company Israeli. Again, the company has had its headquarters out of Ireland for the past 9 years (since 2013), was founded in Russia, and has operations in Ukraine, Russia and many other countries. Interstellar108 (talk) 16:15, 28 June 2022 (UTC)

I also thank you for your COI disclosure. I reviewed the attached sources, verified the edits, and have implemented most of them with minor changes, listed above. Axem Titanium (talk) 16:35, 30 June 2022 (UTC)

Thank you for your review. I have marked the Request Edit template as answered. Interstellar108 (talk) 13:27, 1 July 2022 (UTC)

References

Russian operations update

I work for Playrix as an employee, and would like to request the following updates regarding the company’s closure of operations in Russia and Belarus. The company announced last week that it would be ceasing operations in those countries due to the ongoing war in Ukraine - this was covered in the gaming-industry press (citations are included below).

1. Can you add the following sentence to the end of the lead:

In October 2022, the company said it was ceasing operations in Russia and Belarus due to the war in Ukraine.

2. In History, can you please add this sentence to the end of the section:

In October 2022, Playrix announced it was closing its offices and development operations in Russia and Belarus due to the war in Ukraine. The company said it would relocate employees living in those countries to other regions.

Thanks.Interstellar108 (talk) 13:27, 24 October 2022 (UTC) Interstellar108 (talk) 13:27, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

Done. This was straightforward to do since the attached sources are reliable. Theknine2 (talk) 14:00, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

References

Russian operations update (criticism)

I work for Playrix as an employee, and would like to request the following updates regarding the company’s closure of operations in Russia and Belarus. The company announced last week that it would be ceasing operations in those countries due to the ongoing war in Ukraine - this was covered in the gaming-industry press (citations are included below).

1. In Criticism, can you please add this sentence to the end of the section:

In October 2022, Playrix announced it was closing its offices and development operations in Russia and Belarus due to the war in Ukraine.

Thanks.Interstellar108 (talk) 12:25, 25 October 2022 (UTC) Interstellar108 (talk) 12:25, 25 October 2022 (UTC)

 Done Atlantic306 (talk) 17:40, 25 October 2022 (UTC)

References