Japanese startup Playco continues to receive large investments. Now the developers of instant games have been supported by Meta, which has invested $40 million in them at once.
This is reported by Axios. Although Playco declined to comment on the publication’s information, it has already been confirmed by Meta. Nevertheless, almost nothing is known about the deal, except that it occurred in early 2022.
According to Axios journalists, these investments are important for both sides.
First of all, Playco itself benefits from the deal. It is important for the company that its games are presented on as many popular social platforms as possible, and Facebook and other Meta applications are among the most prominent today. Playco has already made games for Facebook, but the current partnership will probably allow it to strengthen its position on the platform.
The company believes that in the future, platforms supporting mobile games will be able to replace mobile stores. In her opinion, it is easier for gamers not to download games from the App Store or Google Play, but to click on a link in social networks and play in the browser.
Axios calls Playco “something like Zynga 2.0.” The creators of the Japanese startup are building ambitious plans and hope that over time the audience of their projects will reach several billion people. Perhaps this will also affect the growth of the Facebook audience. Earlier, Meta reported that in the fourth quarter of 2021, the social network’s DAU fell for the first time in a year – it decreased by 1 million to 1.92 billion people.
Playco opened in 2020. The startup was launched by Justin Waldron, co-founder of Zynga, and Michael Carter, co-founder of Game Closure. Almost immediately after entering the market, the company raised $100 million and reached a valuation of $1 billion. Last October, Playco bought Goodboy Digital, the authors of the PixiJS HTML5 engine, for an unknown amount.