Playside Studios launches the much awaited Toy Warfare sequel

Games developer Playside Studios has released the much-awaited second original IP title, Toy Warfare, to complement the highly popular Animal Warfare title.

Games fans will be pleased to know that leading video games developer, Playside Studios (ASX:PLY), has just launched Toy Warfare, its second title in the Warfare franchise.

The new title is a follow up to its Animal Warfare title, which is the company’s most successful original IP title with over 7.7 million downloads on App and Google app stores since its release in August 2020.

That game currently ranks at number 18 on the US Apple App Store charts within the Strategy genre.

Toy Warfare

Toy Warfare is a mobile auto-battle simulation game, where users collect and merge dozens of cute and cuddly teddy bears. It also features more “aggressive” toys including action figures and remote control cars that are sent into battles to win gold and bragging rights.

The game was built on the company’s development system, WARkit, which can be utilised to develop a number of other titles for the highly popular warfare style of gameplay.

The company said the WARkit system will play an instrumental part in its data driven mobile game development strategy, to drive user retention and monetisation over the course of 2021 and beyond.

Other recent game launches

Along with Toy Warfare, Playside has also recently released two other new casual games – Ideal Area 51 and Garbage Truck 3D.

Ideal Area 51 was released on March 11, and is a mobile casual clicker title. This is a game where the player oversees a secret research facility called Area 51, formed around a UFO crash site. The goal is to maximise the efficiency of the facility by leveraging the available resources within the game.

The title has performed strongly since soft release, reaching the number 10 rank on the US Apple App Store chart in the Strategy genre. An Android version will be also released by the end of this week.

The Garbage Truck 3D game, meanwhile, was launched through the hyper casual “Tap2Jump” brand, a genre consisting of simplistic but highly addictive gameplays. This game was developed in just seven weeks, and reached number 27 on the overall US Apple App Store Top game charts shortly after soft launch in February.

Full steam ahead

Playside has been busy since floating its shares on the ASX in December 2020.

The global release of the games today brings the total original IP titles launched since December to three.

The company has also been busy forging global partnerships. Just last week, it announced a major deal with U S multinational MGM, which will see PLY get licensing rights to develop a mobile game based on two of the studio’s hit films: Legally Blonde and Legally Blonde 2.

On the marketing side, it has recently inked an agreement with Click Management, a multi-channel gaming entertainment outfit that drives more than 700 million pageviews per month through gaming influencers.

In that deal, PlaySide will get exclusive rights to build and develop a new game for PC users, in return for influencers “LazarBeam” and “Fresh” marketing the title.

Strong revenues

In the latest half year financials, Playside reported a 63% growth in sales revenue to $5 million.

Revenue from its Original IP Games reached $2.98m, up $2.2m on the pcp, and mainly driven by its Animal Warfare title.

Playside chairman, Cristiano Nicolli, emphasised the rapid growth phase the company is experiencing, with significant employee hirings in an effort to develop a number of large scale, original IP games.

In 2021, the company has plans to create games for next generation consoles such as the XBox Series-X and PS5.

Its share price has doubled since its $15 million IPO at 20c back in December.

This article was developed in collaboration with Playside Studios, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.