Aristocrat Rethinks Its Approach to Social Gaming

Aristocrat Leisure Limited has said that it will be making changes to its social gaming business, with the company dropping Plarium Global Limited, part of the company’s portfolio of assets in the social vertical particularly.

New Game Development on Hold in Big Fish Games

As a result of this, Aristocrat is also rebranding Pixel United for Product Madness and the move reflects a reduction in the company’s exposure to this segment in general. The company’s casual and mid-core gaming assets, as an ASX filing referred to these verticals, will now take the back seat.

Another noteworthy takeaway from the filing is that the company will be scaling back the operations of Big Fish Games.

Aristocrat’s priority will be to maintain operational momentum in ever-green content areas, where it has already established a presence but will not progress with any further plans to scale or develop new titles. The ASX statement specified:

“Going forward, Big Fish will be solely focused on the continued, efficient and profitable operation of its evergreen titles, with no new game development and significantly reduced investment in the Big Fish portfolio.”

The resulting Product Madness business will combine results from both the company’s social slots and Product Madness. Aristocrat CEO and managing director Trevor Croker has welcomed the opportunity to see the strategic review of the casual and mid-core gaming business.

Focusing on the Company’s Core Strengths for Renewed Growth

Thanks to this move, the company will now be pursuing renewed growth. “We are deepening management focus and targeting investment behind our core strengths in regulated gaming and gaming-themed content, to unlock new and adjacent opportunities across global markets,” he explained.

Croker said that the company is looking to tap into its core strengths and pursue a strategy that will prove a success in the long run, allowing Aristocrat to leverage its nous and expertise in high-yielding sectors while scaling back less lucrative operations on the face of it.