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And we shall see what comes of it... won't we?
This article refers to the main setting of the game, which is the Playtime Co. factory. There is a possibility it will be protected, unless there is more information to come. |
| “ | What's the time? Playtime! | ” |
| — Playtime Co.'s slogan. | ||
The Playtime Company is the overarching setting and antagonistic organization of the independent horror video game Poppy Playtime, as well as its prequel PROJECT: PLAYTIME.
Shortened and advertised as Playtime Co., it was an American toy manufacturing company founded in 1930 by the late Elliot Ludwig. Despite a family death in the 1960s that pushed him down to his lowest, Ludwig continued to grow Playtime Co., hiring people such as Eddie M. N. Ritterman, as Head of Research, Leith Pierre, as Head of Innovation, Jimmy Roth, as Chief Marketing Officer, and many others. The company and its toys had reached renowned status by the 1950s, and it stayed an astounding empire until, by the 1990s, it began to slowly decline. The catalyst of the company's downfall was an incident that occurred on August 8, 1995 that led to the disappearance of countless employees, orphans, and tourists at Playtime Co.'s toy factory. This led to the permanent closure of the factory. In the following years through the early 2000s, the company was eventually forgotten by the public as the doors of the entrance of the factory are left unattended by the authorities, until the eventual return of an unnamed ex-employee, referred to simply as The Player in 2005.
Information[]
The Playtime Co. factory is the main setting of the following released chapters, set in an unspecified location in the Midwestern United States. It was established in 1930, with the intent to entertain children across the globe, becoming the most famous and well-known toy manufacturing company of its time.
After years of creating new toys, many toys became popular. Out of all the toys ever created by Playtime Co., Huggy Wuggy, created in 1984, was the most popular and memorable toy. During an unknown time, Playtime Co. offered factory tour guides for $2.99 per visitor, speculated to be around the time Poppy gained popularity as both her commercial and the tour guide commercial were put into one VHS tape.
Out of the public's eye, Playtime Co. experimented with their toys, eventually trying to revive a dead rat with poppy flowers. While the experiment failed, Elliot Ludwig or Harley Sawyer thought that something larger than a rat would yield better results. These results later helped found the Bigger Bodies Initiative. Revealed within multiple documents, the orphans that Playtime Co. adopted would be biologically turned into the toys. Marie Payne, for example, is Mommy Long Legs. Poppy Playtime was created using the parts of Elliot Ludwig's daughter, and she was the presumed family member whose death pushed him to his lowest.
After the implementation of the Bigger Bodies Initiative, Playtime Co. utilized the toys to their advantage by making them fulfill various jobs, such as Huggy Wuggy who functioned as the factory's security, and Mommy Long Legs who helped manage the kids in the Game Station. This helped Playtime Co. increase its workforce efficiency without needing human workers who required payment, breaks, and would complain.
Although Playtime Co. is based in the United States, the company is shown to be international, as in Chapter 2, there is a box with Russian letters on it shown. In RESTRICTED relocation 08-08-1995.mp4, German and Russian letters are shown telling the viewer to stop watching the video. These two appearances of different languages could mean that Playtime Co. owns facilities in other countries and/or international companies supply Playtime Co. (especially from Russia and Germany). Additionally, Playtime Co. seems to hire people from different countries; Marcas Brickley is presumably from Ireland, Harley Sawyer and Eddie M.N. Ritterman are presumably from England, and Stella Greyber is presumably from the Netherlands.
While on the surface, Playtime Co. was a highly successful corporation that created toys and happiness for children across the world, in each chapter and the ARG, it is shown that Playtime Co. was, in reality, the complete opposite of its external reputation. Filled to the brim with internal issues, the company consistently treated its employees and workers horribly, constantly supervising their working and even forbading employees from fraternizing unless necessary. It is implied the company paid little regard to the factory's infrastructure, seen not only in game (the huge open space leading to Poppy's Room just has railings to walk on) but also in the intro of Chapter 4, where Jack Ayers' accident in the dough machine is implied to be as a result of faulty railing; something that could have easily been fixed. There are many more issues that are detailed below:
As mentioned by Harley Sawyer in the Warden Office 8/8/1995 tape, one major issue that Playtime Co. suffered was personal agenda of the executives; ironically, Sawyer is the most obvious example of this, as after using the Bigger Bodies Initiative to ensure more profits and save on labour costs, he strayed far from the project's original goal and seemingly used it as an excuse to experiment with immortality. Additionally, Leith Pierre is also implied to have only invested in the initiative for financial reasons as opposed to its actual goals, as Sawyer noted that his successful creation of the Bigger Bodies Boxy Boo would appease "Leith and his money men". In the same tape, he implies that personal agenda is what helped cause the The Hour of Joy, given that only the most senior executives (the Warden, Eddie, Stella, and Leith) had executive access to the failsafes and security measures.
Playtime Co. was also highly obsessed with maintaining secrecy and confidentiality among its employees to ridiculous levels, to the point where employees were discouraged from talking to one another. The company claimed this would be used to secure the company, which was obviously an excuse to hide the Bigger Bodies Initiative. P.W. claims in the Orientation Notebook that he was forced to sign multiple NDA's about Poppy Playtime and had an encounter of an employee who told him the dolls’ technology was simpler than what he assumed but refused to disclose more than that.[2] In page 55 of the notebook, the author wrote that it was forbidden for employees to discuss any events that happened in the factory to anyone. What is worth mentioning is this line; "If you thought you saw something odd or disturbing ... it's important to remember that no, you didn't."
Playtime Co. was additionally not above murdering its employees and workers in order to hide their secrets or if they were liabilities, as seen with Rowan Stoll. At some point, he knew about the secrets of Playtime Co., which was revealed to them. They had Rowan's car sabotaged, causing him to nearly die as a result, and then after that, he was eaten alive by Boxy Boo; the latter was Playtime Co'.s prime method of murdering employees. Such a case was also theorized for Marcas Brickley's fate. Most cruel is that Playtime Co. has no qualms in killing innocent bystanders if they deem it necessary; in the Incident Aftermath tape, Stella's distraught blabbering of "Those poor... poor people." and Leith's response to this implies witnesses to the Theater Incident were all killed off to keep it a secret.
Even without considering Playtime Co's willingness to kill people, workers and employees who are otherwise incompetent or only somewhat of a threat are unusually punished with harsh measures; Rowan Stoll's pension was halted and he was written up constantly before he was killed by Boxy Boo, Rich was demoted from his previous post and moved to work in the Rejected Room due to his numerous complaints of the company (although he made it back up to become a Shipping Manager), and Patty Hall was sent to "Storage B" for sabotaging equipment, where it is likely she was "silenced" there.
Mascot Timeline[]
The following toys were also created at an unknown date:
- Allister Gator
- Baba Chops
- Baby Long Legs
- Barrel o' Huggys
- Barry
- Bucky
- Bunzo Bunny
- Candy Cat
- Cat-Bee (between the 80s and 90s)[3]
- Cosmos
- Daddy Long Legs
- Daisy (marionette)
- Doey the Doughman (figure)
- Icky Licky
- Kick-me-Paul
- Love Bug
- Love Dog
- Maggie Mako
- Mini Huggies
- Miss Delight
- Orange Robot Toy
- Owen the Oven
- Pet Stone
- Petite Pooch
- Pianosaurus
- PJ Pug-a-Pillar
- Poe
- Rabie Baby
- Rose
- Shoppy
- Simon Smoke
- Sir Poops-A-Lot
- Sunni Buddi
- Surprise Hare
- Touille
- Wuggies
- Yarnaby
Trivia[]
- Since the factory closed on August 8, 1995, this means the events of Poppy Playtime occurred in 2005, since the factory closed down 10 years ago as said in the "Find the Flower" note.
- Playtime Co.'s heyday (most successful day) was May 5, 1992.
- Almost all of Playtime Co.'s main toy mascots have some human-like abilities or personalities.
- The font of the Playtime Co. logo is the Ubuntu-Title font.
- The factory is located near a forest, as the map and video footage in RESTRICTED disappearance 06-18-1992.mp4 shows various trees, as well as footage of a deer (a common forest animal).
- Additionally, in Chapter 3, when The Player is knocked out by CatNap, a memory of the Playtime Co. factory is shown with multiple trees near the road to the factory.
- The company's name is presumably named after Playmates Toys, a company that makes Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys.
- A poster about Playtime Co.'s Foster and Adoption Care initiative mentions their intent to help orphaned children in the Midwest, suggesting the Playtime Co. factory is located in the Midwestern states. Two states are possible candidates:
- The factory is based in Indiana. This assumption relies on the time in the Chapter 3 trailer, seemingly connected to Indiana's time.
- The factory is based in Illinois (also a Midwestern state) instead of Indiana. In Chapter 3 of the game, there's a train station where the timetables display the names "Rock Island, Y&MV, and ICRR." These are the abbreviations for real railroad companies: the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad, and the Illinois Central Railroad, respectively. These three rail lines intersect in a town called Thebes, located in Illinois. Given the significance of these rail connections, it's quite likely that the Playtime Co. factory is situated in Thebes.
- Thebes also has lots of trees and vegetation, and when noting the map of Playtime Co. (full of forests and trees), this could support this.
- Some found it rather bizarre that The Player managed to open the front door and get into the factory and wasn't arrested by the police for sneaking in and trespassing an abandoned and condemned factory.
- It's likely the "security measures" within the building were enough to ward off trespassers and "remove" them if they went any further in.
Gallery[]
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| Companies | |
|---|---|
| Fictional | Playtime Co. • Warrenbach Construction • WLE 4 |
| Game Studios | Mob Entertainment • Kevuru Games • Pingle Game Studio • Glowstick Entertainment • Jazwares Game Studio |
| Other | ZAMination • Scholastic • Legendary Entertainment • Studio71 |