Hot Five: AI content regulations, Love and Deepspace’s first anniversary, and Monster Hunter series hits 100m unit sales

Start your week right with our quick take on the hottest stories impacting the mobile industry right now.

1) Capcom’s operating income drops 38%, but Monster Hunter series hits 100 million sales

Over the first nine months of its current fiscal year, Capcom’s games catalogue generated approximately $380 million. This marked a 28.1% decline in net sales and a 38.2% decline in operating income for the segment year-on-year.

At the same time, anticipation for the upcoming Monster Hunter Wilds has pushed franchise sales beyond 100 million units, enhancing the “brand value” of Monster Hunter titles.

2) Love and Deepspace celebrates first anniversary and over $400m after record-breaking month

Infold Games’ Love and Deepspace celebrated its first anniversary on January 18th, 2025, with gross lifetime revenue of $446.6 million according to AppMagic data.

After the strongest mobile launch in Infold’s portfolio – even ahead of Infinity Nikki – Love and Deepspace has continued to find ways of monetising its audience, achieving record player spending in December 2024.

3) U.S. Copyright Office rules AI-generated content without human input won’t be protected

AI-generated content without human authorship will not be protected by US copyright, the United States Copyright Office has decided.

This guidance has been issued as part of documentation around the technology and is still in the early phases of a lengthy legal journey. Currently, the level of creativity needed for work to qualify for protection is “extremely low”.

4) Marvel Snap secures new publisher Skystone Games after “surprise” takedown

After Marvel Snap went offline in the crossfire of the US’s temporary TikTok ban, developer Second Dinner has secured Skystone Games as its new US-based publisher.

Previous publisher Nuverse – owned by TikTok parent ByteDance – helped Second Dinner through this process and the new agreement is “already signed”, bringing more responsibilities in-house.

5) Royal Match earned 51% of all match-3 IAP revenue in 2024 as casual genre made $15.2 billion

According to AppMagic’s Casual Games Report 2024, Dream Games’ Royal Match earned 51% of all match-3 revenue in “tier one” Western countries last year. The genre as a whole saw a 13% revenue increase in 2024, but without Royal Match, the genre would have declined by 8% instead.

Meanwhile, Monopoly Go generated 55% of casual casino revenue in 2024.