Goddess of Victory: Nikke developer Shift Up is worth a projected $2.3 billion in valuation following an application to list 58 million shares last week. 7.25 million of these shares will be listed on the Korean stock exchange in an upcoming public offering at a ₩200 ($0.15) par value per share.
As reported by Game World Observer, the initial public offering will be led by Korea Investment & Securities, NH Investment & Securities, and JP Morgan Securities’ Seoul branch.
Sharing shares
Shift Up’s current biggest investor is fellow gaming giant Tencent, having raised its stake in the company to 24% in October 2023, shortly after Wemade divested from the South Korean game maker. Shift Up co-founder Kim Hyung-tae maintains his position as the company’s largest shareholder, therefore, with 45% of shares under his ownership.
In October Shift Up’s valuation was approximately $1.5 billion, but analysts now expect it to reach $2.3 billion with the company going public.
A rise of $800 million in valuation in under five months is demonstrative of Shift Up’s success with games like Goddess of Victory: Nikke, which celebrated $500 million in revenue by its first anniversary in November. Its successes have continued into 2024 with the title being among the most lucrative gacha games of the year thus far, as is to be expected from a studio landing in our Top 50 Mobile Game Makers list.
The upcoming PS5 RPG Stellar Blade is also raising interest in Shift Up with many Saudi Arabian eyes on the studio at present, according to industry experts.
And further investment in Shift Up is only further indicative of its achievements when considering the industry at large. Investments in and around gaming dropped to a multi-year low in 2023, down by 79% as Web3 and NFTs fumbled, latent growth lost its mojo and speculative projects failed to muster investor confidence.
Even Tencent has pulled back on external investments – down 87% in two years – yet the Chinese conglomerate still bought two million shares in Shift Up. So, at least for the latter, things really are looking up.
