Financials are the bread and butter of any good business publication, as even the most innocuous figures reveal interesting insights into the inner workings of often secretive businesses.
With a whole host of companies, developers and studios dropping their financial reports here’s the list of those players who are showing their hands. From looking East with Capcom and their new mobile title, to Unity’s continued profitability despite layoffs, here’s this quarters big financial recap.
The big news for Capcom is of course the upcoming release of Monster Hunter Now. Their financials reveal that although mobile remains a relatively minor part of their overall business, with console and PC the most lucrative, mobile is a focus of their long term strategy. Capcom wants to make Monster Hunter Now the lynchpin of their mobile strategy in the near future, and in the long-term there’s an increased focus on integration, esports and more.
Ever since the ironSource merger and a host of layoffs, observers have been closely watching Unity. But the company continues to be profitable, and this time around John Riccitiello was happy to offer his thoughts on how AI will contribute to the company’s continued success as a game growth and creation platform – especially with the addition of ad bidding to their LevelPlay solution.
Bandai Namco’s financials didn’t do much to differentiate their broader digital sales from mobile, unfortunately. However, the company remains strong with an 11.3% increase in sales and their network division – comprising mobile games as well as some PC titles – saw $1.4bn in revenue.
The same goes for Yu-Gi-Oh publishers Konami, with an increase of 4.9% in revenue but a fall in profits despite their presence on mobile with games like Yu-Gi-Oh: Master Duel. The company has struggled due to macroeconomic pressures they’ve had difficulty overcoming.
But outside of major companies with only a foothold in mobile there’s success to be found. Slovak studio Pixel Federation has continued to grow despite the pressures of the post-Covid slump. A drop in sales was met with a rise in players on some of their titles like TrainStation 2, and a commitment to maintaining their climate pledges.
Applovin was another company that continued to win big despite wider economic uncertainty. The platform generated $715.4m in revenue in Q1 2023, it continued to make the majority of its money from apps, but the company’s software platform also continued to rise.
Roblox continued its meteoric rise, after mostly sitting in the background it got a huge boost during the Covid pandemic, and is now one of the platforms leading the way in the metaverse concept. Their DAU and revenue was up by 22% as an older and more affluent audience engages with the platform.
Krafton, despite ongoing issues trying to have their Indian version of PUBG reinstated by the country, offered a look at how well their mobile division was doing overall. With record quarterly sales at $407.8m and reports of proactive investments and research into deep learning technologies.
EA however seemed to take their eye off the ball. Despite a rapid 48% growth thanks to the release of FIFA Mobile, slowing only to 1% of growth. Although not a contraction it does seem that EA’s mobile division isn’t sustaining it’s impressive growth.
Square Enix is another company that doesn’t separate up it’s various platforms into mobile and console. However, overall their financials were very healthy with $2.5bn in net sales, and the company has been releasing numerous licenced titles from the blockbuster Final Fantasy franchise to mobile.
All of these financials paint a relatively positive picture for the mobile game industry, as the effects of the post-Covid slump are becomming more distant. However, the quarter has certainly seen some bumps in the road, so hopefully a more affluent investment environment and the on-going new normal can help assure mobile publishers and studios.
