Sky and Journey maker Thatgamecompany raises US$160M

GOAL OF THE NEXT GAME IS TO ACHIEVE A THEME PARK STYLE EXPERIENCE

• On the success of Sky, a mobile game that has been downloaded more than 160 million times and it has nearly seven million daily active players, the company has been able to raise a huge funding round from marquee investors TPG and Sequoia
• It is also adding Pixar cofounder Ed Catmull as a principal adviser on creative culture and strategic growth
• The funding will allow Thatgamecompany to grow its development team and organization infrastructure
• The company wants to make content that is emotionally resonating with a much wider group of people, hoping to build a game like a Disney or Pixar movie, where husbands and can play with wives and parents can play with children

  Nexon founder Jung-Ju Kim passes away at 54

FOUNDED NEXON IN 1994 AND LAUNCHED THE WORLD’S FIRST MMORPG

• Jung-Ju “JJ” Kim, the founder of Nexon, passed away at age 54. Nexon announced that he passed away in Hawaii on February 28
• Kim founded Nexon in 1994, and launched the world’s first multiplayer online role-playing game, The Kingdom of the Winds. The company later launched huge hits including MapleStory, KartRider, Mabinogi, and Dungeon & Fighter
• Kim became a billionaire after Nexon went public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2011. That year, the company generated more than $830 million in sales. Nexon now has 45 games
• Kim left the company in 2016. Kim remained a large shareholder as CEO of NXC, which owns 47% of Nexon

Tencent acquires Polish game developer and publisher 1C Entertainment

TENCENT CONTINUES GLOBAL EXPANSION

•   1C Entertainment, the Polish studio behind games like King’s Bounty, announced today it has been acquired by Tencent; Tencent will hold the majority stake in the company, and it plans to rebrand the studios within six months
• 1C Entertainment and any of its subsidiaries with the 1C branding will renamed
• Insight:

1. The main business of 1C Entertainment consists of three subsidiaries, the most important of which is Cenega, which provides distribution of video games worldwide and can be regarded as the predecessor of 1C Entertainment
2. Muve, another subsidiary of 1C Entertainment, is a game distribution store. The company started providing digital game distribution in 2011. Muve also offers tabletop games, children's toys, books, movies and other different sales operations
3. The subsidiary QLOC is a game development company established in 2009 and basically is regarded as an extension of Cenega's localization business. The initial business of QLOC focus was to provide game localization for many big game companies; It is worth mentioning that the company also developed the HD version of "Resident Evil 4" and "Dark Souls: Remastered"
4. 1C Entertainment basically covers multiple services of game development, distribution and localization through its three subsidiaries and related businesses, and the business focus is concentrated in Central Europe
5. 1C Entertainment not only has good game development potential and game localization experience, but also has almost the entire European game distribution market
6. This acquisition is undoubtedly another strengthening of the business capabilities of Level Infinite, an overseas brand of Tencent, and may also become the main focus of Level Infinite's global strategy in the European market

 Tencent acquires minority stake in Canadian studio Offworld Industries

FORCUSED ON FPS DEVELOPMENT

• Squad and Beyond the Wire developer Offworld Industries has received a strategic investment from the megacorp Tencent
• The deal sees Tencent acquire a minority stake in the Vancouver-based studio for an undisclosed sum
• Tencent's general manager of shooting games Gram Xu will join Offworld Industries' board of directors
• The independent Canadian developer -- which was founded in 2014 by a group of experienced modders -- employs 100 employees
• It says it will use the investment to support both existing and in-development titles, and "build upon the live services of its successful FPS titles, manage studio growth, and fuel the development of future titles."
• Tencent's investment is a wonderful validation of both CA studio track record for bringing engaging PC shooters to market and long-term vision for the studio

Sea sheds US$10.4b in market value after Q4 results

THE FIRM HAS SO FAR TRIMMED US$127 B IN MARKET VALUE FROM ITS PEAK IN NOV’21

•  Fourth Quarter 2021 Highlights: Group

1. total GAAP revenue was US$3.2 billion, up 105.7% YoY
2. Total gross profit was US$1.3 billion, up 145.6% YoY

• Digital Entertainment

1. GAAP revenue was US$1.4 billion, up 104.1% YoY
2. Quarterly active users (“QAUs”) reached 654.0 million, an increase of 7.1% YoY
3. Quarterly paying users grew by 5.6% YoY to 77.2 million and represented 11.8% of QAUs for the fourth quarter compared to 12.0% for the same period in 2020
4.  Free fire remained the most downloaded mobile game globally for the fourth quarter and the full year of 2021, according to data.ai3
5. Free Fire also ranked second globally by average monthly active users for all mobile games on Google Play in the fourth quarter and the full year of 2021
6. Free Fire continued to be the highest grossing mobile game in Southeast Asia and Latin America for the fourth quarter and the full year of 2021
7. We are working on multiple prototype games across different stages through both self-development and publishing pipelines. In 2022 and beyond, we expect to expand our portfolio with more games across diverse genres such as multiplayer action, role-playing, sandbox and casual games

• Full Year 2021 Highlights: Group

1. Total GAAP revenue was US$10.0 billion, up 127.5% YoY
2. Total gross profit was US$3.9 billion, up 188.8% YoY

• Digital Entertainment

1. GAAP revenue was US$4.3 billion, up 114.3% year-on-year

•  The decline in market value comes after Sea cut its year-on-year booking guidance for its digital entertainment unit Garena for the first time, citing “unanticipated government actions” in India’ Dragging down the company’s shares in US trading by 13%. Sea’s current market value stands at US$70.6 billion
•  For the full year of 2022, Sea expects bookings for Garena to come in at between US$2.9 billion and US$3.1 billion

Riot Games to expand publishing efforts in APAC

WILL FOCUS ON THE REGIONS WITH STRONG PERFRENCES FOR MOBILE GAMING

• Riot Games has revealed that it plans to expand its publishing operations in the Asia Pacific region (APAC) to include Japan and India
• To support its expansion the company will establish new offices in the Philippines, India, Indonesia and Malaysia, and Thailand. The new studios will operate alongside the firm’s already established offices in Japan and Singapore.
• To spearhead its APAC publishing efforts, Riot has appointed Alex Kraynov as its managing director for APAC. Prior to this, Kraynov served as Riot’s managing director of emerging markets

 Netflix to acquire Next Games

FOR A VALUE OF US$71 M

•  Netflix has entered an agreement to acquire Finnish mobile developer Next Games
• Next Games was founded in 2013 and is the team behind Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales, based on the Netflix show, as well as mixed reality title The Walking Dead: Our World

New Strategy Game 'Rise of Stars' with Space Theme Officially Release

NEW GAME PRODUCT

• New strategy game 'Rise of Stars' with space and starship theme officially release this week, published by Wemade Max Co, for both AOS and IOS devices.
• Players can choose their captain with unique abilities, and 4 types of warships (destroyer, freighter, corvatte and frigate), each type can be upgrade up to tier 10.
• Players can mine crypto (Silthereum) using Warship Carrier to play and to earn

Sensor Tower: The Korean mobile game marker generated US$5.72 billion in revenue in 2021, RPG revenue accounted for over 66% 

REVENUE UP 6.5% YOY

• Despite a slight YoY decrease in downloads in the Korean mobile game market in 2021, revenue still increased by 6.5% to US$5.72 billion
• RPG mobile games remain the highest-grossing game category in the Korean market, accounting for more than 66%
• Among the top 10 bestsellers, 8 games belong to the RPG genre, and each has an annual revenue of more than US$100 million
• A total of 4 products have increased their revenue in the Korean market by more than US$100 million, which are ODIN: Valhalla Rising, Cookie Run: Kingdom, Ninokuni and Lineage W
• In 2021, a total of 33 Chinese mobile games shortlisted in the Top 100 best-selling list in South Korea, with a total revenue of US$980 million, accounting for 22.3% of the total revenue of the Top 100
• 4399 game’s Crasher: Origin, miHoYo’s Genshin Impact and Lilith’s Rise of Kingdoms swept the top 3 best-sellers in Korea

Square Enix to bring Dungeon Siege to The Sandbox 

OPERATE DUNGEON SIEGE LAND FROM VIRTUAL REAL ESTATE PLOT

• Animoca Brands subsidiary The Sandbox has partnered with Square Enix to bring the Dungeon Siege franchise to its mobile metaverse
• The collaboration will consist of a Dungeon Siege Land on Square Enix’s virtual real estate in The Sandbox that will allow players to take part in interactive RPG experiences
• Furthermore, Dungeon Siege voxel characters and items will be available for creators to incorporate into their experiences in The Sandbox
• Earlier this month, Ubisoft similarily revealed that it will be bringing the Rabbids into The Sandbox mobile metaverse through in-game interactive experiences and voxel characters