Animal Crossing sales allowed DeNA to earn $222 million for the quarter
On February 8, Japanese game developer and publisher DeNA announced its financial results for October-December last year. The company earned more money in the quarter than in the same period a year earlier. The growth happened, among other things, thanks to the release of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.
A meditative game about setting up a camp in the forest and friendship with animals is the third project developed within the framework of cooperation between DeNA and Nintendo. And at the moment the least successful at the start of sales.
The turn-based role-playing tactic Fire Emblem Heroes, which was released in February 2017, earned $33 million in the first nine days. Platformer about a mustachioed plumber Super Mario Run, which appeared in stores in December 2016 — $ 24 million. As for Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, which was released in October 2017, she managed to earn only $10 million in her debut nine days.
However, today in the native Japanese market, the commercial performance of the novelty is comparable to the Fire Emblem and significantly surpasses Super Mario. The project is consistently in the top fifty highest-grossing games in Japan both in the App Store and on Google Play.
But DeNA’s expectations of the performance of the game at the end of the quarter were higher and they were not justified. The company received a slight increase in gaming segment revenue, which amounted to 2% year-on-year. With increased marketing costs during the Christmas season and increased depreciation costs associated with an increase in the company’s portfolio, it led to a 7% drop in profit.
In total, the company earned $222 million from the games in the third quarter. The profit amounted to $53.2 million.
In the fourth fiscal quarter, which will end for DeNA on March 31, revenue and profit may be significantly higher. By the end of the fiscal year, the Japanese company plans to launch a fourth joint project with Nintendo — Mario Kart Tour.
Cooperation with Nintendo and the success of joint titles are critically important today for the survival of DeNA, which is steadily losing revenue from its previously core business — browser—based mobile games.
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