GungHo sales started to fall

Along with the slowdown in the popularity of Puzzle & Dragons, GungHo sales began to fall. This does not frighten the Japanese company. She has already brought a new hit to the market.

So, according to Serkan Toto, in the third quarter GungHo earned 5% less than three months ago: $424 million. Operating income amounted to $238 million. Last quarter they were 12% more.

The secret of Puzzle & Dragon was that its authors came up with the gameplay for the collectible component of butler (previously it did not exist as such)The drop occurred for the first time since Puzzle & Dragons appeared in Japanese tops a year ago.  

The graph below shows very clearly what the success of one game can lead to. 

The success of the company is directly related to the release of Puzzle & Dragon in 2012Slightly lower is the market capitalization of the company for the last week.

On October 30, the market did not react very positively to the quarterly report of GungHoTo understand the orders: on the 30th, after the fall, it was about $9.3 billion.

Now it is about $7 billion. In May, it was $15 billion. It would seem to be a fall, but in any case, these are fantastic figures, which, judging by the desire to enter the stock exchange, King dreams of.

It is difficult to talk about the root cause of the decline in the company’s revenue and the subsequent collapse on the stock exchange, but at the moment there is a decrease in the growth dynamics of Puzzle & Dragons. The number of daily downloads of the game, starting from April of this year, is falling. However, the game’s revenue continues to grow.

Unlike most butlers, there is no sexual fanservice in Puzzle & Dragons According to Social Game Info sources, there is a certain relationship between Puzzle & Dragons sales and downloads.

And it is clear that, along with a reduction in daily downloads, revenue may fall in the long term. Another thing is that the lack of cash games in the free charts, as a rule, does not prevent them from earning. 

In addition, the decline in growth dynamics in this case indicates, rather than a drop in popularity, but a high level of penetration of the game: 20 million users per 127 million inhabitants of the Land of the Rising Sun – this cannot fail to impress.

Divine Gate FloorsIn any case, GungHo has already prepared a replacement for Puzzle & Dragons – the Divine Gate butler.

The company’s marketers call it a “panel RPG”. Its main difference from other butlers is the combat system. 

Quests in this case are no longer groups of labyrinths, but rows of floors with panels. Under each panel on each floor there is either a bonus or an opponent. 

The game itself resembles a color mangaThe battle, as in other match-3, is step-by-step.

The time limit is 5 seconds. During this time, the player must put together five decks of five cards each from randomly generated elements (fire, earth, water, and so on). Each deck is executed by one or another player’s hero (for example, if the deck is green, then the hero of this color performs it). 

The game has gained more than 1 million downloads in Japan in less than a month. It is not available in other regions yet (and judging by the fact that Puzzle & Dragons is currently released only in the USA and Korea, Divine Gate should not be expected in the European market in the near future). 

The visual and musical style of the game is one-on-one The Worlds End With You from Square Enix, one of the central Nintendo DS titlesThe Divine Gate game video can be found here.

By the way, wanting to popularize the new title, GungHo has already announced that the heroes of the relatively popular anime Steins;Gate will appear in Divine Gate.

Steins;Gate – a short story game based on which a manga was made, and then an anime was filmedA source:

 http://www.serkantoto.com, http://www.siliconera.com, http://www.4gamer.net, http://www.gamebase.com.tw