Update: Top 10 Mobile Games Publishers WW November '10

Update #1 Nov 24 2010 @ 9:45pm: Based on feedback I've added Capcom to the list & moved Digital Chocolate up in the rankings, while moving Namco down a bit. I've elected to remove Artificial Life because only about 50% of their revenue can be attributed to mobile games. Please... I encourage more feedback in the interest of making this the definitive list.

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• Note that I've added Chinese mobile powerhouse KongZhong to the list... in recent quarters mobile games have become a much more significant portion of the their overall revenue, which is about $145mil over the past 4 quarters.
• Purely from a mobile games perspective, it could be argued that both Artificial Life & Digital Chocolate don't belong on this list, but I'm keeping them here for the time being, while their primary businesses are still mobile games. If current trends persist, Digital Chocolate will quickly evolve into a company that primarily derives revenue from social online gaming (Facebook games).
• Per a previous suggestion from Jon Jordan over at PocketGamer.biz, I'm considering adding Disney/Tapulous to the Top 10... but I'd need some independent confirmation that their combined worldwide mobile games business yields at least 20 something million dollars.
• Overall I'd suggest that the Top 10 are becoming less significant in terms of their contribution to mobile gaming revenue and even in terms of real dollars I've dropped their aggregate revenue to $715mil from $720mil just 3mos ago.

Battle For So. Korea: GAMEVIL vs Com2uS Q3 2010

GAMEVIL

• Q3 sales were led by ZENONIA 3 & Baseball Superstars 2011 in the Korean market
• The company believes it can maintain high profit margins by focusing on franchises & virtual goods sales within games
• Aggressively pushing into smartphones & tablets (but figures not broken out)
• The company is preparing to release its first online social game by the end of the year

Com2uS

• Company didn't have a major title launch in Q3, due to a product delay
• Smartphone revenues (36.8% in quarter) are growing rapidly, but not fast enough to offset rapid decline of feature phone revenues (hmm, where have I heard that before?)
• Homerun Battle 3D continues to be a star, but Slice It is off to a strong start
• Company has reduced royalty costs by focusing more on original IP games

Top 10 Mobile Games Publishers WW August 2010

All numbers are for the most recent 4 quarters for which I have data, at today's exchange rates.

In terms of non-public, guesstimated data, I've moved Chillingo onto this list... due to their boffo performance in the AppStore (see related post)... I'll move them up or down based on community feedback. I've also let Namco slip a bit as the PacMan franchise seems to cooling a bit in the new retail channels. I still have D'Choc hanging on by a thread. Granted, they've rolled a lot of iOS titles, but none appear to be rockstars and their new emphasis on Facebook games is a bit of a tell, right? Do you guys think ngmoco should be on this list? Please, please let me know your thoughts.

Battle For So.Korea: GAMEVIL vs Com2uS Q2 2010

Enterprise Values of 22 Public Mobile Entertainment Companies Aug 2010

Update June '10: Enterprise Values of 21 Public Mobile Entertainment Cos Including Motricity

Updated Enterprise Values of 15 Public Mobile Entertainment Companies

What a difference a week makes. I'm already updating this spreadsheet with some new data. Here are some notable changes:

• Buongiorno posted Q1 2010 earnings
• Velti filed updated earnings with the SEC as part of their bid to go public on the NASDAQ (they're currently listed on LSE)... their numbers are pretty impressive (more on that soon)
• Mandalay Media, parent of Twistbox & AMV, changed its name to NeuMedia, Inc. & announced a notice of default related to a cash balance provision from a key creditor
• ROK Entertainment's stock is down over 50% today (guessing they'll be more news to follow). Btw - did y'all know the biggest shareholder in ROK is the DeJoria family, which controls the Paul Mitchell salon product empire? Always thought the guy in the ads was Paul Mitchell... but that's actually John Paul DeJoria (Mitchell was his founding partner). Anyhoo, probably hasn't been a great investment no matter how you cut & color it

Stories I'm Watching From The Road

I'm traveling on business with a client, so I haven't had a chance to work on a post for the last couple of days. I'll have some new stuff by the end of the week. In the meantime, here are the stories that have caught my attention this week:

• EA Mobile posted another strong quarter ($55mil) & fiscal year ($212mil), reinforcing their revenue leadership position mobile gaming (mocoNews story)
• GAMEVIL continues to be red, red hot & profitable (earnings release). Glu Mobile execs must fantasize about this South Korean game publisher's financial statements
• Nokia continues to obsess over their own structure and re-orgs for the 2nd time in 6mos (Mobile Entertainment story), losing one-time heir apparent Rick Simonson in the process (NY Times story)

Latest Enterprise Values of 15 Public Mobile Entertainment Companies

• Data for Velti & ROK Entertainment should be taken with a grain of salt, since they haven't released financials in recent quarters
• It looks like a couple of these companies should consider giving their cash back to the investors, and calling it a day. Some of them shouldn't be public at all (and are barely going concerns)
• I think the shining stars of this lot are the mobile games publishers Gameloft, GAMEVIL & Com2uS
• I look forward to adding Motricity into the mix, once (if?) they go public
• Let me know your thoughts on this and if there are any other public mobile entertainment companies I should be tracking

Top 10 Mobile Games Publishers WW February 2010

As always, let me know if I'm missing something or if you think I have incorrect data.

S. Korean Publisher GAMEVIL Is Hotter Than Gochujang

Seoul-based mobile games publisher GAMEVIL announced stellar earnings last week and I just gotta say that despite it being an unpopular choice *I called it* when I picked them as the Q4 revenue growth star in my recent poll (assuming no surprises from Artificial Life). Me and the other guy who voted for them are getting some crazy sick prizes, suckas! (a large boba tea and Rain's latest album).

The publicly traded company (063080.KQ) realized $7.95mil in Q4 revenue, which is a 54% gain over Q4 2008 and $4.08mil in net profit, which is 84% growth QonQ. For the full year 2009 their revenue and net were $21.33mil and $10.29mil respectively. In one year these guys have blown right past some original gaming gangstas like Capcom, I-play, THQ & Hands-On... and are gaining fast on their bigger South Korean competitor, Com2uS ($27.75mil 2009 revenue). The prominently placed line in their press release claiming they're “the first mobile game company in Korea to surpass 10 billion KRW in Net Profit” is clearly a dig at their cross-town rival (which had half GAMEVIL's profit). Actually GAMEVIL might be closer in size to Com2uS (as well as D'Choc & Artificial Life) than the numbers let on, because they only include a portion of the earnings from their profitable GAMEVIL USA, Inc. OpCo... which has 5 well received Paid titles (notably Baseball Superstars & ZENONIA) in the US App Store. For the following reasons I think these guys are really well positioned for growth...

• a powerful base in their technologically advanced, game-crazy home market;
• a studio that creates very high-quality, award winning games, conducive to smartphones;
• demonstrated competence in the new OEM app stores and;
• (this is key) lots of experience generating revenue from in-app purchases in Korea... which should give them an advantage as this develops into a significant component of app revenue streams in the West

GAMEVIL has 10 new games in their pipeline this year... which I'll begin to monitor more closely. These guys are hot and one to watch in 2010.

Readers Think EA Mobile Rocked The 4th Quarter

The results of my week long readers poll are in. I asked y'all the hard-hitting question, "Which mobile games publisher will show the strongest Q4 09 over Q4 08 revenue growth?" (and had the 5 public mobile games companies on the above chart as options)... and here's how you voted. Clearly readers believe the #1 mobile games player is firing on all cylinders and is gonna extend its lead over Gameloft (which reported 7% growth yesterday... if we cut them some slack). We'll know a lot more about how good you guys are next week when EA and Glu Mobile report earnings. Check back here for my follow-up. For the record, I voted for GAMEVIL.

Btw... just so you know, EA's fiscal quarters don't match calendar quarters, so the last calendar quarter of the year is their fiscal Q3 2010. This poll assumed calendar Q4 for all companies.

Btw2... if you didn't vote this time, be sure to participate in the next poll starting tomorrow.

Top 10 Games in Android Market October 2009

Clearly, Android Market still represents a pretty nascent business opportunity for mobile game developers/publishers and it's mostly the purview of very small shops... some using (I'll be nice) "borrowed" IP. With a couple of notable exceptions, the bigger players are not yet committing content in any meaningful way. That's bound to change very quickly.

Check out the Mobile Entertainment article today for more insights about games revenues in the Android Market app store.

Enterprise Values of 15 Public Mobile Entertainment Companies

Top 12 Games Samsung Application Store UK Day 1

Mobile Entertainment did a good job of covering the launch of Samsung's Application Store in the UK, France & Italy today. Their story inspired me to create a small spreadsheet with the Top 12 games as a point of comparison to the Top 25 chart I posted for BlackBerry App World the other day. Clearly the title and publisher mix here will evolve as more companies gear up to support this platform... assuming Samsung leverages its substantial install base well enough to make it worth their while. Out the gate the price points seem high when compared with US versions of the App Store and App World, though this maybe attributable to forex & historically higher prices for mobile games in the UK. Also, Handmark is, it would seem, already making the most of its WinMo & S60 aggregation deal with Samsung.

btw -- would it kill these handset OEMs to come up with more original names for their content retail stores? Could you imagine what a vibrant mall you would have if every boutique was named Clothes World, Clothes Store, Clothing Store, etc.?... kudos to Nokia for breaking the mold. Overall, I think these uninspired names are further evidence that most handset manufacturers don't have the right DNA to be good merchants.

Digital Chocolate Set To Announce Groundbreaking Virtual Goods Platform?

D'Choc CEO Trip Hawkins is delivering the keynote to kickoff Engage! Expo in San Jose next week entitled "A New Approach To Virtual Goods." Organizers promise he will "announce and explain a new game service that gives a virtual item 'platform power' across a variety of games, networks and devices." I'm eager to hear the full details... anyone out there going to this conference?

The idea that one could purchase a virtual item (a weapon or an outfit for your avatar) within one game and use it in a host of other games would be unique in mobile and ostensibly compelling for Hawkins' "omni" gamers (casual, social, time constrained) that he believes dominate the mobile games market. Based on the success with this form of monetization on mobile in certain Asian markets, particularly South Korea (enuring to the benefit of publishers like Gamevil), the financial opportunity of such a platform could be substantial. There's been a lot of industry buzz about this in the Europe/Americas... and microtransactions for virtual goods within Apps was one of the most highly touted features of iPhone OS 3.0... but I still haven't seen any groundbreaking implementations outside of Asia. Perhaps that's about to change.

GAMEVIL's First Public Quarter Is A Winner

Earlier today veteran So. Korean mobile games publisher GAMEVIL (est. 2000) reported its Q2 2009 earnings... the company's first report since going public on the KOSDAQ last month. It was a very solid quarter for this quality-focused games creator, driven by titles like Baseball Superstars and HYBRID: Eternal Whisper. The company has effectively leveraged microtransactions as way to grow revenues in its domestic market...and in the US, where the company initially struggled to find firm footing in a carrier-driven world, it is beginning to see meaningful growth on iPhone & Android platforms.

Rev = $4.33mil ^67% from Q2 2008 ^30% Q1 2009

Net = $2.08mil ^214% from Q2 2008 ^55% Q1 2009

btw - According to the blog Volker on Mobile the company was valued at $70mil when it went public on July 21st.

New iTunes Paid App Top 100 Quick Stats

Average Price Top 100 App = $3.16 +7.85% from my Jun 17 survey

Average Days in Store Top 100 App = 99

note: if you remove the outlier $69.99 MobileNavigator App, Avg Price = $2.48 (-15.36% from my Jun 17 survey)

Average Price Top 50 App = $1.95 (-25.86% from my Jun 17 survey)

Average Days in Store Top 50 App = 91

Average Price Top 25 App = $1.47 (not covered in my Jun 17 survey)

Average Days in Store Top 25 App = 76

Average Price Top 10 App = $1.09 (-57.39% from my Jun 17 survey)

Average Days in Store Top 10 App = 47

Clearly price erosion is alive and well on the platform...and it's becoming more acute amongst top performing Apps. As I was running through the numbers I was struck by the fact that there currently isn't one established mobile games publisher with a title in the Top 10! Of this group PopCap has the highest ranked title with "Bejeweled 2" at #14. This motivated me to create a new spreadsheet highlighting how these guys are stacking up in the Top 100 today...

EA Mobile is clearly the most on top of its game (punny) right now vis-a-vis the major publishers on the App Store...with Gameloft & D'Choc in hot pursuit. Glu Mobile = MIA.

More Mobile Mezze Please

• Firemint takes top 2 games titles & I-Play is top publisher in PocketGamer.biz's iPhone Quality Index for Q2 2009.
• Apple posts boffo earnings fueled by the iPhone...which sold 5.2mil units in the quarter. Apple mentions on their earnings call that they are having trouble keeping up with demand for the iPhone 3Gs. In typical style their guidance for the back half of the year was tepid.
• Mobile Streams PLC 1H Revs fall 23% on the same day that Finance Director James Colquhoun announces resignation
• WGWorld.com announces (and I have confirmed) that quality So. Korean mobile game developer/publisher GAMEVIL is going public on the KOSDAQ at the end of July

Mobile Content Mezze Platter

There's a bunch of stuff going on...but no over-riding theme that's struck my fancy yet this week. So, in the meantime here's a list of stories from around the mobile content blogosphere for y'all to snack on...

• Verizon Wireless jumps on the smartphone app store bandwagon (GigaOM)
• Apple now claims 1.5bil App downloads...and implies it's unbeatable (Mobile Entertainment)
• EA creates 99cent iPhone game studio called 8lb Gorilla...which will further hasten price erosion on Apple & every other mobile platform (touchArcade)
• Could Nokia's weakness in the US mean that it may become the GM of handset manufacturers? (Wired)
• GAMEVIL's Baseball Superstars mobile game franchise surpasses 10mil downloads! (Wireless Gaming World)
• With King.com launching on iPhone, does that mean that skill-based game wagering is coming to that platform? (IGN.com)
• It can't be a good sign when heavily-funded UK voice-to-text company SpinVox is trying save costs by paying employees with stock (mocoNews.net)