Category: Mobile Gaming

Shareholder urges company to take the mobile space more seriously

Nintendo may be entering into the mobile games space. The famed developer has said in the past that it has little to no interest in developing an publishing games for mobile devices. These games may be exactly what the company needs to remain relevant with consumers and generate more revenue, however. One of Nintendo’s most prominent shareholders, Seth Fischer, is now urging the developer to set its sights on mobile gaming in order to take advantage of the popularity that exists within that sector.

Mobile gaming continues to be quite lucrative for the game industry as a whole

Mobile games have become one of the most lucrative aspects of the game industry. Consumers are becoming more reliant on their mobile devices, which also means that they are using these devices for the sake of entertainment more regularly. Mobile games have become one of the most popular entertainment sources among consumers with smartphones and tablets. These consumers have also shown that they are willing to spend money on these games regularly. As consumers become more mobile, Nintendo may risk losing its relevance with new and future generations of consumers if it does not accommodate their interests.

Nintendo has an aversion to mobile gaming

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata notes that any short-term gain the company would receive from releasing its franchises on mobile devices would not be worth the development effort. Iwata does acknowledge, however, that Nintendo’s most beloved franchises do not need to be brought over to mobile devices. Instead, the developer could produce new titles that would be ideal for mobile devices while retaining the pedigree of its longstanding franchises.

Company may lose relevance with consumers as they become more mobile

Mobile games have become a popular pastime throughout the world. In Japan, consumers are spending hours upon hours playing these games and many are spending large sums of money on these games as well. If Nintendo continues to ignore the mobile space, the developer may end up facing an uncertain future, especially as its competitors begin to become more involved in the mobile world.

The company behind the wildly popular and addictive mobile apps is seeking to raise $500 million.

The mobile app development company behind Candy Crush Saga, King, has made technology news headlines as it is to raise at least $500 million in an initial public offering.

The British computer games company has said that its most popular mobile app generated 78 percent of its Q4 revenues.

This, and a number of other statistics were also released in this latest mobile technology news, including that approximately 93 million people play the Candy Crush Saga app every day. This, according to the documents that King filed with the United States SEC. That application is, by far, its biggest hit and its popularity continues to grow.

The technology news continued as the company revealed that the game brought in $1.9 billion last year.

According to King, this is a massive increase over the tremendous earnings it was already generating through the Candy Crush Saga in 2011, which were “only” $64 million. All of these figures were included in the pre-IPO documents submitted by the company.

At the same time, though, King still found itself in a pre-tax loss of $698,000 in 2011. The company managed to turn that around quite dramatically in 2013, showing a $714.3 million profit. The company is registered in Ireland and has its headquarters in London, but has filed to float under the ticker “King”, on the Nasdaq stock exchange in the United States.

Now the company must face its next challenge, which will be to win over investors and build their confidence after the mobile gaming sector has performed quite poorly and unexpectedly in the past. Many will surely be worried that they will only find themselves burned once again by the hype of this technology news and the opportunity that King appears to be presenting.

The first case that typically comes to mind was that of Farmville on Facebook. It was created by the mobile app development company, Zynga, a major competitor of King. It drew a tremendous user base and created a great deal of excitement before its 2011 floatation, after which it rapidly plummeted to about one third of its IPO price, as the company scrambled to try to come up with another equivalent success.