[ indie navi ] gungho online entertainment

Posted 16:56 EST on 06MAR2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » financial reports, gungho online entertainment

In light of the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare’s upcoming revisions of its public pension program (which is conducted once every five years), the Government Pension Investment Fund (the largest of its kind in the world) reported yesterday (March 5th) that it was revising its operation policies. Rumors began to circulate that GungHo was included among the companies which were under consideration for inclusion in the mega-fund.

As a result, GungHo’s share price rose for the second day in a row, peaking near 660 yen per share before finishing the day up 2.9 percent at 645 yen.

News sources: Bloomberg Japan, Social Game Info

Posted 17:39 EST on 04MAR2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » financial reports, gungho online entertainment, puzzle & dragons

March 4th: GungHo’s share price rose by 10 yen on news that Puzzle & Dragons was faring well in Hong Kong and Taiwan after its March 3rd release, bringing P&D worldwide downloads to 25 million.

On March 3rd, GungHo released the Japanese-language version of Puzzle & Dragons to the App Store in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Despite the language barrier, P&D quickly leaped to the top of the downloads and sales charts in both regions.

Downloads

gungho puzzle and dragons app store download rankings ios hong kong and taiwan

Sales

gungho puzzle and dragons app store sales rankings ios hong kong and taiwan

The demand for an Asian release of Puzzle & Dragons is evidenced by the huge number of similar titles released in Asia.

GungHo reports P&D has been downloaded 2 million times in North America and Europe and one million times in South Korea. In Japan, P&D has surpassed 22 million downloads, and remains the undisputed reigning free-to-play app.

News source: Social Game Info [ 1, 2, 3 ]

Posted 17:56 EST on 03FEB2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » financials, gungho online entertainment, princess punt, puzzle & dragons

February 3rd: GungHo Online Entertainment released the figures for its financial year ending in December 2013. Thanks largely to its flagship series Puzzle & Dragons, GungHo achieved remarkable increases in overall sales and operating profits.

At 163 billion yen (USD 1.63B), GungHo’s sales were up 531.5 percent in comparison to FY2012, and at 91.2 billion yen (USD 912M), its operating profits increased 863.1 percent. Gungho’s net profits were 54.7 billion yen (USD 547M), an increase of 567.1 percent.

Earnings by OS

GungHo’s sales through the App store totaled 69.1 billion yen (USD 691M) for the fiscal year ending in December 2013. Sales through Google Play for the same period totaled 81.5 billion yen (USD 820M). Calculated as percentages, 42 percent of GungHo’s profits for the financial year were earned via the App Store, with 50 percent earned through Google Play.

Looking back one year, GungHo took in 9.8 billion yen (USD 98M) and 5.2 billion yen (USD 52M) through the App Store and Google Play, respectively. Making a year-to-year comparison, App Store earnings for the financial year ending in December 2013 were 7 times that of the previous financial year, while Google Play earnings were 15.6 times those of the previous year. In addition to demonstrating GungHo’s remarkable growth through 2013, these figures are also indicative of the turnaround the Android OS is enjoying Japan as it steadily moves toward overtaking Apple’s iOS in terms of market share.

Earnings by market sector

GungHo’s earnings through online software and applications for PCs totaled 6 billion yen (USD 60M), a 25.3 percent decrease from FY2012, which resulted in an operating loss of 800M yen (USD 8M). One reason for the decline in sales is the user base shift away from PCs to smartphones for social networking and applications.

Ironically, another reason is a streamlined user experience. For many of its applications, GungHo did away with the need to log in to the application to participate in community message boards and activities. Users only interested in these community elements no longer logged in to the application, resulting in decreased ad revenue and other sales.

In the mobile sector, GungHo’s sales totaled 157.2 billion yen (USD 1.6B), a 772.5 percent increase in comparison to FY2012, with operating profits of 93.4 billion yen (USD 934M) — a remarkable 972.5 percent increase.

Among GungHo’s mobile applications, Princess Punt and Divine Gate established themselves as tent pole titles. Princess Punt is currently at 24th place on the Japan App Store rankings in the games category, and 13th in the Google Play Japan rankings.

However, the majority of GungHo’s earnings came from the Puzzle & Dragons franchise. Sales related to Puzzle and Dragons (including sales from its iOS and Android versions and the Nintendo 3DS version Puzzle & Dragons Z, released on December 12th) totaled 148.5 billion yen (USD 1.5B), an increase of 917.8 percent from the previous fiscal year. This accounts for 91.1 percent of GungHo’s earnings in FY2013.

Quarter-on-quarter comparison

Quarter on quarter, GungHo saw an increase in sales but a small decrease in operating profits. OCT-DEC sales totaled 46.7 billion yen (USD 467M), a 12.4 percent increase from the JUL-SEP quarter, but at 22.7 billion yen operating profits were down 2.8 percent. Net profits for the OCT-DEC quarter were 12.1 billion yen (USD 121M), a 15.8 percent QoQ decrease.

GungHo sales by year and quarter

gungho financials SEP through DEC 2013

GungHo operating profit by year and quarter

gungho financials SEP through DEC 2013

Images source: Social Game Info

GungHo also reported its estimated earnings for the month of January: 16.5 billion yen (USD 165M), a 187.4 percent increase from January 2013.

News and images source: Social Game Info [ 1, 2 ]

Posted 11:59 EST on 03FEB2014 by: tim walker in news » gungho online entertainment, puzzle & dragons

GungHo Online Entertainment president Kazuyoshi Morishita announced that the company is working on some kind of new addition to its popular smartphone title Puzzle & Dragons, with the goal of expanding the game’s popularity even further.

Speaking at a press conference earlier today that focused on the company’s recent financial earnings, Mr. Morishita stated that details on the new game additions, “will be announced this month,” and that users could look forward to, “an experience a bit different from what Puzzle & Dragons has been up till now.”

Puzzle & Dragons Z for the Nintendo 3DS, the most recent addition to the franchise, has already sold over 1.3 million units in Japan in just a month.

News Source: Nikkei

Posted 11:28 EST on 03FEB2014 by: tim walker in news » gungho online entertainment, puzzle & dragons

After the close of trading today in Japan, GungHo Online Entertainment revealed information on their financial performance for the period ending December of 2013, and announced their intention to repurchase outstanding shares of stock.

Total sales for this period hit 163.06 billion yen (approximately $1.63 billion U.S.), 6.3 times their sales for the previous period. Their operating earnings reached 91.23 billion yen (approximately $912 million U.S.), 9.8 times their operating earnings for the previous period, and a 3-billion yen increase from their earlier prediction . Finally, their net earnings reached 54.77 billion yen (approximately $548 million U.S.), 6.7 times the amount they reached during the previous period.

Much of this success can be attributed to their enormously popular smartphone title Puzzle & Dragons, which surpassed 22 million total downloads in Japan last December. Puzzle & Dragons Z, their spin-off title for the Nintendo 3DS has also been doing quite well.

Likely due to their recent success, Gungho also announced that they intend to repurchase up to 4.3 million shares of their outstanding stock (about 0.37% of their total outstanding shares), and are prepared to spend up to 3 billion yen ($30 million U.S.) in order to do so. They are planning to reacquire this stock between March 6th and April 30th.

Gung Ho’s stock is currently valued at 610 yen (approximately $6.10 U.S.) per share.

News Source: niconico news

Posted 11:18 EST on 05DEC2013 by: tim walker in news » android, dokuro, game arts, gungho online entertainment, iOS

GungHo Online Entertainment has released a version of former PlayStation Vita-exclusive puzzle platformer Dokuro for both Android and iOS platforms. The game appears to be available worldwide, and is currently only $0.99 in the U.S.

Originally released for the Vita last year, Dokuro essentially asks, “What if a sympathetic Goomba attempted to save Peach from Bowser in Super Mario Bros.?” As a henchman-turned-hero, your character is tasked with guiding the princess to safety by solving puzzles and clearing obstacles. The game was developed by Game Arts, famous for their work on the Lunar and Grandia RPGs.

Story and image source: Famitsu.com