The Japanese publisher of social games said it expects a significant increase in sales in the first quarter of 2012.
DeNA, the company that owns the mobile gaming platform Mobage, said that its sales in the first quarter of this year will amount to almost $ 600 million. This is 35% more than in the first quarter of 2011. Recall, then the company earned $ 440 million. Along with sales, profits have also grown. However, the growth here is more modest – by only 11%, to $ 222 million.
Such a significant increase turned out to be, to put it mildly, unexpected against the background of the ban of the very popular “kompu gacha” mechanism in Japan, whose essence was to sell small items for in-game currency that could be combined into one rare one. Almost all major publishers, including DeNA, made decent money on this mechanic. It was expected that the “kompu gacha” ban would hit the Japanese market in general and its players in particular hard. But in the case of DeNA, this did not happen.
So now, due to the positive results in the first quarter, the company plans to buy back 14 million of its own shares, and is ready to spend about $ 250 million on this.
DeNA was the publisher of about 70 apps for the App Store only. Mobage, owned by DeNA, is known primarily for publishing such successful projects as Rage of Bahamut and Ninja Royale.