Puzzle & Dragons is sitting on a hoard of gold.
Ever wondered why developers seem to be flocking to the mobile market like them hills be full of gold? Well it’s because them hills actually are full of gold. Puzzle & Dragons, a match-three puzzler from GungHo Online Entertainment, is supposedly bringing in around 6 billion yen ($64 million) a month.
According to details taken from the publisher’s most-recent financial report – as translated by industry consultant, Serkan Toto – the game’s 8 million registered players have been driving the company’s significant growth. In the 2012 fiscal year, GungHo saw its sales grow by 168.8 percent and its profits by a whopping 690.1 percent.
So, what’s Puzzle & Dragons? It’s essentially what you’d get if you tried to cross breed Pokemon and Bejewled. The game is, of course, free-to-play. The microtransaction hook comes in the form of Magic Stones, which restore health, unlock new monsters and allow you to restart failed dungeons. GungHo has been selling a lot of Magic Stones.
The game was released in Japan last February, with an English version making it to the U.S. and Europe in November.
GungHo’s growth shows no sign of stopping. According to the listed financial details for January of this year, sales have hit 9.5 billion yen, a 1022.4 percent increase year-over-year. Some of that cash went towards the acquisition of No More Heroes and Lollipop Chainsaw developer, Grasshopper Manufacture.
Source: Gamasutra
Published: Feb 19, 2013 09:58 pm