A new report from Data.ai says that mobile consumer game spending hit $107 billion in 2023.
22.12.2023 - 01:43 / tech.hindustantimes.com / Strauss Zelnick
Excitement over the upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA 6) is letting publisher Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. deflect investor attention from a big problem: its $12 billion foray into the shrinking mobile-games business.
With just a small presence in the fastest-growing segment of video games — titles played on smartphones — Take-Two splurged last year on Zynga, known originally for Facebook games like FarmVille and Words With Friends. It was the biggest deal ever in video games and boosted revenue from mobile titles to half of Take-Two's $5.3 billion in annual sales.
Unfortunately for Take-Two and longtime Chief Executive Officer Strauss Zelnick, the deal closed just as the mobile-games business was heading into a downturn. With the end of Covid-19 restrictions, consumers who had embraced casual games during the pandemic turned to other diversions. At the same time, Apple Inc. built new privacy features into its software that made it harder for Zynga to attract new players.
“They closed the deal, and the mobile industry spent the next 18 months correcting,” said Doug Creutz, an analyst at Cowen Group who nonetheless recommends buying Take-Two shares because of its other titles, including prospects for GTA VI.
Since the spring of 2022, sales from Zynga's five highest-grossing games have fallen 23%, according to researcher SensorTower. It's part of a broad decline in the $90.4 billion mobile games market that began in 2021 and is expected to let up starting next year, according to researcher NewZoo. Based on Take-Two's own estimates, Zynga will finish this fiscal year with sales down about 5% from 2021.
Zynga's pipeline offers little encouragement. After putting out an average of seven games a year over the last decade, the company released just three titles in 2023. And just two new releases are on the calendar for the next 12 months, according to Take-Two's latest earnings report. That includes a Star Wars smartphone game that's been delayed at least three times.
“Our vision for mobile is to be the largest mobile gaming company in the world, based on market share,” Alan Lewis, a company spokesman, said in an email. Take-Two is investing in new intellectual property and has a growing mobile ad business that, he said, “enables us to monetize nearly all of our players, which is a distinguishing characteristic vs. other mobile companies.”
Take-Two was among the last of the major publishers to scoop up a mobile-games company. The Zynga purchase, financed with cash and stock, provided a stable of proven titles. The goal was to prepare the company for the coming hegemony of mobile gaming.
But after soaring to new highs during the pandemic, mobile-gaming revenue fell by 7% industrywide in 2022,
A new report from Data.ai says that mobile consumer game spending hit $107 billion in 2023.
BGMI guide for 2024: Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) has gained massive popularity among mobile gamers. It has managed to take on the biggest game-making companies in the world successfully in India. Now, it has been a year since its return from the ban imposed on it in the country and over the months has introduced various updates and modes to the game including a new map called Nusa. While many payers like to play ranked matches in Erangel, there are other maps and modes that players can explore to improve their gaming experience. Playing on different gaming modes also helps players learn new gaming tricks to survive any situation in the game. Check out this BGMI guide for 2024 to improve your overall gaming experience.
Kim Kardashian: Hollywood is shutting down in April, after nearly 10 years of A-list fabulousness.
Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, the celebrity’s hit mobile game from Glu Mobile, is shutting down in April, just short of its 10-year anniversary in June. Booting up the free-to-play mobile game now yields a notice announcing that in-app purchases have been turned off in advance of Kim Kardashian: Hollywood’s April 8 shut-off date. A Glu Mobile representative on the Kim Kardashian: Hollywood forum confirmed the game’s been removed from app stores, but it’s still playable until April 8 for people who already have it downloaded.
Long gone are the days when the peak of mobile gaming was Doodle Jump, as fully-fledged experiences can now be had in the palm of your hand — and we have the best to play right now for both iOS and Android.
As 2023 comes to an end, cybercrime has become a critical issue. Insomniac Games, the famed developer of Marvel's Spider-Man and its sequel Spider-Man 2 became the latest victim of a lack recently. Nearly 1.6TB of information including developer builds of the upcoming Marvel's Wolverine, timeline of upcoming games, as well as personal data of employees were put online by hackers. While this hack was shocking, it isn't the only one suffered by a major gaming developer in recent years. Just last year, Rockstar Games was hacked and 90 early development videos of GTA 6 were leaked online. Sometime later, it was concluded that a teen was behind the hack, and now he has been sentenced to life in hospital prison.
Chinese regulators could ban to some of the mobile gacha industry’s most well-known tactics, including login and purchase rewards if a new set of proposals goes through.
The January 2024 reward for completing the Traveler's Log is the Golden Mobile Timepiece! Time is on your side with this month’s signature item—the Golden Mobile Timepiece transmog.
Masimo Corp. Chief Executive Officer Joe Kiani, head of the medical device maker that has put Apple Inc.'s smartwatch on the brink of a US ban, said he'd be open to settling with the company.
Do you want to get the latest gaming industry news straight to your inbox? Sign up for our daily and weekly newsletters here .
I didn't expect this cat-collecting VR game to be one of the most exciting games of 2023 but here I am wishing I had a VR headset to play it.
Battlestate Games announced that the Escape From Tarkov: Arena closed beta is now live, with invites going out for players today… The long-awaited chaotic multiplayer shooter invites are being sent out in waves, so those who have signed up might be able to dive right in.