Rise
Company
Documents about Rise
Rise of the Co-Op Games
Cooperative video games have emerged as a dominant force on the Steam platform, significantly overperforming relative to their total volume of releases.
- Cooperative games significantly outperform the market, accounting for 36% of all units sold on Steam in 2023 despite representing only 6% of total releases.
- The average co-op game on Steam sells 40,000 units, which is eight times the 5,000-unit average achieved by non-cooperative titles.
- Market success is highly concentrated, with Palworld alone accounting for nearly half of the 40 million co-op units sold during the first half of 2024.
The Rise and Fall of Swedish Esports Company Stryda
The Stockholm-based esports tournament platform Stryda, formerly known as G-Loot, filed for bankruptcy in December 2023, resulting in the termination of its entire staff.
- Swedish esports company Stryda, a subsidiary of G-Loot Global Esports AB, filed for bankruptcy on December 15, 2023, and laid off its entire staff of approximately 50 employees.
- Despite raising nearly $100 million in total funding since 2016, the company failed to achieve profitability, recording a net loss of over $25 million in 2020 alone.
- Annual revenues for the G-Loot group plummeted from roughly $6 million in 2020 to approximately $0.5 million in 2022, representing a significant decline in business performance.
3Q 2023 Earnings Release: Kakao Games
Kakao Games reported a 14% year-over-year decline in third-quarter revenue, totaling 264.7 billion won, with a modest 2% quarter-over-quarter drop.
- Kakao Games reported a 48% year-over-year decline in operating profit to 22.6 billion won, with operating margins contracting from 14.2% to 8.5%.
- Net income fell 67% year-over-year to 3.7 billion won, driven by valuation losses on financial assets and ongoing losses in non-game business segments.
- Total revenue for 3Q 2023 reached 264.7 billion won, representing a 14% year-over-year decrease and a 2% quarter-over-quarter decline.
What the Rise of Hybrid-Casual Games Means for Advertisers
The mobile gaming industry is witnessing a significant shift as the popularity of traditional hyper-casual games declines, evidenced by a 20% drop in the genre's install share.
- The hyper-casual gaming sector is in decline, evidenced by a 20% drop in install share as market saturation and privacy regulations make user acquisition increasingly difficult.
- Hybrid-casual games, which integrate midcore mechanics into hyper-casual frameworks, have emerged as a successful alternative, reaching over five billion downloads in 2022.
- Hybrid-casual titles like Archero and Stumble Guys sustain higher player retention by adding meta-layers—such as RPG character upgrades or diverse game modes—to simple core mechanics.
Financial Results for the First Half of the Fiscal Year Ending March 2024
Koei Tecmo achieved record-high sales of ¥39.7 billion during the first half of the fiscal year ending March 2024, representing a 14.3% year-on-year increase.
- Koei Tecmo achieved record-high first-half sales of ¥39.7 billion, a 14.3% year-on-year increase driven by Fate/Samurai Remnant and the mobile title Atelier Resleriana.
- Operating profit fell 24.4% to ¥13.8 billion due to rising labor and subcontracting costs, though ordinary profit grew 31.3% to ¥23.2 billion.
- The company is targeting full-year net sales of ¥95 billion, supported by projected growth of 37.9% in the Japanese market and 22.6% in overseas unit sales.
How to Deal With Negative Feedback, a conversation with Sophie Vo of Rise and Play
Managing professional visibility requires a systematic approach to negative feedback, as increased public exposure makes criticism an inevitable component of leadership.
- Leaders must manage negative feedback by first identifying internal emotional triggers to prevent defensive reactions and neutralize hostility through curiosity.
- Professional resilience is built by ensuring leadership alignment with personal values, which prevents the organizational failure often caused by conflicting motivations among founding teams.
- Organizations should proactively invest in external coaching or facilitation to serve as a neutral mirror for team dynamics and surface hidden power structures early.
Panel: The Rise of Real Attribution in PC & Console Gaming.
The PC and console gaming sectors are undergoing a fundamental transformation, moving away from traditional brand-centric marketing toward data-driven performance strategies long utilized in the mobile industry.
- PC and console developers are shifting from brand-centric marketing to mobile-style performance strategies to combat market saturation and declining organic discoverability on platforms like Steam.
- Developers are adopting granular attribution tactics, including IP-based analysis and cross-platform tracking, to accurately forecast lifetime value and optimize return on ad spend.
- The industry is pivoting toward privacy-compliant advertising models, replacing traditional cookie-based tracking with aggregated, anonymized data and contextual targeting.
Checkmate: The Rise of Chess Games on Mobile
The mobile gaming landscape has experienced a significant resurgence in chess-themed titles, driven by increased cultural visibility and the rise of esports.
- Chess.com's mobile app has reached over 120 million players, leveraging a model that combines competitive play with over 500,000 tactical puzzles and subscription-based monetization.
- The auto-battler genre, which emerged from a 2019 Dota 2 mod, has consolidated around Riot’s Teamfight Tactics as the market leader due to its superior depth and item-crafting mechanics.
- Major titles like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Honor of Kings, and Hearthstone have successfully integrated auto-chess side modes to drive engagement and revenue, with one Mobile Legends update featuring an auto-chess mode correlating with a 500% daily revenue increase.
Unofficial Realms: The Rise of Dedicated Game Servers
The rise of dedicated game servers represents a significant evolution in the gaming industry, signaling a shift toward user-driven content and the expansion of the creator economy.
- Dedicated game servers, managed by players rather than publishers, have evolved into a significant creator economy where operators build micro-businesses and bespoke experiences that drive long-term player engagement.
- Major platforms like Roblox and Fortnite demonstrate the scale of this trend, with Roblox reporting over 65 million daily active users (DAU) as of Q2 2023 and Fortnite maintaining monthly active users (MAU) exceeding 235 million.
- Game publishers are increasingly integrating or acquiring successful server-modding ecosystems to capture value, evidenced by Rockstar Games’ acquisition of Cfx.re and Riot Games’ purchase of the Hypixel team.
Top Selling Mobile Games: Algeria (H1 2023)
The mobile gaming market in Algeria demonstrated consistent revenue growth throughout the first half of 2023, driven by a strong appetite for established shooter and strategy titles.
- PUBG Mobile remains the top-grossing mobile game in Algeria, generating over $60,000 in revenue during the first half of 2023.
- The top ten mobile games in Algeria generated a combined revenue of over $167,000 during the first six months of 2023.
- Rise of Kingdom and Age of Origins: Tower Defense were the second and third highest-grossing titles in the first half of 2023, earning $44.5k and $22.3k respectively.
IGG Inc Interim Results Announcement: Six Months Ended 30 June 2023
IGG Inc. navigated a transitional period during the first half of 2023, characterized by a strategic pivot toward new gaming titles and aggressive operational optimization.
- IGG Inc. reported H1 2023 revenue of HK$2.5 billion, a 1% year-over-year increase, as new titles like 'Doomsday: Last Survivors' and 'Viking Rise' offset the decline of 'Lords Mobile'.
- The company recorded a net loss of HK$360 million for the first half of 2023, primarily due to heavy marketing investments, though it returned to profitability by June 2023.
- Operational expenses for research, development, and administration were reduced by 30% through the integration of AIGC technology, maintaining a 72% gross profit margin.
IGG Inc. 2023 Interim Results
IGG Inc.’s 2023 interim results highlight a strategic transition toward product diversification and the rapid expansion of its non-gaming application business.
- IGG Inc. reported H1 2023 revenue of HK$2.499 billion, representing a 1% year-over-year increase and a 19% increase compared to the second half of 2022.
- The company recorded a net loss of HK$360 million in the first half of 2023, primarily driven by aggressive marketing expenditures to scale new titles and the application business.
- Gross profit margins improved to 72%, a 4 percentage point increase over the previous year, due to optimized channel costs and the growth of the application segment.