Puzzle & Dragons Developer Pulls Down $3.75m Each Day

[Earnest Cavalli]

Puzzle & Dragons Developer Pulls Down $3.75m Each Day

Forget Angry Birds, the next big thing in gaming is Puzzle & Dragons.

Odds are solid that very few of you have ever heard of GungHo Entertainment. The developer hasn't been around very long, but you should expect to hear lots about the firm in the near future. Why? GungHo is responsible for Puzzle & Dragons, arguably the most popular, lucrative game currently in existence - an impressive feat given that the title is exclusive to mobile operating systems and operates on a free to play business model.

So, just how successful is GungHo's game? According to recent financial reports, the company raked in over $3.75 million dollars every single day over the past month. Further, during the month of April, GungHo pulled in $118 million in revenue, which marks a 1,142 percent increase over the same time period in the prior year.

As for how GungHo stacks up against more familiar names in the gaming industry, I'll simply point out that the developer's market cap currently stands at $15.1 billion - ahead of Nintendo ($15 billion) and only a bit short of Activision Blizzard ($16.7 billion). Pretty impressive for an effectively unknown developer with only one really popular game to its name, huh?

Why is Puzzle & Dragons so popular? How is it that an unknown developer can attract 12 million players in Japan alone? Simply put, the game is designed to be as addictive as possible. It's difficult to describe the title to those who haven't played it, but you can imagine it as a cross between Bejeweled and Pokémon. How it took this long for anyone to smash those disparate ideas together into a world-beating new concept is beyond me, but GungHo stepped up and is obviously reaping some very lucrative rewards.

I've never visited the firm's office, but I have to assume it's a blur of 24k gold toilet seats, pet snow leopards and disposable Ferraris. Maybe a herd of ostriches in the break room too. What's the point of earning all that cash if you can't live out Manuel Noriega's fever dreams?

Source: GamesIndustry [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-05-13-gungho-made-USD118m-in-april-alone-market-cap-exceeds-nintendo]

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[Fappy]

Note to self... stay the fuck away from that game.

F2P seems to be dominating everything nowadays.

 

[PuckFuppet]

I really don't see the appeal of combining a game like Bejeweled with... anything. Call me ignorant but I just don't understand how something that takes what is ostensibly an adventure RPG with something like Bejewel... it just seems completely unintuitive.

EDIT: Not the combination itself from an aesthetic point of view, the application of both game styles in one. Control scheme seems completely unintuitive.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Note to self... stay the fuck away from that game.

F2P seems to be dominating everything nowadays.

Trust me, it's INSANELY addictive

 

[the December King]

How the hell do you make money on a free-to-play game like that? is it all ad revenue?

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

I never get into those games, i get bored doing the same thing again and again regardless of the rewards. An the rewards are meaningless when you think about it? Yep. Ive wasted to many years of my life to gaming. I like gaming for story, its like reading a book, to get to the end and find out what happens. Games like puzzle dragons are addictive for no payoff. Its an on going thing to keep you playing forever, like getting the highest score on space invaders, its obsessive and pointless.

 

[Dr.Awkward]

How the hell do you make money on a free-to-play game like that? is it all ad revenue?

Remember all those people who thought arcades were all the bomb, popping in more quarters to get more lives or a better high score? This game actually works on the same mechanics - You have to buy lives to continue, and lo and behold, when you've got a generation that's been conditioned to such a system, it works and works very well. Why try all these different F2P schemes when you can just look at history and realize some things never need to change?

 

[ASnogarD]

... scary, thats what the EA's and Activisions are trying to achieve, a cheap application to pull money from the masses.

Nevermind annual CoD's or BF, MEs or AC's ... pretty coloured game with cutesy GFX and micro transactions out of every ';' in the bloody code.
I bet you have to pay to quit too, unless you fill in your quota of 'work'.

 

[Slash2x]

... scary, thats what the EA's and Activisions are trying to achieve, a cheap application to pull money from the masses.

Nevermind annual CoD's or BF, MEs or AC's ... pretty coloured game with cutesy GFX and micro transactions out of every ';' in the bloody code.
I bet you have to pay to quit too, unless you fill in your quota of 'work'.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! If EA or Activision hears you then what little product they make now will go to shit. Are you trying to get gamers to put a hit out on you? I have already said too much!! *Flees into a GameStop as it is gamer holy ground and safe from attack*

 

[xyrafhoan]

GungHo is far from an "unknown developer" in Japan. They've run the Ragnarok Online service in Japan and made it the top MMO in the region for years (popular enough to have partnerships with Coca Cola), as well as funding various spinoff RO games for the DS and PSP. They haven't exactly been a prominent developer but they were a successful domestic publisher for over a decade. But other than the MMO services they run, this may be the biggest thing they've offered yet.

 

[the December King]

How the hell do you make money on a free-to-play game like that? is it all ad revenue?

Remember all those people who thought arcades were all the bomb, popping in more quarters to get more lives or a better high score? This game actually works on the same mechanics - You have to buy lives to continue, and lo and behold, when you've got a generation that's been conditioned to such a system, it works and works very well. Why try all these different F2P schemes when you can just look at history and realize some things never need to change?

Gaah, I feel so thick. Should've thought of that! Thanks, Doc.