DeNA’s game business reported a drop in both revenue and profit for the first nine months of the 2019 financial year, a drop the company attributes to both a decrease in virtual currency sales and slow starts from its newer mobile games.
DeNA, the developer helming many of Nintendo’s mobile releases, reported ¥60.1 billion (~$548 million) in revenue from its game business for the nine month period ending December 31, 2019, a 3.8 percent decrease year-over-year.
Profit for the segment is also down YOY, with DeNA reporting a 32.6 percent decrease that brings the sum to ¥8.9 billion (~$81.2 million).
“Although newly-released titles started making contributions, existing titles were the main contributors to business performance, and virtual currency consumption declined year-on-year,” explains the company. “As a result, revenue and profit decreased compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year.”
Those recent releases include Pokemon Masters (developed alongside The Pokemon Company) and Mario Kart Tour, both of which released in late 2019. Those seemingly have yet to match the momentum of 2017’s Fire Emblem Heroes and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, two titles developed through its partnership with Nintendo and games that, according to analysts, represent Nintendo’s top two mobile earners.
Separately, the company also announced this week that two of its Japan-only mobile titles will be shutting down at the end of March, as spotted by PocketGamer. One, Torikago Scrap Merch, only launched in early 2019. The other, Fantasy Earth Genesis, has been up and running since late 2018.