In an effort to reach new consumers and become “The first truly global games company,” Supercell has received $1.5B in investments from Puzzle & Dragon maker, GungHo Online Entertainment, and Japanese investor, SoftBank.
This is a huge announcement for the gaming community. One that verifies that there is an increase in Asian buyers and that F2P gaming is becoming a heavy influencer in Gaming M&A. Check out my August blog post forecasting Casual Gaming trends, here.
Softbank’s strategy to become the best internet services portal/provider and Supercell’s reputation as one of the best mobile developers [possibly the best multi-hit developer] makes this partnership an ideal fit, bringing together two companies with grand visions.
It is important to note that this is not the first activity of this kind for Supercell in 2013. During my Casual Connect talk, I mentioned that Supercell raised $130M in March 2013, with an estimated $770M valuation. Since then, just a short six months later, their valuation has more than tripled to $3B!
And lest we forget, Softbank put $265M into GungHo early this year. At that time Puzzles & Dragons was the most valuable iOS game in the world - valued at $4.1B. With this acquisition, Softbank is continuing to add to its collection of trophies with another highly valuable gaming company.
This is truly an exciting deal for all parties, but there is one odd curiosity I'd note - Supercell's CEO went on the record stating that their small teams approach is driving the success they've seen in developing games with quick iterations and turns. Does an extra $1.5B cloud up their structure with excess overhead? To be seen...
To read more about this acquisition, click here.
To read more deal commentary, please read Dean Takahashi’s article at GameBeat found here.