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DeNA still in transition with FY14 Q3 revenues down 4%

But coin sales on the up

DeNA still in transition with FY14 Q3 revenues down 4%

Japanese mobile publisher DeNA (TYO:2432) has announced its FY14 Q3 financials, the three months ending 30 December 2014.

Revenue was $287 million (¥34.4 billion), down 4 percent quarter-on-quarter, and down 17 percent year-on-year.

Operating profit was $43 million (¥5.2 billion), down 33 percent quarter-on-quarter and 55 percent year-on-year.

DeNA doesn't break out its games sales but its social media business - which it describes as "mainly games" was 84 percent of Q3 revenues.

It also generated $64 million in operating profit.

Signs of growth?

DeNA is currenty going through a restructuring process as it looks to compete with companies such as GungHo, Colopl, Mixi and Gumi, which have taken the main share of the Japanese smartphone games market.

In that respect, Q3 was the first quarter in a year in which DeNA has seen quarter-on-quarter growth in the sale of in-game currency in Japan.

Q3 is the first month with quarterly growth in coin consumption

International tensions

At $35 million, DeNA's international business remains loss-making and in decline, although coin consumption was up in China; something DeNA says it will growth with "aggressive marketing".

DeNA has over 400 employees in China, where it releases a mixture of western IP such as Transformers and NBA games, alongside games based on Japan brands.

For example it's released the China-only One Piece: Sailing On game.

China is growing up in general, DeNA is in decline internationally

Of course, the key thing for DeNA are its games. Granblue Fantasy, which was developed by Cygames, hit records sales, while the Square Enix-developed Final Fantasy Record Keeper has over five million downloads in Japan and is a top 10 grossing game. A version is also in development for the west.

"In the third quarter, the revenue from our game business saw a quarter-on-quarter increase with significant contribution from our native apps," said president and CEO Isao Moriyasu.

"In Japan, we have an exciting lineup of new native app titles in the pipeline. Premium IP titles in China and other new titles overseas are off to a good start, and we will make investments to turn them into big hits."

DeNA now predicts full year revenues of $1.2 billion and profit of $120 million.

[source: DeNA IR]

Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.