DeNA discusses Nintendo deal, and King's profit drop while Com2us gains

We round up the top five stories of last week

• 5 Off the back of aggressive UA spending for Summoners War, Com2uS' sales rise 16% to $97 million

  

  Korean mobile game publisher Com2us reported sales were a record $97 million in Q2 (108.3 billion KRW), up 16 percent compared to the FY15 Q1 period.

  Net profits were $28 million (31.1 billion KRW), up 14 percent quarterly.

  As in previous quarters, the global success of especially Summoners War - which recently celebrated its first year anniversary - but also Ace Fishing and Golf Star continues to drive Com2uS' financial performance to new heights.

  During the quarter, regional sales were 44 percent in Asia (excluding Korea), 37 percent in North America, 13 percent in Europe and 6 percent in South America.

   

  
  

• 4 How Jonatan Crafoord squeezed the entire audio for Angry Birds 2 into 10Mb

  

  Audio is typically an afterthought in mobile games development, but Rovio made sound a priority in the formation of its sequel.

  We sat down with Jonatan Crafoord, the Stockholm studio's audio director, to find out how he went about making the sound match Rovio's triple A aspirations.

  His first step was to work closely with the animators to establish the principle "if it moves, it should make a sound!"

  Then he approached Angry Birds 2 in the same way he approached console and PC games in the past. 

  "Most phones today practically have the same capabilities for sound as the last generation of consoles I had worked on anyway, which was the PS3 and Xbox 360.

  "The main differences I had to take into account were the download size limitations, and the fact that most of the time the sound will come out of a very small speaker."

  Download size was indeed one of the biggest issues he faced, having to distill the game's entire audio into just 10MB.

  You can read our full interview with him by clicking the Angry Birds logo t to find out how he did it. 

   

  
  

• 3 A Candy Crush Saga hole sees King's sales down 14% to $490 million

  

  Mobile games publisher King has announced its FY15 Q2 financials, for the three months ending 30 June 2015.

  Revenue was $490 million, down 14 percent compared to the previous quarter.

  Profits were down 27 percent to $164 million.

  King explained the decline as being due to the maturing of its biggest franchise Candy Crush Saga, as well as the lack of a franchise to fill the gap caused by its decline.

  This is despite the company having three games (including Candy Crush Saga) in the US top grossing top 10 on the App Store and Google Play during the quarter.

  During the quarter, revenue from what the company labels "non-Candy Crush Saga games was $375 million, but in Q2 it dropped 14 percent to $324 million."

  
  

• 2 Is a free-first monetisation-second strategy as practised by Agar.io and Vainglory the next UA trick?

  

  In last week's Charticle, Pocket Gamer.biz editor Jon Jordan delved deep into Agar.io.

  Ported to mobile and launched in early July on iOS and Android, and promoted though Miniclip's network and on channels such as Reddit and Twitch, Agar.io shot to the top of the download charts in key markets on both platforms.

  Miniclip claims it hasn't spent any money on UA, but has generated over 10 million downloads.

  Indeed, four weeks later, Agar.io is still in the top 50 downloads iPhone charts for iPhone for key western markets such as France, Germany, UK and US, and in the top 20 for those countries on Google Play.

  Yet, there remains a big issue for Miniclip to solve; at present there's no monetisation in the game, which is why it doesn't feature in any top grossing charts.

  Hence the audience reaction to the introduction of monetisation, which is currently being worked on, will be fascinating to see.

  
  

• 1 DeNA West CEO Shintaro Asako on why Nintendo's 'free-to-start' games will be successful in Japan, China and the west

  

  One of the most anticipated speakers at Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco 2015 was DeNA West CEO Shintaro Asako.

  Speaking in the Superstar Sessions track, Asako spoke in some detail - but not too much detail - about DeNA's partnership with Nintendo.

  "The Nintendo deal is a huge, huge deal," he said, adding, "Nintendo has the best IP, and IP that's perfect matched to smartphones".

  Indeed, one revelation was that DeNA had been in talks with Nintendo for many years before the two finally announced their deal earlier in 2015.

  "It took us 5 or 6 years to convince them," Asako revealed.

  "We wanted to convince them to release games on Mobage [DeNA's browser platform]. They didn't like it. Five years later, the industry has changed. The market has changed.

  "Nintendo wanted to attract a lot of people who they don't reach today, including China and emerging countries."

  He also hinted that the games that Nintendo and DeNA will impact upon the entire mobile gaming industry