Clash of Clans dev releasing new game next month
And earning astonishing amounts of money.
Booming Clash of Clans developer Supercell plans to release a third game next month called Boom Beach. It's apparently already soft-launched in Canada and Australia, and is a top-five grossing iPhone game in both countries, reported Gamasutra.
Supercell announced its intentions during an astonishing annual earnings report. Consider that Supercell began life in 2010 with the help of a loan from the Finnish government, and built Hay Day and Clash of Clans with teams of half-a-dozen each.
Now look at the 2012 numbers: $101m revenue, $51m operating income (Financial Times). And then look at the 2013 numbers: $689m GAAP revenue, $322m EBITA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation), according to Gamasutra.
"You need to create a game that people play for years"
Illka Paananen
You could buy a house with an on-site horse for that kind of money!
Apparently a hacker revealed earlier this week that Supercell was raking in more than $5m a day.
How? Micro-transactions of course; time-saving, progress-boosting payouts surrounding every aspect of what Dan Whitehead called a "tissue thin" game, in Clash of Clans' case.
How is it that Supercell is so successful? "It is both simple and incredibly hard," explained CEO and co-founder Illka Paananen, reported the Financial Times. "You need to create a fun game. You need to create a game that people play for years, not months, and those people have to play a lot." He did later say that "I don't think you should devote your life to playing games".
On the topic of some players spending a fortune on the game, he added (via Gamasutra): "It's no secret that some players spend substantial amounts of money on these games. But I wouldn't say the vast majority of revenue comes from them. These people usually come from an investment banker or lawyer background, and they spend a lot of money on golf courses and so on. I've asked them, 'Why do you spend so much money on these games?' And they say, 'People spend money on golf, I spend money on Clash of Clans.'"
Supercell announced itself with a bang last year by selling - for $1.5bn - just over half of the company to Japanese Puzzle & Dragons maker GungHo. That meant Supercell was valued at $3bn.
GungHo, incidentally, raked in revenues of $1.6bn and operating profits of $900m in 2013.
Someone's doing well, aren't they?
