Every Wednesday we break down the latest data, research and financial results into digestible chunks.
Read on for the numbers you need to know about minus the fluff.
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Tencent’s $1.25bn Ubisoft carve-out
Tencent will invest €1.16bn ($1.25bn) for a stake of approximately 25% in a new Ubisoft subsidiary housing the French publisher’s top IPs. With a pre-money valuation of €4bn ($4.3bn), the spin-off will be dedicated to the Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six brands.
Ubisoft said the new subsidiary will focus on creating “game ecosystems designed to become truly evergreen and multi-platform”, featuring single-player stories, expanded multiplayer offerings, free-to-play titles and more social features. The deal is expected to be completed later this year.
Tencent already owns about 10% of Ubisoft, which also said it will continue to develop other longstanding franchises including Ghost Recon and The Division, as well as new IPs, game engines and online services. We can also assume the ‘original’ Ubisoft retains control of the Hungry Shark and ‘Idle Tycoon’ games run by its subsidiary Kolibri Games.
There’s been no further word on Assassin’s Creed Jade, an open world mobile game set in China, either. It had a large presence back at Gamescom 2023, since then it has been MIA.
Supercell’s Mo Co passes $1m
As we reported on Monday, Supercell has earned over $1m from its latest launch, Mo Co. It was released on March 18 worldwide for iOS and Android, but is payable only with an invite, obtained from Supercell by request or through other players or influencers.
Appmagic and Appfigures each estimate that Supercell has earned around $1m to date, with total player spend sure to be around 30% more given Apple and Google’s 30% cut of IAPs.
Each data firm also estimates downloads of around 2m to date. Both Appmagic and Appfigures suggest revenue per download of $0.48 to date, much lower than a typical Supercell game.
Krafton buys $14m majority stake in Indian studio Nautilus
PUBG publisher Krafton has acquired a “north of 75% stake” in Indian gaming studio Nautilus Mobile for $14m, TechCrunch reports. Founded in 2013, Pune-headquartered Nautilus is best known as the creator and publisher of the Real Cricket franchise, a series of sports simulation games which has seen annual editions released for over a decade.
Krafton, which made a strategic investment of $5.4m in Nautilus in 2022, said the studio will continue to operate independently and will keep all 45 of its employees on its payroll. While its short-term focus will be on refining its cricket games, Nautilus also plans to explore new genres in the long term.
French regulator fines Apple $162m over ATT
France’s antitrust watchdog Autorité de la concurrence has fined Apple $162m after ruling that its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) system enables the iPhone maker to abuse its dominance in the mobile app market.
Launched in April 2021, the tool allows users to choose whether an application can track their activity across other companies’ apps and websites for targeted advertising purposes.
While the French regulator said the objective of ATT is not at its core problematic, the implementation methods “artificially complicate” the use of third-party applications, for example by requiring users to consent twice to data tracking, compared to just once for first-party apps.
It also said the ATT framework penalises smaller publishers “that do not enjoy alternative targeting possibilities, in particular in the absence of sufficient proprietary data”.
The fine covers the use of ATT between April 2021 and July 2023. The watchdog’s president told reporters it hadn’t stipulated how Apple should change the system, but said it was up to the company to ensure it complied with the ruling, Reuters reports.
DoubleU completes Paxie Games acquisition for initial $30m
Social casino games developer DoubleU has completed its acquisition of Merge Studio: Fashion Makeover creator Paxie Games.
The South Korean company made an upfront payment of $29.9m for a 60% stake in the Turkish studio, which was founded in 2021 and is based in Istanbul. The remaining ownership is set to be acquired through an earnout structure over a three-year period, which could see the buyout price rise by a further $40m.
Paxie’s flagship game, Merge Studio, has been downloaded over 28m times and generated $34m since its release in 2022, according to Sensor Tower data. Its other titles include Tile Star and Mahjong Infinity.
Huawei revenue hit a near-record $118bn in 2024
Telecoms giant Huawei generated annual revenue of ¥862.1bn ($118bn) in 2024, which was up 22.4% year-over-year. As noted by Canalys analyst Runar Bjorhovde, the total is second only to its performance in 2020, when the Chinese firm delivered annual revenue of ¥891.4bn ($122bn).
Huawei also posted an annual net profit of ¥62.6bn ($8.6bn), which was down 28% year-over-year. According to Reuters, a company spokesperson attributed the decline to significant investment into research and development, totalling about 20% of its revenue, and not receiving any income from unit sales.
