By Park Hyong-ki
Devsisters, a listed social mobile game developer, said Monday that it has invested 1 billion won in a social game startup, Nple, via its venture capital fund, and seeks to collaborate in creating new games by sharing their intellectual properties (IP).
However, it remains to be seen whether Devsisters will be able to find the next “Cookie Run” and boost its share price amid upsurge in mobile content. Its shares have fallen to less than one-third of its initial public offering price of 53,000 won, industry sources say.
The company, which went public on the KOSDAQ in 2014, is widely known for its flagship game “Cookie Run,” but did not produce a single hit for some time.
“As you can see from the company’s earnings, creating no hits has eat into its profitability,” said an industry source.
Its investment in Nple, which created the social game “Wooparoo Mountain,” was part of efforts to find a breakthrough.
Devsisters has been facing operating losses for six straight quarters, and its shareholders are said to have expressed dissatisfaction toward management.
It was reported that its excessive spending on welfare for executives and employees over research and development of new games was one of reasons for the company’s continuing losses. Its top executives, including co-founder and CEO Lee Ji-hoon, announced that they would cut their salaries and seek share buybacks.
Lee holds a majority 27.39 percent in Devsisters, while NHN Entertainment owns a 16.10 percent stake, and Com2us holds a 5.32 percent. Devsisters’ operating losses increased to over 3 billion won in the third quarter of this year, from about 2 billion won a year ago. The company was not available for comment.
The company said in its audit filing last month that it remains confident in maintaining its competitiveness by creating follow-ups to “Cookie Run.”
Also, it would be able to use the “Cookie Run” IP to diversify into character merchandising.
“Given that the company’s games have had about 100 million downloads, the company will be able to maintain its competitiveness from a marketing perspective with recent game ‘Cookie Run: OvenBreak’ and new games in the future,” Devsisters said in the audit report.
The company released “Cookie Run: OvenBreak” last October.