Candy Crush Saga (Photo : Reuters)
Has the popular game Candy Crush gone the way of Angry Birds? After months of being the favorite of gamers, gross bookings for the second quarter dropped 13 percent to $529 million, reports King Digital Entertainment, the developer of Candy Crush.
The game also logged an 18 percent decline in quarterly revenue because of fewer franchise games and the strong dollar, while shareprice went down 9 percent in extended trading, reports Reuters. The firm is struggling to improve bookings, which would affect future revenue, because game launches were planned only toward the last six months of 2015.
In April, King launched AlphaBetty Saga, its first word game that was launched on mobile after two months. This August, the company rolled out Paradise Bay, its first simulation game.
But on Thursday, King announced it would postpone its entry into midcore, a gaming segment, to 2016. These developments set expectations for the balance of 2015 which Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter does not find exciting.
For Q3, King expects gross bookings of $460 million, lower than $544 million a year ago.
But it is not only King that suffered from lower bookings. Zynga, the competitor of King, which developed "FarmVille" and "Mafia Wars," forecast below estimates last week because the games developer is expected to launch some games only by the fourth quarter.
Glu Mobile, maker of "Kim Kardashian: Hollywood" likewise warned last week that it could miss its second-half forecast as it launches new titles such as "Mission Impossible" and other James Bond-themed games.
Is there a game fatigue among players or do these developments signal it's game over for popular games?
