Pokémon, V Rising, Dontnod… This week’s trade news

Business News Pokémon, V Rising, Dontnod… This week’s trade news

The Pokémon Company set a record year

After celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2021, the Pokémon license looks more lucrative than ever. The brand management company, The Pokémon Company (jointly owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures), has revealed Results of the fiscal year ending on February 28. Numbers reach new heights with 1.4 billion euros in turnover and 295 million euros in net profitan increase of 70.4% and 123%, respectively, over the previous year. It must be said that the period was marked by the huge successes of Pokémon Legends: Arceus (12.64 million sales) and Pokémon Sparkling Diamond / Sparkling Pearl (14.65 million), not to mention the contribution of New Pokémon Snap (2.4 million).

But the jackpot is hidden on the side of Pokémon GO. Here the Pokémon Company, which operates the game together with the American studio Niantic, regains the largest margin, while Pokémon games on consoles have always benefited mainly from Nintendo and Game Freak. Also note in the chart below, designed by journalist Oscar Lemerre, that The Pokémon Company’s earnings have exploded since fiscal year 2016, which coincides with the launch of Pokémon GO (July 2016). mobile game It always makes more money over the yearstotaling more than $5 billion.

The next few months will be very lively for licensing with the arrival of the 9th generation Pokémon Scarlet/Purple on November 18 on the Nintendo Switch, which will pave the way for more merchandise.

Nacon completes a “transition exercise” before the release of the big games (Gollum, Steelrising, etc.)

Nakoon made a file financial results For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022. With revenues of 156 million euros (-12.3%) and a net profit of 10 million euros (-45.3%), the French publisher showed a sharp decline. In detail, the gaming business generated sales of €54.4 million (-21%), while accessories kept better with €96.6 million in revenue (-6%) despite the shortage of the latest PlayStation and Xbox hardware.

a period	business volume	Operating profit	net profit
April 2021 To March 2022	155.9 million euros	13.3 million euros	10 million euros
April 2020 To March 2021	177.8 million euros	27.5 million euros	18.2 million euros

However, these results are considered “in line with expectations” because, according to Nacon, they are a “transitional exercise”. A major rebound is expected for the 2022-2023 fiscal year thanks to titles such as Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong (released May 19), The Lord of the Rings: Gollum (September 1), Steelrising (September 8) and Session: Skateboarding Sim . Test Drive Unlimited: Meanwhile, the Solar Crown will launch somewhere between April 2023 and March 2024 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series, with Switch, PS4, and Xbox One versions discontinued.

Nacon has also made several investments for the future in order to expand its studio list and increase its production capacity.. Since early 2021, publisher Daedalic Entertainment (The Lord of the Rings Gollum), Midgar Studio (Edge of Eternity), Ishtar Games (The Last Spell), Crea-ture Studios (Sessions), and Big Ant Studios (Tennis World Tour) 2). “In two years, Nacon will have invested more than 100 million euros in developing its games, and will acquire 9 studios. So far, there are 46 games in development compared to 33 games on March 31, 2021. The first return on investment is expected from the current fiscal year with version of many games”, Can we read in the balance sheet. The goal is always the same: to eventually become one of the world leaders in AA games.

V Rising: Already 1.5 million sales of the survival game

Having distinguished itself thanks to Battlerite in 2017, Stunlock Studios expected success of a whole new size with V Rising. Since its early launch on Steam on May 17, the vampire survival game has been spooking the counters: 500,000 sales in three days, 1 million a week, then 1.5 million by May 31, all with 88% positive ratings On the Valve platform and a strong presence on Twitch. An unexpected phenomenon reminiscent of the Walheim phenomenon last year, which recorded 2 million sales in two weeks, until it reached 7 million, according to the latest figures (May 2022). And just like their fellow Swedes at Iron Gate Studio, Stunlock now has their go-to business to satisfy a massive community of gamers that crave fresh content.

At the moment, the developers’ priorities are to fix bugs, tweak the balance, improve servers, and improve gameplay comfort. The next step will be to analyze the data and feedback collected during the early weeks of the game. Reach to meet the expectations of the players. “The tremendous support that V Rising has received not only gives us the opportunity to finalize our plans for the game, but also gives us enough time to include some of your darkest dreams of what the experience might look like. Upon full release. We can promise you something very special for version 1.0.”can we read in communication On May 30th. Stunlock estimates Early Access will last about a year.

Dontnod changes its visual identity and excites its projects

Forget Dontnod Entertainment, the studio behind Life is Strange or Vampyr or even Remember Me should now be spelled Don’t Nod. Slogan in support, the French company unveiled a new identity on the occasion of its fourteenth anniversary, aiming to It better reflects what ‘No Nod’ has become today as a studio.. It must be said that the company headed by Oscar Gilbert has undergone several major changes in recent years, with the opening of a studio in Montreal and a new strategy geared towards value creation, thanks to self-publishing of new developed licenses. internally and expanding to publish games designed by partner studios.

With this slogan, we wanted to re-enter the apostrophe and space between “DON’T” and “NOD”, in order to give the full meaning of the name “DON’T NOD”. DON’T NOD is made up of two words that represent, as a company and in the games we create, our tendency not to fear going against the flow and breaking codes, as evidenced by the broken D and N visible inside. This new logo connects our creations – immersive and meaningful stories – to who we are as a company. Don’t touch the press release

No Nod near 320 employees in France and Canada share six in-house developed games, including five in self-publishing and one in co-production with Focus Entertainment. With the addition of Gerda: A Flame In Winter, the game from studio PortaPlay that releases September 1, these seven projects correspond to the seven logos that scroll in the video below. All are scheduled to reach the market by 2025.

Briefly in this week’s business news

• Marvel’s Spider-Man (+ its modified version) and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales total 33 million sales on PS4 and PS5. A massive number that will rise with the arrival of the two games on PC, respectively on August 12 and the end of 2022.
• Square Enix CEO Shinji Hashimoto retired on May 31 after 27 years of loyal service. He’s been a notable producer in most Final Fantasy games since VIII and in the Kingdom Hearts games.
• Pokémon co-founder Junichi Masuda has left Game Freak to join The Pokémon Company as fellow lead creator, a position that will allow him to oversee future licensing products and services.
• Tekken 7 has surpassed 9 million sales since its release in June 2017.
• Amazon Games has signed with Disruptive Games to publish a cross-platform action-adventure title that can be played in both co-op and PvP modes. Disruptive, a California-based studio, has been featured as a co-developer of games like Godfall, Diablo II Resurrected, and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2.