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Supercell – the developer behind one of the most consistently lucrative mobile games, Clash of Clans — released its first title in more than five years as the Finnish company seeks to revive its fortunes in an industry facing its biggest slowdown in 30 years.
Ilkka Paananen, co-founder and CEO, told the Financial Times that the launch preparation Squad Busters Wednesday was “stressful” as the Tencent-owned company seeks another billion-dollar hit.
“We haven’t released a game in a very, very long time,” Paananen said. “This is because our teams have very high standards. We kill lots and lots of games [before they are released]. Now we finally have our game that has crossed that quality bar.”
Supercell was an early mobile gaming success story, launching titles such as Clash of Clans, Hay day and Clash Royale. In 2016, when Chinese Internet group Tencent acquired a majority stake, it was valued at $10 billion.
But after peaking at €2.1 billion in revenue and €917 million in profit in 2016, Supercell’s revenue has been declining in the following years.
Last year, Supercell’s revenue fell 4 percent from 2022 to 1.7 billion euros, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization fell 8 percent to 580 million euros.
At the same time, the $200 billion video game industry is facing its biggest slowdown in a decade as growth driven by smartphone gaming and the latest generation of consoles reaches its limits. Consumer spending on mobile games fell 2 percent to $107.3 billion last year, according to Data.ai, which forecasts low single-digit growth in 2024.
Paananen said the mobile game industry as a whole has only had “six or seven” huge new hits since then Brawl StarsSupercell’s latest global launch, in December 2018.
“The industry as a whole, including us, should probably take more risks and do things that haven’t been done,” he said. “There needs to be more innovation, more risk-taking. That’s the only way to grow the market.”
Squad Busters is a title featuring characters from all previous Supercell games, pitting 10 teams against each other in four-minute contests. Paananen said that the Finnish company first had the idea for a “mash-up” of its titles before the 10th anniversary in 2020, but it took years to develop the right concept.
“Would we like to release the game earlier? Of course. But are we proud to wait? Yes. Is it stressful? Of course it is,” he said.
Most game companies release hundreds of titles with one or two blockbuster hits and dozens of flops. Supercell, known for its “cells” with around 10 workers per title, popularized an alternative business model that has been widely imitated in the mobile industry: releasing a small number of games that are maintained for years with a constant supply of new features, characters. and game ideas.
Clash of Clanswhich was released in 2012, remains one of the world’s top mobile games by consumer spending, according to Data.ai.
“We want to last more than 100 years as Nintendo,” Paananen said.
Paananen restructured Supercell last year, allowing its existing games to have bigger teams – Clash of Clans now has 100 employees — while those working on new titles remain smaller. He currently has a monster hunting game, mo.coin development.
“There is so much untapped potential in the mobile gaming market,” said Paananen. “We are still scratching the surface. We must think bigger, act bolder. And be okay with failure.”