French mobile-game publisher Gameloft said today that its full-year revenues reached €227.3 million ($256 million), up 1 percent from a year earlier. That’s a pretty slow sales rate, considering that mobile gaming has exploded into a $25 billion worldwide business, according to market researcher Newzoo.
The French company acknowledged that the revenues for the twelve months ended Dec. 31 were “mixed” for its back catalog and “disappointing” for its brand new games launched in 2014.
“It has been a mixed year for Gameloft with its back catalog performing strongly but a disappointing contribution from its 2014 line-up. We launched twelve smartphone games in 2014 compared to more than twenty per year on average in the previous five years,” said Michel Guillemot, CEO of Gameloft, in a statement. “In the past few months we have made several internal adjustments that will allow the company to release once again around twenty new titles per year going forward and to launch these games at a regular pace during the year. In the meantime, the ongoing traction of our back catalogue has shown that many of our products have the potential to contribute to revenues for several years. The combination of strong back catalog sales and of a robust line-up of new games should allow Gameloft to return to profitable and rapid growth.”
The sales were down 3 percent year-over-year but were up 1 percent when adjusted for currency fluctuations. Back catalog titles were 90 percent of full-year sales, up 15 percent from a year ago. Europe and the Middle East were 33 percent of 2014 sales. North America was 28 percent. Asia-Pacific was 22 percent, and Latin America was 18 percent.
Q4 sales were €60.2 million ($67 million) in the fourth quarter of 2014, down 3 percent from a year earlier and down 6 percent using a constant-exchange rate. Monthly active users were 170 million in the fourth quarter, and average daily active users were 21 million in the fourth quarter. 700 million Gameloft games were downloaded in 2014.
Gameloft expects to launch 20 new titles in 2014.
The company has set up its own in-house digital ad agency and has started as planned to sell the inventory available in close to twenty of its games. “With major advertising companies now switching a larger part of their budgets to mobile, and with Gameloft being one of the leading publishers by downloads and audience, we expect advertising to become a significant new line of business for the company and to unlock long-term shareholder value,” added Michel Guillemot.