Interest

Dragalia Lost Game Maker Points Finger at Nintendo for Unfulfilled Revenue Expectations

Plenty of mobile games advertise as "free-to-play" but then highly encourage purchasing in-game currency to meet certain milestones or obtain powerful items to get the game moving. What starts out as as a casual gaming experience can rack up a pretty large price tag leaving players to either abandon ship or fork out a decent wad of cash.

Cygames' parent company CyberAgent Inc's Dragalia Lost had the latter system in mind until publisher Nintendo stepped in and asked the developer to take it down a notch. The result might be happier players but CyberAgent is quoting a 20% drop in its revenue expectations as a result.

The situation came to light in CyberAgent's own financial report published at the end of January. The company's English-language press release alluded to the situation by stating "At the time of the original earnings forecast announcement on October 25, we looked a new game title made a good start [sic]. However, its performance is being slower than we expected as of today."

Wall Street Journal reporter Takashi Mochizuki contacted CyberAgent to elaborate on which title the release referred to and the company stated that it was Dragalia Lost, adding that Nintendo asked the CyberAgent to "adjust" its micro-transactions in response to players' complaints.

“Nintendo is not interested in making a large amount of revenue from a single smartphone game,” a CyberAgent representative told the WSJ. “If we managed the game alone, we would have made a lot more [money].”

The Wall Street Journal also contacted Nintendo and a representative confirmed in general terms that the company does discuss various aspects, including payments, with developers. The representative stated that these discussions are in pursuit of "deliver[ing] high-quality fun to consumers."

The Dragalia Lost mobile game launched on September 27 in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and the United States. The game earned US$13.5 million in Japan and the United States alone and US$16 million overall in its first two weeks culminating in US$60 million by January. Players in Japan represent 66% of the revenue for Dragalia Lost, with 18% coming from players in the United States.

Nintendo released Dragalia Lost in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia last week.

A manga based on the game launched on Cygames' Cycomi manga website on February 7.

Source: The Wall Street Journal (Takashi Mochizuki) via Ars Technica (Sam Machikovech)