[Click eStock] "DevSisters Continues Success of 'Cookie Run: Kingdom'"

Three New Releases Scheduled This Year... High Loyalty to Cookie Run

[Asia Economy Reporter Gong Byung-sun] Devsisters' flagship game, Cookie Run: Kingdom, has succeeded in popularity, raising expectations for increased revenue and a long game lifespan. Additionally, new titles such as Brick City, Safe House, and Cookie Run: OvenSmash are scheduled for release starting in the second half of this year. Accordingly, Yuanta Securities has set a target price of 150,000 KRW for Devsisters and issued a "Buy" investment opinion.

According to Yuanta Securities on the 24th, Devsisters is expected to record net profits exceeding the cumulative net losses accumulated over six years, thanks to the success of Cookie Run: Kingdom, which was released in January. Devsisters recorded approximately 70.5 billion KRW in cumulative net losses from 2015 through last year. However, the mobile strategy role-playing game (RPG) Cookie Run: Kingdom has maintained a top position in Google Play game download rankings since its launch, contributing to its success. Due to the nature of RPGs, which require time and money to develop characters, if a game succeeds in popularity for a certain period, loyal users emerge, extending the game's lifespan. Similar games such as Seven Knights and Summoners War have maintained popularity for seven years for the same reason.

Another positive aspect of Cookie Run: Kingdom is the diversification of its revenue base. In the domestic mobile game market, which is mainly composed of men in their 30s to 50s, it has newly attracted female users in their 20s. As the user base generating revenue diversifies, the sustainability of revenue is also expected to increase. Lee Chang-young, a researcher at Yuanta Securities, said, "With overseas sales accounting for 20-30% and localization efforts completed, revenue growth is also expected in regions such as North America and Japan."

Cookie Run: Kingdom is expected to generate even greater revenue going forward. Currently, only 40 out of over 130 characters in the Cookie Run intellectual property (IP) have been released. The researcher explained, "If more than 100 characters are released in the future, user traffic will increase further," adding, "Because the source of content updates is abundant, the potential for revenue growth is high." In fact, although not an RPG, Cookie Run: OvenBreak has continuously added characters, game systems, and content, increasing its revenue from 15 billion KRW in 2017 to 70 billion KRW last year.

Devsisters' new titles are also awaiting release this year. They will be launched in order: the building simulation game Brick City, the hardcore shooting action battle game Safe House, and the 3D casual shooting game Cookie Run: OvenSmash. In particular, as the Cookie Run series continues to succeed, the user base and loyalty toward the Cookie Run IP have grown larger, increasing the likelihood of continued success.

Reflecting this, Yuanta Securities has set Devsisters' target price at 150,000 KRW. The researcher explained, "We applied an average price-to-earnings ratio (PER) of 13.2 times from similar companies such as Com2uS and Webzen to Devsisters' expected net income attributable to controlling interests of 129.1 billion KRW this year."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.