[Click eStock] "Kakao Games, Anticipating Success of New Release Uma Musume"

Korea Investment & Securities Report

[Asia Economy Reporter Minji Lee] Korea Investment & Securities stated on the 14th that Kakao Games is expected to improve its performance with the release of various new titles.

Kakao Games grew by operating a platform for small and medium-sized developers to release games using the KakaoTalk platform. However, as competition in the gaming market has intensified, it is currently continuing its business centered on publishing by procuring domestic and overseas games and releasing them in Korea. It is strengthening its in-house game development capabilities by acquiring popular domestic online game developer XL Games and mobile game developer Lionheart.

Kakao Games is expected to maintain steady revenue growth with the overseas release of Odin. On March 29, the domestic hit game Odin by Lionheart was released in Taiwan, where it has maintained a top position in sales rankings. Domestic sales are also stable. Accordingly, sales and operating profit for the second quarter are projected to grow by 156.3% and 748.8% respectively compared to the same period last year, reaching 331.8 billion KRW and 68.8 billion KRW.

Jung Hoyoon, a researcher at Korea Investment & Securities, said, “Odin is preparing for additional releases in global regions such as North America and Europe in the second half of the year, so another surge in sales growth is expected.”

On the 20th, Uma Musume will be released in the domestic market. Uma Musume is a subculture genre title developed by the general developer Cygames and has maintained the number one sales ranking in the Japanese market for over a year. Although the subculture genre is not as mainstream in Korea as it is in Japan, there is steady demand, and many games in this genre have achieved good results.

Researcher Jung said, “Considering Uma Musume’s proven gameplay and the fact that subculture genre games have not been released in Korea for some time, it is highly likely that user demand has accumulated significantly.”

He added, “In addition, various new titles such as Eversoul, Ares, and Distera are scheduled to be released on PC and mobile in the second half of this year, so performance improvement is expected.”

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