Game Business

CyberAgent entered the game business in 2009 with seven subsidiary companies, most notably Cygames Inc., developing, operating, and providing games of various genres. They work together to improve technological capabilities and creative appeal, continue to create hit titles, and extend existing titles' lifespans to achieve sustainable growth.

Market

The Japanese game market has grown to 1.3 trillion yen with the spread of smartphones, as the gaming population has expanded in response to demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, making it the world's third-largest market after China and the United States. Following the slowdown due to the pandemic, which came to a close in 2022, the market is expected to continue growing at a slight upward trend.

5-Year Results

The game business has grown to a scale where it boasts a large share of Japan's smartphone game market, mainly due to the major hit "Umamusume: Pretty Derby^※" by Cygames, Inc. released in 2021. In FY 2024, we released three console games and two mobile games. Thanks to some new successful games, sales and profits increased for the first time in three years. Going forward, the game business aims to release new games continuously and stabilize the business.

※ © Cygames, Inc.

Competitive Advantages

Point1Extending the lifespan of game titles by leveraging operational skills and making them viral

Over the years, we have created many hit game titles by cultivating the technology, operational, organizational, and adaptability to change needed to deliver high-quality products. And we have achieved a long lifespan for our major hit games through a wide variety of ways. Cygames released a console version of a mobile game, “Granblue Fantasy,^*1“available since March 2014, “Granblue Fantasy: Relink,^*2” in February 2024, which achieved globally accumulated sales of 1 million in eleven days since its launch. It created a virtuous cycle with the mobile game and further became a good example of entry into the global market.
In addition, “Umamusume: Pretty Derby,^*3” which initially gained fans through its anime, has expanded to new anime series, movies, and comics to attract new users and to deliver new value to retained users. Including a console game, “Umamusume: Pretty Derby - Party Dash,^*4” released in August 2024, it aims to establish a long-term IP that is loved by users for a long time by maintaining topicality.

※1.2.3 © Cygames, Inc.
※4 © Cygames, Inc. Developed by ARC SYSTEM WORKS

Point2Creative appeal and technological capabilities to increase success rate of new game titles

We entered the game business in the era of feature phone games, where we learned game development from scratch. As a result of our organization's passionate efforts, we have grown to secure a high market share in the increasingly competitive mobile game market with one of the largest-scale development and operation system for smartphone games in Japan.

We have created an environment that allows our capable talent to maximize their abilities. In the game business, we collaborate beyond the boundaries of the subsidiaries with active information exchange and mutual quality checks between sites. As a result of the organization's united and highly enthusiastic efforts, we have gained the trust of leading IP holders in the quality of our games, and our collaboration with them has increased.

We strive to enhance our creativity and technological capabilities to maximize group synergies and aim to produce high-quality games which will be well received by users around the world.