Game Business

CyberAgent entered the game business in 2009 with nine 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 continued to grow with the spread of smartphones, as the gaming population has grown in response to demand from the home-nesting that took root during the COVID-19 pandemic. The market reached around 2 trillion yen, making it the world's third-largest market after China and the United States, of which online platforms market is expected to be 1,480 billion yen in 2024. Given the increase in PC gaming, we believe that the online gaming market will continue to grow as well.

*KADOKAWA ASCII Research Laboratories ”Famitsu Mobile Game White Paper 2023” released in March 2023. Data period: December 31, 2012 – December 25, 2022

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 "Uma Musume Pretty Derby" by Cygames, Inc. which was released in 2021.

We are currently working to maintain business stability by continuously releasing new titles while compensating for the revenue declines that occur in the wake of a major hit title.

Competitive Advantages

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

"Granblue Fantasy," which Cygames launched in March 2014, celebrated its 10th anniversary in March 2024, demonstrating our ability to extend the lifespan of game titles. We believe that our strong game operation skills, which include hosting in-game events, studying user preferences, game balancing, and scenario design, contribute to the longevity of our games.

In addition, we see "Umamusume: Pretty Derby" as a prime example of a game that gained fans through its preceding anime and became a major hit. By attracting attention continuously, such as streaming anime, bringing in-person events, and selling collaborative merchandise, we will strive to create games that fans will love for a long time.

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.

Currently, we have one of the largest game development pipelines among companies primarily developing mobile games. We utilize our capabilities represented by our creative and technological strengths and focus on expanding our original IPs as well as adapting popular IPs into mobile games. The success rate of new game titles is increasing as a fruit of high development capabilities, such as FINAL FANTASY VII EVER CRISIS^*1 and Jutsu Kaisen Phantom Parade^*2, which are collaborations with leading IP content holders launched in 2023, and also original IPs that have cultivated a fan base through the multimedia franchise. Furthermore, we are also making efforts to convert original IP mobile games into console games, for example by providing two console games in Granblue Fantasy^*3 in December 2023 and February 2024.

We will continue striving to improve our creative and technical strengths, aiming to create globally competitive content.