Highlights

GamesBeat Summit 2021 (link)

• Nicholas Tuosto, Managing Director and Head of Gaming at LionTree and Founding Partner at Griffin Gaming Partners Hosted Two Panels During the Summit
• Interview with Lars Wingefors, Founder & CEO at Embracer Group (link)
• Interview with Tim O’Brien and Amir Rahimi from Scopely (link)
• Interview with Bobby Kotick, Chairman and CEO of Activision Blizzard (link)
• Interview with Chris DeWolfe, CEO of Jam City (link)

Sony has shipped 7.8M PlayStation 5 consoles as of March (link)

• PlayStation 5 is outpacing the PlayStation 4 in terms of consoles shipped, with 7.8M PS5s sold into the retail supply chain through the end of March, compared to 7.6M PS4s shipped over the same period at launch
• The PS5 was one of the main contributors to a March record for hardware spending in the United States
• In the U.S., PS5 is the fastest-selling console through a five-month launch period

Xbox Series X/S demand drives 232% growth for Microsoft gaming hardware (link)

• Strong demand for the Xbox Series X/S drove 232% YoY for Xbox hardware revenue
• Xbox’s overall revenue increased 50% YoY, and software and services increased 34% compared Q3 2020
• According to Windows Central, Game Pass now has 23M users

Nexon buys $100M of Bitcoin (link)

• Nexon bought $100M of Bitcoin, equivalent to 2% of its cash reserves
• “Our purchase of bitcoin reflects a disciplined strategy for protecting shareholder value and for maintaining the purchasing power of our cash assets,” said president and CEO Owen Mahoney

Microsoft reduces its cut for games on Windows Store to 12% (link)

• Beginning August 1, Microsoft will take only 12% of game sales on the Windows Store
• This move will make the Windows Store more competitive when it comes to attracting game software
• Microsoft’s revised revenue-sharing model comes alongside efforts to spruce up and revitalize its OS storefront

M&A and Capital Raising

EA completes $2.4B acquisition of Glu Mobile (link)

• Electronic Arts has completed its acquisition of Glu Mobile at an enterprise value of $2.1B
• The transaction value represents a TTM Adj. EBITDA multiple of 27.5x and a forward Adj. EBITDA multiple of 19.7x
• Glu will build on EA’s network of 100M monthly active players in mobile, and create a portfolio of more than 15 live services

Adtech company Moloco raises funding at a $1B valuation (link)

• The round was led by Shinhan GIB, an investment banking unit of South Korea’s Shinhan Financial Group
• The Company has facilitated more than 100T bid requests on behalf of its advertising partners since 2018, and currently serves more than 13B ad impressions monthly
• Gaming clients of Moloco include Nexon, Playrix and Netmarble among others

Azerion raises $242M via bonds on NASDAQ Stockholm (link)

• Digital games and monetization firm Azerion has raised $242M through a bond issuance on NASDAQ Stockholm
• Azerion will use the proceeds to refinance the €100M it raised from the Frankfurt exchange in 2020 and make acquisitions
• Through acquisitions such as Habbo Hotel developer Sulake, Azerion has been able to bring more content to its platform, appealing to a wider range of consumers

Huuuge acquires match-3 game Traffic Puzzle for $38.9M (link)

• Poland-based Social Casino game maker Huuuge has acquired match-3 game Traffic Puzzle for $38.9M from Picadilla Games
• The acquisition represents the first significant milestone in the Company’s growth and acquisition strategy after raising $445M on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in February
• Huuuge was already the publisher of Traffic Puzzle and now owns the game, which has seen average daily revenue grow from $12,900 daily in September 2020 to approximately $100,000 a day at the time of signing

PortalOne raises $15M for its mobile game-TV show mash-ups (link)

• Norwegian startup PortalOne announced it has raised over $15M in an over-subscribed seed round
• Investors in the round included Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Atari, Coatue Management, Talis Capital, and TQ Ventures among others
• The Company says it will be the “world’s first hybrid games platform” with entertainment that combines live TV shows within games
• PortalOne is also building its own proprietary technology to enable third-party creators to create content on the PortalOne platform

Epic Games acquires ArtStation to foster an online marketplace for artists (link)

• Epic Games has acquired ArtStation, which operates a marketplace for artists to sell their art, post jobs, and host portfolios
• This partnership underscores both Epic’s and ArtStation’s mission to empower creators with the tools and platforms to thrive
• ArtStation will remain an independently branded platform that Epic Games owns, and it will continue its current operations
• ArtStation will immediately drop its standard fee for art sales in the ArtStation Marketplace from 30% to 12%, matching the fee that Epic charges developers in the Epic Games Store

Zynga-owned Rollic acquires High Heels developer Uncosoft (link)

• Zynga-owned hypercasual studio Rollic has acquired fellow Turkish developer Uncosoft
• Uncosoft created the Rollic-published High Heels, one of most downloaded mobile games of 2021, with 60 million installs to-date
• PortalOne opened its beta in June 2020 and aims to fully launch in the US later this year

Others

Wildlife opens indie studio SuperWow Games in Austin and Melbourne (link)

• Mobile developer Wildlife is opening a second independent game studio, SuperWow Games, in Austin, Texas; and Melbourne, Australia
• Lu Gigliotti, who has previously worked on numerous games at Rockstar, Electronic Arts, and Ninja Theory, will lead the studio
• Wildlife recently opened another independent game studio, Never Forget Games, in San Francisco which is being led by Ray Mazza and Mike Duke

Summoners War: Lost Centuria launches on iOS and Android (link)

• Com2uS has released Summoners War: Lost Centuria, a follow-up to its hit mobile game Summoners War: Sky Arena, for iOS and Android devices
• Sky Arena launched in 2014, and the turn-based strategy multiplayer mobile game has achieved more than 100M downloads
• Summoners War: Lost Centuria already has 6M registrations

Sega will launch its first NFTs in summer 2021 (link)

• Iconic Japanese gaming company Sega Sammy has announced it will start selling NFTs “related to its classic IP” from summer 2021
• As part of the announcement, Sega has revealed a partnership with local Japanese game company Double Jump

Gaming Public Multiples