Mobile gaming is a difficult market and, despite how lucrative it can be for mega-hits, it’s been home to a lot of failures. The market is still waiting to see how golden child King Digital Entertainment plc (NYSE:KING) performs in the medium term, but they may be missing out on its rival, Glu Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ:GLUU). The $580 million concern is due to report its earnings in early August.
Analysts from Benchmark reckon that Glu Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ:GLUU) results could benefit from a lot of upside as the company takes advantage of market opportunities that nobody else is touching. The company’s game Kim Kardashian: Hollywood is currently one of the most popular on iOS, and, though mostly ignored in the investment world, could bring the company to the attention of a wider public.
Glu Mobile breaks barriers
According to analyst Mike Hickey, who authored the Glu Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ:GLUU) report for Benchmark, recent achievements provide evidence that suggests “GLUU has been able to create multiple mobile game hits, where others have failed.” The company’s fortunes appear to be looking up after the massive success of Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, which was released in the last week of June,and Dino Hunter Deadly Shores, which was just released last week.
Both games have been doing well on the iOS download charts, and the Kim Kardashian game is now one of the top grossing games on the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) mobile platform. The company went above and beyond usual efforts by successfully monetizing a celebrity brand. EA has already licensed many television, movie and gaming properties to form the basis of their own mobile games.
According to the Benchmark report Glu Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ:GLUU) stands to bring in $31 million in revenue in the next quarter from the Kim Kardashian game alone. The company’s shares are currently trading for around $6.40, up 65% since January 1.
Mobile gaming remains a mystery
No mobile gaming company has been able to demonstrate lasting success. Big players like Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) and King Digital Entertainment plc (NYSE:KING) tend to have a mega hit followed by a plethora of less successful satellites. Electronic Arts is the only firm that has a variety of different, and successful, games, but that company is leveraging assets that most new market players have no background in. Glu Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ:GLUU) may be different, and analysts from Benchmark reckon that’ll show up in the company’s second quarter report.
It’s difficult to get a hit in mobile gaming and it seems next to impossible to secure a string of hits in a row. If early indications from Glu Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ:GLUU) recent releases hold up in the medium term, the company may become a new favorite in the mobile gaming world. It’s managed to not only release multiple games to great success, it’s managed to do so in different genres. Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) and King Digital Entertainment plc (NYSE:KING) have both made efforts to stick to the genres they know, and are often met with consumer fatigue after a couple of iterations.
