There’s huge money to be made in games, especially if you’re the developer of a hot property like Supercell. The team behind the popular iOS (and recently beta testing for Android) Clash of Clans has sold a 51 percent controlling stake in its company to Japanese telecoms firm Softbank and developer GungHo Online Entertainment, in a mega-deal worth $1.5 billion.
This is the latest in a line of strategic relationships with GungHo, which could easily pick up the online business for Supercell. The CEO of the company, Ilkka Paananen, said in a statement yesterday:
“We have received a strategic investment of $1.5 billion from SoftBank and GungHo. This new partnership will accelerate Supercell towards our goal of being the first truly global games company, and gives us enough time to get there…
At Supercell, one of our greatest aspirations is to become the first truly global games company, one that has a strong foothold in both the West and the East, including Japan, Korea and China. We want to build a company that people all over the globe will look back in 30 years and talk about all the great games that we developed and the impact they had on people’s lives. The same way I personally feel about Nintendo, for example.
This is a lofty goal and getting there takes persistence, passion, and luck – but just as importantly, it takes time, and requires a lot of patience. Even if we have had a pretty good start on our journey, it is still very early days. Creating history takes time.”
Source: GamesIndustry International
