International Games System Co (IGS, 鈊象電子) has a new growth driver this year, forging a partnership with Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海).
The nation’s largest video and online games developer yesterday said its online mobile games would be available on smartphones assembled by Hon Hai from this quarter.
“We are the first and only Taiwanese game developer to work with Hon Hai to catch the business potential in the Chinese online mobile game market,” IGS deputy spokesman Josh Hsu (許偉良) told reporters after an investors’ conference.
The company will install at least five mobile games in Hon Hai-made handsets this year, Hsu said, adding that the first mobile game to be installed would be IGS’s Slots Paradise, which features more than 10 slot games with various themes.
“We will receive 60 percent of sales generated from every online mobile game installed in a handset,” Hsu said, without elaborating on the sales contribution from the partnership with Hon Hai.
IGS is optimistic that sales of the online mobile game would grow from last year’s NT$180 million (US$5.75 million) to between NT$350 million and NT$500 million this year, excluding the revenue contribution from Hon Hai’s partnership, Hsu said.
The company’s online mobile game segment accounted for 10.97 percent of its total revenue of NT$1.64 billion last year, according to the company.
Apart from the collaboration with Hon Hai handsets, IGS is also teaming up with Hon Hai to build a mobile game platform for the Chinese market, Hsu said.
However, he stopped short of the cooperation details, citing a confidentiality agreement it has signed with its client.
Sales in the company’s arcade games segment, which contributed 55 percent of its total revenues last year, is also expected increase 20 percent year-on-year on the back of new product launches and strong demand from China and Malaysia, Hsu said.
IGS said it believes that sales from the arcade game segment would significantly increase in the second half of this year if Italy further deregulates the industry, Hsu said.
“However, we can only pray that the regulations will be relaxed as soon as possible,” he said.
Meanwhile, IGS is also to partner with an international slot-machine maker in a bid to seek various growth drivers this year, he said, adding that the firm plans to launch the products this summer.
As a result, net profit this year is forecast to continue rising from last year’s NT$228.5 million, which was up 93.38 percent from 2013, Hsu said.
Last year’s earnings per share were NT$3.26.
Sales for this year are also expected to grow by a double-digit percentage from last year’s NT$1.64 billion, driven by the rising demand for mobile games and arcade games, he said.
IGS shares closed up 3.21 percent at NT$128.5 in Taipei trading yesterday, ahead of the firm’s investors’ conference, outperforming the TAIEX, which gained 0.97 percent.
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