■Company Overview

1. HISTORY

Wonder Planet ＜4199＞ was released in 2012/9, and the current president and CEO Tomoki Tsunekawa (Tomoki Tsunekawa) said, “It's fun! to everyday life around the world.” It was established with a mission called. In the everyday lives of as many people as possible around the world, family and friends say, “It's fun!” We aim to deliver moments of laughter, create products and services that everyone can enjoy across all barriers such as country, language, culture, age, gender, etc., and expand “smiles” through communication to every corner of the world. The company's company name is a neologism that combines “Worldwide,” “Nagoya,” “Developer,” “Play,” “Amazing,” and “Network,” and in order to carry through their original intentions, “a development team born from Nagoya will spread surprise and excitement full of fun all over the world.” It contains that feeling. The company actively engages in community-based employment, and the majority of employees working at the Nagoya headquarters are from or graduates from the three Tokai prefectures.

At first, the company continued to be in a situation where it was difficult to be blessed with hit films, but the original title “Crash Fever” developed in-house, which was released in 2015/7, became the first hit work. The title is currently in its 10th year of operation, and it is a long title. After that, “Jump Chi Heroes,” which is an IP title developed in-house, was released in 2018/3 (service ended in 2024/3), and “Alice Fiction” was released as an original title for simultaneous worldwide operation in 2022/7 (service ended in 2024/9). Then, in 2024/6, “Pandland,” which was jointly developed with Game Freak, was released.

It was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mother's Market in 2021/6, and transitioned to the growth market in line with the same market classification review in 2022/4. Also, in 2023/1, a third-party allotment of shares was implemented with Happy Elements Co., Ltd. as the allotment.

2. Business content

The company develops and operates mobile games targeting domestic and global markets, and its main titles include the original titles “Crash Fever” (Japanese version) and “Pandland” (Japanese version) developed in-house. “Crash Fever” has been a long-term operating title with a cumulative total of 14 million downloads since it was released in 2015/7. The company is developing business domestically and internationally under in-house development and joint development with collaborative partners. The titles provided by the company can be downloaded and enjoyed by users for free, and it is a freemium model where billing is required when acquiring some items or expanding functions within the game. Note, there are two methods for providing games: “in-house distribution,” where the company directly provides services to users through a platform, and “other company distribution,” which is carried out through collaborative partners. In the case of in-house distribution, the company receives an amount of money obtained by deducting fees associated with platform use and profit sharing amounts to collaborative partners from the price of items, etc. purchased by the user. Meanwhile, in the case of distribution by other companies, the company receives distribution from revenue received by the distribution source. Note, seasonality can be seen in sales of “Crash Fever” and “Pandland.” Sales of “Crash Fever” tend to increase in the second quarter (year-end and New Year holiday) and fourth quarter (anniversary event period). Meanwhile, “Pandland” has just been released, and they are working to improve return on investment.

Currently, we are focusing on “hybrid casual games,” which have expanded the market size globally in recent years, even within the mobile game market, and the three highly functional departments of the “Universal Corp/Va Game Division,” the “Global Marketing & Creative Division,” and the “EDMO (Engineering & Design Management Office)” cooperate across the entire company to carry out efficient development and operation.

The Universal Corp/Va Game Division plans, develops, and operates mobile games by utilizing the know-how of new development and long-term operation cultivated since its establishment, as well as overseas title management results and IP utilization results, and the Global Marketing & Creative Division carries out marketing within and outside games, including global publishing functions. EDMO is leading the company's technical strategy, technical infrastructure construction, and technical support for each title on a company-wide basis, and is also building a unique development platform “SEED” for “hybrid casual games” at a global level with the aim of improving the quality of each title and maximizing the time spent creating user value and business value such as the fun of games.

The reason behind the company's growth is, of course, collaboration with major companies, as well as development capabilities, which is the foundation. As an example, aggressive promotions in collaboration with United ＜2497＞ contributed to the hit of “Crash Fever.” Also, “Jump Chi Heroes” (service ended in 2024/3) had over 0.5 million pre-registrants and surpassed 1 million downloads in 1 week from the start of the service due to the manga business and LINE stamp business handled by the collaboration partner LINE Yahoo! ＜4689＞.

* The business alliance with Plus You Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of United, was dissolved in 2022/5, and the company moved to independent operation.

However, while there are many advantages to collaborating with major companies, there are also disadvantages where profitability decreases compared to in-house IP. These are issues faced by mobile game companies as a trade-off relationship. In addition to operating and improving existing titles over the medium to long term, the company plans to promote diversification of earnings by creating new titles. We anticipate that sales will expand further due to both the creation of stable hit titles through collaboration with leading IPs of other companies and the creation of high-profit titles through in-house development.

(Written by FISCO Guest Analyst Ryoji Mogi)