U.S. mobile games studio SGN on Wednesday announced an investment of $130 million from Netmarble Games, the No. 1 mobile games publisher in South Korea.
“Through this major investment from Netmarble, we will use the proceeds for games studio acquisitions, and to accelerate our organic growth,” SGN CEO and cofounder Chris DeWolfe said. “Global market share is a top initiative for SGN and Netmarble is the perfect strategic partner to help us establish a major presence in the lucrative Asian markets.”
The investment positions Netmarble as the largest shareholder in SGN, which was started by MySpace cofounders DeWolfe and Aber Whitcomb with former Fox executive Josh Yguado.
With the partnership, SGN looks to grow their share in Asia, the biggest mobile games market in the world. Similarly, Netmarble will tap SGN’s expertise to expand to the West.
SGN said in a statement that both companies will maintain their independence, but will work closely to share their creative and technological knowledge.
“SGN is a rapidly growing company with proven experience in developing and servicing top grossing casual games in the West,” Netmarble Games CEO Youngsig Kwon said. “With SGN’s many years of experience in global marketing, I am confident that SGN will make a perfect partner for Netmarble to enter the Western market.”
A cross-platform mobile games studio, SGN’s catalog of titles includes “Panda Pop,” “Book of Life: Sugar Smash,” the newly released “Juice Jam” and Facebook’s Game of the Year 2014, “Cookie Jam.” SGN’s games have been downloaded over 500 million times, making them the second largest developer of Casual/Puzzle games in the world, next to King. As the fastest growing sector of the entertainment industry, mobile games are projected to make $30 billion in 2015, the company reports. SGN operates offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Palo Alto and Buenos Aires.
Based in Seoul, Korea, Netmarble Games Corp. has produced mobile games “Marvel Future Fight,” “Chrono Blade,” “Seven Knights,” “Monster Taming,” “Raven,” “Everyone’s Marble” and the “Magu Magu” series and is one of the top five most successful gaming companies in the world.
The mobile games industry is expected to generate over $30 billion in 2015, making it the fastest-growing media sector versus TV, film, print and online, according to an SGN spokesman, and SGN’s highest-grossing games — “Panda Pop,” “Cookie Jam,” “Book of Life” and “Juice Jam” — consistently rank in the top 100 apps by revenue for iOS and Google Play.
Asia is the No. 1 games market and will hit $45 billion by 2018 led by China, Japan and South Korea, according to a January 2015 Digi Capital report.