Wicket Gaming acquires the game Idle King
December 20th, 2022 at 08:30
Wicket Gaming AB (publ) has today acquired the free-to-play (F2P) game Idle King from the German game studio Motap. The acquisition is part of the company's ambition to establish itself in more game genres and thus broaden the game portfolio. Through the acquisition, Wicket Gaming becomes the owner of the digital rights and technology behind Idle King.
Idle King is a casual arcade/simulation game that has been downloaded over 450,000 times since it was launched. The game has a Google Play rating of 4.3 and a corresponding rating in the Apple App Store of 4.5. The game has shown good margin (33 percent) in terms of revenue related to acquisition of new players (user acquisition - UA). At the same time, the average revenue per daily active user (ARPDAU) has amounted to 0.10 USD, which is very good within the arcade/simulation genre where the top-ranked games have an average of 0.04 USD during the test launch phase.
Idle King is planned, after minor optimizations, to be released globally during Q1-2023. The developers behind the game are the German game studio Motap, which also owns the game studio Ahoiii - a company that has developed 40 apps, including all the children's games in the "Fiete" series, which have been downloaded over 17 million times.
The acquisition is financed through newly issued shares in Wicket Gaming following the upcoming preferential rights issue in Q1-2023. The purchase price is to be paid in the form of newly issued shares in Wicket Gaming, in an amount equal to two percent of the share capital of Wicket Gaming, after the rights issue announced on December 2. Depending on the number of shares issued in the rights issue, the purchase price can thus vary between 296 601 (if only the guaranteed minimum level in the rights issue is subscribed) and 389 555 (if the rights issue is fully subscribed). The shares will be issued at a price of 4 SEK, which means that the purchase price (rounded) can amount to between 1.19 and 1.56 MSEK.
In addition to the purchase price in the form of newly issued shares, a profit sharing with Motap will take place regarding the acquired game during a three-year period. The profit sharing means that Wicket Gaming will receive 70% of generated profits and Motap 30%, after deduction of costs for marketing, development and store fees.
The newly issued shares paid as a purchase price will be subject to a lock-up commitment by Motap in twelve months from the closing of the transaction and the delivery of the shares, which is expected to take place at the turn of the month February / March 2023.
Wicket Gaming will take possession of the gaming rights with immediate effect and Motap will assist with its development team over the next few months.
Idle King KPIs:
Retention Data: Players Returning to the Game
Day 1: 36%
Day 3: 14%
Day 7: 6.5%
Day 28: 1.4%
ARPDAU (Average revenue per daily user): 0.10 USD
Top Game Benchmark - Arcade/simulation (Source: GameIntel
The data is latest Q4 Y 2022)
Day 1: 28%
Day 3: 11%
Day 7: 6.5%
Day 28: 1.7%
ARPDAU: 0.04 USD
Link to Idle King - Google Play
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.motap.idleking&hl=en&gl=US
Link to Idle King - App Store
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/idle-king-tycoon-tap-games/id1479539390?l=en
Eric de Basso, CEO of Wicket Gaming, comments:
"We are incredibly excited about the acquisition of the game Idle King which has top KPIs within its genre. At the same time, we are starting a collaboration with the developers at Motap who are behind the very successful gaming company Ahoiii. We see significant potential in Idle King and have big plans to use its game engine to release more games within new concepts, such as sports like cricket."
For further information, please contact:
Eric de Basso, CEO, Wicket Gaming AB
E-mail: eric@wicketgaming.com
Phone: +46 70 780 52 00
This information is such information that Wicket Gaming AB is obliged to publish in accordance with the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted through the care of the above contact person, for publication on 2022-12-20, at 08:30.
About Wicket Gaming
Wicket Gaming is a Swedish game development company founded in 2015. The company's business concept is based on developing and distributing so-called free-to-play games in the sports genre based on proprietary brands. Since its inception, the Company has worked to develop its first title, Cricket Manager, which is a manager game in cricket for mobile devices that aims to create and own its own cricket club and compete against other players around the world. The goal is to create one of the world's most popular cricket manager games for mobile devices and to use a technical platform to broaden the game portfolio to include other sports manager games.
For more information, see Wicket Gaming's website www.wicketgaming.com