Rise in sales for mobile game giant DeNA, but still work to be done

As profits continue to drop at Japan-headquartered social game publisher DeNA, the company is betting on its upcoming first and second-party titles to revitalize its business. The company's profits have dropped over the last three fiscal quarters, and were down year-over-year for the first quarter of the 2013 fiscal year. Notably, MobaCoin consumption (DeNA's virtual currency) in Japan has dropped during 2013 for first and second-party DeNA titles (second-party games may use external IP, but are operated or developed by DeNA in-house). But DeNA is looking to turn this around. The performance of its third-party titles is still strong, and over the remainder of this current fiscal year, the company plans to launch around 60 new first and second-party titles in Japan, and 20 titles in Western territories. The company says that its Western operations in particular are contributing heavily to its finances, with multiple titles in the top grossing charts in the U.S. -- Marvel: War of Heroes, Blood Brothers and Rage of Bahamut are all selling well. Mobage West managed to achieve profitability for the first time during the month of June, and DeNA believes that it can turn a profit for its Western operations during the next fiscal quarter. For the quarter ended June 30, 2013, DeNA recorded revenues of 52.2 billion yen ($542.4 million), up 10 percent year-over-year, and profits of 9.6 billion yen ($99.7 million), down 4 percent year-over-year, and down 21 percent from the prior quarter.