Gameloft Q2 Sales Up 17 Percent On Strong Mobile Sales

Paris, France-based Gameloft said this week that sales for the second fiscal quarter ended June 30 were up 17 percent to €29.3 million ($41.31 million), thanks to strong sales of mobile titles on Apple's iPhone and iPod, as well as other new mobile devices. Gameloft has numerous popular games available on Apple's AppStore for both the iPhone and iPod Touch, including Let's Golf, Hero of Sparta, Prince of Persia, and Real Soccer 2009. Sales for Gameloft's first fiscal half were €60.1 million ($84.76 million), a 20 percent increase over the first half of the previous year. The company has yet to report earnings, although it said it "expects solid sales and profitability growth in 2009." Gameloft's home territory of Europe is still its main market, representing 38 percent of revenues for the first six months of 2009, followed by North America with 33 percent, and the rest of the world with 28 percent. For the whole of 2008, Europe, North America and the rest of the world represented 43 percent, 30 percent and 27 percent of total sales, respectively. Gameloft said sales of mobile games, which make up 95 percent of sales (sales of downloadable console games make up 5 percent), have benefited from new hardware advancements from Apple, as well as "traditional" phone makers like Samsung and Nokia. "Gameloft continues to win over substantial market share in Smartphones and traditional Java and Brew phones," the company said.