DeNA snaps up $92M stake in 'Rage of Bahamut' developer Cygames

DeNA is acquiring a 20 percent stake in Cygames, the developer behind the blockbuster mobile game Rage of Bahamut. The deal, valued at $92.4 million, is expected to close late next month.

A trading card-based social game set in a sword-and-sorcery world, Rage of Bahamut launched on DeNA's Mobage social gaming platform earlier this year and went on to top download charts in both Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) App Store for iOS and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Play for Android. Despite multiple studies indicating that Android apps and games typically yield a fraction of the revenues generated on the iOS platform, DeNA states that Rage of Bahamut has earned comparable daily revenues across both operating systems, adding that while most leading casual games generate average revenues per daily active user between 15 cents and 25 cents, Bahamut is driving revenues as much as four or five times higher.

Rage of Bahamut's popularity also is cited as a major catalyst behind DeNA's successful expansion from its native Japan into the U.S. market. Its Mobage West division, which targets North America and Europe, now offers a catalog in excess of 80 titles, including Blood Brothers, Marvel: War of Heroes, Quests & Sorcery and HellFire.

Earlier this week, DeNA reported record-high fiscal second-quarter revenues of $627 million, up 45 percent year-over-year. Moba-coin, the Mobage platform's virtual currency, raked in $700 million from Japanese consumers. Moba-coin consumption also rose to $30 million outside of Japan, and Mobage West's average revenue per daily active user now tops $1.

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