Re: You're having a giraffe...
>the firm made $567.6m last year on revenue of $1.88bn
>Are Sony and MS close to extracting all the money from their customers on consoles?
Wrong model here.
Candy Crush is a hit, sure. Will their NEXT game be a hit? That is the question.
Regular games companies, like our "beloved" EA have oodles of games to milk. Many are flops, but the occasional hits are intended to make that up. In addition, with complex games you can always revisit NHL 2014, Call of Duty VIII and other not-very-inventive re-warmed stalwarts that will sell.
Can you do resell the V2 of a simple game? In an apps context where users expect to have free updates? You can, but my guess it'd better be a massive improvement.
The model that wannabee _stockholders_* should look at are established game companies or movie studios** that have an arms length, mostly financial, relationship with the companies creating the actual product.
Not buying potentially one-two-hit wonders like Zynga or King. Or at least not at those valuations.
8B$ indeed.
* Wannabee emitters of IPOs on the other hand will see nothing wrong whatsoever with your assessment.
**It's taken the EAs, Sonys and Lions Gate of this world decades to fine-tune that type of risk management and they still mess it up on occasion.