The target audience for the announcement also includes the investors for Square. The following is a quote from one of the analyst covering Square-Enix:
2015年3月20日
Games Sector
Square Enix and Nexon Jointly Developing Mobile Version of Final Fantasy XI;
First Real Smartphone MMORPG
Haruka Mori (81-3) 6736-8632 haruka.mori@jpmorgan.com (AC)
* Could mark start of full-scale mobile MMORPGs: Square Enix Holdings
(9684, Overweight) made three announcements on March 19 regarding Final
Fantasy XI (FFXI), an MMORPG that launched in 2002. First, the company will
partner with Nexon (3659, Neutral) in developing a mobile version of the
game for launch in 2016. Second, Crooz will launch a native mobile spinoff
this year called Final Fantasy Grandmasters that shares FFXI's world and
characters. Third, Square Enix will make its last major update for FFXI
this May and end support for the PS2 and Xbox360 versions in March 2016
(leaving only the PC version). We are especially interested in the first
of these. Full-scale MMORPGs have until now been kept out of mobile by
constraints on hardware specs and network environments, and we think
FFXI's launch here could breathe new life into this otherwise mature
market. MMORPGs are also not that easy to develop, suggesting that
competition could be less severe than for existing mobile genres.
We see mobile MMORPG as a new growth driver for companies with sufficient
expertise in development and operation and will be watching to see how the
market ramps.
* Implications for Square Enix: FFXI users are currently charged a flat
fee, but the partnership with Nexon leads us to believe the mobile version
will combine free basic play with in-app charges. We see this enhancing
the game's top-line potential assuming a user base on par with that for
the console and PC versions (in-app charges tend to yield higher ARPU than
flat-rate). We also think the move to mobile could attract new users to an
MMORPG market that has until now targeted mainly hardcore gamers in Japan,
the US, and Europe. We perceive strong medium-term potential here for
Square Enix given its comparatively strong presence in this market among
Japanese game companies. However, we also think the share price could
remain under pressure for now due to concern over a possible writedown of
the content production account at end-FY3/15 and FY3/16 guidance risk.
* Implications for Nexon: Nexon has so far been a laggard in mobile games
apart from in South Korea, and we think any takeoff of full-scale mobile
MMORPGs could give it an opportunity to rectify this. In particular, we
think a leading franchise like FFXI could jump-start Nexon's presence in
Europe and the US, where it has continued to struggle (FFXI will be
launched sequentially in Japan, South Korea, North America, Europe, and
Asia). However, while we believe Nexon's ample lineup of new games from 2H
FY12/15 supports a favorable medium-term risk-reward profile, we also
think any bump that the shares get from the FFIX announcement would
probably be short-lived in view of lingering uncertainty on the Chinese
business and poor prospects for stronger earnings momentum through 3Q.
Companies Discussed in This Report (all prices in this report as of market
close on 19 March 2015) Nexon (3659) (3659.T/Â¥1,190/Neutral), SQUARE ENIX
HOLDINGS (9684) (9684.T/Â¥2,447/Overweight)
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respect to each security or issuer that the research analyst covers in
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Disclosure Removed for Brevity