GungHo aims to overtake Nintendo

Rising Japanese’s publisher GungHo wants to overtake Nintendo as the world’s top game developer.

The publisher, which is currently riding high on the success of its mobile hit, Puzzle & Dragons, has seen its sales leap more than nine times its reported revenue of 30.9 billion yen (£200m) for the first quarter of 2013.

Such a surge has given the companies CEO the view that its capable of surpassing Nintendo, which, despite its faulting in overseas territories, still see strong sales in its home nation.

“I want to top Nintendo’s sales by the time I retire,” Chief Executive Officer Kazuki Morishita, said in an interview with Bloomberg.

“I want to make people think whatever GungHo does is fun,” like they do at Nintendo, Morishita said. “I respect Nintendo.”

GungHo’s shares have risen more than 13-fold in 2013, compared with a 10 per cent gain for Nintendo. For two days this month, the company’s market value overtook that of Kyoto-based Nintendo.

However, whether it will be able to keep up such momentum in the long-term is uncertain. GungHo fell 5.3 per cent to 1.135 million yen on the Osaka Securities Exchange’s Jasdaq market. The stock has fallen 27 per cent from a record close of 1.55 million yen on May 14.