Marvelous scores success in arcade business with new Pokémon machines, plans to establish a new office in China   

Rune Factory developer Marvelous recently released a financial report for their amusement sector for the second quarter (July to September) of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025. As reported by GameBiz, net sales rose due to the success of overseas expansion efforts, however profits fell due to the costs of replacing old Pokémon arcade machines in Japan with Pokémon Frienda. 

For July to September 2024, Marvelous’s Amusement Business reported a 2.7% year-on-year increase in sales to 4,388 million yen, while segment profits fell from 24.3% (YoY) to 1,206 million yen.  

Marvelous Pokemon arcade business success

In July, a new Pokémon arcade machine developed and manufactured by Marvelous was launched in Japan. Pokémon Frienda is a touch screen game aimed at young children, and rewards chips featuring different Pokémon each time a game is played. These chips can be collected or used to summon a particular Pokémon on the machine. Although the initial cost of manufacturing and installing Pokémon Frienda machines led to a drop in profits, the new game got off to a strong start, with over a million Pokémon chips distributed in just one month. 

Marvelous will launch TRY CATCH, a new type of claw machine, in Japan this month. They also report that the overseas performance of a previous generation of Pokémon arcade machine (Pokémon Ga-Olé) continues to be strong. According to the official website, the machine is currently available in five Asian territories outside Japan. 

As part of their global expansion efforts, Marvelous established a new subsidiary in Singapore in August, which will serve as the Asian headquarters of their Amusement Business. They are also planning to set up a representative office in China. 

As previously reported, Marvelous’s overall net profits for the first half of the fiscal year dropped by 92.9% due to a lack of new game releases and the aforementioned costs of replacing older arcade machines.