Bullet hell shooter dev Cave sees gaming sector profits decline but anticipates upturn
Japanese game company Cave, known primarily for their shmups like the DoDonPachi and Deathsmiles series, announced their results for the first half of the financial year (from June to November 2024) as well as some insight into their future plans (as reported by GameBiz).
In Cave’s gaming sector, sales revenue increased to 5.799 billion yen (up 15.3% year-on-year), however sector profit was 305 million (down 48.8% year-on-year).
The company cites the release of new mobile title Meteor Arena by its subsidiary Deluxe Games (known for operating hit Japanese mobile title Monster Strike) as a reason for this decline in operating profits. Cave also incurred advertising costs and other non-production-related expenses in relation to the new title. However, moving forward, Cave is aiming to implement improvements to Meteor Arena based on player feedback and boost its popularity.
Cave’s mainstay shmup titles continued to perform well, driving up sales revenue. Promo events and new merchandise for the first anniversary celebration of Touhou Gensou Eclipse in November drove up sales of the mobile bullet hell shooter, which features popular Touhou Project characters. Cave continued to update their popular 2015 smartphone shooter Gothic wa Mahou Otome, using their own IP to add new content to the game. This included Mushihimesama characters added to the game to celebrate that series’ 20th anniversary as well as a Espgaluda II event.
The renowned bullet hell shooter dev also announced that they plan to strengthen their popular IPs. This includes having characters from their well-known games appear in other titles (like in the example above) as well as bolstering brand recognition, including overseas. As part of this strategy, Cave released physical Switch editions of Mushihimesama, Espgaluda II and DoDonPachi Resurrection in Europe in September 2024. They also have a new project in the works from an all-star dev team including Capcom veterans like Street Fighter II designer Akira Nishitani and composer Yoko Shimomura (more on that here).
Cave’s overall financial results for the first half of the fiscal year (ending May 2025) are as follows. Cave expects their revenue to increase in Quarter 3 and 4.
Net sales: 6,363 billion yen (up 23.5% year-on-year)
Operating profit: 329 million yen (down 41.3% year-on-year)
Ordinary profit: 451 million yen (down 38.1% year-on-year)
Net profit: 396 million yen (down 35.3% year-on-year)
