DoDonPachi series developer Cave announced on April 13 that it expects to raise a capital of approximately 95 million yen (about $597 thousand USD) through third-party allotment of shares (as reported by GameBiz). These funds will be used for the development of new console games amidst Cave’s recent financial difficulties.
As explained by the company, the almost-$600k-capital is to be raised by issuing 145,000 new shares to Natsuko Yoshinari, who is the chairwoman of Cave’s board of directors as well as the company’s largest shareholder. Yoshinari offered to contribute her own funds to support Cave’s medium- to long-term growth “at her own risk,” according to the announcement.
It’s worth noting that following the shutdowns of Cave’s live-service games Meteor Arena Stars and Outrankers (the latter of which was live for only three months), the company posted an operating loss of 1.009 billion yen (about $6.33 million USD) for the first three quarters of the fiscal year ending May 2026. While Cave still has two mobile titles running as the core of its game business, the developer has recognized, as detailed in the new announcement, that the mobile game market is growing increasingly competitive, with development costs soaring and dev cycles growing longer. Consequently, Cave has set its eyes on building a new revenue base by targeting the global console game market.
The new capital raised through Yoshinari’s investment will be put towards developing new console games, leveraging the game development know-how and IP utilization capabilities cultivated by Cave so far.
