Did you know that LEAF Mobile Inc. is now East Side Games Group Inc. (TSX: EAGR | OTCQB: EAGRF)? The Company is Canada’s leading free-to-play mobile game group. Actually LEAF Mobile Inc. acquired East Side Games Inc. in early 2021 for C$159M, but has clearly decided that rather than keeping the name as a subsidiary it is a better name for the whole company.
The name change was announced in December 2021. CEO Darcy Taylor commented about the name change saying: “We’ve been working on this change for some time, and it represents a change in our trade name; not our purpose, our vision, our structure, or how we operate and it comes at an exciting time in the Company’s growth as we ramp our launch slate of new games and further scale our Game Kit partners.”
Some of East Side Games (formerly LEAF Mobile Inc.) popular free to play mobile games
Source: East Side Games Group website
East Side Games Group expands the Mighty Kingdom partnership
East Side Games Group recently announced an expansion of its publishing and Game Kit partnership with Mighty Kingdom Games Pty Ltd for the world wide release of three additional free-to-play mobile games on iOS and Android. The games are expected to launch during 2022 and 2023 and will be published by East Side Games. The company’s CEO, Darcy Taylor stated:
“This expanded partnership with Mighty Kingdom is a testament to the quality and performance of our Game Kit technology that allows for a material decrease in the typical build to launch timeline for mobile games developed on the platform. Having Australia’s largest independent game developer join us for an additional three games speaks volumes about our platform.”
As you can imagine, in the mobile games development world, speed to market is important, as is the publisher’s brand name, portfolio of games, and distribution. In the case of East Side Games Group, they rate well in all areas.
East Side Games Group to list on the LSE
Perhaps more exciting for investors is that East Side Games Group will soon be listed on the London Stock Exchange (“LSE”). The Company stated in November 2021: “This secondary London listing is part of LEAF’s growth strategy and brings Canada’s largest free-to-play mobile game group to the LSE. The net proceeds of the capital raising will be used to further scale the business.”
East Side Games Group revenue is forecast to more than double in the next two years
East Side Games Group’s revenue in 2021 is forecast to be C$90M and rise to C$201M in 2023. If achieved, it would be a more than doubling of revenue in just 2 years. This is up enormously on 2020 revenue of C$31M, making East Side Games one of the fastest growing mobile games publishers/developers. Clearly East Side Games Group is very serious in accelerating their growth to capture as much as possible from the booming mobile gaming market.
Facts about Mobile gaming
- Newzoo – Mobile games are expected to reach 2.6 billion players and generate revenues of USD 90 billion in 2021, representing more than half of the global games market in terms of revenue.
- Games are also the most dominant category within the mobile applications ecosystem with gaming accounting for more revenue on iOS than every other category combined.
- Sensor Tower – Games accounted for 66% of all App Store revenue in 2020, approximately USD 47.6 billion was spent on iOS games in 2020, up 25% from 2019.
Closing remarks
Investors may be familiar with the name LEAF Mobile Inc. from some of our past articles here on InvestorIntel. The latest changes are really a new company name, which I think better matches the company’s core business of being a games developer and publisher.
East Side Games Group continues to grow its portfolio of game development studios, publisher partnerships, and mobile games which is now translating into rapidly growing revenues for the Company.
New exposure on the global stage via the LSE listing can only benefit the Company further. Stay tuned in 2022.
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