Gamigo and KingsIsle parent company MGI recently posted its 2022 financial report, and things aren’t looking great for interest and investment into current and upcoming MMORPGs in that sector. The company admitted what we’d already noticed: That it’s been moving away from MMOs in favor of digital advertising — a stance that became more and more obvious as MGI subsidiaries have closed or shunted off game after game. When we counted Gamigo’s portfolio back in January, for example, we were stunned to report that it had shuttered 75% of the games it was running just since 2020.
“Over the years MGI shifted its strategy focus away from premium MMO games and more towards mobile and casual games as the desktop-based premium games offer limited growth potential and synergies with the advertising business,” the report began. “This is primarily due to fewer players per game and a limited potential for in-game advertising. Based on this strategy, some portfolio clean ups were implemented which included the closure of smaller, less efficient PC games. […] Our digital advertising business, which was started four years ago, has now become our core business as well as our primary growth driver.” The company characterizes this switch as a “pivot” into “selling shovels instead of digging for gold.”
Only a handful of specific titles were mentioned as having any bearing on the future of the company, and no, RIFT was not one of them: “The success of the games subsidiaries depends crucially on the success of the major revenue generating top five games being, as of 31 December 2022, Wizard101, Trove, the WildTangent Games Portfolio, Fiesta, and the Extreme Car Driving Simulator. The success of the Games Subsidiaries therefore depends on the success of these games. Any failure or absence of success or technical problems could lead to a loss of sales for one or more of the aforementioned games.”
MGI noted that it sold its 8% minority stake in Enad Global 7 (which is now essentially controlled by Daybreak) back in February.
