king
Latest
Candy Crush maker's IPO values company at more than $7 billion
King, the company behind the Candy Crush saga filed its IPO today, but is the maker another Zynga (Farmville), another Rovio (Angry Birds) or something else again? Nearly 100 million users play Candy Crush every day, and while the company's titles remain free to play, it depends on virtual goods, additional levels and content purchases to bring in the cash. Selling shares at $22.50, it's raised around $500 million for the company and its early investors, valuing King at around $7 billion. The company apparently isn't going public because it needed the money, however, but because it will give the company stock it can use to make acquisitions... and let investors cash out if they want to. Shareholders will be pushing the gamesmaker to repeat the success of Candy Crush, something that more recent titles, like Farm Heroes saga, haven't (so far, at least) been able to accomplish.
Candy Crush studio King seeks up to $7.6 billion IPO valuation
Candy Crush Saga makers King Digital Entertainment Plc, says it expects to price its initial public offering at $21-$24 per share, valuing the company at up to $7.6 billion. King, which became notorious within the games industry after trademarking and enforcing use of the common word "Candy," saw its revenue grow to $602 million in Q4 2013 from only $22 in the first quarter of 2012. Though King's portfolio features 180 games for mobile devices, Facebook and through its own site, analysts note that most of the company's growth was directly linked to its Candy Crush games and questioned whether King could maintain its growth rate going forward. "I think the valuation of a P/E ratio of 13 for a high-growth company is indeed reflecting a skepticism about the ability to continue growing at such a rapid pace," professor and IPO expert at the University of Florida Jay Ritter says, according to Reuters. "The ability to come up with future games and get people to pay for the game is a big question mark." Analysts are quick to compare the high valuation to that of social gaming giant Zynga, which has had its stock price sliced in half since its IPO debuted in 2011 at $10 per share. According to Reuters, "of the 22.2 million shares on sale in the offering, the company will sell 15.5 million, while stockholders, including Apax Ventures, will sell 6.7 million shares." King's IPO is set to be priced on March 25 and will now begin trading under the NYSE symbol 'KING' on March 26, after recently delaying the plan to prove its worth. [Image: King Digital Entertainment Plc]
The company behind Candy Crush withdraws US trademark application for 'candy'
A few weeks ago, a group of game developers launched Candy Jam in protest of Candy Crush maker King's attempt to trademark 'candy.' The result? A barrage of rage inspired confectionary-themed titles were submitted to Apple's App Store. Well, it seems those efforts weren't for naught as King has confirmed withdrawing its application to lock down the sugary term in the US. Citing the acquisition of the rights to the Candy Crusher title, the company believes it's the "best option" for locking down IP stateside. However, this doesn't impact the EU trademark that sparked the original protest from devs. Of course, there's that IPO coming up soon, too. We reached out for comment and a spokesperson for the outfit offered the following: King has withdrawn its trademark application for Candy in the U.S., which we applied for in February 2013 before we acquired the early rights to Candy Crusher. Each market that King operates in is different with regard to IP. We feel that having the rights to Candy Crusher is the best option for protecting Candy Crush in the U.S. market. This does not affect our E.U. trademark for Candy and we continue to take all appropriate steps to protect our IP.
King withdraws 'candy' trademark attempt [Update: King issues statement]
Candy Crush Saga developer King has withdrawn its trademark application for the word "candy," reversing a controversial move and potentially leaving developers free to create candy-themed mobile games without fear of legal action. King requested abandonment of its broad trademark on February 24, following a recent opposition statement from the International Game Developers Association. King's trademark was approved for publication in January. "Our IP is constantly being infringed and we have to enforce our rights and to protect our players from confusion," a King representative stated following the trademark's publication approval. The trademark application's complete history is documented under the "Prosecution History" subheading here at the United States Patent and Trademark Office website. King's related attempt to trademark the word "saga" remains under suspension. [Update: A King spokesperson clarified the company's decision. "King has withdrawn its trademark application for Candy in the U.S., which we applied for in February 2013 before we acquired the early rights to Candy Crusher," the spokesperson said. "Each market that King operates in is different with regard to IP. We feel that having the rights to Candy Crusher is the best option for protecting Candy Crush in the U.S. market. This does not affect our E.U. trademark for Candy and we continue to take all appropriate steps to protect our IP."] [Image: King]
IGDA makes opposition statement to King's 'Candy' trademarks
The International Game Developers Association has issued a statement opposing King's recent Candy Crush Saga trademark filing, criticizing the developer's "predatory" attempt at owning and controlling the words "candy" and "saga" across all gaming platforms. The organization plans to leverage its Business and Legal Special Interest Group to investigate the filing. King's "candy" trademark was recently approved for publishing by the US Patent and Trademark Office, giving developers and organizations 30 days to oppose the mark's final publication. "While we understand and respect the appropriate exercise of Trademark rights," IGDA executive director Kate Edwards said. "King's overreaching filing in its application for the Trademark for its game 'Candy Crush Saga,' and its predatory efforts to apply that mark to each separate word contained in that name, are in opposition to the values of openness and cooperation we support industry wide, and directly contradict the statement King's CEO, Riccardo Zacconi, made on January 27th." Edwards continued: "Our Business and Legal Special Interest Group will be providing a more comprehensive analysis of this issue from its perspective soon." King targeted indie developer Stoic Studio last year, claiming that its title The Banner Saga was "confusingly and deceptively similar to [King's] previously used Saga marks." King relented in the following months, stating that it "has not and is not trying to stop Banner Saga from using its name." [Image: King]
The folks behind Candy Crush Saga think their company is big enough to go public
Heard of game development studio King? No, right? You're forgiven, as most folks don't know the name of the studio behind one of the world's most popular games right now: Candy Crush Saga. Sure, it might just be Bejeweled with free-to-play mechanisms built in, but over 93 million people played it last month. Yes, really. And with those kinds of numbers, King apparently believes it's large enough to go public -- the company today filed for its initial public offering (IPO) with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Unexciting financial jargon aside, this means that King's hoping to raise a ton of cash (it's unclear how much) by offering stock to prospective investors; The New York Times is saying King "is expected to seek a multibillion-dollar valuation". If all of this sounds awfully familiar, that's because FarmVille-maker Zynga pulled the same move just over two years ago -- the story hasn't been as positive in the following years. Like Zynga, King is largely dependent on a single game for its enormous userbase (the 93 million who played Candy Crush Saga in December are pulled from an overall pool of 128 milllion -- over 70 percent of King's entire consumer base). Of course, only time will tell if King will ascend from one-hit wonder, like the Zynga example, to mega-franchise purveyor, a la Rovio with Angry Birds.
Daily Roundup: Super Bowl XLVIII survival guide, iWatch rumors and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Candy Crush dev King pulls Pac-Avoid following copycat accusation
King has pulled Pac-Avoid, the game indie developer Stolen Goose recently accused the Candy Crush Saga developer of cloning. Stolen Goose alleged that Epic Shadow-developed Pac-Avoid was a direct clone of its own 2009 game, Scamperghost, which the developer pitched to King before backing out of the deal to bring the game to rival online game portal Max Games. "The details of the situation are complex, but the bottom line is that we should never have published Pac-Avoid," King CEO and Co-Founder Riccardo Zacconi wrote on the company's website. "We have taken the game down from our site, and we apologise for having published it in the first place." Zacconi added that this "unfortunate situation is an exception to the rule," stressing that the developer "does not clone games, and we do not want anyone cloning our games." He noted that King performs "a thorough search" of existing games and reviews trademark filings to avoid infringement. Former Epic Shadow developer Matt Porter responded to King's retraction of the game, calling King's claimed thorough search of games in the marketplace "an obvious lie." "Our only additional term to the deal, was that the Epic Shadow branding not be placed in the game, as we found the entire project to be sketchy and we wanted nothing to do with it post-release," Porter wrote. This is the latest in King's controversial saga, in which it trademarked the word "candy" in order to deny mobile clones of Candy Crush Saga. King also set its sights on The Banner Saga developer Stoic Studio, opposing its application for "Banner Saga." Zacconi said King will not enforce the use of its trademarked word "saga" on Stoic Studios, but opposed the application to "preserve our own ability to protect our own games."
Indie dev claims Candy Crush Saga publisher King copied its game
Indie developer Stolen Goose has leveled a public complaint against Candy Crush Saga publisher King.com, alleging that the casual games company deliberately cloned its game after a licensing deal fell through. According to developer Matthew Cox, Stolen Goose pitched its enemy-avoiding game Scamperghost to King in 2009 but later backed out after striking a more lucrative licensing deal with a rival online games portal. King responded by publishing a clone of Scamperghost, doubling down on its similarity to Namco's Pac-Man by giving it the new title Pac-Avoid. King claimed that it was looking into licensing similar games when the Scamperghost deal fell through, but Stolen Goose alleges that this turn of events was more than coincidence. Speaking with Pac-Avoid's developer, Stolen Goose learned that King ordered another indie studio to specifically clone Scamperghost, citing a nonexistent breach of contract as justification. According to Stolen Goose's report, the developer was additionally requested to finish its clone before Scamperghost could hit the market. King trademarked the word "candy" this week in a bid to curb mobile clones of its hit Candy Crush Saga, and recently targeted The Banner Saga developer Stoic Studio over its use of the word "saga."
Banner Saga dev will make another 'saga' game despite King's trademark
Candy Crush Saga developer King says it isn't trying to strip Stoic Studio's The Banner Saga of its name – but a legal opposition to the word "Saga" remains in action, Stoic says. In a statement on its website, Stoic says it's making another game in the Banner Saga universe, regardless of King's trademark attempts: "We won't make a viking saga without the word Saga, and we don't appreciate anyone telling us we can't. King.com claims they're not attempting to prevent us from using The Banner Saga, and yet their legal opposition to our trademark filing remains. We're humbled by the outpouring of support and honored to have others stand with us for the right to their own Saga. We just want to make great games." In December, King claimed The Banner Saga was "confusingly and deceptively similar to [King's] previously used Saga marks," but just yesterday said it wouldn't take action against Stoic. "King has not and is not trying to stop Banner Saga from using its name. We do not have any concerns that Banner Saga is trying to build on our brand or our content," King said. King has also filed to trademark the word "candy," and that one has been approved for publication in the US, giving the public 30 days to file opposition against the mark before it becomes law. King said it already trademarked "candy" in the EU because its IP "is constantly being infringed," but it won't enforce the mark against all uses of the word. "Some are legitimate and of course, we would not ask App developers who use the term legitimately to stop doing so," King said.
The Candy Jam invites devs to make games using the industry's litigious vocabulary
In response to news that Candy Crush Saga developer King has trademarked the word "candy," and has begun enforcing it in a way reminiscent of patent trolling, indie devs Cariboo and UUAV have established The Candy Jam. The Candy Jam invites developers to make games involving the litigious world of sweets, throwing "bonus points" behind teams that make liberal use of other common words dredged up in recent outrageous trademark fillings, such as "scroll," "saga," "edge," and more. The game jam is open to developers from today through February 3. Why hold a gamejam revolving around the current candy saga? "Because trademarking common words is ridiculous and because it gives us an occasion to make another gamejam," the event's website proclaims.
Candy Crush Saga dev won't oppose The Banner Saga's name
Stand down, everyone: Candy Crush Saga developer King won't attempt to enforce a trademark on the word "saga" against Stoic's The Banner Saga. GI.biz reports that King claimed in December The Banner Saga was "confusingly and deceptively similar to [King's] previously used Saga marks" but King has issued a statement to make it clear it's not trying to take out the RPG: "King has not and is not trying to stop Banner Saga from using its name. We do not have any concerns that Banner Saga is trying build on our brand or our content." Although King is doing exactly what it's supposed to do from a business standpoint to protect its product names, trying to trademark words like "saga" and "candy" is a bit laughable to the outside world. King doesn't officially hold these trademarks yet, and is moving to protecting its interests in this preliminary phase. If you need a recent example of two games that clashed over the use of a common word, you need look no further than the lawsuit between Bethesda Softworks and Minecraft creator Mojang over The Elder Scrolls and Scrolls, respectively. If Bethesda didn't protect "scrolls," it could have lost the trademark. That story also ended amicably with lawyers getting paid and Scrolls retaining its name through a license. In less litigious news, it seems The Banner Saga will soon be coming to an iPad near you. "We are definitely bringing [The Banner Saga] game to tablets, I believe our first port will be iOS, but obviously nothing is set in stone as of yet," Alex Thomas of Stoic Studios told PocketGamer.
Candy Crush dev: we won't enforce against all uses of 'candy' trademark
Candy Crush Saga developer King said it will not enforce against all uses of the trademark "candy." This follows news that the broad trademark was approved for publication in the United States, granting the public 30 days to file opposition against the trademark once published before King receives a certificate of registration for the mark from the USPTO. "We have trademarked the word 'CANDY' in the EU, as our IP is constantly being infringed and we have to enforce our rights and to protect our players from confusion," King told Gamezebo. "We don't enforce against all uses of CANDY – some are legitimate and of course, we would not ask App developers who use the term legitimately to stop doing so." The developer first applied to register the trademark with the USPTO in February 2013 and was granted approval for publication by the examining attorney last week. King also applied to trademark the term "saga" in regards to online and multiplayer video games with the USPTO in late 2011, though that application is currently suspended.
Candy Crush dev's 'candy' trademark approved for publication
The US Patent and Trademark Office has approved the trademark "candy" for publication for King, the developer of the hit free-to-play match three game, Candy Crush Saga. King filed an application with the USPTO for the trademark in February 2013, which was updated last week to note its approval for publication by the examining attorney. If it's published without opposition, the trademark grants King the exclusive use of the term "candy" in video game and clothing products. Once published, the public (namely, developers of games and apps that use the word "candy") has 30 days to issue a statement of opposition to the trademark office before a certificate of registration is handed to King. The phenomenon isn't new, as another social games developer threw its weight around with its seemingly broad trademarked terms: Zynga sent cease-and-desist letters to developers like Blingville LLC and Kojobo for the use of its now-trademarked suffix "ville" in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
Candy Crush dev delays IPO to prove its worth, announces new game
Candy Crush developer King has delayed its stock market launch until next year in order to establish its worth beyond a single standout hit in the social and mobile gaming markets, The Telegraph reports. In a bid to prove that it's not just a one-hit wonder, King announced that it will bring its Facebook hit Farm Heroes Saga to iOS and Android devices in 2014. Boasting match-three gameplay in the same vein as King's Candy Crush Saga, Farm Heroes Saga will sync save data with Facebook, allowing players to resume their progress and unlock new levels on any supported platform. Rival social game publisher Zynga began public trading on Nasdaq in 2011, but faltered when it failed to follow up on the success of its Farmville games. Rovio faced similar concerns with its Angry Birds series, announcing recently that it has no plans for an initial public offering.
Even the Candy Crush developers are worried that they're a one-hit wonder
Candy Crush Saga (you know, that über-successful puzzle game that's almost exactly like Bejeweled, which, by the way, is superior in every way... but I digress) is successful on a level that most developers never even dream of. To date, the game has been downloaded more than half a billion times. That's fantastic for its creator, a London-based mobile game company named King, but it also poses a bit of a problem for its potential IPO, Telegraph reports. The game's runaway success is a concern for potential investors because King hasn't proven its ability to duplicate the winning formula. The epic debut, spike and subsequent decline of Zynga's stock price is still fresh in everyone's mind, so to help assuage Wall Street's worries, King is putting a hold on its bid for a Nasdaq listing until it can prove it won't pull a Vanilla Ice. So if you were hoping to cash in on the Candy Crush hype, you'll have to wait until an unspecified 2014 window to do so.
King claims 70 million daily active players, Pet Rescue Saga coming soon to mobile
King, which used to be called King.com it pulled a name change at GDC this year, has announced that it has 70 million daily active players, which is a crazy number. By far, King's biggest title is Candy Crush Saga. The company notes that the game has 15.5 million active players on Facebook every day. Candy Crush Saga is also a big hit on iOS, where it consistently appears in the top charts for both most downloaded and top grossing. King also announced its intention to bring Pet Rescue Saga to iOS. That game has 6 million daily players on Facebook, and King says it will be the third saga game (along with Bubble Witch Saga) to make the leap to mobile platforms. Pet Rescue Saga will arrive on both iOS and Android later this summer. King's success is just phenomenal. It's impressive for any form of media to reach 70 million people, and for that to happen daily is just crazy. This casual games market can blow up overnight and shrink just as fast (just ask Zynga), but for now, King is doing impressively well.
The Elder Scrolls Online regales us with the history of a king
Pour a tall mug o' mead, my friends, and prepare to be entranced with the tales of The Elder Scrolls Online. ZeniMax's scribes have crafted a particularly cunning tale of Jorunn the Skald-King for you to enjoy. As Jorunn is one of the key figures in TESO, we figure it's a good thing to keep tabs on him and his history. The short story tells of his upbringing and ascension to the throne of the Ebonheart Pact. The team indicated that we should expect two more stories covering the other faction leaders. Give the short story a read and let us know whether this man is the type of fictional character that your fictional character will swear fealty to or not!
Anduin Wrynn: Then and Now
Blizzard made a lot of changes to World of Warcraft with Cataclysm, and has been exploring some of the bigger changes through its "Then and Now" series. Previously, Blizzard discussed how Garrosh has changed from The Burning Crusade through Cataclysm, as well as how Thrall changed since his debut in Warcraft III. Now, their eyes are on Stormwind and the boy prince, Anduin Wrynn. Anduin's biggest changes actually happened outside of the game world, most notably in the World of Warcraft comic series and in Christie Golden's companion novel to Cataclysm, The Shattering. In The Shattering, Anduin comes into his own through a series of adventures with Jaina Proudmoore, and by participating in the burgeoning dwarven civil war between the clans at Ironforge. The prince finds his path with the Light, determined to become a priest instead of becoming a warrior like his father. His character has grown considerably since his inception, with Blizzard making a concerted effort to move his story forward against the backdrop of the cataclysm. I was a fan of Anduin in The Shattering because he was written to be a spiritual opposite of his father. While Anduin retained his father's caution when dealing with the Horde, he seemed more open-minded, forgiving, and willing to compromise on things above and beyond him. There is definitely groundwork being laid for a strong, compassionate leader, something the humans have not truly had since Varian's kidnapping and King Terenas Menethil of Lordaeron.
Mac OS 7 logos turned into playing cards
Dr. Macenstein found these awesome old-school Apple playing cards, featuring logos icons from the olden days of Mac System 7, adopted for a standard playing card deck layout. There's no word on just what the origin of these is -- if they're official or unofficial -- but supposedly they've been seen on eBay for up to $150 before. [Yes, these were official but only available to Apple employees, as we pointed out when we posted about them last time. - Ed] The pack seen in the pictures was on sale but has since been purchased, so you'll have to hunt down your own copy if you want one for yourself. The rest of us will have to just sit back and enjoy the designs on this. I wonder what a playing card deck using iOS or even app icons would be like.
