Devsisters

Devsisters Corp is a South Korean video game developer based in Seoul. From 2009 onwards, the company has created a variety of games for smartphones and tablets. Its most successful titles are the running game series Cookie Run.

Devsisters Corp.
TypePublic
KRX: 94480
IndustryVideo games
Founded2007 (2007)[1][2]
Headquarters
Seoul
,
Republic of Korea
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Ji-hoon Lee
(Co-CEO)
Jong-heun Kim
(Co-CEO)
OwnerJi-Hoon Lee (27.4%)[3]
Number of employees
approx. 100 (2016)
Websitedevsisters.com

History

Before Devsisters: 2007-2009

Devsisters co-founder and co-CEO Ji-hoon Lee founded the company Extra Standard together with others in 2007 with the goal to develop edutainment software. However, due to the lack of capital the company found itself doing mostly contract work for big businesses, and Lee decided to abandon that line of business.[1] Up until 2013, Devsisters was described as a start-up founded in 2009,[1] but starting with the company's preparation of going public on the KOSDAQ index, it was established that Extra Standard had been renamed to Moblier and later to Devsisters.[2]

Early Years: 2009-2012

Operation under the name Moblier began on January 2, 2009 and was led by Ji-hoon Lee (CEO), Se-joong Kim (COO) and Min-woo Ryu (CSO).[4] The name Dev Sisters (as two words) was initially used as a brand name on the company's mobile apps,[5] until it was officially renamed to Devsisters in April 2010.[1]

Moblier was one of the earliest companies in Korea to approach the new iPhone App Store platform after its introduction in July 2008.[5] Because the iPhone wasn't available in Korea at the time of the company's inception and a game category wasn't introduced to the Korean App Store until 2011, the company initially targeted an international audience.[6]

In its early days, the company also developed utility and entertainment apps before shifting its focus to the creation of video games due to the success of the early title OvenBreak,[1] which was downloaded more than 10 million times and became ranked as the most popular free app on the App Store in 20 different countries by 2011.[7]

Co-founder and COO Sejoong Kim left the company in January 2010 to found Jellybus.[8] Minwoo Ryu likewise left the company in May 2012.[9] In March 2011, Jongheun Kim joined the company as Co-CEO.[1]

In 2010, Devsisters received its first investment of 1 billion Korean won from Com2Us.[7][10] Another investment of 4 billion won by Soft Bank Ventures and MVP Capital followed in June 2011.[11] The company started to grow rapidly, from 10 employees to 52 within one year,[12] and by June 2012, the company had 64 employees.[10] Despite the investments and increased staff, Devsisters could not repeat the success of OvenBreak between 2010 and 2012.[13] The Bell named Devsisters as an example of a mobile game developer where investments hadn't paid off.[14] By 2013, the company was described as a team of merely 12 members.[15]

Only after shifting its focus onto the Korean market, Devsisters saw its biggest success yet with Cookie Run, a spiritual successor to the OvenBreak series released on April 2, 2013 via the messaging app Kakao Talk.[16] It became the #1 top-grossing game on Google Play and #6 top-grossing game on the App Store in May that year, which caused Devsisters to rank #10 among "Top Publishers by Monthly Game Revenue" worldwide on Google Play, according to the Website App Annie.[17] Within 12 weeks, the game was downloaded 10 million times as the seventh game to reach that number on Kakao Game.[18] By April 2014, the number of downloads had grown to 20 million in Korea alone.[12] With Cookie Run, Devsisters generated 61.7 billion Korean won in annual sales and 22.3 billion won in net profits in 2013.[19]

On January 29, 2014, LINE Corporation launched Cookie Run globally (except China and South Korea), with translations into Chinese (Traditional), English, Japanese, Spanish and Thai. LINE Cookie Run surpassed 10 million downloads within 30 days of release, earning the #1 rank among free apps on the App Store in Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Macao, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. The game was especially successful in the latter two countries, where it held the top spot for 13 days.[20] As of April 4, 2014, LINE Cookie Run surpassed 20 million downloads.[21]

At the height of the game's popularity, both versions combined accumulated roughly 10 million daily active users.[22] In April 2016, around the game's three year anniversary, Devsisters celebrated 55 million accumulated downloads for LINE Cookie Run and 26 million for Cookie Run for Kakao.[23]

Devsisters had also signed a deal with the Chinese publisher iDreamsky in 2013.[6] iDreamsky announced the game would be published in China via the messaging app WeChat later in 2014.[24] However, during a month-long open beta phase that started in December 2014 with 16,000 players, the game didn't meet requirements made by platform owner Tencent and thus the service was cancelled. Devsisters announced that it would move its efforts towards other platforms and an expansion onto the Chinese market with the upcoming sequel.[25]

Due to the success of Cookie Run, Devsisters' yearly revenue rose from 800 million Korean Won in 2011[26] to 61.7 billion in 2013.[27]

In October 2013, NHN Entertainment announced the purchase of a 22% share in Devsisters at 5.6 billion Won, 7.4% of which were bought by earlier investor Com2Us, who had previously owned 14.8%.[28] NHN Entertainment stated that they expected a "great synergy between the two companies through joint marketing or development".[29] The relationship led to NHN Entertainment publishing the puzzle game Cookie Run Munjil Munjil, a rebranded version of Disney Tsum Tsum, on May 27, 2014.[30]

On September 21, 2014, Devsisters announced its initial public offering of 2,700,000 shares at 53,000 won per share to be traded under the symbol of "194480" on the KOSDAQ Stock market on October 6.[31] On May 2015, the company announced the establishment of its own subsidiary, the startup investment company Devsisters Ventures.[32]

Sequel Development: 2015-2016

In late 2014, an analyst for Yuanta Securities mentioned in an evaluation of Devsisters: "There’s too much dependency on a single game, which is the biggest risk for the company".[33] By 2015, the popularity of Cookie Run began to wane, resulting in Devsisters' revenue dropping to 19.5 billion Korean Won for that year.[34] In April 2015, Devsisters announced the development of a sequel, tentatively named Cookie Run 2, to be launched globally in the second half of that year.[35] Later the planned release date was stated more precisely for December.[36] A researcher described the development process as "slow, but on track".[37] However, on November 6, Devsisters announced that the game would be delayed.[38]

Under the title Cookie Run: OvenBreak, the sequel was finally soft-launched on the Apple App Store and Google Play in Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Philippines, Netherlands and Sweden on September 27, 2016.[39] On October 5th, it was announced that the game would be published globally (with the exception of China) on the 27th of that month.[40]

Awards and accolades
  • Korea Game Awards 2013 - Best Characters - Cookie Run[41]
  • Korea Brand Power 2015 - Online Game - Rank 3[42]
  • Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific (APAC) 2015 (Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu) - Winner[43]

Products

Games
Title Details
Obey!

Original release date(s):
April 29, 2009		 Release years by system:
iOS (2009)
iRodeo

Original release date(s):[44]
June 6, 2009		 Release years by system:
iOS (2009)
Notes:

Ranked within the Appstore top 10 in Italy, Germany, France and Spain in 2010[1]

OvenBreak

Original release date(s):[45]
June 15, 2009		 Release years by system:
iOS (2009)
Android (2011)
Notes:

Received several major updates 2009-2012
Most downloaded free app in 20 countries, including the US, in 2011.[1]
Downloaded more than 10 million times by 2011[7] and 20 million times by 2013[6]

Alice's Adventures: Rabbit Hole of Death

Original release date(s):[46]
September 29, 2009		 Release years by system:
iOS (2009)
Notes:

Ranked third most popular paid game in Japan in 2010.[1]

Pandadog's Pizza

Original release date(s):
December 19, 2009		 Release years by system:
iOS (2009)
Notes:

Pandadog licensed by Funnyeve

RunAway

Original release date(s):[46]
December 23, 2009		 Release years by system:
Web (Nate Appstore, 2009)
Notes:

First 3D social web game in Korea

Dark Shrine

Original release date(s):
March 9, 2010		 Release years by system:
iOS (2010)
Notes:

Created in cooperation with Hotdog Studio

Burglar Buster

Original release date(s):[47]
May 18, 2010 (2010)		 Release years by system:
iOS
Get THAT Mish! / Fishing for Mish

Original release date(s):[48]
March 22, 2012		 Release years by system:
iOS (2012)
Oh! My Lord

Original release date(s):[49]
July 12, 2012		 Release years by system:
iOS (2012)
OvenBreak 2

Original release date(s):[50]
December 14, 2012		 Release years by system:
iOS (2012)
Notes:

Discontinuation of service announced on December 11, 2013

Cookie Run

Original release date(s):[16]
April 2, 2013		 Release years by system:
iOS (2013), Android (2013)
Notes:

International version LINE Cookie Run published by Line Corporation on January 29, 2014[20]
Downloaded more than 87 million times globally[40]

Solitaire: Decked Out

Original release date(s):
October 10, 2016		 Release years by system:
iOS (2016), Android (2016)
Cookie Run: OvenBreak

Original release date(s):[40]
October 27, 2016		 Release years by system:
iOS (2016), Android (2016)
Notes:

Soft launch in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Philippines, Netherlands, and Sweden on September 27, 2016[39]

Tape it Up!

Original release date(s):[51]
April 14, 2017		 Release years by system:
iOS (2017)
CookieWars

Original release date(s):
August 23, 2018		 Release years by system:
iOS (2018), Android (2018)
Notes:

Soft launch in Canada, Hong Kong, and Thailand on July 26, 2018[52]

Hello! Brave Cookies

Original release date(s):
2019		 Release years by system:
2019
Cookie Run: Kingdom

Original release date(s):
TBA 2021		 Release years by system:
TBA 2021

Other Apps

Besides video games, Devsisters developed and published a variety of other apps for entertainment and utility purposes for the iOS App Store. These include iFan (April 14, 2009), iWhack (April 14, 2009), Smart Timetable (June 15, 2009),[53] Angelizer (October 1, 2009), Giffle (May 27, 2010),[54] and Avatar World (February 4, 2011). On December 14, 2010, it was also announced that Devsisters would publish the social music app for Galaxy tablets Pokem, by KAIST student Jeong-seok Lee, on Korean app market spaces.[55]

References
  1. "Devsisters". Start-up Korea 2011 (in Korean). Seoul: Korea Venture Investment Corp: 24–37. 2011-12-16. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
  2. Park, Je-eon (June 10, 2014). "'Kukireon' Debeusiseuteojeu gongmoga sanjeong eotteoke?" '쿠키런' 데브시스터즈 공모가 산정 어떻게? [How is the public offering of 'Cookie Run' developer Devsisters calculated?]. The Bell (in Korean). The Bell. Retrieved July 9, 2016.
  3. "DEVSISTERS CORP (194480)". 4-traders.com. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
  4. "Hello Moblier Corp". Moblier. 19 January 2009. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
  5. "Segyejeogeuro sonkkophineun sosyeolgeimeopche mandeulgetta" "세계적으로 손꼽히는 소셜게임업체 만들겠다" [We will build a social game company that is acknowledged in the world]. Segye.com (in Korean). Segye.com. February 11, 2010. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
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  53. "Seumateu Taimteibeul - haksaengeul wihan siganpyoui gijun!" 스마트 타임테이블 - 학생을 위한 시간표의 기준! [Smart Time Table - The standard for student time tables]. AppShopper.com. Retrieved November 27, 2016.
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