Dun Rite Games
Strategy-Based Mobile Video Game
Company Information
Dun Rite Games is targeting the $68 billion mobile gaming market.
It’s developing a mobile strategy game titled “Lore, Skins, and Game Mechanics.” This is a “base building" game where time is the greatest resource. Basically, over time, users gain the ability to upgrade their resources, weapons, and defense systems so they can get ahead.
Dun Rite completed a demo version in January 2018 and, one month later, attracted nearly $900,000 in funding from investors and super-fans from all over the world. The company plans to release its game in May 2019.
Co-Founder Jake Dobbins was inspired to start Dun Rite based on his time as a mobile game reviewer on YouTube. For the past four years, he's made informative videos on “Clash of Clans,” a popular mobile war game produced by Finland-based game giant Supercell.
His video channel attracted more than 109,000 subscribers, and his videos were viewed more than 26 million times. On the videos, Dobbins expressed his frustrations about "Clash of Clans" and, specifically, its disregard for player feedback.
Dobbins then decided to take his YouTube followers’ feedback and create his own mobile game.
“Lore, Skins, and Game Mechanics” will be free to download and play. However, the game will offer several in-game purchases — including special items for the game’s characters, upgrades intended to speed up gameplay, and a player-to-player marketplace powered by cryptocurrency.
According to its team, Dun Rite is the first company to have *multiple* paid services, which will help maximize revenues.
As for mobile gaming more generally, this market has achieved double-digit growth in each of the last 10 years. By 2021, this sector is expected to be worth $106 billion.
At the same time, the mobile gaming market has experienced significant M&A activity — for example:
In 2014, Microsoft acquired Minecraft, a popular video game, for $2.5 billion…
And in May 2018, Zynga acquired mobile game developer Gram Games for $250 million.
The industry has also achieved success with the release of Fortnite, an online video game created in 2017. In less than two years, Fortnite has generated more than $1 billion in in-game sales, including $618 million during a two-month span in 2018.