In October, Supercell had struck a USD3 billion deal with the second-richest man in Japan, Masayoshi Son, for the game "Clash of Clans." Supercell agreed with Masayoshi Son of Softbank's offer to acquire a 51% stake in the Finnish company. Son's acquisition was strategic as Softbank reportedly wanted to tap the downloadable games market. Supercell co-founder Ilkka Paananen said in an interview that the said market was robust, with revenues estimating to grow three times to USD3 billion this year.
Paananen said, "We really want to create a new type of gaming company that people would look back in twenty, thirty, forty years and say the company was loved by both of its employees and players. But creating history takes time."
In 2012, a total of USD1 billion came from downloaded games on mobile devices in Japan. According to an estimate made by mobile gaming network Gree, this amount is one-fifth of the worldwide USD5 billion market. Gree also said the revenue of the market in Japan would outpace the overall growth in the global market. Currently, Supercell's mobile game "Clash of Clans" ranked the second-highest game in the Apple application store, according to Bloomberg.
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