TORONTO, Oct. 02, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kuuhubb Inc. (“Kuuhubb” or the “Company”)(TSXV: KUU), a mobile game development and publishing company focused on providing the female audience with creative interactive gaming experiences, is pleased to announce the expansion of its current portfolio into the popular Match-3 genre with the pending commercial launch of two new titles, Dance Talent and Tiles and Tales.
1st Generation Foundation (Recolor, Recolor By Numbers, Incolour, My Hospital)
Kuuhubb is building a leading lifestyle game portfolio and is solidifying its position as industry innovator, focusing on the female demographic. The Company’s first-generation gaming assets, Recolor and My Hospital have generated revenues in excess of USD 33M and the Company continues to work on improving the user experience, overall quality and monetization of those titles. Kuuhubb has distinguished itself in the highly competitive digital colouring apps market, estimated in value at approximately USD 100M annually (Sources: Sensor Tower, FMG), and will commercially release Recolor By Numbers during 2019 to grow its community and expand its demographic to a younger audience.
2nd Generation Diversification and Expansion (Match-3: Tiles & Tales, Dance Talent)
Kuuhubb continues to diversify its portfolio and has two titles for the Match-3 gaming market under development. Match-3 puzzle, or “tile matching” games, require players to connect pieces on a board by swapping or linking them, completing levels that typically get progressively more difficult. The growing Match-3 market is estimated to generate over USD 5B annually and 78 percent of the segment’s players are women (Sources: Sensor Tower, FMG). Kuuhubb’s next generation Match-3 games, Dance Talent and Tiles & Tales, take the basic tile matching concept and expand by adding visual and story-based progression through a so called ‘meta game’. Meta games enable a higher level of player interaction through characters and stories and result in enhanced engagement and increased longevity of the games.
Dance Talent features a unique 3D dance narrative allowing players to create characters that they can use to advance through puzzle levels while unlocking dance outfits and accessories and mastering dance styles such as Salsa, Waltz, Quickstep, Street and the Charleston among many others. The game has been in soft launch since November 2018 and Kuuhubb anticipates its commercial launch later this year.
Tiles & Tales is the Company’s second Match-3 title and the first game developed entirely in Kuuhubb’s Helsinki Game Studio. Tiles & Tales is also the first game in the market to combine the Match-3 and visual novel genres and has an anticipated commercial release date of early 2020. Tiles & Tales was partially funded with a non-dilutive, Finnish government grant of approximately €1M and was developed using an in-house developed Match-3 engine. The Kuuhubb Match-3 engine will enable the Company to significantly decrease the resources and time required to bring new titles to market. More importantly, the existing technology will allow the Company to quickly evolve with the speed and innovation required for long-term success in a constantly changing gaming landscape.
3rd Generation Evolution (Casual Match-3 Mobile Esports & Battle Royale)
Kuuhubb intends to use its in-house technology and experienced development teams located in Helsinki, Finland and Zagreb, Croatia to leverage its existing communities built through its Recolor franchise to enter the gaming industry’s latest phenomenon, esports. The Company believes that female gamers are underserved in this segment even though women make up nearly a third of the players participating in the most popular Battle Royale, or multiplayer elimination, games. Kuuhubb sees a significant opportunity in the casual, mobile esports game niche and plans to combine the immensely popular casual and Battle Royale genres to create a unique title for the female gaming market.
Jouni Keränen, CEO of Kuuhubb Inc., commented, ‘We are excited to soon commercially launch the second generation of Kuuhubb games. During the last few years we have reached a stable level of growth through Recolor and continue to believe in the colouring market as an interesting segment. As we continue to innovate, the company is now entering the largest female gaming segment; Match-3. Our two-phased approach will focus first on high-quality Match-3 games with an engaging meta-game, and second on highly social and competitive casual esports games. These new games will build on the foundation of Kuuhubb’s strengths; community, user experience, deep understanding of female users and strategic partnerships, and are a natural evolution for the company’s future growth.’
About Kuuhubb
Kuuhubb is a publicly listed mobile game development and publishing company, targeting the female audience with bespoke mobile experiences. Our presence, investment and knowledge in esports enables us to bring emerging casual mobile esports to our apps and games portfolio. We create games and apps that help our female audience relax, express, and entertain themselves every day. We explore new lifestyle trends that can be converted into games and apps and offer our community unforgettable gaming and esports experiences. Our vison is to become a top player in the space of women´s mobile gaming and casual esports. Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Kuuhubb has a global presence with a strong focus on the North American market and a plan to expand into the growing Asian market.
Cautionary Note Concerning Forward-Looking Information
This press release contains forward-looking information. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future (including, without limitation, statements relating to future revenue, products and development and growth of the Company’s business) are forward-looking information. This forward-looking information reflects the current expectations or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to the Company. Forward-looking information is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking information, and even if such actual results are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on the Company. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, risks related to the growth strategy of the Company, the possibility that results from the Company’s growth and development plans will not be consistent with the Company's expectations, the early stage of the Company's development, competition from companies in a number of industries, the ability of the Company to manage expansion and integrate acquisitions into its business, future business development of the Company and the other risks disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's annual information form dated November 8, 2018 filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which it is provided and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking information are reasonable, forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such information due to the inherent uncertainty therein.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
For further information, please contact:
Kuuhubb Inc.
Jouni Keränen – CEO
jouni@kuuhubb.com
Office: +358 40 590 0919
Bill Mitoulas
Investor Relations
bill@kuuhubb.com
Office: +1 (416) 479-9547
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c948cd22-f8ef-43e6-9a67-84779612d089