King Digital Entertainment, the creator of Candy Crush Saga, reported lower-than-expected revenues for the second quarter, forcing the company to reduce its forecast for the year.
One of the major factors of the decline, according to King Digital Entertainment, is that players are spending less money on Candy Crush Saga.
In an earnings press release, the company reported revenues of $594 million for the second quarter, which is an increase compared to the reported revenue of $456 million in the corresponding quarter last year. However, the figure falls short of the $608.3 million in revenues that was expected by analysts.
King Digital Entertainment, however, announced a special dividend worth $150 million, equivalent to 46.9 cents per share, which will be payable to shareholders of record by Sept. 30. Shares of the company, however, declined 22 percent in after-hours trading in the New York Stock Exchange after posting a closing price of $18.20.
The 2014 forecast for the company in terms of gross booking, initially set between $2.55 billion and $2.65 billion, was reduced to $2.25 billion and $2.35 billion.
Gross bookings, an indicator of the company's future revenue, for the second quarter was reported at $611 million, which is an increase of 27 percent compared to gross bookings in the second quarter of 2013 but a decrease compared to the $641.1 million reported in the previous quarter.
"We have seen a step down in monetization in the latter part of Q2 and so we have adapted the view forward," said company CEO Riccardo Zacconi.
Investors in King Digital Entertainment, which went public earlier in the year in March, are worried that the company will continue to decline unless it creates another hit as popular as Candy Crush Saga at its peak.
If the company is unable to do so, King Digital Entertainment may continue to lose players, which is the same thing that is happening to Zynga, the creator of Farmville, and Rovio, the creator of Angry Birds.
The company's newer titles, which includes Farm Heroes Saga and Bubble Witch 2 Saga, have not lived up to expectations of making up for the losses of players in Candy Crush Saga, which accounts for around 60 percent of the company's gross bookings.
King Digital Entertainment CFO Hope Cochran believes, however, that the sister title of the Candy Crush Saga, which will be released in the fourth quarter, will provide additional longevity to the puzzle game.
The company said that it has released eight new titles since the end of the first quarter, bringing the total number of games that the company holds to over 190.
