King to delay IPO over ‘one hit wonder’ fears

Candy Crush Saga developer King is reported to be delaying its highly anticipated IPO due to concerns the company could be a “one hit wonder”.

The remarkable success of the game helped King overtake Zynga as the top dog in the social games space, and the upcoming stock flotation has been estimated to reach as much as $5 billion.

But The Telegraph reports that investors could be left waiting as the company fears Candy Crush just might be “too successful.”

The fear isn’t entirely without merit; Zynga was once the hottest IPO in the games scene as well, but it wasn’t long before investors realized that social games weren’t all as profitable as FarmVille.

When the Facebook IPO launched and crashed, the social game maker’s share price went down in flames.

If King can demonstrate that it can produce another hit like Candy Crush Saga, it might just convince investors to stay on board for the long haul.

Sources close to the company indicate this might already be a given and claim that other titles like Pet Rescue and Farm Heroes are already more successful than Candy Crush was at that stage.

Of course the company already has another thing going for it that Zynga hasn’t been able to equal – mobile success.

Not only is Candy Crush quite popular on Facebook, the game has been downloaded over 500 million times on mobile devices, which suggests that King has a leg up over the competition as the social games scene shifts away from the desktop.