The iCandy Interactive Ltd (ASX: ICI) share price is backtracking in mid-morning trade. This comes despite the company announcing the successful completion of a trial for its new Claw Stars game.
At the time of writing, the games and digital entertainment company's shares are fetching for 9.4 cents, down 6%.
Strong results from trial
Investors appear unfazed by the company's latest update, sending iCandy shares lower.
In its announcement, iCandy advised that throughout the early-trialling of Claw Stars, its studio team were receiving feedback from gamers. In response, iCandy's developers made changes to the game-play and mechanics, learning from past experience with Masketeers.
As a result, Claw Stars recorded the highest ever retention rate, achieving day-1 and day-7 of 46% and 18%, respectively. In comparison, Masketeers reached retention rates during its early access trial of 37% and 8% over the same time frame.
iCandy noted that retention rates are an important metric to measure how well a game will perform when launched. The mobile gaming industry considers retention rates as an early indicator of a game's future revenue potential. While only day-1 and day-7 were recorded, the company explained that longer duration retention rates are not normally tracked. This is because the mobile game genre falls under a causal mobile game in which consumers pick up from time-to-time.
Claw Stars is scheduled to launch worldwide in June 2021, with pre-orders and pre-registrations already being accepted. So far, over 78,000 pre-orders have been made within the first week. iCandy stated that the game will be available on both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.
About the iCandy share price
The iCandy share price has gained more than 320% over the past 12 months and has fallen 25% year-to-date. The company's shares reached a high of 23.5 cents in November 2020, before weak investor sentiment kicked in.
Based on the current share price, iCandy has a market capitalisation of roughly $53 million, with 578.9 million shares outstanding.
