(AOF) – In agreement with the Board of Directors, Sean Brennan tendered his resignation from the position of CEO of Focus Entertainment on May 16 with immediate effect. As part of this change in governance and in order to pursue the development of the video game specialist’s strategy, the Board of Directors, which met on May 16, took the decision to combine the functions of Chairman of the Board of Directors and Managing Director and to appoint Fabrice Larue as CEO.
As Chairman of Focus Entertainment and on behalf of the Board of Directors, Fabrice Larue confirms the desire to pursue the strategy initiated in recent years and to support the teams of the Focus Entertainment group who have the full confidence of the Board.
Focus reaffirmed its confidence in the execution of the 2023/24 roadmap. In addition, after announcing a record high turnover of 194 million euros at March 31, 2023, the group confirmed that it expects a strong improvement in operating profitability for the 2022/23 financial year.
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Historical decline of the Chinese market
This year, the Chinese market, the world’s largest ahead of that of the United States, should register a decline of 2.5% compared to 2021 (to 45.44 billion dollars), according to the research firm Niko Partners. This trend is due to the 5.1% decline in the mobile segment, which represents almost two-thirds of the market, due to the limitation of playing games for those under 18 years old. At the same time, the authorities did not issue any authorization for the release of Chinese video games for a period of 263 days. Mobile titles also suffer from Apple’s mechanism – App Tracking Transparency (ATT) – which restricts advertising targeting within applications downloaded from its App Store. However, the decline in the Chinese market should be temporary. By 2026, the number of players should cross the 750 million mark for a sector then weighing more than 53 billion dollars.