By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
At a press conference in Tokyo today, Sony (6758) detailed its next attempt to move into the mobile gaming business. The big idea this time is to turn existing PlayStation IP into smartphone games, via a wholly owned subsidiary called Forwardworks. In my view, the 10 titles shown today can be...
Sony sure seems to be in need of a lot of cash at the moment. In the last few days and weeks, the company sold off: the Sony Building in New York for US$1.1 billion the Sony City Osaki Building in Tokyo for US$1.2 billion and a portion of its stake in online medical service subsidiary M3 Inc. for...
Ten days after changing the brand name of “PlayStation Suite” to “PlayStation Mobile” during the E3, Sony Computer Entertainment President Andrew House gave an interesting interview to Japanese business daily The Nikkei today. House said that the Android-based mobile game service will be...
Rakuten apparently believes in the future of e-books: the company announced they have reached an agreement with Sony, Panasonic, and major book retailer Kinokuniya to cooperate in the development of an industry standard for e-books in Japan. The goal is to do away with barriers that exist between...
Sony Music Network Japan released Recotsuku on Mixi, a social game that lets player take on the role of a music label boss. The aim is to bring the company the company by finding and negotiating with bands, selling their songs, setting up record stores, etc. Other Mixi members can help in the...
Generally speaking, Japan has always been a tough nut to crack for Western mobile game developers: In my experience of over 15 years working in this business, only China is more difficult to enter. But there is also a handful of European and American companies that are very successful in this...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry