By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
Japan’s top smartphone game Puzzle & Dragons hit 29 million downloads, maker GungHo Online Entertainment (3765) announced today. The number was reached inside Japan only (on iOS, Android, and Amazon Kindle). What’s interesting to note here is that the growth rate, the time it takes Puzzle...
If you have accessed this site over the past few weeks, you may have noticed this banner popping up quite prominently: The banner links to the site of my consultancy, “Kantan Games, Inc.” (in English and Japanese). “Kantan” is Japanese for “simple” or...
Major Tokyo-based magazine publisher Enterbrain has released an update on the status quo of the Japanese console game industry. According to the owner of Japan’s biggest video game magazine Famitsu, the domestic market in the first half of 2014 reached US$1.685 billion in size, having moved...
As its big competitor, Mobage operator DeNA (2432), GREE (3632) is still waiting for its first big hit on smartphones. Today, GREE’s new subsidiary “Wright Flyer Studios”, which was established earlier this year, is trying again with a new app. “Ten To Daichi Megami No Mahou” (roughly:...
After quite a long time, Puzzle & Dragons maker GungHo Online Entertainment (3765) has released a new mobile game in Japan today, Picotto Kingdom. In contrast to recent GungHo games like Summons Board or Divine Gate however, this title is not “original” but based on Picotto Knights...
According to a report just published in the Nikkei Keizai Shimbun Online, LINE Corp. is planning to combine user data with a cloud CRM solution from Salesforce.com to deliver targeted ads to the users of its messenger app. The new ad service is exclusively aimed at companies that are operating...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry