By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
Following E3, GREE is ready to showcase their newest titles at yet another game industry event: this time, the company will have a booth at the gamescom exhibition in Cologne, Germany (August 15-19). First held in 2009, the event takes place once a year and is one of the largest of its kind (even...
Rage of Bahamut, the social card battle game offered through Mobage‘s international network, has proven to be a smash hit – and a money printing machine. It’s not known how successful exactly (from a financial perspective) the game is, but there are a few pointers that lead to a...
Apparently, things aren’t going too well between DeNA and Namco Bandai, two companies that entered a spectacular partnership right after the Tokyo Game Show last year. Following the deal, Namco Bandai rolled out a number of hit titles on Mobage, i.e. Tales of Kizna, Idolmaster, and mega hit...
Japan’s leading social gaming companies GREE, DeNA, Mixi, NHN, CyberAgent, and Dwango (which established an industry council back in March) have released a new set (Japanese only) of self-regulatory measures. Last month, the industry tackled just the kompu gacha mechanic in a guideline, but...
Unmei No Clan Battle (“The Clan Battle Of Fate”), a mobile social RPG released by Tokyo-based social game maker Pokelabo and Sega today, is off to a terrific start. The iOS title is currently the top free app in the Japanese App Store and shot up to No. 7 in the ranking of the top...
There can be no question that the quality of social games in Japan, from a technical standpoint, is rising. Case in point: Buddy Monster, a 3D social RPG that just hit Mobage. Even though the name is terrible, the game itself actually looks great: after all, Buddy Monster is the brain child of Yuji...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry