By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
Japan is the only country in the world where social games are being advertised on national TV on a regular basis. The newest title to get the TV promotion treatment is Final Fantasy Brigade, Square Enix’ first social version of the popular RPG franchise. Final Fantasy Brigade is doing very...
Why are GREE and Mobage operator DeNA monetizing better than global social gaming juggernaut Zynga? That’s the question I tried to answer in a presentation I gave a few weeks ago. The 14 reasons I came up with are by no means covering everything that can be said about this topic, but I do...
Just a few weeks after investing in Wizcorp, GREE acquired a stake in another Tokyo-based social game maker. GREE has invested an undisclosed sum to buy 49.2% of GeePlus, recently spun off of digital content company Polygon Magic. As GeePlus was formally established just a few days ago, the startup...
I don’t know what it is with GREE and airports, but following the Haneda and Narita airports in Tokyo, GREE decided to install promotional banners in the US, too. Pictured below is a set of banners currently being used at the international airport in San Francisco (where GREE International...
LINE, the incredibly popular social networking/messenger app from NHN Japan (the Tokyo-based subsidiary of the Korean web company), is to become a platform for other apps soon. During an industry event in Sapporo, NHN Japan CEO Morikawa said that he will lay out details on how he intends to turn...
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...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry