By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
Some people thought I went out on a limb when I speculated that Japan’s social gaming industry will get regulated “soon” four weeks ago (the post was later translated into Japanese by tech blog Startup Dating). But exactly that’s what’s very likely to happen. And as I...
There’s no doubt that there’s a lot of money in Japan’s social gaming market to be made: GREE and Mobage operator DeNA alone are projected to hit up to US$2 billion each in sales this fiscal year (see here and here). Both companies make around 90% of their money with virtual item...
GREE was said to be interested in buying US-based OMGPOP (which was then acquired by Zynga), but today the company announced it bought Funzio, a game maker based out of San Francisco (GREE International is headquartered in SF’s China Basin). GREE paid US$210 million to make the deal happen...
GREE has just announced it has rolled out its third mobile social game in the US, Dino Life. The Android-only game’s dedicated website in English is here, while it can be downloaded on Google Play (for free) here. GREE explains: Dino Life opens the doors to a lush world where players can...
GREE‘s success or failure as a platform outside Japan depends on the number of high-quality developers the company will be able to rope in. Today GREE International announced progress on that front: two US-based social game makers agreed to join GREE’s globally integrated platform...
As its Ameba-based social gaming platform is around the corner, CyberAgent sure needs some creative firepower to be able to develop as many games internally as possible. The company announced that it invested in Hoolai, a Beijing-based game developer that’s backed by Sequoia China, Greylock...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry