By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
It has been a very rare occurrence for a new mobile game in Japan to break into the top 10 grossing rankings (and to stay there, at least for a while) for a very, very long time now. I would say Japan’s last real “mega blockbuster” was Fate Grand Order by Aniplex, an RPG that...
Game data provider KADOKAWA Game Linkage just published the top 10 grossing mobile games for Japan during CY2019. Here is the overview (gross sales, Japan domestic only, iOS and Android combined) – based on the company’s estimates: 1) Fate/Grand Order from Sony (6758)...
Shortly after DeNA (2432) and GREE (3632) pioneered the concept of mobile gaming as the world knows it today (free-to-play business model, bite-sized content embedded in social networks to increase stickiness, data analysis to improve monetization, etc.) in 2006/2007 on feature phones, a flood of...
GameBank released Orbit Saga in Japan today, a 3D action RPG for smart devices. It’s the first app released by the developer set up in January this year by Yahoo Japan (4689), the country’s biggest online company (see my previous Gamebank posts). Orbit Saga is trying to blend typical mobile...
Here is an updated calendar of major free-to-play native apps that publicly traded Japanese mobile game makers have announced for the coming months. Please note that these titles can be modified, canceled, or released at any given time. The list isn’t necessarily exhaustive, as games can...
The Oculus Rift boasts a rabid fan base in Japan, with many users over here setting up communities, organizing events all over the country, and, of course, developing applications for the VR system. Quite surprisingly, Colopl (3668), one of Japan’s biggest mobile game makers (US$3 billion...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry