When NHN Japan announced its plan to turn messenger app LINE into a platform on July 3, the company showed a list of 3rd-party game providers that are ready to offer smartphone titles linked with the app.
Apart from NHN itself, these are the developers:
- Square Enix
- Konami
- Taito
- Alfa System (a video game maker from Kumamoto, Japan)
- Korean gaming companies BiCore and Enfeel
- Japanese social game makers gloops and dango
- Grasshopper Manufacture
- Rovio
One day later, NHN Japan separately announced an 11th partner for “LINE Game”, namely Korean powerhouse Gamevil.
Details of the deal are relatively scarce, but Gamevil’s smartphone catalogue includes more than 100 titles at the moment, and the company opened an office in Tokyo in December last year.
The picture below shows the CEOs of Gamevil Japan, Jonggu Na (on the left), and NHN Japan, Akira Morikawa: