By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
Tokyo-based video game maker Yuke’s released Wanko No Jikan (Dog Time) on Mobage today, a social game obviously “inspired” by Nintendogs, the Nintendo (7974) title. Much like in Nintendo’s pet simulation, Wanko No Jikan allows users to pet their virtual dogs, play with them...
“Minna to Monhan Card Master”, a social card battle game based on the popular Monster Hunter action RPG series, has racked up 500,000 users on Mobage. The Capcom title needed just four days (between February 21 – it’s launch day – and February 25) to reach the milestone. Co...
Zynga Japan has been very quiet for a while (the reason being they just weren’t very active or successful in recent months, to say the least), but now the company has rolled out a social RPG with original IP for iOS (Zynga Japan calls it a “Monster Battle RPG”). What’s...
DeNA is clearly more aggressive with regards to the Chinese market than GREE: while GREE’s entry into China is more or less limited to its partnership with Tencent, DeNA China has inked various deals with local companies in the last few months. Now the Mobage operator has added another big...
GREE and DeNA never had a close relationship (to say the very least), but things started getting really ugly – in the public eye- when GREE first sued the Mobage operator back in September 2009. The Nikkei has released this handy overview that lists up all legal disputes between the two arch...
A long battle in court has come to an end (for now): back in September 2009, GREE sued DeNA for infringing the copyright on their hit social game Tsuri Star. The title, a fishing game, was (and still is) one of GREE’s biggest money makers. GREE says DeNA has copied elements like Tsuri...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry