By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
DeNA partner Namco Bandai launched One Piece Grand Collection, a social game based on the super-popular manga and anime, on Mobage. The company is pitching the title as a social figure collection game, which features various characters from One Piece as virtual figures (see below). Not too...
After opening pre-registration back in December, Konami has launched BE-BOP-HIGHSCHOOL for Mobage on feature phones (official website). The new title is a social card battle game, in which players have to collect cards featuring characters from the 1980s high school manga the title is based on...
Following Joynt and entag!, Japan is getting another new mobile social gaming platform, and it’s certainly the first of its kind in the world. The platform, which has no distinct brand name, was launched by DMM, a large online video distribution site that’s mostly known as a premier...
How does Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley think about the future of Japan’s social gaming industry? I posted some data from JP Morgan back in June, and here’s some recent projections and interesting industry stats from Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley. First, some estimates on the size of the...
Japanese blogger and Google employee Fumi Yamazaki has written a piece on social games in Japan today, and it’s surely worth a read. The most interesting bit of information is the following graphic that highlights the fundamental differences between the business models of Japan’s social...
It took them a bit longer than Konami, but now Namco Bandai also owns the bragging rights of having 10 million registered users on social games on the Japanese market. The company announced it has reached the milestone on January 12. According to Namco Bandai, their three Gundam–based social...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry