Social games on Facebook aren’t a big topic in Japan at the moment, but Zynga Japan has announced it translated one of the parent company’s biggest hits, Empires & Allies, into Japanese. The game has so far been available in English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, and seven other...
Startup Laboratory: Social Game Maker Klab Enters VC Business [Social Games]
Tokyo-based (and newly listed) social game maker Klab is entering the venture capital business. The company’s newly launched subsidiary Klab Ventures has announced it will establish a VC firm together with major Japanese VC SBI Investment this month. Both partners will hold a 50% stake in the...
MySpace Japan Office To Close In February [Social Networks]
It’s not a big surprise: MySpace Japan will close its office early next year, according to Japanese news site IT Media. According to the report, MySpace in the US will manage the Japanese version starting February 1, 2012. MySpace Japan was established as early as November 2006, but the...
Socialbakers Shows Facebook Now Has Over 6 Million Users In Japan [Social Networks]
Facebook Japan now boasts over 6 million registered users, if you believe the newest data coming from social media analytics service Socialbakers. To be more concrete, Facebook counts 6,267,540 registered Japanese members – again, according to Socialbakers. In other words, Facebook added...
On GREE: Capcom’s Biohazard Outbreak Survive Gets Smartphone Version [Social Games]
It took them a while, but Capcom has finally rolled out the smartphone version of Biohazard Outbreak Survive on GREE (Biohazard is the Japanese brand name for Resident Evil, Capcom’s super-popular horror action game series). The social game version was first launched on GREE for Japanese...
MissionGate: Index Opens “France’s First Social Gaming Platform” [Social Games]
Tokyo-based Index has announced the launch of MissionGate, which is “France’s first social gaming” platform, according to the company. Why would a Japanese mobile contents provider open such a platform in France of all places? The answer is simple: back in 2004, Index bought a...