By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
GREE is apparently killing it on smartphones, specifically on the iPhone. According to a recent statement by GREE CEO Yoshikazu Tanaka, his company’s sales coming from smartphones grew by 655% from June to October. Tanaka also mentioned one specific, very interesting data point that made...
After DeNA finally got the green light to buy professional baseball club Yokohama BayStars, the team unveiled the final name and a new logo (see below). What’s bad for DeNA is that the club isn’t called Mobage BayStars but DeNA BayStars – even though this was known before, the...
First the GREE–DeNA lawsuit, now this: Tokyo-based social game maker Klab has sued competitor Crooz for copyright infringement. Both companies are listed (Klab just went IPO in September). Klab is asking for 55 million yen (US$710,000) in damages. The company claims that Crooz infringed on...
Does Mark Zuckerberg buying a full-page ad on the New York Times and addressing the American nation sound ridiculous? Yes or no, something similar happened in Japan – just with Yoshikazu Tanaka instead of Zuckerberg, and Japanese newspapers like Yomiuri, Asahi or Nikkei instead of the NYT. In...
In September this year, GREE‘s US-based subsidiary GREE International has bought advertising space on a billboard on Highway 101 in San Francisco: Fast forward to December, and GREE is getting more aggressive in attracting talent in the US. Again, the company is planning to double its staff at GREE...
CyberAgent has announced the launch of Animal Land, a city management simulation, on Facebook for the PC. The social game is available in English and can be accessed here. CyberAgent explains: ‘Animal Land’ is a city management game where players must explore land, build houses and shops, and...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry