By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
I attended almost every Tokyo Game Show event in recent years, and up until now, makers of social games (or online games in general, for that matter) were almost none present. But times are changing: GREE has announced it will not only take part this year but also occupy 120 units of the space...
It’s no secret anymore that Konami has landed a super hit with Dragon Collection, a fantasy card collection game, on GREE. Launched in September 2010, Dragon Collection is still the No. 1 social game on GREE (followed by two other Konami titles by the way). In fact, Dragon Collection has been...
When I was playing Coin Pusher Mafia yesterday, it occurred to me that CyberAgent has actually launched Gamewave, it’s iPhone-only social gaming platform, without making a fuss about it. In fact, the company (neither CyberAgent nor CyberAgent America) never issued a press release about it...
Apparently CyberAgent knows how to do some things right in the App Store: the company announced its restaurant management game Zombie Restaurant has hit the top 10 for iOS devices in the American App Store (iTunes). As the name of the game suggests, Zombie Restaurant uses a new twist in the...
DeNA just announced it will establish a joint venture with video game powerhouse Bandai Namco Games on October 1. The new company, which will be called BDNA, will be based out of Tokyo and capitalized at 100 million yen (US$1.3 million). The idea is to combine Bandai Namco’s (decade long)...
Last month, I attended an event in San Francisco entitled “Social Networks and Games: Transition from Web to Mobile in Japan and the US” when I spent a few days in California. The event, which was organized by the local office of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) was very...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry