By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
While I still think Gameloft has wasted money by releasing farming simulation Ecofarm in Japan (there are dozens of games like this in Japan’s social gaming market already), the company yesterday launched a far more promising title over here: N.O.V.A. Elite, a super-popular FPS already...
Video game maker Bandai Namco just announced another title to be added to its social games catalog: Kamen Rider Wars, based on the Japanese cult TV series Kamen Rider. The social card game will be released “this summer” exclusively on GREE. In the game, players follow one of the story...
GREE continues to go global: after announcing plans for offices in London, Singapore and Beijing back in March, the company today said it has established GREE Beijing, Inc. In China’s capital, GREE is close to local partner Tencent (the QQ operator) and to Shanghai-based and NASDAQ-listed...
Japan’s online restaurant navigation service and Tabelog competitor Gourmet Navigator (listed, 2440) has revamped its mobile site for smartphone browsers today. Before, users visiting on their iPhone or Android basically accessed the PC version. The new touch control-friendly Gourmet...
I tried talking quite a few social gaming companies from the US and other places out of entering the Japanese market in recent months, simply because they didn’t have unique, defendable IP or other strong selling points for their games. Now even the biggest social gaming company of them all...
Both GREE and DeNA are adding games to their platforms on a daily basis, but almost all of these titles are either feature phone exclusive or released for use on those handsets first. Consequently, GREE and Mobage on smartphones currently have just a few dozens games on offer – on feature...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry