By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
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...
Update: Reuters just added a more in-depth report on their visit to DeNA (well worth the read). It’s not really a detailed report, but according to Reuters, DeNA is ready to release the long-awaited English version of Mobage on smartphones worldwide (excluding China) this month. New CEO Isao...
It seems DeNA wants even more anime-based social games for Mobage: the company just announced a partnership with Tatsunoko Production, a major anime production company based out of Tokyo. Tatsunoko has been producing anime for decades, including Speed Racer, Robotech, Honeybee Hutch, Gatchaman...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry