By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
One of Japan’s largest maker of video games, Capcom, today announced it will enter the global social games market with a spin-off company called Beeline. The new business will initially be geographically focused on Japan and other countries in Asia. Capcom says they are eyeing the smartphone...
CyberAgent is continuing to invest in Asia-based web startups. According to Japanese business daily The Nikkei, CyberAgent just invested US$700,000 in Tokopedia, a Jakarta-based e-commerce start-up. This is the third investment the company received, following rounds involving Indonesia’s PT...
My personal favorite game series of all time, survival horror action legend Resident Evil (Biohazard in Japan), is getting a social treatment on GREE. Maker Capcom today announced the following details: Title: Biohazard Outbreak Survive Genre: Social Survival Horror Release: June 2011 Platform:...
It’s a hit social game on GREE, and now CyberAgent has announced that COORDE MANIA+ has been ported over to Mixi. In the game, players take on the role of a “fashion coordinator” (essentially a stylist) and dress up avatars with virtual items and accessories (see screenshots...
Here are just a few key points (there is a lot more): Internationalization: As even the Japanese social gaming market is limited, both DeNA and GREE have to internationalize quickly. DeNA has decided to take the M&A route, as can be clearly seen by them acquiring ngmoco for $400 million plus a...
Rakuten has posted a press release in English about “Edy Autocharge”, a new feature that was added to the company’s Edy app on Android (“Edy” is a prepaid e-money service, more info here). With the new feature, a Rakuten user’s balance is checked every hour and once it falls beneath a...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry