By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
Tokyo-based social gaming company Rekoo Japan (the parent company has its HQ in Beijing) caused a sensation in summer 2009 with a title called Sunshine Ranch. Rekoo launched the Farmville-like game on Mixi, right after Japan’s biggest social network opened its app platform, and attracted a...
If you have ever wondered how DeNA can generate over $1 billion in sales with a Japan- and mobile-only social gaming platform, here’s a pointer: Tokyo-based social game maker GMS announced that “Daisoudatsu Legend Card” just hit 100,000 users on DeNA’s Mobage gaming platform...
It took them a while, but GREE today announced the release of smartphone versions of three of their hit social games, namely fishing game “Tsuri Star” monster-raising game “Monpla” (Monster Planet) battle action game “Kaizoku Koukoku Columbus” (Pirate Kingdom...
DeNA has announced something unusual yesterday: the social games company plans to hire between 50 to 100 employees coming from areas in Japan that were hit by the big earthquake from March 11. DeNA’s motivation is to do their part in supporting the victims of the disaster, following their 100...
A quite good-looking RPG was added to mobile social gaming platform Mobage today, “S.U.N Episode Mobile”, a special version of Soul of the Ultimate Nation (an online fantasy MMORPG for Windows PCs). Made by Korean gaming company Webzen, the PC game was first launched in various Asian...
On March 10, just one day before the big earthquake hit Japan, Mixi launched a promotion campaign on Japanese TV. But on the day of the quake, Mixi pulled the spots and is now introducing a total of six (entirely new) commercials on its website. The overall idea here is to explain how easy it is to...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry