By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
GREE today announced the launch of a new potential hit game: “Ryuu Ga Gotoku Mobile” is the name of the social game version of Ryuu Ga Gotoku, a famous action-adventure series that started in 2005 on the Sony PS2. The video game version is known as “Yakuza” in the US and...
Just a few weeks ago, Groupon Japan took a serious beating when the company disappointed customers with a botched deal during the New Year. The incident made its way into Japanese mass media (including TV), made Groupon CEO Andrew Mason apologize to his customers in Japan and caused a dent in the...
It took a while, but Rakuten finally released an iPhone app (for Rakuten Ichiba, its online mall) yesterday. It’s available for free in the Japanese App Store and makes it easier for iPhone users to browse through the 70 million items currently listed in Rakuten Ichiba. It’s a good...
Kakaku.com, Japan’s leading price comparison engine, announced it has inked a deal with the Japanese government under which the company will provide price data to the Bank of Japan. Kakaku said it has provided a data set on how prices of TVs and related products in Japan have evolved over the...
Major Japanese video game maker Sega is planning to jump on the lucrative social gaming bandwagon. Sega has already launched a game called “Sega Play Baseball” on Facebook this month and plans to offer another title called “Sega Play! Football” on social gaming site hi5 in...
Yahoo Japan, the country’s biggest website, is partnering up with US-based startup Ooyala to launch a video sharing platform. This won’t be, however, Yahoo Japan’s answer to YouTube (there is no such thing): the site will be rather aimed at businesses. The new platform will make...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry