By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
Last month DeNA and Bandai Namco announced a social gaming joint venture called BDNA, which will be set up on October 3 in Tokyo. To recap, BDNA will be capitalized with 100 million yen (US$1.3 million), 75% owned by Bandai Namco, and led by a mixed team of Bandai Namco and DeNA executives. At the...
Japanese video game behemoth Namco Bandai has released Browser Quest on Yahoo Mobage, the PC-based social games platform jointly run by DeNA and Yahoo Japan. The title, an original action MMORPG actually looks quite nice and shows what’s possible on the platform. Apart from the nice looks...
PC gaming has been becoming bigger and bigger in Japan in recent years, and the most recent statistics from Steam seem to support the trend. According to Steam’s own “Hardware & Software Survey”, the percentage of Japanese-speaking users reached 2.82% in June 2023.I am...
Japanese game industry data provider KADOKAWA ASCII Research Laboratories just published the top 10 grossing mobile games for Japan in CY2022. Here is the overview (gross sales, Japan domestic only, iOS and Android combined) – based on the company’s estimates*: 1) Monster Strike...
While some of the big European and American game companies have expressed skepticism about Web3 gaming, scaled down ambitions or adopted a wait-and-see approach, things are very much different in Japan. (In that context, Japan is actually similar to South Korea (or Asia in general), but I will...
The current discussion around the proposed payment for voice actress Hellena Taylor for working on Bayonetta 3 in the West has given me the idea to provide an overview of the salary situation in Japan’s game industry. Quick background:In 2019, I acquired a recruiting license (the business is...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry