I was recently asked by Eric Seufert, marketing and mobile user acquisition specialist at Grey Area in Helsinki, to give an interview on Japan’s mobile and social gaming scene. Eric has an excellent blog, on which he analyzes various aspects of the mobile industry, most recently the gaming...
Japanese Chat App Wars: KakaoTalk Passes 10 Million Downloads In Japan
There can be no discussion that in Japan, LINE is the king of chat apps at the moment. Maker NHN Japan, which now operates the service under a new company called LINE Corp., should be announcing 50 million domestic users very soon. If there is one competitor, it’s certainly Korean chat app...
Social Games In Japan 2013: Status Quo, Trends And Internationalization (Presentation)
Here is a presentation I gave a few days ago in Tokyo on Japan’s social and mobile gaming industry. It’s dubbed “Social Games In Japan 2013: Status Quo, Trends And Internationalization”, and it covers exactly what the title suggests. (I need to add that nobody in the...
Puzzle & Dragons Hits 11 Million Downloads, Gets New TV Ad
Japan’s top smartphone game Puzzle & Dragons, which is estimated to generate a mind-blowing US$62-86 million per month (some think it’s even more), continues to grow. The RPG/puzzle hybrid now has 11 million users in Japan, maker GungHo is reporting. This chart from Japanese news...
Mini Boom In Japan: Devs Start Mixing Social Casino Mechanics With RPGs
I put together the following article for Social Casino Intelligence, the biggest publication covering the global social casino industry. The link to the online version of the original piece is here. The US$5 billion social gaming market in Japan is unique in many ways, but one of the most striking...
Puzzle & Dragons Probably Generated US$62-86 Million In Sales Last Month
The crazy Puzzle & Dragons boom in Japan continues – and it gets even crazier. Maker GungHo posted a new financial document according to which sales in February for the company reached an almost unbelievable 10 billion yen in February (+1,280% year-on-year). That is US$106 million –...