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 –...
Via d game: Docomo Brings Mobile Social Games To China
After having established a mobile social gaming platform called “dgame” in Japan, the country’s top carrier Docomo is now ready to bring it to China. dgame went live in Japan in December last year on smartphones and feature phones (through the browser). Back then already, Docomo...
SoftBank To Become Majority Shareholder In Puzzle & Dragons Maker GungHo
This is big: Japanese telecommunications giant SoftBank (the one that acquired Sprint in the US) will launch a tender offer to increase its stake in GungHo Online Entertainment between April 1 and 26 this year (GungHo will conduct a 10-for-1 share split on April 1). GungHo has produced Puzzle &...