By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
After taking a “historic” beating yesterday because of a possible regulation regarding the “konpu gacha” game mechanic, things are looking relatively stable today for GREE and Mobage operator DeNA. At the Tokyo Stock Exchange, shares of both companies plunged early in the...
Capcom issued their financial report for fiscal 2011 yesterday, and the company is making it clear it sees its future in two areas: online and social games. I have heard that before. All IR material can be downloaded in English from here. Things aren’t looking too rosy overall: Here are the...
Japan’s National Consumer Affairs Agency hasn’t even officially confirmed plans to regulate the lucrative gacha mechanism in social games, but listed companies in this industry in particular are already suffering. The list of the biggest losers at the Tokyo Stock Exchange today reads like a...
Two days after the Daily Yomiuri, Japan’s biggest newspaper, reported that Japan’s National Consumer Affairs Agency is planning to regulate a certain lucrative mechanism in social games, shares of makers are dropping like a rock. A few people in the industry (myself included) speculated...
Some people thought I went out on a limb when I speculated that Japan’s social gaming industry will get regulated “soon” four weeks ago (the post was later translated into Japanese by tech blog Startup Dating). But exactly that’s what’s very likely to happen. And as I...
There’s no doubt that there’s a lot of money in Japan’s social gaming market to be made: GREE and Mobage operator DeNA alone are projected to hit up to US$2 billion each in sales this fiscal year (see here and here). Both companies make around 90% of their money with virtual item...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry