By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
When do you know a country’s gaming market has gone into overdrive? When a publisher goes and introduces a printed magazine entirely dedicated to social horse racing games (yes, those exist). Keiba Keita Game Collection (“Mobile Horse Racing Game Collection”), which is available...
Last week, DeNA and Disney inked a spectacular deal to co-develop and distribute mobile social games for the global market. The first title, Disney Party, went live on Mobage on March 30 – and it appears to be a big hit. The game reached 550,000 users in just 5 days after launch, racking up a...
About two to three years ago, many people in the Japanese social gaming industry were in fear that the rapid adoption of smartphones in the local mobile market would break the entire business model of social games offered on feature phones. Fast forward to 2012, and the situation isn’t as bad...
BDNA, the joint venture DeNA and Namco Bandai launched last year, has a new name and logo. The new name is BNDeNA (I don’t know which name is worse), and the new logo is pictured below. The joint venture hasn’t produced any game yet, but DeNA says that Macross SP Cross Deculture, a...
Following Zombie Jombie, GREE International has pushed out a second social game specifically geared towards a non-Japanese audience – and Alien Family, released on iOS in English (download), is doing pretty well. Just like Zombie Jombie, Alien Family has peaked at the No. 4 spot in the...
Walt Disney Japan is betting high on social games, and the company has chosen Mobage operator DeNA as their partner for development and distribution of Disney-themed titles worldwide. The two companies don’t lose time – at least in Japan: after releasing the first jointly developed...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry