By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
DeNA just announced the acquisition of yet another startup, social games maker Atakama Labs from Santiago, Chile. It’s the first time for DeNA to expand to South America, but Atakama also has an office in San Francisco (where ngmoco is based, too). Financial terms of the deal weren’t...
DeNA today announced the launch of two native iOS apps of their own hit social games Kaito Royale and Nouen Hokkorina (a farming simulation) for Mobage. Both apps are available in Japanese only (Mobage for iOS isn’t available in English yet). App Store downloads: Kaito Royale for Mobage Nouen...
I could write a book or two about the differences between social gaming in Japan and elsewhere, but one easy and (hopefully) interesting way to take a high-level look at things is the difference in genres (with the biggest difference being that social gaming in Japan is mainly mobile). Generally...
DeNA just announced that Sega, as the first domestic game maker, has started distributing titles on Mobage for the Chinese market. Sega launched one Android game in Chinese on Mobage today and is expected to follow up with three more titles next month. What’s interesting is that three of the...
DeNA‘s Kaito Royale isn’t only successful on Mobage, the company’s own platform. It’s also available – and very popular – on Mixi, Japan’s largest real identity social network. In fact, Gamebiz reports that the game hit 6,007,985 users today, at 11am JST...
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...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry