By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
One big trend in Japan’s social gaming industry is that local video game makers, from smaller developers to listed companies, are starting to produce more and more social games for GREE, DeNA, and Mixi. Japanese business daily The Nikkei recently investigated how successful three major video...
I tried to answer the question “How Big Is Japan’s Social Gaming Market” back in February by aggregating numbers from three different sources. And now Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities in Tokyo has issued a new report with their own findings regarding future growth of...
First Professor Layton, now DeNA has announced it scored another hit title for Mobage: Infinity Blade, the mega hit game for iOS, is scheduled to hit Mobage for smartphones in the fall of this year. The press release mentions this will be the case in Japan, but I am expecting DeNA to release the...
Nice win for DeNA today: “Professor Layton”, a mega hit video game, will be turned into a social game and published exclusively on Mobage this fall. Made by Fukuoka-based Level-5, the adventure game series sold a total of 12 million units worldwide so far. The social game, dubbed...
After turning their No. 1 social game Kaito Royale into a novel in February this year, DeNA now inked another cross-media adaptation/licensing deal with their brand: Kaito Royale is now a manga, too. The comic will be published on Young Jump (shown on the left on the picture below) and Cookie (on...
The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) has issued a cease and desist order to DeNA, following claims in December last year that DeNA was breaking the country’s antitrust law. The JFTC states: DeNA forced “Specified Social Game Developers” not to provide the games through “GREE”, by...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry