By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
In September 2010, it wasn’t a social gaming company but Konami that triggered the biggest boom in the history of this new industry (in Japan): social card battle games. The title in question is Dragon Collection, which has over 7 million players in Japan and is still doing well on GREE...
AKB48 Stage Fighter, the first social game featuring Japanese girl group sensation AKB48 was released on GREE in October 2011 and went on to, partly fueled by TV advertising, become a big hit (it’s still popular today). And today Bandai Namco released the second AKB48-themed social game on...
In October last year, GREE caused quite a splash in the mobile and console gaming worlds with their announcement that they partnered up with Square Enix. The deal included a social reboot of popular (and awesome) 3DS game “The World Ends With You” and “Final Fantasy...
I can’t say this is a big surprise: GREE has just launched its own messenger app on the App Store and Google Play – very, very quietly. Aptly named GREE Messenger, the app is limited for download in a few countries for this soft launch. On iOS, for example, it’s available in the...
The following charts are part of a presentation I recently gave on Japan’s social gaming industry, highlighting the differences between GREE, Zynga, and Mobage operator DeNA in terms of financials. What many people outside Japan don’t realize is that when it comes to business, both...
Square Enix’ Mana series of RPGs, which started in 1991, is getting its first social version. “Seiken Densetsu – Circle Of Mana” will be exclusively available on GREE sometime next year (in the form of an app for iOS or Android). Players can already pre-register for the...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry