By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
Last month, it was announced that Tanken Doliland (Driland outside Japan), GREE‘s super-popular social card battle game, is to be turned into a TV anime series. Details were scarce at that point, but now GREE organized a big press event in Tokyo to introduce the show to a broader audience...
Korean gaming powerhouse Nexon (headquartered and listed in Japan) announced it will acquire Tokyo-based mobile social game maker inBlue. Founded in 2010, the startup currently runs a total of six games on GREE and Mobage (on both feature phones and smartphones). Nexon itself, which already...
Following E3, GREE is ready to showcase their newest titles at yet another game industry event: this time, the company will have a booth at the gamescom exhibition in Cologne, Germany (August 15-19). First held in 2009, the event takes place once a year and is one of the largest of its kind (even...
Apparently, things aren’t going too well between DeNA and Namco Bandai, two companies that entered a spectacular partnership right after the Tokyo Game Show last year. Following the deal, Namco Bandai rolled out a number of hit titles on Mobage, i.e. Tales of Kizna, Idolmaster, and mega hit...
Japan’s leading social gaming companies GREE, DeNA, Mixi, NHN, CyberAgent, and Dwango (which established an industry council back in March) have released a new set (Japanese only) of self-regulatory measures. Last month, the industry tackled just the kompu gacha mechanic in a guideline, but...
Unmei No Clan Battle (“The Clan Battle Of Fate”), a mobile social RPG released by Tokyo-based social game maker Pokelabo and Sega today, is off to a terrific start. The iOS title is currently the top free app in the Japanese App Store and shot up to No. 7 in the ranking of the top...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry