By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
Tokyo-based Shift is running a clever, so-called “software test marketing site” called Mintest that can best be described as a platform for social game makers to test titles and acquire the first users at the same time. For social game makers, Mintest serves as a way to get actual...
au Smart Pass, a service KDDI (Japan’s second largest mobile carrier with about 30 million subscribers) launched on March 1, is on the way to become a massive success. au Smart Pass is an app subscription service for KDDI’s Android users: for a monthly fee of 390 yen/US$4.70, the...
AKB48 Stage Fighter, the social game based on Japanese pop sensation AKB48, has racked up two million users, GREE has announced. The social card battle game offers cards featuring different members of the mega-popular girl group. AKB48 Stage Fighter was launched last October and is available on...
GREE announced it has partnered up with Level-5 to bring a total of three social games from the Fukuoka-based company to their platform. Level-5 previously rolled out its first social game ever, Professor Layton Royale, on Mobage. The games will be released when GREE launches its globally unified...
GREE has announced a wide-reaching partnership with Dentsu, one of the biggest advertising agencies in the world. What’s interesting is that the alliance is supposed to bolster GREE’s internationalization efforts (and they do need every bit of help they can get in that area). In...
A total of six top Japanese social game makers and platforms formed a council to self-regulate their monetization models, specifically with an eye on protecting younger players. The list includes: arch enemies GREE and DeNA Japan’s largest social network Mixi (which operates a social gaming...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry