By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
As expected, DeNA is striking back in the ongoing lawsuit with GREE: to recap, in November 2011 GREE sued their rival, seeking damages of US$13 million. In the lawsuit, GREE stated that DeNA has been pressuring third-party game developers in Japan into exclusively offering social games...
I have listed up several stats from several sources trying to size up Japan’s social gaming market in recent months (see below). The Nomura Research Institute says that Japan’s social gaming market will likely be worth 393.5 billion yen (US$5.1 billion) in fiscal 2016, roughly doubling...
I am looking forward to speak at the so-called Startup Asia conference in Singapore next week, organized by Asian technology blog Penn Olson. What’s interesting about the event is that it is highly international, with Japan apparently sending the most foreign attendees (full list). The...
Another IP-based social game in Japan, this time from Konami. The company announced the launch of Star Wars Collection, a social game based on the movie service, for GREE. Star Wars is obviously one of the biggest franchises out there, even though I doubt it will have the same effect in Japan that...
Given how big the domestic social gaming market already is and how quickly it is projected to grow, it’s not really a surprise that Japan gets a “Social Game Academy”. Needless to say, it’s the first company (this obviously isn’t an NPO) of its kind anywhere in the...
What do you do when you have a mobile social game that’s 1.5 years old, already has 5 million+ registered users on GREE and that may near the end of its life cycle soon? If you are Konami and have a super hit like Dragon Collection in your portfolio, you start promoting the game to acquire...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry