By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
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...
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...
DeNA has announced they have partnered up with Tokyo-based anime production company Aniplex to bring social games based on anime titles from the Aniplex catalog to Mobage users. The first title to be turned into a Mobage game is Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, an anime series that’s based...
Given how insanely popular the brand is in Japan, this is not a big surprise: Disney Japan’s mobile social game MyLand, launched just last month, has hit 1 million users on May 30. The cute social theme park simulation is currently racking up 14 users per minute, according to Disney. MyLand...
More games for the Mobage for Smartphones platform: Tokyo-based Pokelabo (a major third-party social game developer in Japan) has announced Pokelabo Basketball on Mobage for Android. The game isn’t a separate app but can be downloaded via Mobage’s native Android app, which went live...
Video game powerhouse Konami has added yet another social game to its line-up: Mori No Kuma House (Bear House In The Woods) was released on Mobage today, a title specifically designed for a female target audience (official website). The title is available exclusively on Mobage for Japanese feature...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry