Social card battle game hit Dark Summoner, created by Nagoya-based Ateam, is still going strong. After hitting 1 million downloads in July and 2 million in August, Ateam today announced their flagship title has crossed the 3 million user mark on October 30. Dark Summoner was launched worldwide on iOS on February 23 this year, followed by an Android version on July 18. The…
Konami’s biggest social game Dragon Collection is now counting 7 million registered users, the company announced today. The title is exclusively available on GREE. Dragon Collection was released on GREE on September 14, 2010, meaning it took 780 days to reach the 7 million user milestone. Dragon Collection is widely recognized to have triggered the social card game boom…
Zettai Bouei Leviathan, which roughly translates to “Total Defense Leviathan”, is the title of GREE‘s next big first-party game. Leviathan is a social card battle game set in a “parallel world” called Aquafol, which is threatened by evil aggressors. It was officially unveiled today. What’s special about GREE’s new title is that the back story was…
Following Nexon’s US$469 million acquisition of gloops earlier this month, Japan’s social gaming industry saw another spectacular exit today. GREE announced it plans to acquire Tokyo-based social game maker Pokelabo on October 30 – for a handsome US$173 million (13.8 billion yen), in an all-cash deal. Founded in 2007, Pokelabo announced a capital partnership with Sega…
Big news for GREE: the company and Square Enix announced they will bring two of its biggest gaming franchises to the GREE platform, namely Final Fantasy and The World Ends With You. The bigger one first: “Final Fantasy x GREE” is the tentative title of the first Final Fantasy game to hit GREE. Final Fantasy Brigade,…
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu has released their ranking of the top 50 high-growth companies in Japan in the TMT sector (Technology, Media & Telecommunications), and the rapid expansion of the country’s social gaming sector is clearly reflected in the list. According to Deloitte’s “Japan Technology Fast 50 Ranking”, Tokyo-based gumi has been the fastest growing tech…
What are the current key trends in the gaming market in Japan and elsewhere? That’s the question I tried to answer in a presentation I gave a few weeks ago. (Note: no one in the audience belonged to the gaming industry.) The slides cover: Structure Of Japan’s Social Gaming Market Market Size 10 Key Trends In…
Tokyo-based GungHo, maker of Japan’s most successful platform-free social game Puzzle & Dragons, is ready to invest more in marketing their flagship title. Puzzle & Dragons isn’t using the Mobage or GREE networks but has racked up 1.5 million users so far – in Japan only, and until late September on iOS only (where the game was launched in February this year). To give…