THE BRIDGE

Gaming

Colopl’s ‘Quiz RPG’ notches 23M downloads, ‘Slingshot Braves’ off to fast start

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Japanese game developer Colopl announced today that its hit mobile game Quiz RPG now has 23 million downloads in Japan. The game is also available in English (see our video demo below), but hasn’t received the attention – nor the promotion – that it has in its home market. Meanwhile one of the company’s newer games, Slingshot Braves, notched its first million downloads on April 2nd. I’ve played it just a little so far, but for a smartphone title the graphics are really great, and the slingshot controls (reminiscent of Mixi’s Monster Strike) are super fun as well. This is a pretty hot start considering that the title initially launched on Android on February 27, and just recently on iOS on March 29th. For those who haven’t heard of Colopl, it’s because the company appears to not really care about its global business just yet, even though the company has games in English and is talking about other markets [1]. They clearly understand gaming, but as for branding, Colopl has my personal nomination for the worst-named company ever. How the hell is an English-speaking person expected to pronounce ‘Colopl’? Seriously.  ↩

colopl-quiz-rpg

Japanese game developer Colopl announced today that its hit mobile game Quiz RPG now has 23 million downloads in Japan. The game is also available in English (see our video demo below), but hasn’t received the attention – nor the promotion – that it has in its home market.

Meanwhile one of the company’s newer games, Slingshot Braves, notched its first million downloads on April 2nd. I’ve played it just a little so far, but for a smartphone title the graphics are really great, and the slingshot controls (reminiscent of Mixi’s Monster Strike) are super fun as well. This is a pretty hot start considering that the title initially launched on Android on February 27, and just recently on iOS on March 29th.

For those who haven’t heard of Colopl, it’s because the company appears to not really care about its global business just yet, even though the company has games in English and is talking about other markets [1].


  1. They clearly understand gaming, but as for branding, Colopl has my personal nomination for the worst-named company ever. How the hell is an English-speaking person expected to pronounce ‘Colopl’? Seriously.  ↩

Canadian game publisher Big Blue Bubble partners with SourceNext to sell Android titles in Japan

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Japanese software vendor SourceNext recently announced that it would partner with Canadian game developer Big Blue Bubble Inc. to handle sales of the latter’s Android games in Japan, including its Burn the Rope Worlds title. SourceNext is based in Tokyo and has previously established localization partnerships with the likes of Backblaze and Splashtop. SourceNext (PDF)

burn

Japanese software vendor SourceNext recently announced that it would partner with Canadian game developer Big Blue Bubble Inc. to handle sales of the latter’s Android games in Japan, including its Burn the Rope Worlds title.

SourceNext is based in Tokyo and has previously established localization partnerships with the likes of Backblaze and Splashtop.

SourceNext (PDF)

TV ads march Mixi’s Monster Strike past 5M users

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Mixi has announced today that its popular puzzle RPG game, Monster Strike, now has 5 million users. It initially launched on iOS back in September of 2013, and then on Android in December. Mixi announced in February that it would partner with Chinese internet giant Tencent to bring Monster Strike to China, ostensibly the first localization for the title when it happens. The game is still (to my knowledge) only available in Japanese, but if you’d like to give it a try, it’s a free download on iOS and Google Play. The success of Monster Strike thus far has been credited with helping the company return to profit this year, and former general manager of the game department Hiroki Morite was recently named to become Mixi’s new CEO, leading into what the company is calling a ‘regrowth’ stage. Mixi has been promoting Monster Strike heavily on television in Japan, and its commercials have resulted in the last million users coming in just 18 days. Mixi

monsterstrike

Mixi has announced today that its popular puzzle RPG game, Monster Strike, now has 5 million users. It initially launched on iOS back in September of 2013, and then on Android in December.

Mixi announced in February that it would partner with Chinese internet giant Tencent to bring Monster Strike to China, ostensibly the first localization for the title when it happens. The game is still (to my knowledge) only available in Japanese, but if you’d like to give it a try, it’s a free download on iOS and Google Play.

The success of Monster Strike thus far has been credited with helping the company return to profit this year, and former general manager of the game department Hiroki Morite was recently named to become Mixi’s new CEO, leading into what the company is calling a ‘regrowth’ stage.

Mixi has been promoting Monster Strike heavily on television in Japan, and its commercials have resulted in the last million users coming in just 18 days.

Mixi

Asia has an appetite for Line’s Cookie Run

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Line’s ‘Cookie Run’ game (trailer above) has surpasses the 20 million downloads mark (as of April 4th), with strong performance across the Asia region. On Google Play, it’s currently the top game in Thailand and Taiwan, and on iOS it’s the top game in Laos and Indonesia. Such milestones are pretty common for Line’s repertoire of casual games, but Cookie Run (released in late January) has been rather quick, picking up 10 million in its first month and another 10 million in 36 days after that. Via Gamebiz.jp

Line’s ‘Cookie Run’ game (trailer above) has surpasses the 20 million downloads mark (as of April 4th), with strong performance across the Asia region. On Google Play, it’s currently the top game in Thailand and Taiwan, and on iOS it’s the top game in Laos and Indonesia.

Such milestones are pretty common for Line’s repertoire of casual games, but Cookie Run (released in late January) has been rather quick, picking up 10 million in its first month and another 10 million in 36 days after that.

Via Gamebiz.jp

Want to draw a Japanese game character? Gotcha Warriors enlists illustrators on Crowdworks

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Readers may recall back last year when we reviewed Gotcha Warriors, a fun tower defense game from Tokyo-based One of Them Inc. The game has since accumulated more than two million users, and is currently using Japan’s popular Crowdworks crowdsourcing platform to conduct a character illustration contest from now until April 17th. If you’re an aspiring illustrator (and assuming you can read and write Japanese), you can learn more details about the job/contest over on Crowdworks. If you’re lucky, a new Gotcha Warrior character could be based on your sketch. Crowdworks, via Gamebiz

gotcha-warriors

Readers may recall back last year when we reviewed Gotcha Warriors, a fun tower defense game from Tokyo-based One of Them Inc. The game has since accumulated more than two million users, and is currently using Japan’s popular Crowdworks crowdsourcing platform to conduct a character illustration contest from now until April 17th.

If you’re an aspiring illustrator (and assuming you can read and write Japanese), you can learn more details about the job/contest over on Crowdworks. If you’re lucky, a new Gotcha Warrior character could be based on your sketch.

Crowdworks, via Gamebiz

gotcha-warriors-2

Japan’s Voltage boasts 22M users of its dating-sim games for women

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Japanese app developer Voltage has announced this week that its catalogue of dating simulation apps [1] for women (there are about 60 in total) has surpassed 22 million users. The milestone was reached back in February, according to the company (PDF). Included in the company’s repertoire are Sudden Kiss for a Promise, Office Secrets (also available in English if you’d like to try), as well as Gossip Girl, a title based on the popular American TV show. We interviewed Voltage representative Emiri Okawa last year at the Tokyo Game Show, as you may recall (see below). An explanation on translation: Voltage calls this genre of apps love/romance drama apps. We’ll opt for ‘dating simulation’, in the interests of clarity.  ↩

voltage-22-million

Japanese app developer Voltage has announced this week that its catalogue of dating simulation apps [1] for women (there are about 60 in total) has surpassed 22 million users. The milestone was reached back in February, according to the company (PDF).

Included in the company’s repertoire are Sudden Kiss for a Promise, Office Secrets (also available in English if you’d like to try), as well as Gossip Girl, a title based on the popular American TV show.

We interviewed Voltage representative Emiri Okawa last year at the Tokyo Game Show, as you may recall (see below).


  1. An explanation on translation: Voltage calls this genre of apps love/romance drama apps. We’ll opt for ‘dating simulation’, in the interests of clarity.  ↩

Sega Networks invests in and partners with Japanese mobile app developer MyNet

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Tokyo-based mobile game developer MyNet recently announced it has raised an undisclosed sum of investment from Japanese gaming giant Sega Networks. The two companies say they will join forces to develop more gaming apps. Since its launch back in July of 2006, MyNet had been providing customer relationship management solutions to restaurants and retailers. However, they sold their CRM solutions to Yahoo Japan and changed their focus to social games development early last year. Their recent mobile game Emblem of Falkyrie has been performing well these days, especially in the Asia region. Coinciding with this announcement, MyNet has introduced an iOS version of this game. Sega Networks is a subsidiary of Sega Sammy Group, known for having developed the popular mobile puzzle RPG Puyo Puyo Quest.

seganetworks-mynet_logos

Tokyo-based mobile game developer MyNet recently announced it has raised an undisclosed sum of investment from Japanese gaming giant Sega Networks. The two companies say they will join forces to develop more gaming apps.

Since its launch back in July of 2006, MyNet had been providing customer relationship management solutions to restaurants and retailers. However, they sold their CRM solutions to Yahoo Japan and changed their focus to social games development early last year. Their recent mobile game Emblem of Falkyrie has been performing well these days, especially in the Asia region. Coinciding with this announcement, MyNet has introduced an iOS version of this game.

Sega Networks is a subsidiary of Sega Sammy Group, known for having developed the popular mobile puzzle RPG Puyo Puyo Quest.

Emblem of Falkyrie
Emblem of Falkyrie

Puzzle & Dragons retains steady growth pace as it moves to markets abroad

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Checking back in on our Puzzle & Dragons expansion watch, GungHo Online Entertainment’s hit mobile game surpassed 26 million downloads as of March 23, maintaining it’s steady pace of growth (see chart below). Of course as it’s Japanese user base saturates, overseas markets will become more important. The company has recently reached the following milestones in overseas markets, according to Gamebiz.jp: March 7th – reached 3 million downloads in North America March 11 – reached 1 million downloads in Hong Kong and Taiwan March 15 – reached 2 million downloads in Korea The US and Europe will be key markets moving forward, so we’ll keep an eye on GungHo’s efforts there. China could be interesting too after the company tests the waters in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Checking back in on our Puzzle & Dragons expansion watch, GungHo Online Entertainment’s hit mobile game surpassed 26 million downloads as of March 23, maintaining it’s steady pace of growth (see chart below). Of course as it’s Japanese user base saturates, overseas markets will become more important. The company has recently reached the following milestones in overseas markets, according to Gamebiz.jp:

  • March 7th – reached 3 million downloads in North America
  • March 11 – reached 1 million downloads in Hong Kong and Taiwan
  • March 15 – reached 2 million downloads in Korea

The US and Europe will be key markets moving forward, so we’ll keep an eye on GungHo’s efforts there. China could be interesting too after the company tests the waters in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

puzzle-dragons-26-million

Colopl’s smartphone games have been downloaded 80M times

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Good news for Japanese mobile games company Colopl this week as their repertoire of smartphone apps and games has now cumulatively passed 80 million downloads. One of its most popular games is Quiz RPG which has enjoyed television promotions in its home market, and has been pushed abroad with English and Korean versions. The bad news however (if they have any global aspirations) is that their name is still ‘Colopl’. In Japanese, the company’s name is ‘Koropura’ – which would have made for a far more normal name had they opted to leave it alone. [Colopl via Gamebiz.jp]

colopl

Good news for Japanese mobile games company Colopl this week as their repertoire of smartphone apps and games has now cumulatively passed 80 million downloads. One of its most popular games is Quiz RPG which has enjoyed television promotions in its home market, and has been pushed abroad with English and Korean versions.

The bad news however (if they have any global aspirations) is that their name is still ‘Colopl’. In Japanese, the company’s name is ‘Koropura’ – which would have made for a far more normal name had they opted to leave it alone.

[Colopl via Gamebiz.jp]

Puzzle & Dragons x Evangelion collaboration finally goes global

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The Puzzle & Dragons X Evangelion collaboration that began in Japan back on February 24 has now extended to global versions of the hit mobile game, including the US. It will likely be a smart tie-up for GungHo Online Entertainment, since the intricate artwork that helped make Puzzle & Dragons such a big hit at home will certainly be appreciated by anime fans abroad. You can read more about the collaboration on the P&D Facebook page.

puzzle-dragons-evangelion

The Puzzle & Dragons X Evangelion collaboration that began in Japan back on February 24 has now extended to global versions of the hit mobile game, including the US.

It will likely be a smart tie-up for GungHo Online Entertainment, since the intricate artwork that helped make Puzzle & Dragons such a big hit at home will certainly be appreciated by anime fans abroad.

You can read more about the collaboration on the P&D Facebook page.

puzzle-dragons-evangelion-2