Last week we mentioned that the mobile card battle game Dark Summoner from publisher A-Team (TYO:3662) had surpassed 5 million downloads worldwide on the iOS and Android platforms. So far the title has been doing well on the top grossing app charts in both its home market and in the US. For those of you who have yet to check it out, here’s our quick video walk-through of Dark Summoner. The game isn’t really all that much different than other mobile card battle games in my view. Rage of Bahamut is a similar game, although obviously a lot more popular [1]. While I wouldn’t go so far as to call these games horrible, they do require a little bit of time to get into, and could certainly use more of an explanation for beginners. I’m curious to hear if any of our readers are playing Dark Summoner, and if you are, please leave your thoughts in the comments. Are these card battle games all the same to you? Or do they each have something unique to offer? Let us know. (And feel free to drop me a line in-game as well [2]!) We recently spoke with Cygames, the developer of…
Last week we mentioned that the mobile card battle game Dark Summoner from publisher A-Team (TYO:3662) had surpassed 5 million downloads worldwide on the iOS and Android platforms. So far the title has been doing well on the top grossing app charts in both its home market and in the US.
For those of you who have yet to check it out, here’s our quick video walk-through of Dark Summoner. The game isn’t really all that much different than other mobile card battle games in my view. Rage of Bahamut is a similar game, although obviously a lot more popular [1]. While I wouldn’t go so far as to call these games horrible, they do require a little bit of time to get into, and could certainly use more of an explanation for beginners.
I’m curious to hear if any of our readers are playing Dark Summoner, and if you are, please leave your thoughts in the comments. Are these card battle games all the same to you? Or do they each have something unique to offer? Let us know. (And feel free to drop me a line in-game as well [2]!)
We recently spoke with Cygames, the developer of Rage of Bahamut about the process of bringing that game to global users. You can read that article in its entirety here. ↩
My ID is 1459947259. You can share yours in the comments if you like. ↩
See original story in Japanese. The high penetration of smartphone and tablet devices has made it a lot easier to enjoy rich visual and audio content. But from the point of view of game developers, it can be incredibly tough to differentiate your works from others, as great artwork and illustrations alone might not be enough. Many of them are trying to improve the sound of their games as well, in order to improve their content offerings. Tokyo-based startup, Grood, has recently introduced an online service for voice acting jobs called Voip. The startup won the top prize at Incubate Camp, a demo event held by local startup accelerator Incubate Fund last March. The startup is also known for its smartphone smash-hit app 全国告白白書 (or literally ‘All-Japan Love Confession Whitepaper’) which allows users to experience virtual love confessions to beautiful girls on the app. Voip has partnered with voice actor agencies and schools nationwide, and has enlisted more than 450 actors and actresses. By taking advantage of the country’s largest such network of this kind, the startup provides a large base from which social games or MMORPG developers can source quality voice actors. Prior to placing an order, a game…
The high penetration of smartphone and tablet devices has made it a lot easier to enjoy rich visual and audio content. But from the point of view of game developers, it can be incredibly tough to differentiate your works from others, as great artwork and illustrations alone might not be enough. Many of them are trying to improve the sound of their games as well, in order to improve their content offerings.
Tokyo-based startup, Grood, has recently introduced an online service for voice acting jobs called Voip. The startup won the top prize at Incubate Camp, a demo event held by local startup accelerator Incubate Fund last March. The startup is also known for its smartphone smash-hit app 全国告白白書 (or literally ‘All-Japan Love Confession Whitepaper’) which allows users to experience virtual love confessions to beautiful girls on the app.
Voip has partnered with voice actor agencies and schools nationwide, and has enlisted more than 450 actors and actresses. By taking advantage of the country’s largest such network of this kind, the startup provides a large base from which social games or MMORPG developers can source quality voice actors.
Prior to placing an order, a game developer can ask an actor or actress to read a script as a sort of audition. When the developer chooses their favored actor, that person will then be notified about the job details. The actors can choose the work that they really want, and the client can choose from the best among all audio pieces that actors have recorded and submitted.
Although there appears to be more overall demand for quality voice-acting these days, notable voice actors and actresses frequently featured on TV or in well-known anime charge very high guarantee fees for their performance, and that is likely beyond the reach of most social game developers.
There are tens of thousands of voice actors in Japan, but only a fraction of them can make a living without doing other work on the side. The industry is very much seniority-based, and younger actors find it hard to survive even if they are popular.
So this service is a natural fit for voice actors in need of work and social game developers who are in need of quality performances. One job on the site has received 213 applications within 10 days of being published, which is a very impressive total.
Voip is currently working on some projects for Pokelabo, a well-known social game developer also backed by Incubate Fund.
One of the biggest Japan-related tech stories from 2012 was the success of Cygames’ social card battle game Rage of Bahamut on DeNA’s Mobage network. Whether or not Japanese social games can succeed in markets abroad is a very interesting question, and Bahamut so far is perhaps the most convincing evidence to date that they can. With over 10 million users around the world, Rage of Bahamut has been an unexpected success, and a fixture atop the iOS and Android top grossing charts for the majority of 2012. While the folks at DeNA couldn’t disclose exactly how profitable Bahamut has been, they did proudly refer to it as “one of the most valuable apps in history.” Of course, the mobile gaming space is still young, but the feats of Bahamut and its developer Cygames, both at home and abroad, are certainly impressive. DeNA was impressed too, picking up a 20% stake in Cygames back in November of 2012 for the price of $92 million. I recently got in touch with some representatives from Cygames to find out more about the process of bringing Bamahut to markets outside Japan. Cygames’ Yuito Kimura was one of three directors, along with Akihiro Iino…
One of the biggest Japan-related tech stories from 2012 was the success of Cygames’ social card battle game Rage of Bahamut on DeNA’s Mobage network. Whether or not Japanese social games can succeed in markets abroad is a very interesting question, and Bahamut so far is perhaps the most convincing evidence to date that they can. With over 10 million users around the world, Rage of Bahamut has been an unexpected success, and a fixture atop the iOS and Android top grossing charts for the majority of 2012.
While the folks at DeNA couldn’t disclose exactly how profitable Bahamut has been, they did proudly refer to it as “one of the most valuable apps in history.” Of course, the mobile gaming space is still young, but the feats of Bahamut and its developer Cygames, both at home and abroad, are certainly impressive. DeNA was impressed too, picking up a 20% stake in Cygames back in November of 2012 for the price of $92 million.
I recently got in touch with some representatives from Cygames to find out more about the process of bringing Bamahut to markets outside Japan. Cygames’ Yuito Kimura was one of three directors, along with Akihiro Iino and Koichi Watanabe who originally developed the Rage of Bahamut concept. I asked him if they were confident that such mobile game genre like card battle games – which at that point were only really proven in Japan – could excel in overseas markets.
To be honest, not really. Back then, no card games like the ones popular in Japan had become breakout hits overseas. We really felt that there would be no way to know without giving it a try.
Cygames had ridden DeNA’s Mobage platform to success in Japan, and they thought perhaps the success of the partnership could extend overseas. DeNA executive Junichi Akagawa noted that they did think that “the desire to collect cool cards should be something universal,” and because of great artwork and past success in the Japanese market, they certainly thought it had the potential to be a hit internationally.
Since then, as we all know, Bahamut has been performed amazingly well on top grossing app charts, displaying surprising staying power (see charts below). Kimura says one reason for the games success is because they are always updating and improving it. In terms of making the game appealing for English-speaking users, there was some reworking of the design as well to appeal to Western audiences.
When I recently spoke to the folks from app metrics firm App Annie, one representative also cited outstanding marketing as one of the main reasons why Bahamut has done so well. But it’s important to note that the game was marketed differently abroad than it was in its home market. While the game was heavily advertised on television in and with out-of-home ads in Japan, a referral code system played a large role in helping the game spread in overseas markets. I can attest to this first hand actually, as anything that I’ve written about Bahamut in the past tends to attract a ton of comments from gamers who want to share their codes with others [1].
The game’s impressive artwork has surely helped Bahamut’s popularity among gamers, and I’m told that Cygames illustrator’s have previously worked on Japanese ‘AAA’ game titles [2]. In fact, a collection of artwork from the game was recently published as a book and is now available on Amazon Japan.
Kimura says that in total, the amount of people who worked on Bahamut is roughly the same as would be required for a console.
Whatever the reason for Bahamut’s popularity to date, it’s certainly a good example of a Japanese export thriving on a global scale. February 21st will mark the one-year anniversary of Bahamut on ‘Mobage West,’ so it will be interesting to watch Cygames moving forward with this and other titles for the international market.
Dark Summoner, a card battle game from Japanese game developer A-Team (TYO:3662), has broken through the 5 million worldwide downloads milestone. The iOS game has been around for about a year, and the Android version launched this past summer. According to social games expert Serkan Toto, the game has seen some impressive profitability as well. The English version of the title has managed to stay in the 100 top grossing app ranks for iOS, and on Google Play both the English and Japanese versions have been in the top 10 or 15 since their release. A commercial featuring AKB48’s Haruna Kojima is currently in heavy rotation [1] on television in Japan promoting an in-game campaign that runs until February 15th allowing you to get special monster cards. You can check out the commercial below. They also have a ‘making of’ video online, if you’re into that sort of thing. I’ve only just begun playing this game, but if you enjoy the card battle genre you’ll probably like this one too. It takes a little while to get into, but the process of collecting rare monster cards and sacrificing other cards to improve them is pretty addicting. I hope to give…
AKB48’s Haruna Kojima, for A-Team’s Dark Summoner
Dark Summoner, a card battle game from Japanese game developer A-Team (TYO:3662), has broken through the 5 million worldwide downloads milestone. The iOS game has been around for about a year, and the Android version launched this past summer.
According to social games expert Serkan Toto, the game has seen some impressive profitability as well. The English version of the title has managed to stay in the 100 top grossing app ranks for iOS, and on Google Play both the English and Japanese versions have been in the top 10 or 15 since their release.
A commercial featuring AKB48’s Haruna Kojima is currently in heavy rotation [1] on television in Japan promoting an in-game campaign that runs until February 15th allowing you to get special monster cards. You can check out the commercial below. They also have a ‘making of’ video online, if you’re into that sort of thing.
I’ve only just begun playing this game, but if you enjoy the card battle genre you’ll probably like this one too. It takes a little while to get into, but the process of collecting rare monster cards and sacrificing other cards to improve them is pretty addicting. I hope to give it a short video review once I spend a little more time with it. In the meantime, if you have any tips or advice for the game, feel free to share it in the comments.
Japanese game developer Nijibox has launched a new title in its Fantasia series, Legend of Fantasia, on the Kotagames platform, targeting South- and Southeast Asia audiences. It will also soon be launching on the mig33 platform as well. Legend of Fantasia is a card battle game, and is not only available for feature phones (Kotagames is primarily a feature phone gaming platform), but is also optimized for smartphones as well. We’re told that the previous Fantasia titles on Kotagames, Costume Fantasia and Monster Fantasia, saw about 10 percent of revenue coming from smartphones. The folks at Nijibox expect this share to increase rapidly as smartphone adoption increases in the region. Interestingly, Legend has been especially localized for Indonesia, as it is available in not only English but in Bahasa Indonesia as well. The story is actually set in futuristic Jakarta, after ‘mysterious enemies’ have invaded the city. The Kotagames platform is growing fast, with 2.5 million users to date, and it’s interesting to see a Japanese game developer reaching out to Southeast Asian users by leveraging the platform. Konami also operates its Hisho Collection title on Kotagames, having launched in October of last year.
Japanese game developer Nijibox has launched a new title in its Fantasia series, Legend of Fantasia, on the Kotagames platform, targeting South- and Southeast Asia audiences. It will also soon be launching on the mig33 platform as well.
Legend of Fantasia is a card battle game, and is not only available for feature phones (Kotagames is primarily a feature phone gaming platform), but is also optimized for smartphones as well. We’re told that the previous Fantasia titles on Kotagames, Costume Fantasia and Monster Fantasia, saw about 10 percent of revenue coming from smartphones. The folks at Nijibox expect this share to increase rapidly as smartphone adoption increases in the region.
Interestingly, Legend has been especially localized for Indonesia, as it is available in not only English but in Bahasa Indonesia as well. The story is actually set in futuristic Jakarta, after ‘mysterious enemies’ have invaded the city.
The Kotagames platform is growing fast, with 2.5 million users to date, and it’s interesting to see a Japanese game developer reaching out to Southeast Asian users by leveraging the platform.
Konami also operates its Hisho Collection title on Kotagames, having launched in October of last year.
I’ve made no secret that I’m a big fan of Ponos’s ‘Battle Cats’. It’s a ridiculously fun tower defense game with an incredible sense of humor. After its initial release back in mid-November 2012, the title managed to hit 2 million downloads in just under three months, which is impressive as the game isn’t riding on any of the major mobile game platforms. While it started off sort of slow, Gamebiz.jp reports that the last million came in a recent 15-day span, making for a good growth spurt. The iOS game has ranked high in Japan (see chart below), and it has performed respectably well in some Asian countries too. For those of you who haven’t tried it yet, I’ve made a quick video overview (see above) of what the game is about. For a free-to-play title, Battle Cats offers up a pretty deep game play experience and I’m still enjoying it months after initially discovering it. Let us know what you think of the game in the comments, or if you have a tip or just want to share a friend code (which helps a lot in this game), feel free to do so.
I’ve made no secret that I’m a big fan of Ponos’s ‘Battle Cats’. It’s a ridiculously fun tower defense game with an incredible sense of humor.
After its initial release back in mid-November 2012, the title managed to hit 2 million downloads in just under three months, which is impressive as the game isn’t riding on any of the major mobile game platforms. While it started off sort of slow, Gamebiz.jp reports that the last million came in a recent 15-day span, making for a good growth spurt. The iOS game has ranked high in Japan (see chart below), and it has performed respectably well in some Asian countries too.
For those of you who haven’t tried it yet, I’ve made a quick video overview (see above) of what the game is about. For a free-to-play title, Battle Cats offers up a pretty deep game play experience and I’m still enjoying it months after initially discovering it.
Let us know what you think of the game in the comments, or if you have a tip or just want to share a friend code (which helps a lot in this game), feel free to do so.
Tokyo-based social games developer Alt Plus was approved on Wednesday to be listed on the Mothers market, a stock exchange for emerging companies. The gaming company was founded in May of 2010 by Takeshi Ishii who formerly worked at a VC firm as well a gaming companies such as Genki Co., Ltd. and AQ Interactive (acquired by Marvelous AQL in 2011). It has developed several gaming titles for the GREE platform, such as Bahamut Brave (not to be confused with Cygames’ Rage of Bahamut for Mobage), The Spirit of Fantasia, and Legend of Derbies King. In Q1 of 2012, the company saw 636 million yen (approximately $6.8 million) in revenue with a net profit of 166 million yen ($1.8 million). Some news sources say its flagship title Bahamut Brave was a very significant contributor to its sales. That title has acquired more than 1 million registered users as of last November. With this IPO, the company will raise approximately 1.1 billion yen ($11.7 million) and start introducing new gaming titles on the iOS App Store and on Google Play.
Tokyo-based social games developer Alt Plus was approved on Wednesday to be listed on the Mothers market, a stock exchange for emerging companies.
The gaming company was founded in May of 2010 by Takeshi Ishii who formerly worked at a VC firm as well a gaming companies such as Genki Co., Ltd. and AQ Interactive (acquired by Marvelous AQL in 2011). It has developed several gaming titles for the GREE platform, such as Bahamut Brave (not to be confused with Cygames’ Rage of Bahamut for Mobage), The Spirit of Fantasia, and Legend of Derbies King.
In Q1 of 2012, the company saw 636 million yen (approximately $6.8 million) in revenue with a net profit of 166 million yen ($1.8 million). Some news sources say its flagship title Bahamut Brave was a very significant contributor to its sales. That title has acquired more than 1 million registered users as of last November.
With this IPO, the company will raise approximately 1.1 billion yen ($11.7 million) and start introducing new gaming titles on the iOS App Store and on Google Play.
Gaming giant GREE (TYO:3632) has just announced a new $10 million fund targeting high quality game developers. As many of you may know, the first recipient of this fund, San Francisco-based MunkyFun, was announced in December. But today GREE is disclosing more details about the size of the fund, as well as their criteria for investment. I spoke with Jim Ying, who is the VP of publishing and partners and GREE International, and he pointed out that even though the company has a high quality internal studio system, they wanted to figure out a way to work with more standout external developers: We’re hopeful that we can hit the next blockbuster, and for our fund, that’s what we’re banking on. We’re not going to be looking at the long tail of developers, but rather the focus is on talent and developers with the potential to make a top 25 game. What’s in store for developers? ¶ With each investment planned to be of $1 million or more, GREE explains that this fund will provide more than just money. In addition the company plans to share access to its teams and tools with frequent calls and on-site visits, most directly with…
Gaming giant GREE (TYO:3632) has just announced a new $10 million fund targeting high quality game developers. As many of you may know, the first recipient of this fund, San Francisco-based MunkyFun, was announced in December. But today GREE is disclosing more details about the size of the fund, as well as their criteria for investment.
I spoke with Jim Ying, who is the VP of publishing and partners and GREE International, and he pointed out that even though the company has a high quality internal studio system, they wanted to figure out a way to work with more standout external developers:
We’re hopeful that we can hit the next blockbuster, and for our fund, that’s what we’re banking on. We’re not going to be looking at the long tail of developers, but rather the focus is on talent and developers with the potential to make a top 25 game.
With each investment planned to be of $1 million or more, GREE explains that this fund will provide more than just money. In addition the company plans to share access to its teams and tools with frequent calls and on-site visits, most directly with the San Fransisco team initially. There will also be a portion of this fund set aside for marketing as well, which Jim explains could be the biggest impediment for game developers looking for the next big hit in the US market in particular:
In western markets that’s the biggest challenge, I’d say. Developers can build a great game but if they can’t expose it to players eyeballs there’s not going to be the support and the revenue generation that the game deserves.
While GREE relies heavily on expensive advertising methods like television in its home market of Japan, Jim points out that the US and most Western markets have not yet matured to that level. So far most of the advertising in the US is still on a CPI basis, and in terms of marketing dollars for this fund, that’s what the company is referring to.
GREE has already made some inroads in South America with tie-ups with Brazil-based Vostu and Columbia’s Brainz. And this new fund focuses attention towards the region too, considering applicants not just from North America, but from South America. Jim adds, “There’s really a lot of creative talent down there. We want to make sure we capture the really talented developers.”
Moving forward in 2013, GREE is pinning high hopes on developers MunkyFun as well as Vancouver based IUGO. So it will be interesting to watch if they — along with any other partners GREE brings on board — can deliver the hit game that they are hoping for this year. Stay tuned!
Rick Martin
Junya Mori
Masaru Ikeda
