THE BRIDGE

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Line’s latest mobile game is great, but for the wrong reason

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Japan’s Line continues to impress in the gaming space, with its recent title Cookie Run accumulating 10 million downloads in its first 30 days. But personally, I was more interested to try out the company’s latest game Line Rangers, which features the company’s own repertoire of characters. I’ve only spent a little time with this game so far, but I really like it a lot. Yet at the same time I’m a little conflicted. Line has completely ripped off one of my favorite tower defense games, Battle Cats, made by another Japanese company Ponos, based in Kyoto. So on the one hand, I’m really disappointed in Line for its “me too” approach. The similarities between the games are especially apparent if you compare the interface/controls in the pictures below. But on the other hand, two cool games are better than one cool game! Get Line Rangers as a free download for iOS or Google Play. I’ll hopefully have more to say about it after I’ve spent a week or so playing with it.

line-rangers

Japan’s Line continues to impress in the gaming space, with its recent title Cookie Run accumulating 10 million downloads in its first 30 days. But personally, I was more interested to try out the company’s latest game Line Rangers, which features the company’s own repertoire of characters. I’ve only spent a little time with this game so far, but I really like it a lot.

Yet at the same time I’m a little conflicted. Line has completely ripped off one of my favorite tower defense games, Battle Cats, made by another Japanese company Ponos, based in Kyoto.

So on the one hand, I’m really disappointed in Line for its “me too” approach. The similarities between the games are especially apparent if you compare the interface/controls in the pictures below. But on the other hand, two cool games are better than one cool game!

Get Line Rangers as a free download for iOS or Google Play. I’ll hopefully have more to say about it after I’ve spent a week or so playing with it.

line-rangers
Line Rangers
Battle Cats
Battle Cats

Puzzle & Dragons reaches 25 million downloads

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GungHo Online Entertainment has announced that its hit game Puzzle & Dragons has surpassed 25 million downloads. This comes just shortly after the two year anniversary of its initial launch. The game needed 29 days to acquire its most recent million, which is pretty consistent with its performance over the last six months or so. [Via Gamebiz]

puzzle-dragons

GungHo Online Entertainment has announced that its hit game Puzzle & Dragons has surpassed 25 million downloads. This comes just shortly after the two year anniversary of its initial launch. The game needed 29 days to acquire its most recent million, which is pretty consistent with its performance over the last six months or so.

[Via Gamebiz]

Kamcord localizes SDK to Japanese, Namco Bandai first to use its game recording technology

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Late last year in Kyoto we happened to run into Adi Rathnam, the co-founder of of Kamcord, who at the time was speaking to potential Japanese gaming partners for his company’s game recording platform. As you may recall, Kamcord offers an SDK that enables game developers to put a ‘movie’ button in game, and when it is pressed, they can then share video clips/replays of their game play. These can be shared directly to Kamcord where they can be viewed by other gamers, or they can be shared to places like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or even email. Back in December Adi informed us of plans to localize their SDK into Japanese, as well as a number of other Asian languages. That localization has now been realized, and Kamcord is also announcing that Namco Bandai’s title Gregg is the first game that takes advantage of that Japanese localization. Kamcord also tells us that they have also localized their SDK into Chinese, with Korean soon to follow. Unreal growth Adi says that they are experiencing huge growth right now, with a new video uploaded once every five seconds, and a total of two billion videos recorded in total. “We’re working hard to…

Late last year in Kyoto we happened to run into Adi Rathnam, the co-founder of of Kamcord, who at the time was speaking to potential Japanese gaming partners for his company’s game recording platform. As you may recall, Kamcord offers an SDK that enables game developers to put a ‘movie’ button in game, and when it is pressed, they can then share video clips/replays of their game play. These can be shared directly to Kamcord where they can be viewed by other gamers, or they can be shared to places like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or even email.

Back in December Adi informed us of plans to localize their SDK into Japanese, as well as a number of other Asian languages. That localization has now been realized, and Kamcord is also announcing that Namco Bandai’s title Gregg is the first game that takes advantage of that Japanese localization. Kamcord also tells us that they have also localized their SDK into Chinese, with Korean soon to follow.

Unreal growth

share_tab_japanese
Kamcord’s share tab

Adi says that they are experiencing huge growth right now, with a new video uploaded once every five seconds, and a total of two billion videos recorded in total. “We’re working hard to ensure our servers will scale,” he explains. “Our growth has been pretty exponential.”

Kamcord is also announcing today that it has joined the Unreal Engine 3 Integrated Partners Program. That program includes 25 other leading companies like Oculus VR, NaturalMotion, and Intel. The founder and CEO of Epic, the company behind the Unreal game engine, had this to say about the tie-up with Kamcord:

The Kamcord integration with Unreal Engine 3 provides awesome real-time video recording and social sharing functionality that developers can drop into their mobile games for added appeal. We’re proud that Kamcord has joined Epic’s Integrated Partners Program to bring their technology to Unreal Engine developers as seamlessly as possible.

This is an important step for Kamcord, because games using the Unreal engine typically have pretty stunning graphics (Infinity Blade is one of the best known examples), as well as a tendency to attract more hardcore gamers. It stands to reason that video recordings of such games would be extremely sharable.

Kamcord will also be making an effort to bring independent developers into the fold as well, and to that end they have already landed Limbic’s Tower Madness 2 (shown in the video above) and PennyPop’s Battle Camp as users of their technology.

Why Japan’s top money-making games don’t forget you on Valentine’s Day

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It’s a very snowy Valentine’s Day here in Tokyo today, and I expect many of us will be spending the evening indoors with our significant others. If you find yourself alone this evening, however, don’t despair – because your favorite mobile games probably have something special in store for you. It’s not unusual for game and app developers to hold special Valentine’s Day campaigns. In fact it’s pretty common these days. But some of the most successful campaigns are the ones that prompt you to give some love back. And by love, I obviously mean money. Two of Japan’s most successful video game publishers both have interesting Valentine’s campaigns currently ongoing, and I’d like to take a quick look at them right now. Let’s start with GungHo Online Entertainment, whose ‘Hearts-a-flutter’ event in Puzzle & Dragons (promo pictured above) began on February 12 and will go on until February 19th. GungHo will be rewarding players with a number of goodies, including: a free magic stone on February 12th–13th, 18th–19th a free Tamadra every day from February 14th–17th (used to awaken new skills in your collected monsters) [1] What’s smart about this kind of campaign is that it sucks you deeper…

puzzle-dragons-valentines

It’s a very snowy Valentine’s Day here in Tokyo today, and I expect many of us will be spending the evening indoors with our significant others. If you find yourself alone this evening, however, don’t despair – because your favorite mobile games probably have something special in store for you.

It’s not unusual for game and app developers to hold special Valentine’s Day campaigns. In fact it’s pretty common these days. But some of the most successful campaigns are the ones that prompt you to give some love back. And by love, I obviously mean money.

Two of Japan’s most successful video game publishers both have interesting Valentine’s campaigns currently ongoing, and I’d like to take a quick look at them right now. Let’s start with GungHo Online Entertainment, whose ‘Hearts-a-flutter’ event in Puzzle & Dragons (promo pictured above) began on February 12 and will go on until February 19th. GungHo will be rewarding players with a number of goodies, including:

  • a free magic stone on February 12th–13th, 18th–19th
  • a free Tamadra every day from February 14th–17th (used to awaken new skills in your collected monsters) [1]

What’s smart about this kind of campaign is that it sucks you deeper into the game. You have a chance to level up your existing monsters, and with the free stones you’ll be closer a chance to try the Rare Egg machine (requires five stones), which you normally have to pay for. And maybe it’s no coincidence that GungHo is giving out four magic stones, expecting that users might be willing to pay the extra 100 yen (or $1) for the fifth one, so they can try the Rare Egg machine [2].

GungHo regularly holds holiday campaigns like these for Puzzle & Dragons, most recently with a New Year’s campaign that yielded great results in North America in particular.

valentines-line

Another Japanese company, Line Corporation, is holding a Valentine’s Day promotion in many of its casual games. The company’s ‘Love is Priceless’ event is featured in three games — Line Pop, Line Pokopang, and Line Bubble — running from February 13th until February 15.

For a span of 62 hours, players will have access to free in-game items which usually require payment to use. So much like GungHo’s tactic, Line is hoping to bring you into the item-purchase process, giving you a taste of fun gameplay that they hope you will pay for later on after the event concludes. Both Line and GungHo have been active promoting these and other holiday events on their respective Facebook pages, realizing that its a necessary part of connecting with with global fans.

Like holiday sales in retail stores, such promotions are always a popular way to connect with customers, and they certainly appear to be working for both GungHo and Line. The two companies were among the top app publishers in sales in 2013, with GungHo ranking number one, and Line not too far behind at number six.

As in app purchases become more and more important to app revenue, game publishers in particular should take note of these holiday tactics and capitalize on such opportunities whenever they can.

So what’s your favorite Valentine’s Day game promotion this year? Do feel free to let us know!


  1. Note that I’m playing the North American version of the game, and the promotion may differ in other regions.  ↩

  2. There are other ways to get magic stones in the game, but they do require some time.  ↩

App of the Week: Pac-Man is the top iPhone app in 44 countries

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More than a video game, Pac-Man – as one of the earliest hit video games – is a global icon. Even my grandmother recognizes Pac-Mac. So perhaps it’s not surprising that when Apple made the iOS version of Pac-Man free last week as its “App of the Week” that fans around the world welcomed it warmly. Just how well has Pac-Man been doing over the past week since it was made free? Well, it’s currently the number one free iOS app in an astounding 44 countries, including the US and Japan. I confess, I don’t think I can remember when any app has been number one in so many countries. It just goes to show that in addition to really liking free stuff, people around the world really love Pac-Man too. I’m constantly recommending apps to my wife, and this is one of the few that she actually downloaded once I told her about it. The iOS game offers the classic maze for you to play, with eight new mazes that you can try, and optionally buy. One annoying part about the game, however, which is odd for a paid app, is that developer Namco-Bandai really doesn’t hesitate to overwhelm…

pacman

More than a video game, Pac-Man – as one of the earliest hit video games – is a global icon. Even my grandmother recognizes Pac-Mac. So perhaps it’s not surprising that when Apple made the iOS version of Pac-Man free last week as its “App of the Week” that fans around the world welcomed it warmly.

Just how well has Pac-Man been doing over the past week since it was made free? Well, it’s currently the number one free iOS app in an astounding 44 countries, including the US and Japan. I confess, I don’t think I can remember when any app has been number one in so many countries. It just goes to show that in addition to really liking free stuff, people around the world really love Pac-Man too. I’m constantly recommending apps to my wife, and this is one of the few that she actually downloaded once I told her about it.

The iOS game offers the classic maze for you to play, with eight new mazes that you can try, and optionally buy. One annoying part about the game, however, which is odd for a paid app, is that developer Namco-Bandai really doesn’t hesitate to overwhelm its users with ads. It’s pretty irritating, and if I had paid for the game I might be a little upset right now.

Since 1980 when Namco initially released the game, Japan has been producing a steady stream of iconic games and characters to follow in Pac-Man footsteps [1]. Over the years there has been Donkey Kong, Super Mario, Final Fantasy, and many more cultural exports that few countries (besides maybe the US) can match. China, for example, still hasn’t really produced anything to compare.

But I digress.

Do check out Pac-Mac over on the App Store if you haven’t gotten it already. The week is almost over, and it won’t be free for too much longer!


  1. Note that these are metaphorical feet only. Pac-Man, as everyone knows, does not have any feet with which to make footsteps.  ↩

Let’s Golf: Hit the links in a maid costume in Line’s latest game

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As I chatted with a friend on Line earlier today, he suggest that I try one of the new games on the chat platform, Let’s Golf, to see if I could beat his score. Most of Line’s games are pretty casual and I rarely come back to many of them. But developed by Gameloft and sporting some decent 3D graphics, I expected this one to be a little better. So I gave it a try. I began the game with four straight hole-in-ones, which almost made me immediately put it aside it was so easy. This is clearly not for golf purists (not that I am one) but rather it’s a little more fast paced. All you have to do is aim for the pin, there’s no putting involved at all. But surprisingly, you are on a timer. There are two oscillating meters on the side for strength and accuracy (hardly novel in golf games) and you need to tap the screen when they’re in the sweet spot [1]. What makes the game fun is the timer, challenging you to score as many points as you can by coming close to the hole or hitting lots of aces. You also…

line-lets-golf

As I chatted with a friend on Line earlier today, he suggest that I try one of the new games on the chat platform, Let’s Golf, to see if I could beat his score. Most of Line’s games are pretty casual and I rarely come back to many of them. But developed by Gameloft and sporting some decent 3D graphics, I expected this one to be a little better. So I gave it a try.

I began the game with four straight hole-in-ones, which almost made me immediately put it aside it was so easy. This is clearly not for golf purists (not that I am one) but rather it’s a little more fast paced. All you have to do is aim for the pin, there’s no putting involved at all. But surprisingly, you are on a timer.

There are two oscillating meters on the side for strength and accuracy (hardly novel in golf games) and you need to tap the screen when they’re in the sweet spot [1]. What makes the game fun is the timer, challenging you to score as many points as you can by coming close to the hole or hitting lots of aces. You also have a chance in fever mode at the end of rounds to pocket some extra points.

line lets golf

And then there are the outfits. In addition to being able to upgrade your clubs, you can also upgrade/change your golf attire. The available costumes are pretty outrageous, with choices including a diving suit, Santa costume, a French maid outfit, a kimono, samurai armor, and a bikini. That’s just a few of them, and you can unlock more are you play through the game.

This is one if the more fun Line titles that I’ve played so far, and its good to see the company working with quality developers to offer a strong range of casual games. China’s favorite me-too messenger WeChat is no doubt still watching closely, having just released a knockoff of Line’s WindRunner this past week with its GunZ Dash. I’ll compare those two in a future article. As both chat platforms try to go global, the games that they offer will be of even greater importance.

Overall Let’s Golf is definitely worth a download, especially if you are a regular user of Line and you want to destroy your friends’ gaming spirits as I did. If you’d like to check it out, you can get it for iOS or Android as a free download.

line lets golf


  1. The simple one-tap controls are nice, and for anyone who commutes on a train, it’s a good way to kill some time.  ↩

Game of Dragons: How Japan’s GungHo is quietly winning in North America

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I experimented with a lot of mobile games in 2013. But the one that I kept coming back to again and again was GungHo Online Entertainment’s hit title Puzzle & Dragons. The game is most popular is its home market of Japan, where it has seen 23 million downloads to date. But like many Japanese online services, the domestic market is near saturation for P&D, and GungHo has been making efforts push the game abroad. The North American version – the version that I play – doesn’t look like it has had the same success, with only 2 million downloads as of November. But it’s slowly making progress, especially in terms of revenue, and I’d like to take a look at how exactly it’s doing that. Most recently P&D saw a holiday boost in revenue, largely thanks to two smart promotions: 48-hour Godfest – This New Year’s promotion gave players a 3x chance of getting rare and powerful cards, including the game’s coveted god-type cards, using the game’s Rare Egg Machine (a sort of in-game lottery where you can earn rare monster cards). To use the machine, you either need to have accumulated five magic stones (P&D’s in-game currency) or…

Puzzle & Dragons exhibit, Tokyo Game Show
Puzzle & Dragons exhibit, Tokyo Game Show 2013

I experimented with a lot of mobile games in 2013. But the one that I kept coming back to again and again was GungHo Online Entertainment’s hit title Puzzle & Dragons. The game is most popular is its home market of Japan, where it has seen 23 million downloads to date. But like many Japanese online services, the domestic market is near saturation for P&D, and GungHo has been making efforts push the game abroad. The North American version – the version that I play – doesn’t look like it has had the same success, with only 2 million downloads as of November.

But it’s slowly making progress, especially in terms of revenue, and I’d like to take a look at how exactly it’s doing that.

Most recently P&D saw a holiday boost in revenue, largely thanks to two smart promotions:

  1. 48-hour Godfest – This New Year’s promotion gave players a 3x chance of getting rare and powerful cards, including the game’s coveted god-type cards, using the game’s Rare Egg Machine (a sort of in-game lottery where you can earn rare monster cards). To use the machine, you either need to have accumulated five magic stones (P&D’s in-game currency) or buy stones with actual money. As you can see in the App Annie chart below, the game’s revenue shot up over New Year’s, in both the US and Canada, thanks to this enticing promotion.
  2. Rare Egg Machine was adjusted/renewed – This recent adjustment decreases the chances of a three-star card and increases your chance of a four-star card. This took place on December 10, and the effects of the adjustment are pretty clear as you can see below, for both the US and Canada (note that I’ve varied the scale for clarity).
Puzzle & Dragons, US market, grossing rank
Puzzle & Dragons, US market, grossing rank, Dec 29 – Jan 13
Puzzle & Dragons, Canada market, grossing rank, Dec 29 - Jan 13
Puzzle & Dragons, Canada market, grossing rank, Dec 29 – Jan 13

On a bit of a sidenote, it always really surprises me to see how active English-speaking fans on the game’s Facebook page, as well as on forums and discussion pages dedicated to the game. That’s not a very tangible measurement of the game’s success, of course, but for me it has always been a good indication that the game, which is very Japanese in both concept and design, has not been lost in translation.

In addition to activities like the ones we saw during the holidays, a number of cross-brand collaborations have helped P&D over the past year as well, most notably the Clash of Clans promotion that it held with Finnish gaming powerhouse Supercell.

But if we look at the game’s progress over the past year in terms of revenue alone (see below), then it’s easy to see what a productive year this has been for GungHo.

Let’s see what 2014 holds for the company.

Puzzle & Dragons, US market, grossing rank over 2013
Puzzle & Dragons, US market, grossing rank over 2013

GungHo’s Dokuro is a mobile hit in Japan and China

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Hitting number one in Japan and China this week was a game called Dokuro, a fun puzzle scroller from mobile game giant GungHo Online Entertainment. Already a popular title on PlayStation Vita, the game just hit the top overall spot on the Android here in Japan after being released last week. On iOS, it was also the country’s top app for a few days this week [1]. Interestingly, it also became China’s iOS top app/game on December 7th, a position it still holds now as I write this. For those not familiar with the title, it stylistically has the same sort of whitewashed macabre cartoon art as The Nightmare before Christmas, with a similar skull-headed hero. The story has our rescuing the princess from the Dark Lord’s castle, after he kidnapped and locked her in a dungeon. This boney, but sympathetic, henchman guard decides to escort the princess through elaborate stages, employing a number of tools and strategies to bring her safely past treacherous obstacles and traps. The princess is far from the model of an independent woman, walking mindlessly forward like a lemming, depending on you to clear the path. The hero can move boxes, pull levers and push…

Hitting number one in Japan and China this week was a game called Dokuro, a fun puzzle scroller from mobile game giant GungHo Online Entertainment. Already a popular title on PlayStation Vita, the game just hit the top overall spot on the Android here in Japan after being released last week. On iOS, it was also the country’s top app for a few days this week [1].

Interestingly, it also became China’s iOS top app/game on December 7th, a position it still holds now as I write this.

For those not familiar with the title, it stylistically has the same sort of whitewashed macabre cartoon art as The Nightmare before Christmas, with a similar skull-headed hero. The story has our rescuing the princess from the Dark Lord’s castle, after he kidnapped and locked her in a dungeon.

dokuro-0

This boney, but sympathetic, henchman guard decides to escort the princess through elaborate stages, employing a number of tools and strategies to bring her safely past treacherous obstacles and traps. The princess is far from the model of an independent woman, walking mindlessly forward like a lemming, depending on you to clear the path. The hero can move boxes, pull levers and push buttons to toggle gates, and even drink a potion to temporarily transform into a swashbuckling prince.

I’ve been playing the game for a few days now, and it seems to stay fresh as you go along with lots of new tactics and tools as the game progresses. The stages are short enough that you can pick up the game and try a new stage at any time during your day, sort of the same kind of mini challenge as Angry Birds in a way. So it will be interesting to see if Japan’s legion of on-train smartphone gamers latch on to this one or not.

Dokuro has some merchandising potential as well, with many of the early reviews here in Japan commenting on how cute the characters are. The game isn’t dependent in language in any way, so it’s a pretty accessible title that anyone can enjoy.

If you’d like to try out Dokuro, you can pick it up for 100 yen over on the App Store or for 105 yen on Google Play.

dokuro-1

dokuro-15


  1. Until at Dragon Quest VIII knocked it out of the top spot today.  ↩

San Francisco-based Kamcord wants Asia to record and share more mobile gaming videos

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While this week’s Infinity Ventures Summit in Kyoto was largely a domestic affair, there were a number of out-of-towners in attendance looking to kickstart their operations in Japan. One of these was San Francisco-based Kamcord, a startup that hopes to capitalize on mobile gamers’s social tendencies. The young startup offers an SDK that enables game developers to put a ‘movie’ button in game, and when it is pressed, they can then share video clips/replays of their game play. These can be shared directly to Kamcord where they can be viewed by other gamers, or they can be shared to places like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or even email [1] And so yesterday at IVS, co-founder Adi Rathnam was in attendance in Kyoto, speaking to potential game company partners here in Japan that might make use of their screen capture service, which is already built into 160 mobile games to date. Their closest competitor right now is Finland’s Applifier, which is similar in that it also provides recording and sharing of game content, but focused more on cross-promotional ads through video. Here on The Bridge we often share screen capture movies of games and apps we like, but the process is not…

While this week’s Infinity Ventures Summit in Kyoto was largely a domestic affair, there were a number of out-of-towners in attendance looking to kickstart their operations in Japan. One of these was San Francisco-based Kamcord, a startup that hopes to capitalize on mobile gamers’s social tendencies.

kamcord-logo-tall

The young startup offers an SDK that enables game developers to put a ‘movie’ button in game, and when it is pressed, they can then share video clips/replays of their game play. These can be shared directly to Kamcord where they can be viewed by other gamers, or they can be shared to places like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or even email [1]

And so yesterday at IVS, co-founder Adi Rathnam was in attendance in Kyoto, speaking to potential game company partners here in Japan that might make use of their screen capture service, which is already built into 160 mobile games to date. Their closest competitor right now is Finland’s Applifier, which is similar in that it also provides recording and sharing of game content, but focused more on cross-promotional ads through video.

Here on The Bridge we often share screen capture movies of games and apps we like, but the process is not a simple one, requiring specialized software and some patience as well. Having Kamcord built into the game itself certainly makes the process accessible enough for the average gamer, removing the normal obstacles from the video sharing process.

Logically, it makes sense for Kamcord to target the most developed mobile nations in Asia, including Japan and Korea. But perhaps the most interesting market for Kamcord, I think, is China. With Tencent as their major investor, WeChat is a natural and logical partner, says Adi. But China’s affinity for sharing user generated game videos on popular video streaming platforms like Youku would likely mean an easy victory for Kamcord. They will have to bring some local games into their repertoire though of course. Adi elaborates:

Expanding to China, Japan, and Korea is a top priority for us. Our plan to do so involves localizing our product into Chinese, Japanese, and Korean and letting users share content to the messaging apps that are so popular in Asia. Line, Kakao, and WeChat are doing an awesome job growing their user base and driving downloads to games, and we’d love to work with these companies to create a rich experience for users.

As for monetization, Kamcord is still focused on building its community for the time being, but I understand they’ll look at a variety of options from driving installs to advertising.

I’d be surprised if game developers and publishers here in Japan don’t recognize the potential that exists in having enthusiastic fans help market their games using videos. It may require some forward thinking on their part, and a little more trust in user-generated content, but I expect we’ll see many of them jump on the Kamcord bandwagon soon.

kamcord-screenshot


  1. I understand the video files are not very big, often around 5 or 10 megabytes.  ↩

Tokyo Game Show: The Mobile Players

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If 2012 was the year that mobile exhibitors overtook consoles at the Tokyo Game Show, 2013 was the year consoles rebounded, with Sony and Microsoft dominating the show. But there was still a strong mobile presence this year, perhaps the biggest exhibitor being GREE, once again shelling out for a large floor space. We spoke to their SVP of social games Eiji Araki, who explained why they feel the need to go big every year. But the standout newcomer this year at TGS was GungHo Online Entertainment, the developer of perhaps the world’s most successful game, Puzzle & Dragons, spotlighting their new 3DS version. They also previewed their upcoming title, Divine Gate, which is set for a September 30 release on Android. There were some notable absences from the mobile space however. GREE rival DeNA, as always, chose to skip the event. Colopl had a pretty large booth last year, but they took a pass on showing up this year. Casual game makers Line Corporation and BeeWorks, the creator of the wildly popular (and cute) Nameco franchise, were also no shows. We turned our eyes to the little guys in mobile this year, skipping over consoles entirely [1]. In the…

tokyo-game-show-201311

If 2012 was the year that mobile exhibitors overtook consoles at the Tokyo Game Show, 2013 was the year consoles rebounded, with Sony and Microsoft dominating the show.

But there was still a strong mobile presence this year, perhaps the biggest exhibitor being GREE, once again shelling out for a large floor space. We spoke to their SVP of social games Eiji Araki, who explained why they feel the need to go big every year. But the standout newcomer this year at TGS was GungHo Online Entertainment, the developer of perhaps the world’s most successful game, Puzzle & Dragons, spotlighting their new 3DS version. They also previewed their upcoming title, Divine Gate, which is set for a September 30 release on Android.

tokyo-game-show-201307

There were some notable absences from the mobile space however. GREE rival DeNA, as always, chose to skip the event. Colopl had a pretty large booth last year, but they took a pass on showing up this year.

Casual game makers Line Corporation and BeeWorks, the creator of the wildly popular (and cute) Nameco franchise, were also no shows.

We turned our eyes to the little guys in mobile this year, skipping over consoles entirely [1]. In the indie gaming area it was great to see companies like Okinawa-based SummerTime Studio, who has had a hit with their Ancient Surfer mobile game. We had a short discussion with their president, Hirotsu Takeyasu, which you can check out below.

Set up right next to them was Tokyo-based Link Kit, the maker of Samurai Defender, a game that we reviewed (and loved) earlier this year. Team Martini was also showing off Pechan, a really fun game for iPad where you have to push a juicer around the screen to crush fruit.

The game show also had an area dedicated to romance simulation games, featuring Eitarosoft, Voltage, and the oddly named ZZYZX. We did a short interview with Voltage (see video below), a prolific game publisher with over 50 titles to date. They plan to release one app every month, including some games that men can enjoy as well. This is one of those genres that is unique to Japan, but I imagine we will see more of these kind of titles creep into the global market (as we saw with card battle games), on an experimental basis if nothing else.

They came from beyond

Of course, the game show wasn’t just about Japanese game producers peddling their wares. There were also an abundance of foreign game makers parachuting into the country to show off titles here. As we mentioned yesterday, the one that most impressed us was Israel’s Nordau Creative with its Kazooloo augmented reality dragon fighting title.

But there was also an abundance of exhibitors from the Asia region, representing Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Tawian, Thailand, and Vietnam.

We also were quite impressed by the efforts of Russian developer and publisher Game Insight, who just recently launched a localized version of their Tribez game here in Japan for iOS. They win our unofficial award for the most enthusiastic game demo, corralling me and my colleague into a room and not letting us go until we had seen five of their games. They should get a raise.

And finally, making my naughty list this year is Square Enix, who once again had their “no photos” policy in effect at their booth, demonstrating that they still do not comprehend the concept of a “show”.

tokyo-game-show-201316
The Nordau Creative team, featuring Kazooloo AR game at Tokyo Game Show

  1. There no shortage of coverage over on sites like Tktk and Tktk, so you can check that out there.  ↩