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Growing well in Southeast Asia, Nijibox launches ‘JKT48 Card Battle’ in Indonesia

Rick Martin 2013.04.11

Following up on its Fantasia games series, Japanese game publisher Nijibox launched a new card battle game on the Southeast Asian feature phone games platform this week. It’s called JKT48 Card Battle. The title is free to play, featuring the pop idol group JKT48, the Indonesian sister group for the popular AKB48 supergroup from Japan. Many of our readers are no doubt are aware that AKB48 has its own card battle game, so it’s perhaps inevitable that this mobile social game concept be adapted for Indonesian consumers as well. Available in both English and Indonesian, the game is first released for Indonesian carrier Indosat, and after July 7th it will be available on all carriers. The game features a rock-paper-scissors competition where you can win new cards and compete against other players. You can also train and merge your cards to create a stronger collection, accumulating as many of the 180 JKT48 member cards as you can. A Nijibox representative tells me today that the company is doing very well on the Kotagames platform so far, so much so that they are currently focusing their global resources on the Southeast Asia region. While they can’t disclose specific user numbers, I’m…

The title is free to play, featuring the pop idol group JKT48, the Indonesian sister group for the popular AKB48 supergroup from Japan. Many of our readers are no doubt are aware that AKB48 has its own card battle game, so it’s perhaps inevitable that this mobile social game concept be adapted for Indonesian consumers as well.

Available in both English and Indonesian, the game is first released for Indonesian carrier Indosat, and after July 7th it will be available on all carriers. The game features a rock-paper-scissors competition where you can win new cards and compete against other players. You can also train and merge your cards to create a stronger collection, accumulating as many of the 180 JKT48 member cards as you can.

A Nijibox representative tells me today that the company is doing very well on the Kotagames platform so far, so much so that they are currently focusing their global resources on the Southeast Asia region. While they can’t disclose specific user numbers, I’m told that the figures are well into the hundreds of thousands. This regional games market is growing rapidly and they think that Nijibox has an advantage.

Currently the Kotagames platform has over 2.5 million gamers, primarily across the Southeast Asia region.

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Japanese developer Nijibox continues Southeast Asia push

Rick Martin 2013.02.11

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.