THE BRIDGE

tag puzzles & dragons

Two mobile money makers team up: GungHo and Supercell announce in-game collaboration

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Japanese game publisher GungHo Entertainment and Finish publisher Supercell have just announced a joint collaboration that will result in the mutual sharing of content in each others games. To be clear, these are two giant games teaming up here; two of the biggest money makers in the mobile gaming space, working together to likely make even more money! What this means exactly is that we’ll see some Clash of Clans themed dungeons and monsters showing up in GungHo’s hit game Puzzle and Dragons. And likewise, we will see Clash of Clans and Hay Day display cross promotions for Puzzle and Dragons, in both the iOS and Android versions. Supercell’s CEO Ilkka Paananen commented in the announcement: We are very honored to work with GungHo and learn from the masters of free-to-play gaming. The more time we spend with GungHo, the more we realize how remarkably similar our two companies are. We are deeply committed to helping each other expand into new markets and equally committed to having an incredible amount of fun working together. GungHo has done collaborations like this previously for its Japanese version, but this is the first time (that I’m aware of) that they have made such…

puzzle-dragons-clash-of-clans

Japanese game publisher GungHo Entertainment and Finish publisher Supercell have just announced a joint collaboration that will result in the mutual sharing of content in each others games. To be clear, these are two giant games teaming up here; two of the biggest money makers in the mobile gaming space, working together to likely make even more money!

What this means exactly is that we’ll see some Clash of Clans themed dungeons and monsters showing up in GungHo’s hit game Puzzle and Dragons. And likewise, we will see Clash of Clans and Hay Day display cross promotions for Puzzle and Dragons, in both the iOS and Android versions.

Supercell’s CEO Ilkka Paananen commented in the announcement:

We are very honored to work with GungHo and learn from the masters of free-to-play gaming. The more time we spend with GungHo, the more we realize how remarkably similar our two companies are. We are deeply committed to helping each other expand into new markets and equally committed to having an incredible amount of fun working together.

GungHo has done collaborations like this previously for its Japanese version, but this is the first time (that I’m aware of) that they have made such an effort for the English version of its game.

Serkan Toto has a great overview of how Japanese gaming companies use this collaboration strategy here, if you’d like to learn more.

For anyone who has yet to try out Puzzle and Dragons check out our demo video of basic gameplay strategy here.

Japan’s Softbank Mobile to acquire majority shares of game developer Gungho Online Entertainment

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Japanese mobile carrier Softbank Mobile announced today it would tender an offer of social gaming giant Gungho Online Entertainment. Softbank (TSE:9984) was founded by Masayoshi Son, and Gungho was founded by Masayoshi’s young brother Taizo Son who is also a serial entrepreneur and now running a tech startup incubator called Movida Japan. Gungho has been getting lots of attention from investors because of its hugely popular titles Puzzle & Dragons and Ragnarok Online, making the company’s stock price five times what it was at the beginning of this year. By partnering with the gaming company, Softbank Mobile expects to expand the sales of online and smartphone game titles using the company’s global business. Softbank’s announcement can be found over on its website in English and in Japanese (PDFs) GungHo’s Puzzle & Dragons recently surpassed the 10 million downloads milestone on March 9th, but perhaps its biggest accomplishment to date has been its longevity on the top grossing apps charts, and is reportedly has a market cap of about $4.6 billion [1]. The company’s success to date has primarily been limited to Japan. It has a US subsidiary, but it remains to be seen if global users will get behind the…

softbank-gungho

Japanese mobile carrier Softbank Mobile announced today it would tender an offer of social gaming giant Gungho Online Entertainment. Softbank (TSE:9984) was founded by Masayoshi Son, and Gungho was founded by Masayoshi’s young brother Taizo Son who is also a serial entrepreneur and now running a tech startup incubator called Movida Japan.

Gungho has been getting lots of attention from investors because of its hugely popular titles Puzzle & Dragons and Ragnarok Online, making the company’s stock price five times what it was at the beginning of this year. By partnering with the gaming company, Softbank Mobile expects to expand the sales of online and smartphone game titles using the company’s global business. Softbank’s announcement can be found over on its website in English and in Japanese (PDFs)

GungHo’s Puzzle & Dragons recently surpassed the 10 million downloads milestone on March 9th, but perhaps its biggest accomplishment to date has been its longevity on the top grossing apps charts, and is reportedly has a market cap of about $4.6 billion [1].

The company’s success to date has primarily been limited to Japan. It has a US subsidiary, but it remains to be seen if global users will get behind the P&D phenomenon.

Gungho also recently launched its own online store for Puzzle & Dragon’s merchandise, where you can pick up plush toys, iPhone cases, and even P&D mugs. So far, it’s just for fans in Japan, but we hope to see an international version later on if the game catches on elsewhere.

If you’d like a general introduction to the wildly popular game, check out our video demo below.


  1. This according to Serkan Toto.  ↩

Japan’s Gungho Entertainment is winning at home, but will global gamers get it?

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Among the Japanese mobile gaming companies that have made regular international headlines in recent years (most notably GREE and DeNA), Gungho Entertainment is perhaps the one that has yet to make a really significant splash overseas. But its hit game Puzzles & Dragons, commonly described as a sort of Pokemon/Bejeweled hybrid, now has over 9 million users, the majority of those from its home market – although GungHo’s U.S. arm is doing its best to change that. P&D has been a mainstay at or near the top of grossing charts for iOS and Android (practically) since its launch [1], and I don’t expect its popularity to wane anytime soon. Interestingly Gungho plans to launch an online store for P&D merchandise on March 15, and in April it will be holding an event for fans at the Tokyo Dome. You can check out a TV ad for P&D below, and the importance of that continued marketing push – as Serkan Toto points out – cannot be understated. Nevertheless, global users have yet to really warm to the English version of the game (iOS, Android), and it will be interesting to see if the company can change that this year. GungHo also…

puzzles-and-dragon-store
Online shop coming soon at pazudoraya.com

Among the Japanese mobile gaming companies that have made regular international headlines in recent years (most notably GREE and DeNA), Gungho Entertainment is perhaps the one that has yet to make a really significant splash overseas. But its hit game Puzzles & Dragons, commonly described as a sort of Pokemon/Bejeweled hybrid, now has over 9 million users, the majority of those from its home market – although GungHo’s U.S. arm is doing its best to change that.

P&D has been a mainstay at or near the top of grossing charts for iOS and Android (practically) since its launch [1], and I don’t expect its popularity to wane anytime soon. Interestingly Gungho plans to launch an online store for P&D merchandise on March 15, and in April it will be holding an event for fans at the Tokyo Dome.

You can check out a TV ad for P&D below, and the importance of that continued marketing push – as Serkan Toto points out – cannot be understated. Nevertheless, global users have yet to really warm to the English version of the game (iOS, Android), and it will be interesting to see if the company can change that this year. GungHo also recently acquired standout game developer Grasshopper Manufacture, so I expect that will surely help its efforts in all markets.

More recently, GungHo also has a hit in Princess Punt Sweets, as the game just surpassed the 2 million user mark since its release back in November. That title still hasn’t been released for global gamers, although I expect that we’ll an English version sometime soon.


  1. See App Annie for details (iOS, Android.