Bandai Namco and GREE Release Pac-Man Monsters

Posted 20:38 EST on 26FEB2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » bandai namco, GREE, pac-man monsters

Bandai Namco today released its Android title Pac-Man Monsters, developed in collaboration with and published by GREE. Pac-Man Monsters is free to play, monetized via in-game purchases.

Bandai Namco refers to Pac-Man Monsters as a “puzzle RPG”, likely to invite comparison to GungHo‘s Puzzle & Dragons. Players control the legendary game character by drawing lines across the playing field, guiding Pac-man to gobble up cookies, fruit and ghosts.

Much like Puzzle & Dragons, players can assemble a motley crew of Pac-men, which offer different in-game power-ups and other bonuses, based on their level and rarity.

Did you know that the original name for Pac-Man was Puck-Man? You’d think it was because he looks like a hockey puck but it actually comes from the Japanese phrase ‘Paku-Paku,’ which means to flap one’s mouth open and closed.

News source: Social Game Info

GREE Shares Rise on Monster Hunter Release and Short Covers

Posted 16:52 EST on 19FEB2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » financials, GREE, monster hunter: roar of cards

February 19th: At the end of the day’s trading, GREE’s shares had risen 130 yen from the prior day to 1,230 ($12.30) apiece. Roar of Cards, an entry in Capcom’s extremely popular Monster Hunter series developed jointly between Capcom and Grani, was released for GREE’s social games platform today. Speculation is that high expectations for this release buoyed GREE’s share price. (Capcom’s share price also rose 3.7 percent on the day of the title’s release.)

There is also speculation that short sellers are looking to short cover after GREE posted generally positive Q1 and Q2 combined results, contributing to the rise in the company’s share price.

News and images source: Social Game Info

GREE Releases Q1 / Q2 Combined Results

Posted 19:03 EST on 16FEB2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » financials, GREE, knights and dragons

February 14th: GREE released its combined Q1 and Q2 results, which reveal an overall decrease to both sales and operating profit. GREE places the blame primarily with stagnant sales through its social games. Although GREE took steps to reduce its sales and general administrative expenses (primarily through cuts to advertising costs), sales costs cut heavily into GREE’s bottom line.

Specifically, GREE reported sales of 67.9 billion yen ($679 million), operating profits of 18.9 billion yen ($189 million), and net profit of 9.8 billion yen ($98 million) for the period of JUL through DEC. In comparison to the same six-month period one year prior, these figures represent a 12.1 percent drop in sales, a 36.9 percent drop in operating profit, and a 45.8 percent drop in net profit.

Social games remain GREE’s core business, and the drop in “coins” (GREE’s in-platform currency) spent is indicative of stagnant sales through social titles. As more and more users migrate away from traditional “feature phones” to smartphones, coins spent by feature phone users have dropped accordingly. With social platforms like that provided by GREE having difficulty finding footing in the face of de facto competition from Google Play and the App Store, coins purchased and spent by smartphone users of GREE’s social platform and social titles did not compensate for the loss of paying feature phone gamers.

From JUL to DEC (2013), the number of coins spent in GREE’s social platform for games and other services was 97.8 billion, down 16 billion from the same six-month period one year prior.

GREE emphasizes that it is in the process of culling unprofitable smartphone native titles and reorganizing to improve profit from ongoing smartphone apps. GREE also points out that its efforts beyond the shores of Japan have begun to bear fruit, with Knights and Dragons turning $5 million in profit in just the space of the month of December.

Q3 outlook

For Q1 through Q3, GREE anticipates combined sales of 99 billion yen ($990 million), operating profit of 27 billion yen ($270 million), and net profit of 14.5 billion yen ($145 million).

GREE announced that it intends on focusing its releases to titles which it anticipates will be most profitable on the basis of its growing experience in the field of native apps, releasing only four titles in the remaining half of its fiscal year. GREE also anticipates that overseas business will continue to contribute toward its bottom line.

News source: Social Game Info

Bandai Namco and GREE Announce Pac-Man Title for Smartphones

Posted 18:16 EST on 13FEB2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » bandai namco, GREE, pac-man

Bandai Namco and GREE have teamed up to bring Pac-Man to smartphones in Japan. Bandai Namco is calling Pac-Man Monsters a “puzzle RPG”. Pac-Man follows along lines traced by users across their smartphone’s screen, gobbling up cookies as he goes.

Bandai-Namco promises there will be well over 100 quests available from release of the title, and over 100 unique Pac-Men for players to enjoy.

Pac-Man Monsters is slated for release by GREE toward the end of February. Players anxious from the drought of puzzle titles for smartphones can get a jump on the release by pre-registering, getting a limited edition Pac-Man character for use in Pac-Man Monsters following its release.

News and images source: Inside Games

colopl surpasses NEXON in Market Cap, Now Behind Only GREE

Posted 21:29 EST on 20JAN2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » colopl, financials, GREE, NEXON

As of today, colopl’s market capitalization has exceeded that of rival NEXON, for the first time since colopl’s listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in December of 2012. colopl’s market cap has risen 54.7 billion yen from one week prior to a total of 425.5 billion yen. In the same period, NEXON’s market cap dropped by 7 billion yen to a total of 405.9 billion.

colopl’s share price ended the day’s trading up 485 yen from one week prior to arrive at a total of 3,595 yen, an increase of 15.5 percent. The rise in share price can in large part be attributed to colopl’s announcement of a new title this past weekend. The title, Slingshot Braves, features easily-grasped gesture-based mechanics and will be internationally release through colopl’s Kuma the Bear brand. The simple play mechanics and the promise of an international release have lead to high expectations from investors, which has been reflected in colopl’s share price.

The announcement of Slingshot Braves was accompanied by colopl’s announcement that its smartphone titles had been downloaded 70 million times, and followed today by the announcement that colopl’s flagship title Quiz RPG: The Mystic World of Wiz has reached 18 million downloads in its homeland of Japan.

Meanwhile, NEXON’s share price lost 16 yen (1.7%), coming to rest at 924 yen.

The market capitalization of Japan’s largest games publishers is as outlined in the below table. Setting aside games publishers involved in hardware manufacture or traditional games distribution to narrow the list to those games developers whose business is based on online games and applications, the figures indicate that colopl now stands behind only GREE in terms of market capitalization.

Company name	Market cap
Nintendo	1 trillion 947.2 billion yen
Sony	1 trillion 835.2 billion yen
GungHo Online Entertainment	790.2 billion yen
Sega Sammy Holdings	683.1 billion yen
Bandai Namco Holdings	478.8 billion yen
colopl	425.5 billion yen
NEXON	405.9 billion yen
Konami	345.9 billion yen
DeNA	336.0 billion yen
CyberAgent	275.2 billion yen
GREE	255.2 billion yen
Square Enix Holdings	198.9 billion yen

News and images source: Social Game Info articles: colopl and NEXON Trade Market Cap Spots, colopl Out Ahead, colopl’s Quiz RPG Tops 18M DLs in Japan

Nikkei Looks at GREE’s 2013 End-of-Year Performance

Posted 16:33 EST on 16JAN2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » financials, GREE

The following is a translation of the article as it appears on Social Game Info

The January 15th morning edition of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun puts GREE’s group operating profit for the final 3-month period of 2013 (October through December) at approximately 8 billion yen, an 18 percent decline from the preceding three-month period and a 40 percent decline in comparison to the same three-month period in 2012. GREE instituted a range of expenditure cuts, but these were not sufficient to offset income declines. However, the Nikkei points out that GREE’s operating profits exceeded the 7.2 billion yen anticipated by the QUICK Consensus.

Nikkei reports that income from GREE’s titles for traditional cellular phones, which in the past had been pillars of the company’s earnings, declined 9 percent from the preceding three-month period to a total of approximately 32 billion yen. This is the fourth financial quarter in a row in which these numbers have declined, and a 19 percent decline in comparison to the same financial period in 2012. Meanwhile, in the expanding smartphone market, GREE has struggled to produce a hit title to offset losses from the decline in popularity of traditional cellular phones.

There is positive news, however. Nikkei reports that “in contrast to the period from July through September, GREE did not experience losses due to reigning in or cutting poorly performing titles. As a result bottom-line profits increased slightly in the period from October through December.”

In response to the Nikkei’s report, GREE issued a short release reminding investors that the reports were “based on figures issued by a financial institution, which are not official”. GREE is expected to address earnings for the final three months of 2013 in its second-quarter budget on the 14th of February.

News source: Social Game Info

Social Game Info Lists Its 20 Titles to Look Out for in 2014

Posted 19:09 EST on 09JAN2014 by: indie navi news staff in features » 2014 preview, capcom, GREE, konami, square enix

With all of the titles being released in Japan for mobile platforms, it can be tough to know on what to keep tabs. Fortunately, Japanese mobile platform media outlet Social Game Info has compiled its annual list of titles to look out for in the coming year. With everything from a Golf RPG to a mystery social title from industry giant Square Enix, this is shaping up to be an interesting year for iOS and Android users.

Golf on Your Smartphone! Guruguru Eagle

Guruguru Eagle (loosely: Lucky Eagle Golf) comes from developer Aiming, known for its mobile action RPGs Valiant Legion, Logress of Swords and Sorcery (develped for MarvelousAQL), and Griffon: Record of the Phantom Tower (developed for Sega Networks).

The developer is taking what they know and applying it to a whole new genre: golf. Players can customize their avatars appearance to the Nth degree, and send them to the tee against opponents, or in modes like the relaxing “one hole, one minute” mode. By clearing a hole, players are rewarded with new clubs, outfits, and accessories, as well as in-game currency to spend on the same. “Golf RPG” probably wouldn’t be the first game a developer would think to put out for mobile platforms, making this one to look out for in 2014.

Images source: Guruguru Eagle official site

Sword of Knights

Another title by Aiming, although closer to the RPGs by which the developer made its name. What sets this title apart is its approach to dungeons: the look and function like a board game. Players move through the board game-like dungeon panels at a time, landing perhaps on battle panels, treasure panels, or uneventful Free Parking(-esque) spots. Lead illustrator is Alco Wada, known for a variety of manga works and game illustrations.

Image source: Sword of Knights official site

Furubokko Heroes

Loosely: Full-Power Kick heroes. Develped in collaboration between Drecom and CyberConnect2. Furubokko Heroes gained media attention when through aggressive media relations it gathered 100,000 pre-registrations, offering registrants a shot at its “Flying Get Gacha”, potentially earning a special unit for use upon release of the full title. Similar to Level 5′s WonderFlick, the draw is in the simple tactile pleasure of its flick-based combat.

Image source: Furubokko Heroes official site

Dragon Dice

Konami’s title further shortens the gap between mobile RPGs and full-on MMORPGs. Players log in and go about their tasks in a shared environment. When taking on tough baddies, players can call out for help and get other players to join in on the battle in real time, arranging attacks and setting up combos via text chat.

Ryusenkei Encounter

A “tactical RPG” by developer GMO Game Center, presented through the Android games application platform “G Gei”. Players select to be a member of one of four schools, gathering “astral spirits” to form their battle parties. The game’s main draw is its adrenaline-injected take on the strategy RPG formula: players have 3 turns to win or lose, strategically placing their astral spirits on a tiny 3 x 3 grid to make best use of the tiny window of opportunity. GMO promises the battles place no limit on the number of participants in battle. Players can move their “home bases” about the game world, collaborating with other players and aiming to gather as many points for their school.

Evangelion: Catharsis of the Soul

Not much is known about this title, but expectations are high given the combination of the pedigree of developer DeNA (owner of the popular mobile social networking site and games platform Mobage), and the high profile of the Evangelion name.

Image source: Evangelion: Catharsis of the Soul official site

Attack on Titan

You’ve got to hand it to DeNA: they know how to get their hands on hot properties. Like Evangelion: Catharsis of the Soul, this title was only recently announced, so little is known, but the Attack on Titan name alone makes it worth keeping an eye on.

Tower of Odin

Another title presented by DeNA, although this time a localization. Created by Korean developer Haiwan Entertainment, the tower defense title Tower of Odin has already been downloaded over a million times in its native land. Set in a land called Asgard, towers were built to protect the powerful crystals lying beneath them from marauding Valkyries. It’s the player’s job to make sure the Valkyries don’t get their claws on the crystals.

Starting on the lowest level where the crystal is located, players build one floor atop another, their tower reaching ever higher into the heavens. Players place various “gear” (weaponry) about the floors strategically, to stem the Valkyrie tide. Players also populate their towers with “heroes”, which come in a variety of shapes and sizes, building for them floors littered with weaponry suited to their breed and battle style. Doing so draws out the heroes’ full skill, more effectively repelling the Valkyrie hordes.

Another mode allows players can also try to attack the towers their friends and other players have built, receiving in-game currency for their victories. The currency can be spent toward increasing and better equipping the floors of their own towers, encouraging competition among players.

Images source: Social Game Info

WonderFlick

Although the attention it’s been receiving has not been all positive, WonderFlick is still highly anticipated for the quality track record of its developer, Level 5. Battles are carried out by flicking medallions at foes, chaining them together for combos for extra damage, to heal the party, and to achieve a variety of useful effects. Level 5 is also touting its UniPlay system, whereby game data is saved to the cloud and shared between devices, with eventual releases to PlayStations 3, 4, and Vita as well as the Wii U and Xbox One announced.

Tokyo 7th Sisters

Developer Donuts made a splash with its motorcycle racer Tantora. The developer hopes to make lightning strike a second time with its take on the “raise an idol” genre, which it touts as a “idol-raising rhythm & adventure game”.

7th Sisters takes place in the year 2034 where, in stark contrast to present-day Japan, pop idols have all but disappeared. The music for the “rhythm” part of the title is made up of original tunes by up-and-coming “vocaloid artists” (composers using vocaloid software like that featuring the Äber-popular Hatsune Miku to provide the vocals for their tracks). The “adventure” unfolds in a take on the perennial “girl get” story formula, where players meet up with the girls that, with the player’s guidance, may go on to take the entertainment world by storm.

Uncommon for an iOS release, the game will also feature full voice acting and background music, and Donuts promises the how the story unfolds will be based on the player’s involvement.

Merc Storia

From Happy Elements, publisher of titles like Majoca Majoluna and Ensemble Girls, comes the “line strategy RPG” Merc Storia.

One of the title’s main draws are its real-time cooperative quests, which allow players to team up with friends and tackle quests together. The game also boasts an upward of 200 types of units, including gladiators, wizards, and monks, with high-quality animation altered to suit the weapon the individual unit is wielding. It’s said the graphic style and moving story line have been a hit in testing with younger players.

Celestial Craft Fleet

KLab’s latest is an “action battle game” that combines an easy-to-understand 3D battle system with simple but deep simulation elements in building your fleet. In these real-time “mission battles”, players attempt to swipe enemy crafts in connected strokes, taking them down this way. By clearing battles, players are rewarded with experience points, parts for their craft, and “crew points” to use in attempts to get extra powerful prizes from the in-game gacha machine. Similar to an RPG, as players succeed in battle, their strength and other stats rise, allowing them to tackle more powerful foes. Players can also participate in 20 on 20 multi-player battles, coordinating their strategy in real time via in-game messaging.

Already 100,000 people have pre-registered, placing it in the top spot for pre-registrations in both the App Store and GooglePlay, demonstrating keen gamer interest in the title.

GUNS ‘N SOULS

Billed as a “high-speed action RPG”, GUNS ‘N SOULS is a collaboration between games industry giant Square Enix and Shift, the developer of titles such as God Eater 2 and Freedom Wars. Among the developers are Gyoutoku Kitajima (participating as scenario writer, known for his work on Chaos Rings, Yuusuke Naora (overseeing character design, and known for his involvement in the Chaos Rings and Final Fantasy series), and Robert Ferrari (participating as lead creator, known for his work on MOON DIVER).

GUNS ‘N SOULS is being designed from the ground up to take advantage of touch controls and features voice acting by a talented and experienced cast, as well as the graphical flourishes for which Square Enix is renowned.

Images source: Social Game Info

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Shooters

Characters from the popular, long-running manga appear in the game as medallions used as projectiles to topple foes. Bandai Namco promises the medallions will include characters from series’ staples to the lesser-known. In anticipation of the upcoming second season of the anime, Stardust Shooters features characters which appear in the first two story arcs (covered in season 1 of the anime) as well as those who make their appearance in the “Stardust Crusaders” arc, which will be the focus of the second season. Bandai Namco also plans on releasing in-game events corresponding to the Stardust Crusaders arc will be released along with the release of the second season of the animated series.

Stardust Shooters is being developed by Drecom in collaboration with CyberConnect2.

Images source: Social Game Info

Tales of Link

Initially planned for release this past autumn, the latest title in the popular and long-running Tales of series has been delayed until spring of 2014. Players battle along side their party of adventurers, using finger strokes to “link” characters together and perform powerful combo attacks. Bandai Namco calls this the “Touch Link Battle” system, from title derives.

A first for the series, players can put together parties of up to 12, with 9 of these members able to battle alongside one another. (Bandai Namco has not clarified whether cooperative play will be enabled.) Little is known about this title, expectations are high on the basis of the series’ pedigree.

Hero and Thousand Satan

Another title from Orange Cube, developers of the aforementioned Sword of Knights, Hero and Thousand Satan is an action RPG with a retro feel planned for release this winter to iOS. In traditional fashion, players assemble a team and level its members up through battle as they scour the title’s many dungeons for treasure. Players can also challenge their friends to “duels” or link up to going dungeon delving together. As players are victorious in duels, their “duel rank” rises, for which the player receives various in-game rewards.

The battle is simple and automated, and even when the player’s character falls in battle, the items recovered from the dungeons remain in inventory, making Hero a title that will be accessible to anyone.

Nekketsu Taisen: Kunio-kun TD

Or, as the series is known to English speakers: River City Ransom. Kunio-kun TD is a unique take on the tower defense genre, with settings and mission goals influenced by the series’ heritage. Kunio-kun TD features a story mode and a player-on-player mode.

With its tower defense focus and player-on-player mode, Kunio-kun TD receives speculative comparisons to the extremely popular Battle Cats. BARF!, indeed.

Granblue Fantasy

Granblue is an RPG in development for the Mobage platform by Cygames and its subsidiary, CyDesignation. Character design is being handled by Hideo Minaba, who has been involved in numerous of CyDesignation’s previous RPG hits, and the characters are brought by veteran voice actors and actresses. Granblue is unique as a “browser game aimed at smartphones”, CyGames claiming the title will push the boundaries of what a browser-based title can do.

With Granblue originally slated for a 2013 release, CyGames has already begun to raise awareness through television ads and other venues. The heightened awareness will no doubt be a blessing when Granbluye is released in 2014.

Monster Hunter: Roar of Cards

Publisher Capcom and developer Grani (most well-known for its GREE title Valhalla’s Gate) will bring an installment in the long-running, incredibly popular Monster Hunter series to the GREE social platform early this year.

Capcom promises Roar of Cards will feature monsters and themes that will be familiar to the series’ fans, but the main draw is the battle system. Taking a cue from many MMORPGs, Roar of Cards encourages players to enlist in guilds, so they can team up in real time to topple powerful monsters. Players can also take on quests together, encouraging the cooperative play that has made the Monster Hunter series such a mainstay.

Mystery Collaboration Between Square Enix and gloops

Now revealed to be called Glorious Blades. Beyond that, not much is known. Social Game Info includes this one in their list on the strength of the two companies behind it.

To readers versed in video games, Square Enix likely needs no introduction. gloops, on the other hand, remains relatively unknown in the West, despite being one of the most profitable social game developers in Japan, being named Mobage’s 2011 “Partner of the Year”. That Square Enix selected gloops as its collaborator suggests this will be a social game of some sort.

News and images source: Social Game Info

2013 Sales Figures for Largest Japanese Social Platform Providers

Posted 21:08 EST on 07JAN2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » ameba, GREE, infographics, line, mixi

The following is a translation of the original article as it appears at Social Game Info

In 2013, so-called “native applications” rose to the forefront. Looking back on 2013, we’ve summarized the balance sheets of each of the prominent platform providers as they were reported for the financial period beginning in July and ending in September. Looking at sales figures for the the corresponding financial quarter, GREE continued to lose market share, while DeNA gained, passing the 50 billion yen mark, indicative of a fiercely competitive quarter for established platform providers. Figures from the quarter also confirm a huge push toward native applications on the part of GungHo and Colopl, as well as LINE’s steady growth. Where profits are concerned, figures from the quarter give indication that cost-cutting measures by GREE may have finally pulled the company out of its financial decline.

Sales figures: Slow growth for existing platforms, Ameba’s good fight, and rapid growth for LINE

The below graph shows the sales figures for DeNA and GREE, the two largest social game platform providers, and the combined sales figures for GungHo and Colopl, both of which offer native applications which enjoyed market growth in the quarter. The combined sales for GungHo and Colopl slipped past those of GREE in the period between April and June, going on to surpass DeNA in the quarter beginning in July and ending in September.

Moving on, we offer a graph composed of the sales figures for the quarter for CyberAgent’s platform “Ameba”, LINE Corp.’s platform “LINE”, and Mixi’s platform “mixi”. In contrast to the two largest providers, Ameba was able to slowly increase its sales throughout the year on the popularity of titles such as GirlFriend (Beta), which is monetized by in-app purchases.

Despite a late start, LINE experienced huge growth tied to the market share gains of smartphones, arriving at gross sales of nearly 16 billion yen in the three-month period. Factoring out the 30 percent of proceeds owed to Apple and Google for offering its products through their application storefronts, and the money owed due to contracts with development firms, gives a net profit of 9.9 billion yen. In terms of sales, these figures indicate LINE has surpassed Ameba as a platform.

Combining the sales figures of the 5 platform providers mentioned above (and using LINE’s gross sales figures), we arrive at the below graph. Although the sales figures for the existing platforms (Ameba included) indicate stagnation in the quarter, LINE truly made its presence felt.

Removing LINE’s gross sales from the equation, the remaining 4 providers mustered combined sales of 93 billion yen, 5.3 billion (5 percent) less than in the previous financial quarter which began in April and ended in June. This is the third quarter in a row in which combined sales have dropped, bringing the total in line with that of the fourth financial quarter of 2011.

Profits: Signs of GREE’s recovery

Using the quarterly sales figures for DeNA and GREE, we arrive at the graph below. Although on a quarter-to-quarter basis DeNA’s profits have continued to taper off, in the three-month period between July and September, GREE experienced its first growth in profits since the final quarter of 2011. The profits are the result of GREE’s aggressive efforts to cut down on operations costs and other costs. Going forward, GREE has announced its intentions to book impairment losses of some of its title holdings and to offer voluntary layoffs to its employees to allow the corporation to restructure. Given these measures, it’s reasonable to expect GREE may finally pull out of its financial downturn.

Looking at the operating profit ratio, DeNA continues to experience losses, whereas GREE has finally managed a noticeable gain.

Looking at the combined operating profits for these two providers, in the period from July through the end of September, they achieved a combined total of 24.9 billion yen in sales, up slightly from the 24.8 billion yen of the three month period just prior. This marks the first time since the July to September quarter of 2011 the two companies achieved a quarter-on-quarter growth in profits. Although Ameba continues to operate in the red, the opinion among investors is that its parent company CyberAgent will be able to return to the black in the coming quarter.

News and image source: Social Game Info

A New Year’s Greeting From GREE Managing Director Yoshikazu Tanaka

Posted 14:27 EST on 02JAN2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » GREE, yoshikazu tanaka

In Japan, it’s common at the beginning of the new year for corporations to issue a sort of “new year’s greeting”, reflecting on what went well and what could have gone better for the business in the previous year, and what the company’s intentions are for the new year in light of this looking back. Below is a translation of GREE’s new year’s greeting to its customers and shareholders:

Although much of what’s written is par for the course, it’s interesting to see how critical GREE considers its smartphone operations and expansion to regions other than Japan to be for its continued success. In 2013, GREE’s bottom line took a heavy toll from the shift toward smartphones and the legislation in Japan banning certain “gacha” business models.

GREE initially rose to prominence offering free-to-play titles and social networking services compatible with typical Japanese mobile phones. In particular, NTT (Japan’s largest telecommunications provider) had taken a wary stance toward free-to-play titles for its iMode platform, which GREE sidestepped by promoting a collection of free-to-play titles through its mobile-compatible social platform. However, the advent of smartphones and the accompanying migration of content to GooglePlay and the App Store took a heavy toll on this aspect of GREE’s business approach.

Similarly, GREE had relied heavily on “gacha” sales for its otherwise free titles. As explained in detail in this blog, “kompu gacha” is system whereby collecting a set of items received from “gacha” machines (similar to the prize machines you might encounter at a carnival) is rewarded with an extremely rare and valuable in-game item. However, like McDonald’s yearly Monopoly game, certain pieces of the set were extremely rare, prompting some users to spend exorbitant amounts of money in an effort to complete their collections. When legislation banned this form of profits, GREE’s business model took a heavy hit.

On the other hand, GREE has been agile in recognizing shifting trends, and has moved toward the release of smartphone titles. GREE has also begun to expand its operations into countries outside of Japan. Although these shifts in its business model have been profitable, there is heavy scrutiny as to whether they will be sufficient to pull the company out of a financial nosedive in the coming year.

News and image source: Inside Games Japan

Cave Ends Partnership With GREE

Posted 13:28 EST on 20DEC2013 by: tim walker in news » cave, GREE, shmup

Bullet-hell shooter specialists Cave announced yesterday (12/19) that they have dissolved their business partnership agreement with the Japanese social networking service GREE. The two companies originally entered into an alliance in 2011, which resulted in several of Cave’s social games appearing on the GREE platform.

Though famous for its shooters in the U.S., Cave has made a name for itself in the social game field in Japan as well (its games have also been featured on the Mobage service). Its most popular title, Kunitsu (“Build-A-Country”), hit 3 million players in 2011, and around 50% of the company’s profits that year came from social games.

However, Cave apparently has not been so successful in this area in recent times: Citing recent changes in the social game market, as well as changes in their future platform strategy and business objectives, they have opted to end their current partnership with GREE. However, it was mentioned that the decision is mutual, and that Cave intends to remain on good terms with GREE from this point forward.

Despite their shift towards social games from several years ago, Cave has continued to release plenty of ports of its arcade shooters on both the Xbox 360 and on mobile devices. It released around a dozen different shooters on each of these platforms between 2010 and 2012.

In an interview with Dengeki Online conducted earlier this year, Makoto Asada, former producer and game development head at Cave, indicated that Do-Don-Pachi Saidaioujou (released on May 30th in Japan) was to be Cave’s final release for consoles. The statement above about “future platform strategy” seems to indicate that the company is pondering a return to console development.

(Source: 4Gamer)

Gree Posts Disappointing Profits

Posted 22:31 EST on 13NOV2013 by: indie navi news staff in news » GREE

Indicative of shifting mobile trends in Japan, mobile application giant Gree continues to post disappointing figures. In its consolidated financial statement released today to the public, Gree posted net profits of 24 billion yen for the financial quarter running from July through September. This is a 73% drop in comparison to the same financial quarter in 2012.

Gree rose to the forefront of the Japanese mobile scene largely through a free-to-play model for more traditional cellular phones. Because communications giants like NTT had been actively discouraging this business model, Gree (and its closest competitor, Mobage) were able to step in and fill a niche. However, as the demand for smart phones has grown in Japan, the demand for their predecessors (now commonly referred to as “feature phones”) has retracted, along with the demand for games and applications made for them.

In response to this blow to its primary business model, Gree has filed an extraordinary loss to the amount of 51 billion yen. Gree released its budget for reducing ownership of and stakes in “related content” in order to focus its efforts on a smaller core of profitable titles.

Gree’s prominence in markets outside of Japan has continued to grow, and the company has seen profits from its titles developed for smart phones, but this wasn’t sufficient to offset its loss in titles for older phones and mobile devices. Gree’s profits were 97 billion yen.

Source: Nikkei

Gree Accepts Voluntary Layoffs for 12% of Its Workforce Due to Economic Woes

Posted 22:15 EST on 05NOV2013 by: tim walker in news » android, GREE, iOS

Major Japanese smartphone social game publisher GREE has announced that 205 of its employees have applied for voluntary layoffs in response to the company’s request last month. This represents about 12% of their workforce as of the end of June. The layoffs are to take effect November 30th.

The company will incur about 600 million yen (~$6 million U.S.) in losses for compensation for the outgoing employees, but the move is predicted to result in a cost reduction of 1 billion yen (~$10 million U.S.) by next June (the end of their fiscal year).

GREE modified its billing system after public criticism over its past practice of awarding rare in-game items in its mobile games only to users who had made certain in-game purchases, and its revenue has been on the decline. It had announced on October 2nd that it was seeking 200 of its employees to apply to take voluntary layoffs between October 9th and 28th in order to offset its current economic woes brought on by decreases in income during the previous fiscal year.

GREE had a total of 2,364 employees at the end of the previous fiscal year, but it only had 1,762 employees in its main workforce as of the end of June. The pending layoffs represent 11.6% of its workforce.

(Source: Sankei Shimbun, via Yahoo Japan)