Highly Profitable Social Games Market in Japan
Mobile and Internet technology has assisted the unprecedented growth of social games in Japan. New Japanese game companies like Gree, Inc. and DeNA are dominating the social-games market with their card-battle games that allow members to actively interact and influence each other’s style. This development is making traditional big-player manufacturers like Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft reform and compete on equal footing with these dynamic newcomers.
The gaming industry is a huge one, with an estimated turnover of about $78 billion. However, the percentage taken up by mobile social games has increased tremendously from almost nothing a few years ago to about $4.36 billion. Developers and companies marketing social games were, at the earliest times, able to market social games on most locally-produced Japanese phones that allow graphics and gameplay structures – even before the invention of smartphones.
Sensing the possibility of becoming the leader in the social games industry, Japanese gaming companies are modifying their games to meet the tastes of foreign players. DeNA, for instance, attested that the three games on its Mobage network—namely, card-battle game “Rage of Bahamut”, role-playing game “Blood Brothers” and battle game “Ninja Royale” are reportedly in the Top Ten of the best downloaded games on U.S. Chart for Google Play.
At the 2012 Tokyo Game Show, Isao Moriyasu, the Chief Executive of DeNa, confidently stated: “We want to build social games up into an industry where it can become the next area of global strength for Japan.”
New Japanese game companies like Gree are considering acquiring franchises from large console-game players with the hope of bringing such games into the social sphere. In the pipeline are the deals between Gree and Konami Corps for its console game “Metal Gear Solid”; Ubisoft Entertainment SA for its “Assassin’s Creed”; and Capcom Co. for its “Monster Hunter”.
Social games also offer these new Japanese gaming companies opportunities of monetizing offerings through sale of virtual goods, weapons and additional powers. Shin Unozawa, Chairman of the Computer Entertainment Suppliers’ Association, pleasingly said: “I used to think the videogame industry moved fast, but this social-game market moves three times as fast.”
Yoshikazu Tanaka, Gree’s CEO, also believes that smartphones will eventually offer better graphics, more processing power, and bigger memory than other video game devices currently in use. However, he might also have been considering the challenges that increased gaming activities would bring to executives, who must now worry about increased storage, memory and security requirements.
Invariably, social game developers will have to design the appropriate mechanism for storing their clients’ games so as to provide uninterrupted gaming procedures. Cloud computing will of course offer both developers and players the unique chance of storing their games’ data in the cloud. This will not only guarantee uninterrupted gaming activities, but also add value to the joy of social games.
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About the Guest Author:
Jerry Olasakinju, a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) degree holder, is a passionate researcher and writer whose interest in everything computing is unparalleled. He blogs about his literary works at http://jerryolasakinju.blogspot.jp/
