It's best known in the West for hits such as Rage of Bahamut, Blood Brothers and MARVEL War of Heroes, not to mention its much anticipated shooter The Drowning.
And behind-the-scenes, the company is as focused on the quality and creativity of its staff as of its games.
(Obviously the two are strongly interlinked.)
So to get some idea how it approaches this task, we spoke to Sarah Fuchs, who's head of culture & communication at DeNA West's office in San Francisco.
Pocket Gamer: What does a head of culture & communications do day-to-day?
Sarah Fuchs: One of the best things about this job is that every day is different. I spend a lot of time talking to people, generally checking in and making sure everyone is happy.
When I'm not doing that I'm busy planning fun activities for employees, like parties and hackathons, working on our internal magazine or exploring ways for DeNA West to give back to the community.
Why is culture so important for a game company?
Office culture is crucial because of the amount of time we commit to our jobs. Most of us spend more time at work than we do with our families and friends. If you aren't happy where you work, then what's the point?
The G.I. Joe: Battlegrounds team celebrating its launch
Happy workers are more productive and creative. It's vital that we create a culture where creativity is valued, where people care about each other and their community, and want to build great things together.
How can you influence company culture? Is it just about free cookies and fun away-days?
There is certainly a 'free cookies and fun away-days' aspect to the job, but that is mostly superficial. Perks like that are great, but what's really important is getting to know the employees and making each one of them feel important and heard.
Culture is not something that is contrived. I can't force my idea of culture; it already exists. It's my job to cultivate what's there. It's about getting to know the people you work with, gaining their trust, and making small changes that impact their daily lives.
One of our most important qualities at DeNA is the concept of speaking up. We've created a culture where speaking up and voicing your opinion is an essential part of who we are.
I give people an outlet to do that. Apart from the office perks like free breakfast, lunch, snacks, and beer, employees - more than anything - have shown they need to feel engaged and challenged by their work. I provide an outlet for employees to come to me and express any frustrations or positive suggestions related to their jobs. My goal is try to make relevant improvements to enhance the work environment for everyone.
Community service day in the San Francisco office
Community service is also an important aspect of what I brought to my role at DeNA.
Not only does it bring people together for a good cause and help them bond, but it gets us out of our day-to-day work routine and we remember that there is life outside of mobile games.
DeNA is a massive global corporation, so does that make it harder to keep things funky, compared to if you were a 10-person start-up in a garage?
DeNA is a massive global company, but my purview is DeNA West, which includes DeNA's San Francisco, Santiago, and Vancouver offices. Each of these locations has a unique culture but we share the same DeNA qualities.
We are still small enough that we can keep things intimate and lighthearted, and continue to evolve the DeNA West office culture based on the interests of the employees.
In San Francisco we have ping pong tournaments, beer pong happy hours, and we just had a summer carnival outside on the wharf, which included a dunk tank for executive splashing.
Do you think that in the long term, there's a temptation for such cultural processes to atrophy and lose their footing in terms of deeper organisational structure?
I hope not. Culture is really about the individuals that make up the whole.
I believe that in order to hire and retain the best people, you need to cultivate a culture that puts people first. That means treating them fairly, making sure they have a decent work life balance, and providing them with an atmosphere and a culture that fits them.
It's not as simple as giving employees free cookies. It's about understanding individual needs, hiring brilliant people, and giving them juicy problems to solve. You also have to make sure they are proud of the work they are doing and their company.
You've worked in a number of different roles in a bunch of different games companies. How does DeNA West compare?
The breadth of experience I've had in the gaming industry thus far has been great preparation for my current role heading up culture and communication at DeNA. Being able to change people's lives is a dream job that I haven't been able to do elsewhere.
Blowing off steam with some ping pong
At DeNA we have a quarterly program to recognize and honor employees who exemplify DeNA's corporate qualities, we support various charities, including transforming an elementary school for children who desperately needed it, and mentoring underprivileged students.
To be able to do these things while working with creative, incredible people to make consequential gaming experiences truly is a dream job.
And how does DeNA West compare to when you started with ngmoco, which then was funky start-up?
DeNA today still has some funky start-up aspects to it. We listen to music, we have an unlimited and ever changing supply of food and beer, whiskey socials, beer pong and ping pong tournaments, hackathons, dart wars, employee soccer and softball teams, and tons of happy hours.
That said, we also have the benefit of the knowledge and expertise of our global counterparts at DeNA to create innovative gameplay experiences for consumers.
More generally, how do you think games industry culture has changed over the past 12 years?
One huge difference with the gaming industry today is that we are realizing that culture matters and companies are starting to create jobs like mine.
But while there have been great improvements in recent years to the office culture at gaming companies, I believe we still have a long way to go.
The industry is much less of a 'boy's club' now then when I started, but there is still a lot of work to do. I co-run a DeNA West Women's group that meets monthly for lunch to discuss important issues that female employees face, and a lot of great ideas are generated from these meetings.
You can find out more about DeNA West's open positions via its jobs' website.
