Japanese mobile developer Cave - best known in the West for its bullet hell iOS shooters such as Mushihimesama Bug Panic - has signed a co-development deal with EA.

This will see the studio working on a new social game based on an undisclosed EA brand for the GREE mobile platform in Japan.

Playing happy together

Cave's first social mobile game Shirotsuku was released on the GREE and DeNA Mobage Town platforms in February 2010.

It's since gained over 2.6 million users. Cave says the agreement with EA is part of its longterm target to have 10 million users playing its social mobile games.

It also demonstrates new thinking from EA, which hasn't previously demonstrated much interest in social mobile games.

[source: Cave (PDF)]