GREE has made a lot of noise about its global intentions of late, with partnerships aplenty signed with some of the biggest movers in the mobile industry.

Independent studios have not been left out, however, with the Japanese social giant most recent press splash highlighting deals signed off with four separate indie outfits - Hothead Games, Soma Games, SpaceGum, and SiuYiu.

According to SVP of marketing and developer relations Eros Resmini, indie flexibility when it comes to experimenting with GREE's platform makes them a key cog in the company's wheel.

We caught up with Eros to find out bring small studios on board will help GREE meet its big goals.

Pocket Gamer: Is GREE making a conscious effort to reach out to more indie studios?

Eros Resmini: Absolutely. From my experience building the OpenFeint network, we saw the power of the independent developer.

We strongly feel they are an essential part of this industry and will ultimately be one of the strongest contributors of high quality and unique content for gamers.

All four outfits have different bases around the world. Is this part of a conscious effort by GREE to expand its global footprint?

GREE is focused on building a global mobile social platform and as such, we plan to work with developers around the world to get the best content on the platform for users.

For us, that means working with developers in North America, Europe, Japan, the Middle East, Latin America – everywhere.

What advantages to small outfits offer over some of the bigger players you’ve signed partnerships with?

Of course all partners have their strengths and weaknesses.

I think on the indie side we have seen so much innovation and risk taking in their games and gameplay mechanics.

They are the most willing to sit with us and work closely on how to be integrating GREE platform and share their feedback both good and bad.

Information is vital for us to constantly improve the GREE platform and service offering. They are also very eager to hear our opinions, take our feedback and test theories with us in the marketplace – at a pace that only small, nimble development teams can do.

This rapid and creative development approach benefits the whole GREE developer community.

How is GREE’s global platform performing to date?

The platform is still in beta, but we have been getting great support from new developers signing up and partners like those we announced recently.

We launched several first party games as part of our plan to test the platform internally before releasing it to the general development community. That allowed us to make real time adjustments for our launch partners ahead of their integration timelines.

We’re also seeing a fantastic adoption and interest from the broader development community, with almost 3,000 developer sign-ups since our initial open beta announcement.
Thanks to Eros for his time.