Japanese social gaming giant GREE has acquired western studios, set up development houses in San Francisco, Vancouver and London, and now it's signed a series of partnerships with North American indie outfits.

The aim, of course, is to deliver more and more localised content for the firm's social gaming platform for iOS and Android, with Enders Fund, Fathom Interactive, Fifth Column, and FreezeTag the latest four to jump aboard the good ship GREE.

Four for all

"We're very focused on working with indie talent here at GREE and we're committed to helping these guys succeed," said GREE SVP of developer relations and marketing Eros Resmini.

"We know each of these guys is different. Some need the technology and some want to leverage our know-how - we're happy to help them however we can."

All four studios are set to deliver games for GREE's platform, though Fifth Column currently has nothing to announce, while Enders Fund is working on TriviaThis, Fathom Interactive on Sky Pirate of Neo Terra and Freeze Tag on Party Animals.

Securing western-suitable content for its platform is a seemingly neverending mission for GREE, though the apparent poor performance of its Japanese-sourced titles in the US probably explains the firm's continued drive.

The global game

Indeed, speaking to us back in August, international CEO Naoki Aoyagi said the company was looking to generate 10 percent of its global revenue from outside of Japan.

"Overall, we are very happy with what our local teams have done so far and the recent North American results and are incredibly excited for all the new things to come," said Aoyagi.

"The growth that we've seen just in this past quarter alone is a sign that we are headed in the right direction and motivates us to continue to create robust, high-quality gaming experiences."

[source: GamesIndustry.biz]