Japanese social mobile gaming networks DeNA and GREE have big expansion plans. But, as I've previously suggested, it's yet not clear they are going to be successful.

What is clear from DeNA's FY11 Q2 financial figures, however, is that it - and no doubt GREE - continue to generate massive profits in Japan.

DeNA's net income for the quarter was ¥8.2 billion (around $105 million), up 7 percent year-on-year.

More significantly, though, the company has revealed some of its plans when it comes to global expansion - the failure of which to-date is the nub of my criticism.

Behind the curtain

Currently, DeNA has the beta version of Mobage Global live on Android, as well as launching Mobage China.

Obviously, its future plans include what it calls the "quick full-scale rollout of Mobage Global", alongside the "strengthening of first party titles" on Android and the "strengthening of social game development capabilities".

Titles it has planned for released before the end of 2011 include two new games from DeNA's US outfit ngmoco Dragon Craft and Skyfall RPG, as well as porting existing iOS hits such as Bolt Creative's Pocket God, TinyCo's Tiny Chef and NimbleBit's Tiny Tower.

Other well known titles coming to Mobage Global include Monster Rancher, MapleStory, Fragger, and Tap Fish.

Gearing up your teams

DeNA is also looking to its many new internal teams to push social mobile gaming.

The likes of ngmoco and Gameview Studios will be releasing casual titles, while new acquisitions in low cost areas such as Punch Entertainment (Vietnam) and Atakama Labs (Chile) will be used to train up engineers for what DeNA's calls the "mass creation of excellent games under existing game design patterns" (aka reskining existing successful social mobile games).

Finally, DeNA will be looking to its new Swedish studio, as well as joint ventures with Namco Bandai and Grasshopper, to come up with the "creation of new game design patterns" and the recruitment of staff who can "foster excellent creativity".

Cash generator

Thankfully, there are some concrete targets we can use to track how well DeNA performs too.

During October, it will migration the beta version of Mobage Global on Android to the full version, also releasing the iOS version of the platform before the end of 2011.

And commercially, it's said it's focusing on generating $100 million per quarter via the Moba-coin virtual currency in the medium term.

In comparison, during FY11 Q2, DeNA generated $480 million via Moba-coin in Japan, where Mobage now has 32 million subscribers.

Obviously, this will take some time, so it's announced the goal of generating $50 million via Moba-coins in its fourth quarter, which is the period January - March 2012 - still a fairly ambitious number.

[source: DeNA (PDF)]