Japanese social mobile game outfit DeNA has expanded once more, this time by buying out Punch Entertainment's Vietnam studio.

It will be providing engineering support for DeNA's first party game development team for Mobage, primarily in Japan, before moving to other territories.

Punch drunk

"Punch Entertainment Vietnam is an excellent addition to DeNA's first party game development team with its proven track record of developing cross-platform social games," said Isao Moriyasu, President of DeNA.

"We believe the acquisition will significantly accelerate DeNA's game development and deliver high-quality social games for the Mobage platform. The acquisition also underscores our commitment to support the game developers' community in Vietnam. "

The studio has experience developing iOS and Android titles for its previous US owners, which had released games such as Ego and Reign of Swords.

DeNA’s buyout of the Hanoi office will add around 50 new staff members to the DeNA team, and there are plans to expand in the future.

Global growth

DeNA spent more than $120 million building out Mobage and acquiring companies in Q1 2011, yet managed to break all its previous records for the seventh consecutive time by announcing a rise in net income of 43 percent to around $123 million.

This was after expansion in several territories, including buyouts of Dutch studio Rough Cookie and setting up a Swedish office via US subsidiary ngmoco. A Singapore-based DeNA Asia Pacific Holdings headquarters was also opened to help maintain its Korea (DeNA Seoul) and China (DeNA China) offices.

DeNA has also recently announced that a joint venture with Namco Bandai which will form as BDNA from October.

[source: DeNA]