Chinese developer Coconut Island has pronounced DeNA as the studio's official publishing partner in its home territory.

The new partnership will see the firm's library launching on DeNA's social platform Mobage in the region, with the iOS versions to follow in the near future.

Home advantage

Limited to the Chinese market, the move allows Coconut Island to operate independently throughout the rest of the world – a factor that co-founder and business development manager Wen Chen said was especially important for the outfit back in April 2011.

"If we want to make games with our own ideas, we have to establish our own indie studios," said Chen at the time.

Nonetheless, Chen admitted that operating as an indie in China – where almost unattainable licenses are needed to publish games and consumers are especially ignorant of any games other than martial arts RPGs – is difficult, shedding light on the firm's publishing partnership today.

"The life is not easy for indie developers anywhere and the Chinese market throws up some huge challenges, even for Chinese developers," he concluded.

[source: Coconut Island]