Card-battling games have been all the rage for Japanese mobile players during the past year, and now companies are trying to push the genre global.
For example, GREE's first US-developed free-to-play game was the card-based (if not true card-battler) Zombie Jombie.
And arch-rival DeNA admitted during its Q2 earning call that it had missed out on the trend in terms of its first party development.
High ARPU
However, it's now basking in the news that Rage of Bahamut, which was originally developed by Japanese outfit Cygames for browsers, and released on DeNa's Mobage platform as an app, has reached the top of Google Play's top grossing chart in the US.
It has over one million players in Japan and according to Google Play is in the 100,000 - 500,000 download category (at time of writing).
This suggests it's generating much higher than average ARPU. Perhaps it's not surprising given its hardcore audience, and that something which will encourage the glut of social mobile publishers - Machine Zone, Kabam, Funzio etc - who are looking to target this niche audience.
All praise
"Rage of Bahamut demonstrates that Japanese developers' expertise in social games can be applied effectively overseas," said Isao Moriyasu, DeNA's president.
"The success that the title has achieved also shows that a browser-based game can generate a remarkable average revenue per user in the West with the right game design and the savvy in introducing apps to the marketplace."
Neil Young, CEO of US subsidiary ngmoco, added, "We are carefully looking at titles that can successfully cross over East and West territories and selectively introducing games on Mobage that have the right ingredients."
[source: DeNA]
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A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.
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