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Zynga buys Unoh as social giant plans Japanese advance

Studio to convert Zynga's output

Zynga buys Unoh as social giant plans Japanese advance
Zynga has confirmed it has purchased Japanese social games specialist Unoh, with the aim of bringing its titles to that country's already thriving social scene.

Rumoured to have cost around $12 million, Unoh – which has enjoyed significant success in Japan with the likes of Machitsuku!, Band Yarouyo!, and Kaizoku Chronicle on DeNA's Moba-ge-Town platform – will now take charge of converting Zynga's output for the Japanese market.

"Zynga is delighted to welcome the Unoh team, one of the pioneer Japanese social game developers, to the Zynga family," said Zynga CEO and founder Mark Pincus.

"They have a great track record of producing innovative, successful games and are a perfect complement to the top-notch team we have already begun to assemble in Japan."

Jumping on Japan

As a result of the firm's Japanese assault, Zynga's veep of business operations Robert Goldberg will take up office as chief executive of Zynga Japan, with Goldberg claiming the company is now in a position to bring a lot of resources to bear in the market.

However, Zynga is also set to maintain Unoh's current operations, with the developer's own titles continuing to see a release on portals such as mixi, Moba-ge-town, and GREE.

"We're very excited to join Zynga to help extend its reach to Japanese consumers," said Unoh founder and CEO Shintaro Yamada.

"We're looking forward to being an integral part of Zynga Japan’s leadership and growth, and are happy to support bringing the best social games to Japan's cutting edge mobile and web technologies.”

Zynga Japan is just one element of a wider Asian expansion by Zynga, formed as a result of a joint venture with Japanese telecommunications giant SoftBank, which recently invested around $150 million in the firm.

Back in May, Zynga also acquired Beijing-based social games studio XPD Media for an undisclosed fee.

With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.