String In Your Rakuten
Rakuten launching browser-based mobile gaming platform in Japan
Working with Blackstorm Labs to develop it
Mixi Financials Q2 Fy17
Mixi profits tumble by 31% as it begins to test Monster Strike in Western markets
Marvel Tsum Tsum gets a brief mention
Bandai Namco Financials Q2 Fy17
Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle helps push Bandai Namco sales to $2.82 billion
Profits up 32.5% year-on-year
Square Enix Financials Q2 Fy17
Square Enix sales hit $1 billion off the back of mobile successes Mobius Final Fantasy and Brave Exvius
Games released this fiscal year have "underperformed"
Asia Dash
Sega eyes other Asia markets as Japanese mobile market saturates and game dev costs rise
Predominance of leading publishers raising the stakes in mobile games industry
Play No More
SNK Playmore dropping Playmore name on December 1st
Going back to basics
Gungho Financials Q3 Fy16
Puzzle & Dragons publisher GungHo switches to global development approach as profits fall by 43.4%
10 games currently in development
The Story Ends
COLOPL NI winds up development on JRPG Rune Story after just one year
A hit in Japan, not so in the west
Capcom Financials Q2 Fy16
Capcom talks up VR potential as profits slump to $3.86 million
Digital Contents business sees some growth
Global Mario
Super Mario Run heading to 150 countries in December
Nintendo confirms game will not have any in-app purchases other than to unlock the full game
Ninten-go
Nintendo profits up to $364 million as Pokemon GO and Seattle Mariners sale prop up falling revenues
Financial report doesn't mention Miitomo
Pushing Forward
Sony ForwardWorks to release up to six games across the next 18 months
Only in Asia
The Ideal Mixi
Marvel Tsum Tsum developer Mixi on catering to the new casual Marvel fan
Senior Producer Erika Nakamura explains why Disney chose Mixi
Pokemon Maybe
Pokemon GO still jostling for top spot on US App Store with Clash Royale and Mobile Strike
Remains at the top of the UK charts
Ua In Asia
How to adapt your UA campaign for China, Japan and South Korea
They key cultural differences between the top Asian countries for mobile games
Going, Going, Gone
Pokemon GO falls from the top of the US App Store grossing charts for first time in 74 days
Still floundering in Japan
Match-third
One-third of Japan's 127 million population has downloaded Puzzle & Dragons
So says Serkan Toto
Making Of
A rich game for a casual market: The making of Mobius Final Fantasy
Producer Yoshinori Kitase talks us through the game's development
Million Vr-thur
Square Enix to collaborate with HTC to bring Million Arthur VR to Vive
Obscure card-battler gets the VR treatment
Japan Arpu
With its locally-developed RPGs Japan has the highest ARPU of all the markets
App Annie report looks at ARPU around the world
Pocket Platinum
Bayonetta developer Platinum Games enters mobile space with Cygames collaboration
Cites advancements in smartphone technology as reason for shifting development
Trying Times
GREE looks to Japanese "release blitz" to rescue longterm decline
Planning a "release blitz" for FY17
Dena Financials Fy16 Q1
DeNA sees small revenue increase as it focuses in on Japan and China
Stepping away from the economic uncertainty of the rest of the world
Busy Bees
Koukoi Games to bring Crashing Season to Japan as part of Asia push
Partners with Worker Bee for localisation
Pokemon Won't Stop
Pokemon GO rakes in $200 million in its first month
Outperforms Clash Royale in every way
No Local Hero
Analyzing Pokemon GO's relative failure in Japan
Lacks sustain
Pawapuro Power
Konami's game sales rise 6% on the back of 25 million Power Pro downloads
Hitting a homerun
Territorial Passings
Chinese Pokemon GO players behaving badly in Japan
They could turn up anywhere
Beyond Japan
Japanese App Annie competitor Fuller raises $4 million from Sega and others to go international
Expanding analytics and making apps easy
Poke-day In Tokyo
Servers braced and Giga Big Macs primed as Pokemon GO preps to go live in Japan
Coming home
Gotta Count Them All
Pokemon Go adds $8 billion to Nintendo's value over the weekend
Market cap up 40%
Korea To Japan
Nexon aiming to launch one game per month in Japan, starting with Sansho Studios partnership
Startup of ex-Capcom devs the first of many Japanese partners for Nexon
Pokkt Change
Adways opens India office and acquires POKKT's reward-based platform Pocket Money
POKKT doubles down on gaming as Adways takes Pocket Money forward
Hunt No More
Capcom cans international release of Monster Hunter Explore after 2 months of soft launch
Japan-only
Dotted Lines
How legal issues in Japan could seriously disrupt your plans for overseas expansion
David McCarthy on cultural differences
Cash In
Valued at $5.5 billion, LINE to IPO in New York and Tokyo on mid-July
Joint listing in New York and Tokyo
Press Power
PRing mobile games in Japan is tough, but you get better results than trying to PR mobile games in Europe
David McCarthy on when less is more
Fan Play
Japanese marketing network Dentsu invests in US superfan platform Victorious
The new way to engage
Cash Out
To reduce debt, SoftBank is selling back $685 million shares to GungHo Online
Sprint deal forces hand
On The Road
LINE expected to announce its long-awaited IPO plans next week
Off-on move now backed on
New Signing
Cybird signs up Maradona as the face and boots of its forthcoming BFB Champions: Global Kick-Off
Off the bench
Local Heroes
Why the Japanese mobile games market remains the world's most lucrative and competitive
App Annie and Dentsu reveal all
Trouble In Japan
Mobile games dominate in Japan but where next for gacha monetisation?
Market analyst Sho Sato shares insights
New Funding
GREE announces new $65 million investment fund for startups
B2B and B2B2C companies being targeted
Home Growth
Sega Sammy sees 6% growth in Japanese mobile game revenues in FY16 to $375 million
But overall company sales down 5%
On The Up
Hoshi No Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy Brave Exvius boost Square Enix's FY16 sales 28% to $2 billion
Old brands sparkle
Google Play Charts
Puzzle & Dragons is the highest grossing Google Play game of all time
According to App Annie
Home Runs
Baseball titles boost Konami's FY16 game sales up 27% to $1.2 billion
Jikkyo Powerful Pro Yakyu bats well
Monster Downloads
Monster Hunter Explore surpasses 3 million downloads
Worldwide launch expected sometime this year
Back From Split
5 important things we learned at Reboot Develop 2016
Most significant lessons learned from Croatian game dev conference