Drastic Measures
Report: Nippon Ichi Software unable to pay staff following Disgaea RPG technical issues
Firm looking to sell off stock shares at low price
Job News
Marvelous CEO Haruki Nakayama resigns due to poor health
Shuichi Motoda shall succeed
Monster Declines
Mixi eyes casual players for Monster Strike revival as game surpasses 50m installs
FY2020 profits forecast to drop by 88.6 per cent
East Meets West
East Meets West: Sony and Microsoft team up on cloud gaming, Rockstar buys Dhruva, and Indonesia is world's fastest-growing market
Keeping up with the news from the world's most influential games market
Portability
Nintendo Switch overtakes PlayStation 4 lifetime sales in Japan
Sony still dominates heavily in worldwide sales though
Financials
Japan success helps propel NetEase sales to $2.7 billion in Q1 2019
Chinese publishing giant also knocking it out the park at home
Financials
DeNA games sales and profits fall in FY2018
Company hopeful Mario Kart Tour can do the business in 2019
Financial
MapleStory and Dungeon & Fighter shatter expectations to drive Nexon’s Q1 2019 results
Nexon predicts further growth as it heads into the next quarter
East Meets West
East Meets West: DOCOMO invests $280m in Magic Leap, the Middle East's growing games market, and Let's Hunt Monsters a top grosser in China
Keeping up with the news from the world's most influential games market
Crucial Year
Hatch on game subscriptions and streaming: "We’re basically opening up the floodgates of creativity"
CCO Vesa Jutila discusses the company's big partnerships and even bigger plans
East Meets West
East Meets West: Chinese regulator starts approving new games, China debates long working hours, and Perfect World is world's top grosser
Keeping up with the news from the world's most influential games market
Acquisition News
Keywords snaps up work-for-hire mobile development studio Wizcorp for $1m
Service provider expands footprint in Japan
Emergency Maintenance
Nippon Ichi Software stock nosedives after Disgaea RPG suffers maintenance woes after launch
Game taken offline after March 19th launch and was due to come back online at end of March, but has since suffered further delays
Eastern Stars
Is Brawl Stars set to knock it out the park in China as Supercell’s latest billion-dollar success?
An analysis of the online multiplayer shooter's Western and Eastern performance
East Meets West
East Meets West: Perfect World off to a scorching start with $100m in 22 days, and pre-registrations kick off for Brawl Stars in China
Keeping up with the news from the world's most influential games market
Layoffs
Update: EA's latest layoffs include the closure of its offices in Japan and Russia
Publisher vows to help newly-redundant staff find new roles in the local games industry
Fight
Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle passes $1.6 billion during its best month ever
Dokkan Battle beats its previous record by hitting $78.6 million in one month
Esports
Konami's new high-rise esports centre wants to bring Japan's competitive gaming scene up to par
"Compared to esports pioneers America and Europe, Japan has still a long way to go"
Asia Roundup
East Meets West: The battle to acquire Nexon heats up, and Nintendo is wary of looking greedy on mobile
Keeping up with the news from the world's most influential games market
East To East
How a China partnership turned Steppy Pants into a number one chart topper in Japan
Super Entertainment co-director Stephen Last discusses how a collaboration with Yodo1 produced significant returns
Acquisition Battle
Nexon shortlists five bidders including Kakao and Tencent
Formal bidding process starts in early April
How Many Rupees
Nintendo stats and salary revealed for Japan employees
Tom Nook thankfully not part of the accounting team
Bidding Battle
Report: EA, Amazon and Comcast all submit acquisition bids for publisher Nexon
New challengers join a growing collection of suitors
Redo
An underwhelming Q3 sees Square Enix streamline its business units
11 reduced to four, won’t result in any workforce reduction
Rip Ps Vita
PlayStation Vita shipments to end soon in Japan confirming end for handheld
Vita Island is no more
Acquisition Strike
Japanese developer Mixi partners with XTech to accelerate M&A plans
Partnership could see expenditure of up to $271 million
Back In Business
GungHo breathes new life into Puzzle & Dragons as MAUs and sales increase in Q4
Sales and profits up quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year
China Vs South Korea
South Korea’s Kakao considers $9bn Nexon bid
Potentially one of the companies biggest acquisitions
Switch
Nintendo president: "We certainly want to release mobile games across a wide variety of genres"
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa believes the Switch is strong enough as-is to meet the company's ambitions
Job Klaxon
Animoca Brands brings in former Mozilla exec to head up strategic partnerships
As part of his role Gen Kanai will help to advance the company’s blockchain strategy
Partnership News
DENA partners with Tencent to launch mutli-billion dollar hit Arena of Valor in Japan
Will Japan prove a successful venture for the hit MOBA?
Huge
Monster Strike and Puzzle & Dragons have grossed more than $7 billion each
More than five years later, Mixi’s game is still experiencing revenue growth
Heading East
Supercell takes Clash Royale League World Finals 2018 to Japan
Event leaves London behind in favour of Asia
Off Course
Nintendo successfully sues Tokyo’s unofficial Mario Kart tours for $89,000
Real-life Mario Kart operator MariCar ordered to stop using Nintendo's property immediately
Fated
Former Fate/Grand Order and Zero Escape devs launch new indie studio
Four titles are currently in the works, one anime and three games
Earthquake
Nintendo Direct delayed following earthquake in Japan
The games showcase will be rescheduled soon
Switch
Nintendo Switch closes on five million sales in Japan
Handheld hybrid has sold almost five million units in its home market
Switch
Sony’s Hiroyuki Oda believes the Nintendo Switch has had “positive influence” on the industry
But kind words won't change the company line on collaboration in the gaming sector.
Financials
Capcom delivers record $35m profits despite mobile decline
Revenue jumps to $155 million for the three months ending June 30th 2018
Funding Round
Japanese studio Bank of Innovation floats on Tokyo Stock Exchange
Mobile RPG developer ends first day with $77 million market cap
Machine Learning
Keywords snaps up predictive analytics outfit Yokozuna Data from Silicon Studio in $1.5m deal
Draws on AI and machine learning tech
Caught In The Act
Alleged stalker arrested by police claims he was just playing Pokemon Go
Report suggests man has a history of stalking the same woman
No Biggie
Nintendo’s lawsuit against Japanese publisher Colopl won’t stall White Cat Project Switch release
Console giant says these are "completely separate matters"
Kamehameha
Dragon Ball Legends generates $40 million in revenues in just over a month
The lion's share of revenue comes from Japan with 67 per cent
Grand Job
Fate/Grand Order rakes in over $2 billion in revenue worldwide
97 per cent of the game’s revenue comes from a home-grown Japanese audience
Grand Revenue
Sony-owned Fate/Grand Order publisher Aniplex's sales surpassed $1.8 billion in last fiscal year
Net profit came in at $312 million
Watch Out
Yo-Kai Watch World hopes to capture Pokemon Go-like success with Japan launch
GungHo works with Level-5 to location-based AR title
Worldwide
GungHo banks on colourful chaos to go big with Nintendo Switch release Ninjala
Japanese developer hopes the wider appeal will help the game land on a global scale
Downloads Milestone
BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! English version racks up one million downloads
Milestone celebrated by series of in-game events
What's Next?
Monster Strike publisher Mixi plots $900m investment in biz dev and M&A over next five years
$100 million earmarked for Monster Strike and new IP development