Still Going Strong
GungHo’s sales and profits continue to fall amidst Puzzle & Dragons decline
But still hugely profitable
Financial Fantasy
Final Fantasy Brave Exvius and Hoshi no Dragon Quest help bump Square Enix to profits of $348 million
Dragon Quest Monsters Super Light and Kingdom Hearts Union X also given nods
Pokemon Goes On Tour
Pokemon Go Summer Tour heads to the US, Germany and Japan
Events will feature a host of interactive adventures and special challenges
Formulated
Gumi’s The Alchemist Code racks up five million downloads worldwide
The Japanese mobile games developer is celebrating with special in-game events
Making Of
Hack and slash: The making of MIHOYO's Honkai Impact 3rd
MIHOYO president Forrest Wei Liu breaks down Honkai Impact 3rd's world
Connect
CyberAgent’s new release Princess Connect! Re:Dive propels games revenues to $368m in Q2 2018
Company credits Princess Connect! Re:Dive for the improved financial performance
On The App
Mobile games revenues to hit $70 billion in 2018
Revenues will account for more than half of the $137.9 billion made across all platforms
Lost And Found
Nintendo taps up Cygames for new RPG game Dragalia Lost
New RPG will be released this summer
Hack And Slash
Platinum partners with DENA for Okami spiritual successor World of Demons
The hack-and-slash title will make its way to iOS this summer with an Android release set for later in 2018
Count On It
Konami readies Castlevania mobile game in Japan
Grimoire of Souls will host a closed beta ahead of its launch on iOS later this year
What's Trending?
The must know Japan mobile games trends for 2018
AppLovin's Johannes Heinze on what's hot in one of the world's most lucrative mobile markets
Breaking Japan
“The Japanese games market has come out from its closed-off period”
Yengage chief operating officer on the opportunities that await developers in Japan, and how to break in
Get In
NetEase’s PUBG-like Knives Out reaps $24 million in February thanks to unexpected success in Japan
Japanese players contributed to 80 per cent of global sales outside of the Chinese Market
Egged On
Kirby developer HAL Laboratory’s Part Time UFO touches down in the West
New mobile-focused studio HAL Egg's debut title is out now in the west
Pocket Rumble
Sony unveils Xperia XZ2 phone with built-in rumble and 4K HDR filming
4GB of RAM and 64GB internal storage and oh so much more
Dash Downloads
Sony ForwardWorks' No Heroes Allowed! Dash! clears 500,000 downloads in three days
Players rewarded with free premium currency in-game
Colopl Financials Q1 Fy18
Colopl's revenues slide despite strong launches for Disney Tsum Tsum Land and Alice Gear Aegis
White Cat Project no longer generating the overall majority of its revenues
Mixi Financials Q3 Fy18
Mixi revenues slide but Monster Strike remains one of the world's top grossing mobile games
No plans for the future revealed
Nexon Financials Q4 Fy17
Nexon's Pixelberry acquisition provides immediate boost to US revenues
Some growth in Korea too thanks to old games
Narrative Of Decline
$6 billion on from Puzzle & Dragons’ launch, whatever happened to Gungho Online?
Fumbling the golden egg
Square Enix Financials Q3 Fy18
Final Fantasy Brave Exvius and Hoshi no Dragon Quest help grow Square Enix profits to $204 million
Dragon Quest Rivals goes unmentioned despite initial success
Sega Financials Q3 Fy18
Sega revenues fall despite continued success of Hortensia Saga and Puyopuyo!! Quest
Hoping new games released next year will push revenues up again
Gungho Financials Q4 Fy17
Gungho doubling down on Puzzle & Dragons in 2018 despite years of declining sales
Expect a new anime, manga, and esports tournaments in the coming months
Gree Financials Q2 Fy18
Gree revenues stall as it focuses efforts on live ops for SINoALICE and Another Eden
Money saved from closing studios offset by increasing outsourcing costs
Sony Financials Q3 Fy17
Fate/Grand Order helps push Sony Music revenues to $1.98 billion
Overall revenues reach $23.6 billion for Q3 FY17
Kazuo Hirai Stepping Down
Sony CEO Kaz Hirai stepping down after six years as head of the company
To be replaced by current CFO Kenichiro Yoshida
Bang Dream Goes West
CyberAgent gears up for English-language launch of rhythm game BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!
Pre-registration is open now
Konami Financials Q3 Fy18
Konami's PES 2018 and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links drive revenues up to $1.64 billion
The games have 80 million downloads and 60 million downloads respectively
Cyberagent Financials Q1 Fy18
CyberAgent revenues hit $899 million but games business stays flat for sixth consecutive quarter
Gearing up to celebrate anniversaries for both Granblue Fantasy and BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!
Tale's End
Bandai Namco to shut down Tales of Link four years after first launching
Everything ends on March 27th
Everyone's Invited
Sony ForwardWorks launches pre-registration campaign for third game No Heroes Allowed! Dash!
Already cleared 300,000 registrations after nine days
Nintendo Sues Colopl
Nintendo sues Colopl for $350,000 over five alleged patent infringements
Main problem seems to be the game's virtual joystick
Pressing Forward
Sony ForwardWorks preparing to push its games beyond Japan in 2018
Sora to Umi no Aida coming to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau first
Odyssey To Japan
Super Mario Odyssey jumps to one million units sold in Japan
Switch closing in on three million hardware units sold
Shadowverse World Grand Prix
Cygames gears up for end-of-year Shadowverse World Grand Prix with $120,000 prize pool
Each of the 24 players earns $1,000 just for turning up
Nintendo Partnerships
Nintendo reportedly looking for new mobile developers to work with outside of DeNA partnership
GungHo could be in the running
Go Money
Pokemon GO generates $16 million in tourism revenue for Japan's Tottori Prefecture in three days
89,000 people arrive in the region's sand dunes to catch Pokemon
Nexon Financials Q3 Fy17
FIFA Online 3 M and Dark Avenger 3 boost Nexon's revenues to $532.9 million
Dynasty Warriors Unleashed and DomiNations continue to grow
Square Enix Financials Q2 Fy18
Square Enix's Dragon Quest Rivals hits seven million downloads in Japan five days after launch
Revenues continue to grow thanks to its strong back-catalogue
Two Years On
Has Konami's mobile pivot been a success?
How has the 2015 restructure worked out for Konami?
Capcom Financials Q2 Fy18
Monster Hunter Explore and IP licensing boost Capcom's mobile revenues to $21.9 million
Overall revenues hit $295.4 million
Leaps And Bounds
Super Mario Odyssey sells two million units in its first three days of release
Fastest-selling Super Mario game ever in the US and Europe
Sega Financials Q2 Fy18
Puyopuyo!! Quest and Hortensia SAGA continue to keep Sega's mobile revenues afloat
Revenues grow to $1.7 billion
Gungho Financials Q3 Fy17
GungHo revenues drop to $613.9 million as Puzzle & Dragons continues to face decline
Gearing up to launch new titles to stem the decline
Konami Financials Q2 Fy18
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links hits 55 million downloads as Konami clears $1 billion in revenues
Plenty of other games contributing to overall success
Sony Financials Q2 Fy18
Fate/Grand Order boosts Sony Music's revenues to $1.81 billion
Sony ForwardWorks goes unmentioned
Gree Financials Q1 Fy18
Another Eden and SINoALICE promotions push GREE revenues up to $190.6 million
Profits fall drastically to just $16.8 million
Cyberagent Financials Q4 Fy17
CyberAgent revenues reach $3.28 billion thanks to continued strong performances of Shadowverse and BanG Dream!
Investing in the future of eSports and Bitcoin
Nintendo Financials Q2 Fy17
Nintendo's mobile revenues grow 426% to $157.8 million thanks to Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem Heroes
Switch clears 7.63 million units sold
Fore Million
Sony ForwardWorks' Mingol hits four million downloads in under four months
Celebrates with in-game rewards and coin discounts