What's New?
After another big year the old guard still dominate Japan's mobile games market
Revenues up 35 per cent but what's driving them?
Bang Up Job
CyberAgent's BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! scores four million downloads
It's now available in Macau, Taiwan, and Hong Kong
Japan Market Data
Japanese mobile game revenues grew 35% in the year ending June 2017
Surpasses US for three years in a row
Going Forward
Sony moving away from Vita and handheld gaming to focus on mobile and home entertainment
ForwardWorks is apparently doing "fantastic"
Square Enix Plans
Square Enix sets sights on $900 million in sales from its mobile games
Better games, targeting new markets, and the rise of HTML5 will aid its quest
Switch Boost
Nintendo Switch surpasses 1.5 million units sold in Japan thanks to boost from Splatoon 2
500,000 units sold in the region since its last financials
Gree Global
GREE partners with Crunchyroll and Sumitomo to globally distribute games based on Japanese anime
Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Memoria Freese goes first
Ruling The App Stores
Netmarble’s Lineage 2: Revolution heads straight to number one on Japan’s App Store
Also tops free download charts on App Store and Google Play
Made In Japan
Self-taught 82-year-old Japanese coder develops and releases mobile game
"I thought I should make a game app designed for old people to have fun"
Mixi Financials Q1 Fy18
Mixi revenues grow to $437.1 million as Monster Strike nudges 40 million downloads
New game Fight League also has a solid opening week
Square Enix Financials Q1 Fy18
Square Enix revenues grow to $518.1 million thanks to its mobile back catalogue
All the usual suspects still raking in the cash
Gree Financials Q4 Fy17
GREE sales fall to $592.7 million amid "strategic pivot" to Japan-first development
Four titles from release blitz crack the top 20 grossing ranks
Sega Sammy Financials Q1 Fy18
Sega Sammy revenues reach $969.8 million thanks to Puyopuyo!! Quest and Hortensia SAGA
But is its mobile business just going through the motions?
The Charticle
Why did Gree pull out of the West?
The Japanese outfit no longer has a Western presence, but how are its games performing?
Grand Sales
Fate/Grand Order powers Sony Music revenues to $1.5 billion in Q1 2017
Everybody’s Golf drives up two million downloads
Winning Mobile
Konami’s mobile games continue to grow as digital brings in $262 million in Q1 2018
Digital Entertainment the most profitable division for publisher
Asian Hit
Lineage 2: Revolution racks up one million pre-registrations ahead of Japan launch
Early signs point toward positive reception in Japan
Gungho Financials Q2 Fy17
GungHo's sales continue to decline despite 46 million downloads of Puzzle & Dragons
Still trying to put its eggs in other baskets
Join The Family
Capcom to dissolve and absorb Capcom Mobile subsidiary
Also posts sales of $105.6 million for the quarter
Line Financials Q2 Fy17
LINE sees revenues grow to $705.8 million but MAUs are still consistently falling
NextFloor acquisition could turn this around in the future
Cyberagent Financials Q3 Fy17
CyberAgent sales hit $2.4 billion but profits are still in a slump
Nothing particularly new or surprising this quarter
Fish. In. Spaaaace.
Sony ForwardWorks preps launch of its second game Sora to Umi no Aida with pre-registration campaign
Get your fishing rod and prepare to go to space
Dena X Nintendo
DeNA dedicates 10% of staff to Nintendo mobile games
DeNA and Nintendo's partnership is going "extremely well"
Featured Features
Top 5 features games developers should consider to make it big in Japan
GameRefinery’s tool identifies the most popular gameplay mechanics
Yahoo Game Plus
Yahoo Japan launches HTML5 and cloud-based browser games platform Game Plus
52 companies already signed up to provide titles for the platform
Rising Costs
Mobile game development costs in Japan have risen as high as $9 million per game
Serkan Toto looks into the rising cost of making a game
From Partner To Owner
Taptica cements position in Japan by acquiring marketing firm Adinnovation
Partnership leads to complete acquisition
Pokemon Galore
Pokemon GO players in Japan spent an average of $26 on IAPs in the game's first year
Sensor Tower ranks the top spenders in Niantic's megahit
Vaulting Ambition
What happens when global expansion goes bad: A cautionary tale from Japan
What GungHo and Mixi learned from GREE and DeNA
I Got A Fever
WonderPlanet's one-thumb puzzle-RPG Crash Fever smashes eight million downloads in just under two years
Big in-game celebration happening now
Guide To Japan
The Western mobile developer’s checklist for launching in Japan
AppLovin's Johannes Heinze dishes out some key tips
Level Up
Level-5 acquires Keiji Inafune's studio Comcept
Currently developing mobile title Dragon Colonies
Hit It For Six
Sony's mobile studio ForwardWorks preps debut game harnessing Everybody's Golf IP
Drecom Inc acting as developer on the studio's first game
Get Ready To Rumble
The Pokemon Company continues mobile push with new 3D brawler Pokéland
10,000 participants joining in on a first come, first served basis
Vision Fund
Softbank reportedly picks up $4 billion stake in Nvidia
Japanese firm acquires 4.9% of shares
Sega Financials Q4 Fy17
Sega hits $3.2 billion in revenue as profits jump 414%
Hortensia SAGA and Puyopuyo!! Quest continue to perform
Nexon Financials
Nexon posts record revenues of $657 million in Q1 FY17
Mostly from one PC game
Dena Financials Q4 Fy17
DeNA revenues hit $1.26 billion as it plots further partnerships beyond Nintendo
Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem Heroes doing well for the developer
Konami Financials Q4 Fy17
Konami generates $2 billion in sales as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links surpasses 40 million downloads
Jikkyou Pawafuru Puroyakyu gets another million downloads for the quarter
Mixi Financials Q4 Fy17
Mixi sales reach $1.82 billion as Monster Strike hits record number of users in Q4 FY17
Plans $114 million investment into its entertainment business for FY18
Square Enix Financials
Square Enix sales up to $2.25 billion as Final Fantasy Brave Exvius sees global success
Mobius Final Fantasy goes unmentioned once more
Anniversary Celebrations
GungHo stems quarterly decline as Puzzle & Dragons income recovers for fifth anniversary
Number of downloads surpasses 45 million in Japan alone
The Charticle
Worldwide top grosser but never in the US top 100: Why Mixi canned Monster Strike
Is the chasm between Japanese and American tastes a bridge too far?
Strike No More
Mixi to shut down Monster Strike's English-language version on August 1st
No refunds, no transfers
Super Fire Emblem
Deconstructing Nintendo’s $300 million mobile game success
The start of something bigger?
Cyberagent Financials
CyberAgent sales grow to $1.62 billion but profits fall sharply in H1 FY17
Profits are way, way down
Gree Financials Q3 Fy17
GREE's release blitz scores sales of $142.4 million thanks to three top 50 grossing games
Has plenty more where that came from
Capcom Financials Fy17
Capcom sales up to $782.5 million as it eyes stronger mobile performance
Hoping to "break through the current situation" with big IPs
Nintendo Financials Fy17
Nintendo profits soar to $921 million as Switch sells 2.74 million units
Goes awfully quiet on its mobile games
The Revolution Spreads
Netmarble plans to release Lineage 2: Revolution in Japan and China by the end of 2017
Might have some trouble with the China launch