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
Disrupting The Market?
Rakuten and Blackstorm want to disrupt Japan's mobile industry with launch of HTML5 social game platform RGames
Post-app store technology outfit teams up with Japanese ecommerce giant
Midas Touch
Koei Tecmo establishes mobile-specific brand Midas
Wants its games to "shine like gold"
Switch Japan
Nintendo's Switch has sold 500,000 units in Japan
Sales are up week-on-week to 78,441 units
Of Swords And Ltv
MMO Logres of Swords and Sorcery gears up for Western launch after eight million downloads in Japan
Not huge player numbers, but an enormous LTV
Demon Wobble
Level-5 gears up for Yo-Kai Watch Wibble Wobble's European launch after hitting 10 million downloads
Shake shake, wibble wobble
Art Fantasy
Ex-Final Fantasy artists Akihiko Yoshida and Hideo Minaba on the creative process and designing for mobile
A deep discussion on how the renowned artists go about their business
Homegrown Talent
Whatever happened to Fire Emblem Heroes?
How has Nintendo’s first F2P mobile game launched?
Cygames-verse
Cygames on why the West requires an entirely different UA and marketing strategy than its native Japan
Executive Director Yuito Kimura discusses promotional activities, new games and its vision for 2017
Virtual Future
How Gumi is recovering from Western studio closures with VR investment
Masaru Ohnogi explains all at White Nights Prague
Mixi Financials Q3 Fy17
Mixi sales and profits are up as Monster Strike interest holds steady in Japan
Anime and film help promote the game
Japanese Hit
Nintendo's Fire Emblem Heroes made more than $5 million in first few days
Over one million downloads half a day after release
Dena Financials Q3 Fy16
DeNA revenues and profits fall while native mobile games vastly outperform browser for the first time
Nintendo partnership confirmed to be "mid to long-term"
Nintendo On Mobile
Nintendo considering partnerships with developers other than DeNA for future mobile games
Also talks staff size and Switch architecture
Square Enix Financials
Square Enix scores profits of $151 million but goes quiet on flagship mobile title Mobius Final Fantasy
Brave Exvius is the clear winner
Sega Financials Q3 Fy16
Sega Sammy profits and revenues up despite slowing pace of Japan's mobile games market
Existing games continuing to rake in the cash
Fired Up
Nintendo’s Japan-first approach for Fire Emblem Heroes pays off as it nets $2.9 million on its first day
Already a top grosser in the US and Japan
Gacha!
Harry Holmwood on how Western developers should implement gacha in their games
Better retention and monetisation through a desire to collect
Gungho Financials Q4 Fy16
GungHo's profits fall 36% as interest in Puzzle & Dragons wanes
Still trying to push engagement through toys and apps
Iap Inspector
How does Fire Emblem Heroes monetise?
IAPs from the players' perspective
Taptica Partnership
Taptica makes first move into Japan through Adinnovation partnership
Pushing further into the APAC region
Capcom Financials Q3 Fy17
Capcom all but forgets mobile as profits limp along to $24.4 million
Toware no Paruma was a top grossing game in Q2, not Q3
Konami Financials Q3 Fy17
Konami profits up to $182 million as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links surpasses 25 million downloads
Jikkyou Pawafuru Puroyakyu still a favourite
Getting Ahead
GREE on learning from Machine Zone and skating to where the puck is going
Shanti Bergel talks the company's 2017 strategy
China To Japan
Nexon snaps up Japan publishing rights for Kunlun’s Elsword Mobile
RPG already a top grosser in China
Line Financials Q4 Fy16
LINE grows revenues to $1.2 billion despite global MAUs falling by three million
Revenues going up, users going down
Fyber Line Partnership
LINE adds rewarded video ads to messaging app through Fyber partnership
Watch a video, earn some coins
Where Now?
How XFLAG plans to increase spending from Monster Strike's core Japanese players
Langer Lee talks strengthening Japanese dominance and approaching new territories strategically
Home Grown
Why Nintendo has taken a Japan-first approach with Fire Emblem Heroes
Aiming for success in the highest ARPU market in the world
Launch In Japan
How to successfully release your mobile game in Japan
Arthur Chow talks localisation, advertising, and more
Marmalade Saved
GMO Cloud acquires exclusive rights to Marmalade SDK and plans further development
Not dead yet
Back Of The Net
Konami shares up 4.8% thanks to four million downloads of mobile game Jikkyou Powerful Soccer
Publisher scores a hit with football spin-off
Super Nintendo World
Universal Studios Japan to open $433 million Nintendo-themed area by 2020
Generating 1.1 million jobs in the decade after its launch
Story Time
Legendary Games brings StoryToys children's game to Japan's HTML5 kid's platform dkids
The Very Hungry Caterpillar proves to be a hit
Moving Forward
Sony ForwardWorks reveals first mobile games, partnerships and mixed-reality tech for 2017
A wealth of games for Asia
Jostling In Japan
Sony's Fate/Grand Order has been more successful financially on Android in Japan than Pokemon GO
Could never match global success
Instant Success
Facebook has 26 million MAUs in Japan as it readies itself to make a splash with Instant Games
A fifth of the population have probably played Pac-Man again
Everybody Loves Pokemon
Pokemon GO is the most played game of all time in Japan
According to a not-very-scientific survey
Power Of Friendship
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links passes four million downloads in first week of Japan launch
100 million duels have taken place in the game
Looking Forward
Sony's mobile studio ForwardWorks preparing to unveil its first games on December 7th
The Last Guardian could be heading to mobile
Nexon Financials Q3 Fy16
Nexon profits drop 60% despite strong performance of Heroes of Incredible Tales in Southeast Asia and the West
Planning on releasing even more games soon
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