Japanese legendary RPG Dragon Quest(Dragon Warrior) attacks the smartphones

Dragon Quest(Eg name:Dragon Warrior) is  Japanese legendary NES video game. After the appearance of this, JRPG started in earnest. Japanese gamers were excited at this in those days and made a long line in a game shop to buy Dragon Quest. Until this year, Square Enix did not do smartphone development of the Dragon Quest series at all(Though there are a lot of smartphone games of the Final Fantasy series). However, they opened the closed gate suddenly. At first they released Dragon Quest portal apps, and released a smartphone version of first Dragon Quest in free of charge in commemoration of it.

Japanese gamers jumped at this and first Dragon Quest broke through 1 million downloading at the release first day. At first, Square Enix intended to let only the first 1 million download free. However, they extended a free downloading period until December 10 because a reaction was too big. Now, first Dragon Quest breaks through 3 million downloading.

Square Enix will release the smartphone version of other Dragon Quest series in future. They release Dragon QuestVIII for downloading price 2,800 yen on December 12 at once.

Nameko fair of winter in Tokyo station

Until December 8, a fair of Nameko Saibai Kit is held at a underground shopping area of Tokyo Station. There was a battlefield of Nameko fans! :D

Every Nameko goods were sold, and they were bought in an instant by fans. Particularly, the stuffed toys of 1,260 yen were very popular, and staff were very busy to supplement them.

A commemorative stamp of Nameko fair.

A popularity vote of Nameko. In released Nameko Saibai Kit apps, Nameko more than 300 kinds was born until now. Who will a popular Nameko be in them most? According to Nameko official site, 5,000 votes or more gathered only at the first day.

Anime DVD of Nameko is released next month.

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Japanese popular mobile apps character Nameko becomes the Anime at last

In Nameko Fair, a part of the episode was shown. It's very cuuuute! Nameko do not speak all lines, but express feelings only by a motion. This is an original animation. Furthermore, the goods of Nameko anime have been already made.

Cardboard Nameko is evangelist of Nameko world. He continues transmit charm of Nameko day after day (actually, he is the staff of Beeworks, the developer of the Nameko Saibai Kit series).

The goods which I bought. A stuffed toy and a picture book. The girl who became 3 years old of my relative was Nameko freak and she mastered how to use Android phone in Nameko! I intend to present these to her.

Nameko Saibai Kit series is smartphone game apps most popular in Japan. They break through 40 million downloading and are more popular now in Taiwan than Japan. In addition, the number of the downloading increases in Korea and China. They held a meeting event of Nameko in Takao, Taiwan on November 23 and 24.

LINE broke through 300 million users at last

Today, Users of LINE  broke through 300 million at last. They start service in June, 2011 and get many users now in East Asia, Spanish zone, France, Germany, Italy, India and Turkey.

Interestingly, 80% of LINE users are not Japanese. Usually, Messaging apps has a hard time  with the acquisition of users except the own country. However, LINE got foreign users more than Japanese users in a short term. Particularly, there are many LINE users in Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Spain and India. They got 10 million users in India in only three months.

They showed infographics. (Big size is here)

According to this, Messages and the stickers transmitted in 1 day are about 7,200 million times, Stickers was used about 216 billion times, and the total of the call time is about 568 years!

What is a foundation of LINE's popularity? Now, there are a lot of messaging apps all over the world, but what is the difference between them and LINE? According to them, most popular stickers are these.

Well, all of them are LINE characters! They pull profit of LNE. Sales of stickers, sales of real goods, and character license.

LINE aims at the acquisition of 500 million users in 2014.

Rovio held a drawing event of Angry Birds in Tokyo and it was popular among kids

On November 23 and 24th, Rovio Japan held drawing event of Angry Birds in App Bank Store Shinjuku.

Cute banners! App Bank Store is the iOS goods shop where is popular in Japan recently. They sell the fancy goods of popular smartphone games.

By the event, Rovio art director Toni Kysenius taught how to draw Angry Birds. It was held four times per day and full in all times.

Surprisingly kids and their parents occupied most of seats. Besides, they knew the names of characters properly. To be frank, I was surprised at this. Unfortunately Angry Birds is not very well known and not the popularity in Japan. The ranking order are low, and there are few kinds of goods sold in stores. However, children knew Angry Birds. Where would they know Angry Birds? It is necessary to research in this more.

The left person is the staff of App Bank Store and Right Red Bird head is Rovio Japan Boss Antti Sonninen :) He was in charge of an interpreter.

The explanation of Toni Kysenius was very plain and Children seemed to enjoy it.

The reproduction poster of the watercolor of Toni Kysenius was presented to participants of the event.

I think that this event was timely. Because of a period of the cross-promotion with Puzzle and Dragons, furthermore, it was just after the illustration contest with them. This would become the good memory for kids above all.

By the way, Soon after cross promotion with Puzzle and Dragons started, the ranking in Japan of Angry Birds Free rose from lower than 400th place to the 20th place. This is Puzzle and Dragons effect.

Can they win Ameba Pigg? LINE's virtual world "LINE Play" broke through 13 million users

One year passed after LINE released their virtual world apps "LINE Play" and it broke through 13 million users. In addition, most popular virtual world in Japan Ameba Pigg has about 15 million users. Well, LINE Play caught Ameba Pigg at last.

According to the press release of LINE, 6,800,000 users are foreigners. This is very rare by the Japanese service, because Japanese fail in overseas advances well.

Why did LINE Play succeed? It may be supported by popularity of LINE of the messaging apps. However, LINE Play has a lot of charm as the virtual world. At first, a design is cute. Furthermore, users can create a virtual life unlike the real life through their avatars. in particular, The diary function of LINE Play was popular and was used 110 million times until now. Youths may get tired of real name, real friends and real life such as Facebook.

Furthermore, business tie-up with companies, brands and characters are brisk, too. Tie-up room and the avatar are important income sources of LINE Play like virtual currency sale. LINE Play users visited the tie-up rooms more than 500 million times until now. This is big advertisement effect!

If they get another 2 million users, they line up in Ameba Pigg. Possibly it during this year.