Social game developer Poppin Games Japan raised 100 million yen

Japanese social game developer Poppin Games Japan raised 100 million yen. Poppin Games Japan was established at Tsukuba, Ibaraki in July, 2012(It is unusual for Japanese Tech startup to be established any place other than Tokyo). CEO Hisashi Tsujimura is the staff of former DeNA. The marketing section is in San Francisco, and the development section is in Tsukuba, Ibaraki. 30% of them are the foreign staff.

Their representative game apps are Peter Rabbit's Garden and Alice's Mad Tea Party. Both support a language except the Japanese(Such as English, Chinese, Korean). It worked, Peter Rabbit's Garden broke through 1 million downloading and Alice's Mad Tea Party broke through 500,000 downloading.

They establish a branch office in Kyoto by the fund which they raised this time. They yet develop only iOS apps, but go into Android apps from now on.

Bandai Namco games released a new mobile social game of popular Manga/Anime "ONE PIECE" in GREE

Bandai Namco games released a new social game for smartphone "ONE PIECE; Adventure log" in GREE.

This is a social game of popular Manga/Anime "ONE PIECE". Users can combine a pirate ship with characters of ONE PIECE, and form a "my favorite" pirate corps. Characters have a finisher each, and they are reflected to game graphic.

It is the 2nd time that Bandai Namco games releases a social game of ONE PIECE. They released "ONE PIECE; Ground Collection" in Mobage in January, 2012. These two resemble very much. However, "ONE PIECE; Adventure log" was developed as a social game for smartphones more at first, because graphic is beautiful, and UI is optimized for smartphones. This will be very advantageous if they want to catch ONE PIECE fans of the smartphone users.

Developer of graphic technology "Live 2D" CYBERNOIDS raised 52,400,000 yen

Japanese startup CYBERNOIDS which developed graphic technology "Live 2D" raised 52,400,000 yen from Q-TEC,INC, Seibu Shinkin Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Co., Ltd. and other investors.

Live 2D is graphic technology to express an illustration of 2D like 3D.

See Also:
2D or not 2D, that is no problem


Live 2D is utilized in many mobile games and Web browser games now. In particular, it is popular in Dating Sims. They want to contribute this abroad and exhibit in GDC 2013. Please visit EXPO #643 booth if you go to GDC.

GREE's Social game "Tanken Driland" becomes Anime again

GREE, TV Tokyo, TOEI ANIMATION and Bandai announced that they performed media mix development of GREE's social game "Tanken Driland". As the the first project, they broadcast a new anime of "Tanken Driland" from April 6.

It is the 2nd time that this becomes the anime.

See Also:
Social game anime of GREE

The broadcast of anime began in the summer of last year.  This is popular from not only children but also adults, and it continues more than a half year. And a new story begins in April as the new series. They develop the game more about this anime. Game→Anime→Game... and real goods... They intend to utilize one content thoroughly.

See Also:
GREE establishes a fund of the Anime industry with a subsidiary of Yahoo! Japan

DeNA combined poker with their popular social game "Kaito Royal "

DeNA released a spin-off title of their popular social game "Kaito Royal（怪盗ロワイヤル）" in Mobage. This is "Kaito Royal SECRET POKER".

Kaito Royal is the social RPG that users become a thief, steal various treasure of the world, and fights against gangs. It was popular after the early days when Mobage became the social game platform. It is still one of the representative titles of Mobage.

In Kaito Royal SECRET POKER, an element of the poker is added to it. Users fight against enemies with poker. It is tactical than we tap a screen according to instructions. It is popular now in Japan to put social RPG and something together. In particular, there are many examples to put a social RPG and poker together. However, unfortunately this is not collaboration with a gamble and the social game(Japanese gamble is very complicated, and Japan does not have a casino). Probably this will be trendy one of the social games.