11.25.2013

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.

11.21.2013

Is Japanese sea fight simulation game Kan Colle a militaristic outcome?

I wrote it several times about Japanese sea fight simulation web game "Kan Colle". It has already broken through 1 million users with popularity now. And the active users rate does not fall, the administration team is very busy with the server reinforcement.

 See Also:
"Kan Colle" --- simulation game that personified battleships of the Japanese empire navy as girls

[TGS 2013]The goods of Kan Colle were extreme popularity on the business day
Sea fight simulation game Kan Colle opens a cafe in Akihabara

By the way, a motif of Kan Colle is battleships of the Japanese empire navy. Many battleships are personified by cute girls and appear, and It's a popular source:) Because they were too cute, there are the Kan Colle goods of every kind in Japan now. This business model is the just same as Angry Birds and Nameko Saibai Kit.




However, it have a problem. Japan was a major country of the axis Powers and made colonial rule in Asian countries. About Kan Colle, how will Allies and the Asian countries think?

About this, opinion came up at once from Korea. Mr.Kim writes it in Korean site hankooki,

"Why will we often witness such a thing in Japanese society? Because Japanese society becomes turning to the right wing. Long-term economy slump, an aging society, disappointment for the politics would act. It is an big earthquake of March 11, 2011 to have caused such society uneasiness. Japan after 3.11 becomes strong in groupism and a sense of victimization that everybody must unite firmly before the crisis."

How do you think? Do you think popularity of Kan Colle connected Japan's right-wing? Part of indication of Mr.Kim is right. Surely, people of the right wing increase in current Japan. They expect the rearmament of Japan and insist on the rejection of the foreigner(Yes, they are fuckin' stupid). However, is it only Japan? I saw some news similar to this in an overseas news site. Similar stupid seems to increase in North America and Europe. When the world is depressed, the stupid people become the right-wing. This is similar just before World War II. Therefore I can understand that Mr.Kim feels uneasy about it.

However, Why is only Japan in this way?


I think that players of Kan Colle enjoy it regardless of war and thought. They only love a game system and characters purely. The people who were interested for a battleships because of Kan Colle increased, and books and models about battleships sell well, too. However, the people purchasing them come from a pure desire to learn.

By the way, the Kan Colle popularity seems to be handed down to Korea, and earnest Korean gamers made Kan Colle Korean BBS. Though Kan Colle does only Japanese support, they play eagerly and discuss the capture method.


How about another country invaded by Japan? Taiwan was the colony where the rule by Japan was pushed forward most.













via http://ascii.jp/elem/000/000/841/841301/

:D :D :D

Clearly Taiwanese enjoys Kan Colle! :) Even if they are what kind of motifs, fun contents and the cute girls bring world peace.

11.19.2013

Collaboration of Angry Birds and Puzzle & Dragons began today

Today, GungHo started collaboration with Angry Birds in their popular mobile game Puzzle & Dragons.

See Also:
News Flash:Japanese mobile game Puzzle & Dragons cooperates with Angry Birds


Until December 1, dungeon of Angry Birds appear in Puzzle &Dragons.









Cute! Though they appear as enemies, they laugh.

When we beat them, they rarely drop an egg.


Birds are born from the egg, and we can make them a friend. This system of Puzzle & Dragons match a concept of Angry Birds. I think that they should have made collaboration earlier.

In addition, I cannot convey it in these screenshot, it's BGM to be the coolest in this collaboration. The music of Angry Birds is completely reproduced in Puzzle & Dragons. This can be called the collaboration of Kenji Ito and Ari Pulkkinen.

In addition, Rovio holds an illustration contest of Angry Birds to this. Let's check a hashtag "#バードとドラゴン" in Twitter! You can watch hot illustration of Japanese gamers. These are those parts.





大好きなゲーム同士のコラボって本当に嬉しいですよね!実装日が本当に楽しみです。 #バードとドラゴン... on Twitpic

11.18.2013

Cute social music service Beatrobo evolved and cooperated with Linkin Park

Before, I wrote about Japanese social music service Beatrobo.

See Also:
Kawaii social music service "Beatrobo"

It passed from release for one year, and greatly evolved. The design became more pop, released smartphone apps version(iOS/Windows), and develop earphone plug type device "PlugAir".


This is a device that link with a smartphone, users can play movie and music from the Internet just to put this in a smartphone. At first, this was a name "BeatPlug" and had a shape of the robot(It's an avatar of Beatrobo). However, they omitted "Beat" because they examine the share of contents except the music. Furthermore, the shape became simple.


PlugAir had not been yet released officially, but they tied up with universal music. And they sell a new number of Linkin Park using PlugAir! Fans of Linkin Park can listen it with a smartphone using PlugAir and lend it to their friend. Well, PlugAir is a tool for recommendation and word of mouth.It makes us feel good old days. It's like the music tape :)

By the way, Beatrobo CEO Hiroshi Asaeda is BETTER at English than me. Please ask Asaeda directly if interested in their business.

Beatrobo,Inc.