A couple of weeks ago GaijinPot visited the officies of DeNA to get some inside info on how it is expanding overseas by hiring folks from amongst Japan’s foreign community (find their jobs here). With over 20 million users in Japan, it has gone about as far as it can go domestically and so future growth is naturally going to come from abroad.
DeNA’s chief rival in the social gaming scene is Gree, another behemoth with 20 million+ members that is looking beyond the home islands to expand.
As we have also covered previously, the success that it has found in Japan has made its founder Japan’s youngest ever billionaire.
Now joining them in this area is another of Japan’s web giants – CyberAgent, who just announced that that they are going to develop and release a social gaming network called GameWave. The number one thing to note – though development is taking place in Japan, its primary target is the English-speaking world with the initial release is targeted for the US.
CyberAgent is best known for Ameba, the number one blogging platform in Japan that is also the best place to go for updates and news from Japan’s celebrities – most of ‘talento’ keep a blog where they talk directly to their fans, you can find the top ones listed on Ameba here.
CyberAgent will be releasing GameWave exclusively for the iPhone and will be both working with partner companies and developing its own games for the US market.