GREE's mobile social games network to be 'borderless', to hit Q2 2012

Gree representative
And still, we know little about just exactly how the Japanese social game publisher's platform will work. GREE has revealed a sliver of information about its upcoming mobile social games network, namely that it will be "borderless". While company says this means that users will enjoy single sign-on into GREE on their iPhone or Android phone, we hope this means cross-platform play.

The company goes on to say that the platform will feature a global payment solution and a series of "robust out-of-network cross promotional opportunities," which sounds to us a lot like in-game advertisements. The OpenFeint-powered platform will provide developers with rich analytics tools, meaning game makers will be able to read and evaluate your actions within the GREE games you play. (That might sound a bit too much like Big Brother, but Facebook game makers do the exact same thing.)

"This new GREE platform continues to show the commitment we have to building a truly global, free-to-play ecosystem for mobile developers," GREE founder and CEO Yoshikazu Tanaka said in a release. "Our goal is to offer the best social gaming experience to players around the world. GREE worldwide has the largest cross-platform network and this is a step closer to our goal of reaching one billion users."

GREE's mobile social games network will offer games discovery to players as well as all the latest social features. Of course, leaderboards and achievements will be a staple in GREE's offering. However, the company plans to take the mobile social games world by storm in Q2 2012, or as early as April. With DeNA's Mobage network already out of beta testing on Android and Zynga's Project Z on the horizon, that sounds like a lifetime.

Watch your back, Nintendo: GREE doesn't want just a piece of your pie

The Japan-based mobile social games company wants all of it. That's essentially what the company's founder and CEO, Yoshikazu Tanaka, told TechCrunch during its Disrupt event in Tokyo recently. The GREE chief told TechCrunch that most of the company's revenue comes from its Japanese audience, but that it hopes to follow Nintendo's example in creating a massive global audience.

But Tanaka isn't happy with just following Nintendo, he looks to displace the veteran games maker. He told the news outlet that he wouldn't surprised to see GREE's revenue in the West jump to four to five times of what it is in Asian within the next five years. "We definitely feel positive, and our goal is to make sure our brand is just as successful, if not better than Nintendo."

Nintendo is infamous for its unwillingness to enter the mobile games market through iOS or Android. While the company does plan to release an iOS version of its eShop (the downloadable games store on the 3DS), it simply refuses to create games for mobile phones. This is despite numerous studies suggesting otherwise and even investors clamoring for Nintendo games on iPhone.

Nintendo did, however, manage to sell more 3DS consoles in its first eight months on the market than the original DS system sold in one year. Perhaps there's still interest in a handheld device dedicated to gaming, but you could also chalk these immense sales up to the devices' price cut over the summer and a terribly strong Black Friday. Regardless, the mobile gaming world is after Nintendo, which leaves us wondering whether its stern strategy can withstand the onslaught.

Could GREE eventually overtake Nintendo through its mobile social games network? Can Nintendo continue to dominate the mobile gaming space with its current strategy?

OpenFeint co-founder leaves, Gree International head becomes CEO

Well, that sure was quick. Just months after Japanese social game network Gree acquired OpenFeint (for a cool $104 million, mind you), the latter's co-founder and CEO has left the company, VentureBeat reports. The Burlingame, Calif.-based mobile social game network's 26-year-old co-founder Jason Citron has moved on to new opportunities, and has been replaced by Gree's head of international operations Naoki Aoyagi (pictured).

"In just over 24 months, OpenFeint has grown to over 120 million users across 7,000 games," Aoyagi said in a release. "I thank Jason for his leadership growing the company and wish him well in his new adventures." But, according to VentureBeat, the old switcheroo might not have been so cut and dry.

VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi reports hearing rumors that Citron had been fired from the company before contacting OpenFeint and Citron, both of which declined to comment on the news until Aoyagi made the above statement in a release. However, both companies aim to announce their plans for integration between the U.S. operations of both companies in the coming weeks.

In other words, Gree's westward expansion into the U.S. through OpenFeint is imminent, and Gree will likely have even more of a say in how OpenFeint handles things now with a former Gree executive at the reins. Gree hopes to turn U.S. mobile gamers into the apparently wild spenders that Japanese mobile gamers tend to be.

However, direct Japanese competitor DeNA has already launched its Mobage mobile social games platform in the U.S. through recent acquisition ngmoco, and already has support of major U.S. carrier AT&T (though, it is AT&T). It looks like this holiday season will prove whether Gree and OpenFeint can catch up to their new rivals, not to mention existing western competitors like Zynga and EA, both of which have global and mobile ambitions. At any rate, it's going to be a very merry Christmas for mobile gamers.

[Image Credit: VentureBeat]

Do you think Gree and OpenFeint can catch up to DeNA under its new management? What do you hope to see from Citron now that he's freed himself from the company he helped bring up to this point? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment