Dena, a social game developer, buys $400 million for Ngmoco

Beijing time October 12 afternoon news, according to foreign media reports, the Japanese social game giant Dena announced in Tuesday, will be 400 million U.S. dollars to buy the iphone game maker Ngmoco.　　This is the biggest deal with iphone app developers, once again showing that the iphone is fast becoming the hottest gaming device. Recently, Dena has launched a series of acquisitions around the world and is rapidly becoming one of the most powerful competitors in social networking and gaming.　　Currently, Facebook dominates social networking, and Zynga ranks highest in social-game development. "The tide of social games has come," said Dena, founder and chief executive of the south. We hope to seize the opportunity to quickly become the world's largest mobile gaming platform. "We are only active in the Japanese market and do not know how to cover Western markets." "We want to make it possible for technicians to cross the country limits and develop products across platforms," she said. We need to do that in the next year or two. "Dena's mobile gaming platform Mobage Town is popular in Japan.　　Last year, the company launched a global expansion, acquiring a large number of US game makers to add content to its platform and replicate its success overseas. At present, "Happy Farm" and other social networking games developed rapidly, Dena hope to occupy a place in this market.　　Market research company Screen Digest predicts that by 2014, the social gaming market will expand from $640 million trillion in 2009 to $1.5 billion trillion.　　Earlier this year, Google invested in social gaming giant Zynga, and Disney bought iphone app developer Tapulous. Mobage town, which integrates social games, chat rooms and virtual characters, has been enthusiastically sought after by young Japanese and has influenced sales of game consoles in the Japanese market in recent years. This platform provides free gaming, but requires users to register and create virtual characters to interact with others.　　Dena profit by selling virtual clothing and other game items. Despite its low profile overseas, Dena's expected revenue this year has been flat with Facebook.　　In the last fiscal year of March, Dena's sales were about 48 billion yen (about $575 million), and the company said the number could increase by more than $1 billion trillion this fiscal year. By contrast, Facebook's revenue in 2009 was about $800 million trillion, which analysts expect will reach 1 billion to 1.75 billion dollars this year.　　But Facebook's users are 25 times times the Dena Mobage town platform, up to 500 million, followed by just 20.5 million people. But Dena believes that social gaming will gradually dominate the mobile phone platform, and that the company's focus on mobile technology will broaden its user base. May, Dena for the iphone and ipodTouch released an international version of the Mobage social gaming platform Minination, where users can play simple games, make friends with other users, post information, and create communities. The company plans to integrate Mobage into Ngmoco's own social networking platform.　　The latter has a plus+ platform that can be used on Apple devices and Android smartphones. Neil Young, one of Ngmoco's founders and former EA executive Neil, says app developers can develop programs for western and Japanese Apple and Android users through a new global platform.　　The games developed by Ngmoco have been downloaded more than 60 million times on the iphone and ipod Touch. "Whether you are a Japanese or a western application developer, you can work with us and extend your product to various national devices."　　"said Yang. Facebook is also stepping up its foray into the mobile phone industry.　　More than 150 million of active users use Facebook on their phones, according to the company.　　Game research company Enterbrain President Bang Hong Hong said the mobile phone will play a central role in the development of social games, because social relationships will use the user regardless of whether there is time, want to remain logged in. "But the competition will be intense," he said, "and if your game doesn't attract a lot of users, you can't call it a social game.　　"Recently, the yen is at a 15-year high against the dollar, and Dena, like other Japanese companies, has made a series of overseas acquisitions with a strong yen."　　Earlier this year, Rakuten, Japan's largest e-commerce company, bought Buy.com, the US online retailer, at a price of $250 million, and then purchased a European web shopping site Priceminister at a similar price. Last month, Dena announced it would invest in American game developers Astro Ape and Gameview.　　Last year, Dena bought the US gaming studio icebreaker and bought a 20% stake in Aurora Feint, a mobile gaming platform developer. But the acquisition of Ngmoco is the most compelling deal Dena has done. Founded in 2008, Ngmoco developed rapidly and acquired several other game makers through venture capital.　　This February, Ngmoco successfully financed 25 million dollars.　　Dena said the company's board of directors approved the deal in Tuesday and will formally complete the acquisition in the coming weeks. She graduated from Harvard Business School and founded Dena in 1999. Last month, she said publicly that Japan had not been able to have any of the top technology companies in the past 30 years. "We're going to change that," she said. "We want to compete in the global rather than in the local market." "(Yan Fei)