Game maker Gaia Interactive has a big following on the web and on Facebook among young folks who are fans of Japanese anime comics. Now it’s shooting for the triumvirate business strategy by launching a mobile version of its highly successful Monster Galaxy game, dubbed “Monster G” on the iPhone.
The iPhone version of the Pokemon-style game launches today.
The Facebook version of Monster Galaxy has more than 10 million monthly active users. Altogether, between Facebook and the web, Gaia has more than 20 million users.
The move to mobile
reflects the trends of the time. Web-based game companies have been adapting their games to the wildly popular Facebook social network. And now that smartphones are being activated at a rate of more than a million units a day, the game companies are also moving their titles onto mobile platforms such as the iPhone and Android.
It’s no surprise, then, that Gaia has a lot of competition, including Electronic Arts, Disney, Pocket Gems, TinyCo, Zynga, Storm8, to name just a few.
But Gaia has a couple of advantages over other mobile game companies, said Mike Sego, chief executive of Gaia Interactive, in an interview. Gaia can use its Facebook and web games to promote the mobile version. On top of that, Gaia believes it has a huge market opportunity in the untapped mobile genre of Pokemon-style monster-fighting games. Since Nintendo won’t release Pokemon on anything but Nintendo hardware, there is an under-served market for such games on smartphones.
With the move to Facebook and now mobile, Gaia Online has a chance for a second life. The company launched its social gaming community on the web nine years ago, tapping into the artistic side of young anime fans just as Japanese comic books became popular on the worldwide stage. As it evolved, Gaia Online expanded from its chat-oriented virtual world to a full-blown massively multiplayer online game. But that title didn’t fare so well as users left for Facebook.
Mike Sego replaced longtime CEO Craig Sherman about a year ago. Sego, the creator of popular Facebook app (fluff)Friends, reevaluated the strategy and decided the MMO wasn’t working, resulting in the layoff of dozens of staffers last November. He then 
invested heavily in a Facebook app that emphasized collecting and battling with monsters. That title was the hit the company needed to start growing again, and it enabled the new foray into mobile.
Right now is a good time for the expansion, since the Monster Galaxy title is at about half its peak on Facebook. Gaia has woven the intricate storylines (pictured right) and graphics style of its Monster Galaxy game into the mobile title.
The game makes money through the sale of virtual currency, or Moga Cash (pictured at bottom), which can be used to buy a variety of upgrades in the game.
Gaia currently has about 80 employees. Gaia has raised $31 million to date from Benchmark Capital, Redpoint Ventures, DAG Ventures, and Institutional Venture Partners.