Japan’s mobile-social-gaming network Gree and Yahoo Japan are investing $2.2 million in a joint venture to make social games on smartphones.
The GxYz startup will open on March 15, and it will make social-mobile games on smartphone platforms for the Japanese market. It will benefit from the user acquisition capabilities of Yahoo Japan.
Gree will own a 51 percent share in the business. Several games are expected to be released within the year. While Gree is expanding in the West, it has a multibillion-dollar market value because of its lucrative business as a platform for social-mobile games in the Japanese market. Gree’s archrival in Japan in DeNA, which also has a close relationship with Yahoo Japan.
GxYz will be headed up by Tomoyuki Isaka, the ex-president of Gree Korea.