Japan’s DeNA said it plans to develop mobile social games in a joint venture with NetDragon Websoft as part of a plan to enter the Chinese market.
Tokyo-based DeNA has more than 35 million users and generated $1.5 billion in sales in 2011. But that’s mostly from its core audience for mobile social network games in Japan. To expand in China, it is setting up a joint venture with NetDragon. The new joint venture will have $6 million in capital and a staff of 30 people.
The joint venture will take non-Chinese games and localize them for the Chinese market. The new company will also operate the localized games on Mobage China, a social mobile gaming platform operated by DeNA in China. Under Chinese law, foreign game companies entering the market have to team up with local game companies or network operators. DeNA will leverage NetDragon’s ability to develop and operate Chinese games through its highly popular mobile app store. DeNA owns San Francisco-based Ngmoco, which will also provide games to NetDragon, which has more than 40 million users for its smartphone marketplace.
In the long term, the joint venture will also do original in-ouse titles, such as massively multiplayer online role-playing games for DeNA’s Mobage users.