Mobile game giant Gree enters its ‘phase 2’ following layoffs

Japanese mobile-gaming giant Gree has started to stagnate as the gaming on smartphones and tablets has matured, but now the publisher’s Western division is shaking some things up to help fuel a resurgence.

Gree has made a handful announcements that deal with how it will approach producing games and going after the markets in Western countries. The biggest news is that it has opened a new office in Berlin and acquired an Austrlian game developer called Twiitch (not the livestreaming company Twitch). But the company is also putting a new leadership team into place in the West and is hard-resetting its San Francisco office. Mobile gaming has grown into a $30 billion business, and Gree is working to take home as much of that as possible.