Capcom establishes Beeline Interactive

Capcom has revealed the formation of a new business arm known as Beeline Interactive, which will deal with all business involving social gaming on smartphones in the Asian market.

A press release from the publisher revealed the new company, which will operate as Capcom's "second brand" to build on the success of existing smartphone titles such as Smurf's Village and Zombie Cafe. The brand's formation is a result of the feeling that the differences between Capcom's mobile titles and its core products are too significant to co-exist under a single brand.

"The content and target markets of these overseas social games, distributed mainly by subsidiaries in Europe and North America, are very different from Capcom's conventional video game operations," read the statement.

"As a result, the overseas social game business must be differentiated from the Capcom brand. Therefore, Capcom decided to create a second brand called "Beeline" for the development and distribution of social games on smartphones. Capcom believes that this brand will help better appeal to the desired target market and help maximize the earnings of the entire Capcom Group.

"In conjunction with the launch of the 'Beeline' brand, Capcom will rename the following subsidiaries. Separately, Capcom's existing 'hardcore' gamer brands will continue to be developed and published under the Capcom name on mobile."

In February, Capcom celebrated both Zombie Cafe and Smurf's Village surpassing 10 million App Store downloads between them.