Mobage network expands into English speaking countries
English version of DeNA and ngmoco's Android social network rolls out worldwide
DeNA and ngmoco have announced the launch of the Mobage mobile social network in English speaking countries around the world.
DeNA acquired ngmoco for $403 million last October. Since then the two companies have been developing the Mobage platform as a portal to help users find and share Android games.
The Japanese language version of Mobage already has 30 million users, but the English iteration incorporates ngmoco's ngcore technology and is optimised for smartphones.
"Mobage's release outside of Japan marks the next step in our company's global expansion," said ngmoco CEO Neil Young in a statement. "The opportunity in front of us is to build Mobage into the definitive destination for games and entertainment across territories and mobile operating systems. "
"We're tremendously excited about the potential for the platform, both as a great way for players to experience the very best games and for developers to access a global audience easily and effectively."
DeNA and ngmoco intend for Mobage to become an equivalent to Facebook for the Android community, supporting a broad range of social networking features and unified player identity across a growing library of more than 100 games.
The service recently added a number of veteran Japanese developers to its list of clients, including Keiji Inafune, Yuji Naka and Suda 51.
A full interview with Alan Yu, co-founder of ngmoco, will be published at 2pm today.