Japanese mobile social gaming comes to London as GREE moves into Silicon Roundabout

GREE, the Japanese social mobile games company, has established a new studio in East London’s tech district, known locally as Silicon Roundabout.

GREE has already seen international growth this year. The firm revealed plans for a development studio in Vancouver, Canada just last month. The company’s new base in London will have a mobile focus and hopes to expand its UK presence via recruitment.

The gaming company is earning its label as a giant through acquisition this year too. In July GREE acquired the Korean social gaming firm Paprika Labs. The purchase of US-based games developer Funzio for $210m in May was a big investment in the US market with view to spreading business further throughout Western countries.

According to Games Industry International, UK CEO Ryotaro Shima sees the latest move into the UK as another way to confirm the company’s presence in the region with specially tailored content. “Primarily it will allow us to focus on Western content, keyed to local social trends, as well as tailoring content for global propositions. It also reinforces GREE’s commitment to growth within European markets.”

Already Gree has been partnering with European developers, including Moshi Monsters in the UK and IUGO Mobile Entertainment in Canada to strengthen its strategy to create and distribute mobile content to the Western market.

GREE is not the only Japanese mobile gaming company to march on the West. Japanese competitor DeNA recently sealed an exclusive deal to bring the Transformers franchise to the 40 million users of its Mobage mobile social games platform. DeNA also posted record annual revenues this year of $1.82 billion in sales and $794 million in operating income, up 29 and 13 percent year-on-year respectively.

Image Credit: Pop Culture Geek