Japanese social gaming firm GREE has announced that it will introduce an international mobile gaming platform by mid-2012, according to a company statement.
The as yet unnamed platform will be developed in line with GREE’s “free-to-play” strategy but, that aside, the announcement does not contain a great many details with GREE promising to reveal all in December.
The development is entirely logical given its acquisition of US-based Openfeint earlier this year, and the new platform will build on both services, according to Naoki Aoyagi, CEO of GREE International who also revealed the company bold user number target.
The new platform will leverage OpenFeint and GREE assets and will bring together Western and Asian mobile social markets with a goal of reaching over one billion users.
GREE is growing quickly with new users joining at a rate of 3.8 per second, according to the statement, while — optimistic of increased growth — it has also increased its forecasted earnings (for year ending June) by more than 40 percent.
The Japanese firm has never been shy to voice its goal of hitting one billion users as earlier this year it went public with its desire to challenge Facebook, where social gaming is a major part of the experience for the social network’s 800 million plus users.
The mobile social gaming industry is massive in Japan which has led GREE and rival DeNA, which also operates in the US, to plot plans to replicate the success in other regions. DeNA has already made a move into international markets and, following behind, this new GREE platform will be another test of global interest in mobile social gaming.
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