Mobile portal and e-commerce solutions company DeNA has today announced that it is to buy US-based iOS publisher of GodFinger and Rolando, Ngmoco, for up to $400 million in cash and stock value.
In a New York Times interview, the founder and CEO of Japan-based DeNA, Tomoko Namba, says: “The big tide in social gaming is coming, right now. We’d like to capture it and quickly become the world’s No. 1 mobile gaming platform.”
According to Namba, DeNA, which runs the Mobage-Town gaming platform for mobile phones in Japan, and recently launched a PC-based network called Yahoo! Mobage, is on track to generate a revenue of more than $1 billion this fiscal year.
DeNA plans to integrate its Mobage software with Ngmoco’s Plus+ social networking platform, which runs on Apple devices and smartphones that support Google’s Android software.
Ngmoco co-founder Neil Young suggests the move means his company can give its games a more global scope: “Whether you’re a developer in Japan working on a Mobage, or you’re a developer in the west making apps, you’ll be able to work with us, and your games will be able to move across borders and move across devices.”
Commentators including Techcrunch suggest that DeNA’s purchase of Ngmoco is partly down to the strength of the yen against the US dollar, allowing the company to leapfrog offers from US companies like Zynga.
DeNA recently announced plans to invest in US studios Astro Ape and Gameview.