Gree, Japan’s social gaming giant, announced today that it has acquired social platform OpenFeint for $104 million USD. OpenFeint ‘s social platform for iPhone and Android allows developers to add social elements to existing games with minimal programming. This low barrier to entry has accelerated its growth since its founding in 2009, now boasting a catalogue of over 5,300 games, 19,000 game developers, and 75 million users. The OpenFeint team will remain intact along with CEO and founder Jason Citron, and will look to double in size over the next year. Gree will be able to help grow and tap into OpenFeint’s massive game distribution network, allowing Gree to reach over 100 million users.
This acquisition comes after a string of announcements of aggressive growth for Gree, having recently announced a major partnership with mig33 to reach 47 million users in Southeast Asia. It is evident that international partnerships with existing gaming giants like China’s Tencent, mig33, and now OpenFeint are of strategic importance for a company whose core user-base and revenue stream are in a large but ultimately matured mobile game market of Japan.
We also got wind that Gree San Francisco is celebrating with champagne right now.
Dominic K. Gallello