Japanese social game makers DeNA and Gree both said they will begin phasing out controversial “complete gacha” elements in their games. Losing $US700 million in one day sure is convincing! [Reuters]
Think you had a bad day? Japan’s youngest self-made billionaire, Gree honcho Yoshikazu Tanaka, just lost $US400 million.
He was a stranger. I knew his first name, and he mine, but that was the extent of our acquaintance. And yet, he and I were perfectly in sync. I knew his every move. He knew mine. And neither of us ever, ever doubted the other, or had to work to understand each other. We had different communication styles, but they meshed; our meanings were always clear.
Blogger and financial investor, Ichirou Yamamoto recently wrote for website 4Gamer on the danger and “slot machine-like” gambling nature of mobile and social games.
For a while now, Facebook has appeared to be an unstoppable juggernaut on the gaming scene. Every year, the number of Facebook users keeps climbing, and the percentage of those users who play games on the social site has increased along with.
Social-game megapublisher Zynga has released their financial results for the 2011 fiscal year, reporting a revenue of $US1.14 billion. That’s revenue, not profit, but still. Dang.
You joined Facebook, which just proves Zuckerberg’s plan is working. Whatever it is.
Despite its tremendous impact on Facebook gaming, the most popular Facebook game of 2011 wasn’t made by Zynga. They didn’t make the second most popular either, according to Facebook.
