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Have you ever heard of Top Stylist, a mobile game in which
users can style high-profile clients in real-world brands? How about Monster
Quest or NFL Shuffle?
No? Don’t worry—soon you probably will.
All three games are GREE
products, one of the world’s leading mobile social gaming platforms boasting
millions of players from all corners of the world. “[Dedicated] to building the
best in mobile social gaming for players and developers, while creating and
supporting unique free-to-play game content,” GREE produces games for both iOS
and Android where users can connect and compete with friends.
Founded by Yoshikazu Tanaka in 2004, GREE is making a big
push into western markets, and the company has spent the past eight years
meticulously developing strategies to find success in ways with little risk. In
a TechCrunch
post Anil Dharni, GREE’s senior vice president of studio operations stated that
the company was focused mostly on content.
GREE has developed a network of consumers large enough to
issue the games in an
inexpensive way, an incredibly important move to “prove it is not so vulnerable
to the hits-driven nature of the business,” especially with Apple’s majority
control over iOS products. For that reason, companies like GREE now and in the
future will be challenged to find new and exciting ways to create and market
their products in order to adequately compete with Apple, as iOS has become
more lucrative than ever over the past year.
“It is four times and beyond in terms of revenue [compared
to a year ago],” Dharni said, and a large reason for that is the introduction
of the iPad as another source of iOS gaming. Though Androids are becoming more
and more popular amongst consumers, they are still “lagging behind iOS on per
user monetization.”
With leadership in Japan that enabled the stateside team to
better understand the market, GREE is able to create original fun and engaging
content “on a daily or weekly basis,” encouraging users to return regularly to
experience the novelty.
In the coming year, GREE is hoping to utilize Facebook as
another option to market their products, meaning they will likely have a larger
presence in the United States.
Do you think GREE will be able to stand against Apple and
other domestic game producers?
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